Fiskars Circle Border Punch Review

Some ladies on the Cricut message boards were inquiring about these punches so I decided to play with the ones I bought last weekend and see what I thought about them.

This is a link to the 6 circle border punches that are sold by Fiskars: http://www.fiskarscrafts.com/tools/s_circle-border-punch.aspx

I personally purchased the "Antique Elegance" and "Heart of Hearts" punches.

Like all punches, the circle punch has it's limitations. It only punches properly with circles that are 4 inches or 6 inches. Each punch comes with a template like this. The inner circle is the 4 inch template and the outer circle is the 6.

Instead of using the template, I cut circles from the "All Mixed Up" cartridge on my cricut. I was surprised to find that the sizes did not match up. It only occurred to me afterward that they may have matched up if I had used "real dial size" but I'm not sure because I didn't try that. So, without using "real dial size", a 6 inch circle on the Cricut, equalled the 4 inch template, while a 9 inch circle on the Cricut equalled the 6 inch template. I know that doesn't seem to make sense but it's true. I also found a use for a 4 inch circle on the Cricut which I will show you further down.

On the punches, you turn one direction for the small circle and one direction for the large. I found that the small circle was EASY while the large circle was more tricky. Here is a picture of the two punches. You can see the guidelines and directions for punching on the listed on the punch itself.

The only difficulty I had with the small circle was keeping it in place to line up the punch properly. To aid this, I just put a few swipes of removable dotto adhesive in the center of the circle so that once I had it lined up, it stuck to the punch base and didn't move while I punched it. The small circle was SUPER simple and lined up beautifully.

I did NOT need the removable adhesive to assist with the large circle but no matter how I tried, could not get it to make a perfectly perfect circle in the end. There was always a tiny little overlap that didn't allow the design to complete itself fully. Now, you honestly wouldn't know if you weren't looking for it so it doesn't bother me that much but it IS imperfect and I know that this might really bother those with detail-oriented personalities. :)

Here are pictures of 3 cards using the small and large circles I punched:(Please note that I was doing this quickly just to play with it so my work is a little sloppy)

This last card, I cut a 4 inch circle on the Cricut, folded it in half and punched it. I kinda liked what it created so I decided to use it. One note of caution though -- these punches cannot really handle doubled cardstock very well so you should only use this method with paper or VERY thin cardstock.

Overall, I am very happy with the Antique Elegance punch but not as fond of the Heart to Hearts. I may try to return it for a different one. I found it harder to use and line up with the large circle than the AE punch. I like the idea of these punches and I think I will find lots more uses for them as I go along. They certainly provide a simple way to make a card VERY elegant!

I hope this helps you make your decision! Happy scrappin' everyone!