Bunch o' Punch: Part 1

Here is the first installment in a series of posts sharing my findings on the Large Flourish Punch, aka "My New Favorite Toy"! When it first caught my eye in Gina's store, I thought of how pretty it would be on vintage cards or as an accent with flourish stamps and patterned papers, but the more I looked at it, I realized something very different about it from my other punches: unlike all my squares, circles, etc, the shape of this flourish is asymmetrical. This allows for some pretty amazing combinations and borders, which you will soon see. If you're not all completely sold that this is a MUST HAVE (and what a deal this thing is for $13.99!) by my last installment, I'll eat...some chocolate LOL! (to cheer myself up after learning I'm not as persuasive as I think:)

First, here are a bunch of punched flourishes, looped together and turned in different ways to make very different, dramatic larger flourishes!* (and they can all be flipped upside down for a different look, and this is not even all you can make)

Can you imagine how gorgeous they would be framed by themselves on a mat for your card or as an embellishment in a corner or below a greeting? Each "image" above one uses just two punched flourishes, with the exception of the "butterfly" in the center (uses 4)
and my single "monograms" at the lower left ("C" is for "Carolyn", "G" is for "Gina"! ;) You can make other calligraphic letters, too, have fun using your imagination...

After making a bunch of these, I began seeing some "Rorschach" type images pop out at me (a ladybug, owl, etc) kind of cool...what do you see?? :)

You like so far? Stay tuned for part 2!

* This reminds me a little bit of a sheet I saw a few years ago on the many ways the wrought iron corner punch from SU! could be modified with a craft knife cutting off different parts to make a new looking corner slot, it was way cool, but I don't think I ever actually made any (that would just take more time!) The above, though, require no cutting other than the basic punch, so I expect to use them other than justas one simple flourish a lot, and you should expect to see lots of cards from me using them in different ways here. A Quickie Glue Pen or Mono Multi is all you need to stick down those delicate parts! :)