I’m a believer that the small details make a card look polished. And sometimes one of those details that we card makers might not pay attention to is our edges. I’m going to show you a couple of ways I like to make sure the edges on my creations have that finished-edge look.

The first way I like to finish edges is with the coloring of my cut images. If I’m fussy cutting an image, especially a detailed one, or popping something up, I want to be sure that my coloring extends beyond the cut edges so no white is left showing.

Here you can see I’ve colored and cut out these four corner blossom images. Since they are really detailed and the grass is very fine, you can also see that there are white edges that show after the cutting. I’m not a fan of that because it doesn’t look as polished as it could.

 

I’ve taken the image on the right and my Copic® markers and have placed my marker tip at a 45-degree angle to the edge of the paper and with each corresponding color, colored the edges of the paper to give it a more finished look. You can see it especially on the larger green leaves comparing the two.

 

I also knew I wanted to pop up the larger Lenten Roses so I stamped and colored four extra of those flowers, and then trimmed them out. I then followed the same process to color the edges. My son was my adorable hand model here.

 

Here you can see the difference between the colored edge and the non-colored edge flowers. It’s subtle but it gives you a more finished look with the edges colored.

 

Another way I like to polish my edges is to take care of any rough cuts or punches along the borders of my card. This corner rounder punch often leaves a jagged edge to the papers. I think it tends to make it look unfinished, so here’s what I do.

 

I use my handy dandy emery board as a paper-crafting too because I don’t really have long nails anyway!

 

I use the emery board to lightly sand away from the card edges to get a nice smooth corner. I often do this to die-cut shapes once they come out of the die and they have that tiny bit of black residue as well. Though it isn’t glaring, those small details give the appearance of something well finished, and those details photograph better, too.

 

Here’s the finished card with the popped-up blossoms and fancy rhinestones and pearls to accent.

 

Hopefully this post will give you hints you can use, and will help you look at your creations with a more “polished” eye for finished edges. Thanks so much for joining me today!

~Christine

Supplies used: Classic ivory cardstock and Winter Blossoms stamp set from Flourishes; regal rose cardstock from Stampin’ Up!; Spring Fling patterned paper from Teresa Collins Designs; Memento tuxedo black ink pad from Imagine Crafts/Tsukineko; Copic® markers (R20, R22, R24, R35, R39, RV21, RV23, RV00, G00, G02, G05, W1) from Imagination International Inc.; self-adhesive rhinestones from Zva Creative; self-adhesive pearls from Kaisercraft.