The punch has a very hefty weight to it, due to the magnets inside that hold it together. The concept is simple - the paper (or card stock, cork, etc.) goes between the top punch and the bottom raised platform, allowing you to punch your shape out anywhere on your paper. No more reach constraints!
As you can see from this view of the underside of the top piece, there are four magnets on the top that are designed to align with the ones on the bottom.
The top and bottom pieces each have a flat surface on one corner (note this on the bottom piece pictured above), and other three corners are rounded. This is how the punch "tells" you if it is lined up correctly. If you put a round edge above the flat edge, it won't line up right: the punch will skew itself due to the polarity in the magnets (as pictured above).
The punching mechanism, housed in the top portion of the punch, is fairly heavy-duty, and it looked to me like it would give very clean, crisp cuts.
Once you get your paper cinched between the magnets, you have just a smidgeon of wiggle room. Those magnets hold on tightly. To help myself out and position the paper right where I wanted it, I realized after a few off-center results that I should draw grid lines on the underside of my paper.
Lightbulb! It is much easier to get the punch exactly where you want it that way.
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I whipped up a few quick cards using the punch. Above, I paired the Martha Stewart paper with some Stampendous stamps, and used the window cut out by the Flourish Square to frame my sentiment.
For this card, I used the cutouts from my cork tests to make a border behind the bird I cut out from some of the In Nature paper. I adore these flourished cork "medallions".
I really liked the Punch All Over the Page, and can see adding a few more to my collection. It takes a bit of practice to get the hang of the correct pressure and speed, but the results are worth the wait! The versatility they allow is wonderful. Like most of Martha Stewart's products, she has once again thought of a super useful tool! Have you tried these yet? What did you think?
Pros:
- Design allows user to put punch anywhere on a design
- Will punch through a variety of materials
- These will stack, which makes for simpler storage
- There is a bit of a learning curve
- Precise placement of the punch can be difficult (I recommend those gridlines!)
- I wish they had nesting shapes, so you could make mats and frames for your windows/cutouts