A very short tutorial - thin border to frame your DP's

You probably have noticed that I always have a thin border framing the designer papers on my cards.  Quite a number of people have asked me how I create the border--which surprised me because I thought everybody knew how to do this already.  I guess I've been doing it for so long that I don't think about it anymore...LOL...and forget that not everyone is in the same boat. 

Simply put...it's just a matter of having your designer paper slightly smaller than your background cardstock, approximately 1/8" (or 2 to 3mm smaller).

And ladies, I do this the hard way...LOL...by using my small scissor and do the cutting by hand.  It's time consuming, but I do like how it makes the cards look, so I think it's worth doing the extra work.
Straight edges are easy to do--you can use your kraft knife and a ruler.  But for curves/shapes, you use your small scissor.

There are 2 ways of making the slightly smaller shapes:

1st Method.  
Pencil draw the inside edge of your die.  Then cut along the drawn line.

2nd Method
Cut and embossed using your die and die-cutting machine.  Then cut along the embossed outline. 

If you want an even thinner border, say 1/16", then cut somewhere between the outside edge and the pencil-drawn/embossed line.

Once you've done this hundreds of time...hee hee, you get to be good at judging the border width that you won't need to make the pencil/embossed lines anymore--at least that's how it is with me.  

I like to ink distress my edges first before glueing/attaching the shaped DP onto the shaped cardstock.

The only time I get a break from having to handcut and am able to use my dies is when I do plain and scallopped circles and ovals.  I can use my Spellbinders dies then, because they do make them in 1/8" increments.

There you go!  Happy creating!