Imaginisce Blog Hop!

Good morning! Welcome to today's CardMaker blog hop! Thanks CardMaker, for letting me join in! The design team and I got to play with the Imaginisce i-top tool and punches for making your own custom brads, buttons and so much more! I am so grateful to be able to add all these great tools and products to my crafting arsenal, thank you, Imaginisce, for these terrifically versatile new toys!
Here is a photo of the (pink!) i- top tool! (To be honest, when I first opened the box and saw all the different punches I got so excited seeing this cool bursting shape I didn't even realize I was getting the i-top ALSO, just racing thinking about all the possibilities with punches, like this flower I made below, lol! But we'll get to the punches in a minute...) Above you can see the punched designer paper, the shell top and bottom of the brad, and what the finished brad will look like.
The tool is easy to use and comes with directions and photos that show how to add your paper, felt or fabric to the button, brad etc. Here, after punching my paper, you put that and the shell top on on one side and squeeze it in the tool so the notched paper wraps around the your metal top.
Next , you turn one side of the tool to where it has the little hole for inserting the prongs on the brad base. Insert base.
And then you squeeze!
Push back the rubber head on the other side to release the beautiful (ginormous!) custom brad. Ta da! You can purchase the punches and bards and buttons and pins in 4 different sizes, 16, 22, 28, or 34 mm, suitable for many different types of projects. This same tool is used for every size, you just switch out the caps to for the size you are working with. This one is the 22 mm, really nice for A2 sized cards.

Next, I used some coordinating papers with different sized punches, punching them out and then squishing them in the tool together to give them shaped dimension, just like a blooming flower.
Poke a hole through the middle and add your brad, is that fun or what? I added a second brad to the opposite corner of the card.
I also punched into my patterned mat to make a window revealing the black cardstock underneath. I love to use the negative space from a punch, and there are so may ways to use these!
TIP: Hold your punch upside down when punching so you can see exactly what part of your pattern you want showing over the center, this allowed me to get the butterfly where I wanted it.

I wasn't done playing, so I had to make another sample today! This is "Hugo"-inspired, don't they make fun gears when you trim out every other notch from the punched pieces with a pair of scissors?
I added buttons and brads to the centers and popped them up on foam dots, arranging them so that the different gears would look like they are interact with and turn the others. Hopefully this sample also gives you a good idea of the scale of each punch, too.
Gears seem so trendy right now (and is a great masculine motif for those hard to design for guys!), either on collage or Steampunk style cards, or work perfectly with a birthday or time theme. This stamped greeting is from Gina K Designs"Timeless Treasures" and cardstock is Pure Luxury. These punches would be so fun on a scrapbook page!

To sum up, I will get a ton of use out of all these products! Thanks again, Imaginisce for sharing such innovative and easy to use tools. (Next I'm going to make some cute PINS for my boys!) The directions come with one warning, however: "this much fun may become habit forming." I have to agree, I'm hooked! :)

Can't wait to see what all the other designers do with them today, hoping to see some fun girly projects since I don't have daughters!

Tami Mayberry

Carolyn King

Trudy Sjolander

Colleen Schaan

Kimberly Crawford

Melanie Muenchinger you are here, thanks for visiting!

Lora Brinkman