Punch Care and Maintenence

Punches are among the most durable of scrapbooking tools, if they receive proper care.

Store them in a dry place to avoid rusting, such as a fishing tackle box or embroidery floss box. To lubricate a sticky punch, (or a brand new one), punch through a couple of sheets of waxed paper. This should be done regularly to ensure that you don't have problems with your punches. Intricate designs stick more often than the more basic shapes.To sharpen your punches, punch through a couple of layers of aluminum foil. This does not usually need to be done very often.If your punch won't compress, don't be afraid to stand up and put some weight on it. Use the palm of your hand or even place it on the floor and step on it gently.

A Punch Aid (available from Carla Craft) can help ease punching hard to compress punches. It is also very suitable for little children. A punch aid is also useful for lots of punching.

You might also want to switch to a thinner material. Best paper weights for small to medium punches are between 110 to 120gsm papers. Watch out for the right kind of papers that you use to punch. Some of the more intricate designs will break if you attempt to punch through heavy card stock. But some corners and border punches ay require about 160 to 230 gsm card stock/papers.

If your punch gets stuck and you can't get the paper out, try compressing it once more. If that doesn't work, turn the punch over and use a screwdriver, a spoon handle or some other blunt object to press on the protruding punch design to help release the paper. DO NOT use your fingers...the metal is sharp!


Spray a little wd40 oil to lubricate the punch and gently use the end of a pencil that has an eraser to push the punch back into position.