Category: Borders

Corner Rounder Roundup Part 1: Simple Border

The humble corner rounder. It was probably one of the first tools you purchased if you have been scrapbooking for many years. If you are a new scrapbooker, you may have wondered, “Should I get one of those?” It is most often used for rounding the corners of photos or mats, but it can be a great tool to make some easy borders and layouts!

Creative Memories Two-Way Corner Rounder

In March 2021, Scrappin’ Circle friends from the U.S. and Canada joined me for a Zoom crop where we focused on using a corner rounder punch (CRP) and paper scraps (bash your scraps!) to create layouts, borders, and embellishments. I received lots of requests to share what we did, so I’ll be writing several blogs with directions so you can make them, too!

First, I want to give credit where it is due. These ideas were not developed by me but were kindly and publicly shared by their creators/designers. See below for those credits AND links to original sources. I encourage you to “follow” these amazing designers at their websites or Facebook groups. My contribution was to gather these corner rounder ideas together as a group.

Materials note:  For ALL the Corner Rounder Roundup projects, you can use:

  • Any corner rounder. You don’t have to have a two-way corner rounder that also cuts indents on corners.
  • Either two-sided or one-sided printed papers.

Bash Your Scraps CRP Border

  • Creative Memories
  • Marsha Matyas
  • Terri Perper

This is a super-simple border from Creative Memories. Thanks to Betty McConnell for pinning this on her CM Corner Rounder Ideas Pinterest page. You can make with either 1.5” or 2” inch squares of paper. The first two examples above used 2″ squares but I like the third example using 1.5” squares because it leaves some space between your “flowers” along the edge of the page. The directions below are for 1.5” squares.  If you want to Bash Your Scraps, look in your scraps bin for 1.5” wide strips of paper OR with 3”x3” squares of paper. A 1.5” x 12” strip will make EIGHT 1.5” squares. A 3”x3” square of paper will make FOUR 1.5” squares.

You need to cut:

  • Eight 1.5” squares of one patterned paper
  • Four 1.5” squares of a second patterned paper (OR of the reverse side if you are using a two-sided paper)

Step 1: Using the corner rounder, trim (round) two opposite corners on each square. The resulting piece should have two rounded corners and two regular right-angle corners (see, for example, the leaf print in the bottom left corner of the picture below). IF your pattern is directional (stripes or one-way pattern), you may want to do Step 2 below BEFORE you trim the corners so the pattern looks the way you want. See the stripes on the Creative Memories example in the pictures above.

Step 2: Lay the first four pieces (see pink ones in the picture below). Note that all of the pointed (non-rounded) corners are on the outside or inside of the flower.

Step 3: What should you do with the middle? Here are some ideas!

  • Punch a small circle to serve as the center and glue in place with or without a foam square underneath to add dimension
  • Use a stick-on embellishment such as a pearl, rhinestone, flower, sticker, etc. Use foam square as desired.
  • Add a “stem” as T. Perper did in her example above.
  • Use the “indent” part of the corner rounder to punch a hole in the middle of your flower…note that we found these hard to align to create a perfect circle!
  • Add a title to your top flower.

Want a two-page spread? Consider making one more “flower” add put it in the outside top or bottom corner of the opposite page. Done!

Last notes and info…

Be safe, be happy, and…be scrappy!

Marsha