Ha ha. Catchy title huh? Don't worry this is not a post about sports or dating. I am explaining today on Fake It Fridays # 4: How to score your paper crafts even if you do not own one of those fancy dandy score board systems. By the way, scoring paper refers to the act of creating a fold line on paper prior to folding it. Why do we do this? Because it assures a straighter fold and a crisper one as well. It is not necessary to do this all the time but if you are selling or publishing your work, neatness will count.
Ok, so let's be honest, I do own some special scoring boards and tools and I do like them a lot, but not too long ago I did not have any at all. I saved my money, had a coupon, waited for a sale and purchased one. Then a week or so later I went to an event and I won another one! Of course! So now one is in my crop bag all ready to go, and the other is in my studio. Until that fruitful week I simply used a metal ruler and my paper trimmer. Most of those paper trimmers whether they use a rotary blade or a knife type blade have the blade pass through a channel. I learned to use that space as my scoring board. I learned this from watching another lady at a crop, and at that moment I smacked my forehead and thought why hadn't I thought of that before!
Now, I warn you, using the paper trimmer channel method is risky. First of all, remember not to slice your paper with the blade. Secondly, use a gentle pressure when sliding a bone folder, a ruler, a plastic card or whatever along the desired fold so as not to tear through the paper. Thirdly, that is it. Note, the paper trimmers generally have grids or lines on them, use these to help line up your projects. Also, many types of trimmers come with the option of swapping out the blade part for a non cutting blade made for scoring.
What if you don't own one of these paper trimmers and you are concerned about making crisp folds? Use a ruler and a grid like surface. Your grid can be a non slip craft mat or even a sheet of graph paper taped down to the table. Line up your ruler and mark your fold. Use just about any thing with a strong straight edge to score the line. A spoon will work, if you use the handle to score and the spoon part to crease.
I hope that this is a helpful tip for someone. Please leave a comment if you wish, there is a place down there that should say comments, sometimes it is hiding, but it is there. Also, I d love to have you subscribe or follow my blog, you can join in one of the boxes on either side.
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