How to Use Corner Rounder in Scrapbooking

Corner rounders are unique scrapbooking tools. Used to create rounded corners by clipping off pointed corners from photographs and scrapbook pages, corner rounders are considered essential by some scrapbooking enthusiasts. Others, however, find little use for this highly specialized tool. If you like the idea of rounding off corners for scrapbooking, then you need to learn how to use a corner rounder.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Selection of corner rounders
• Plain paper for practice
• Photographs
• Scrapbook pages

Use a Corner Rounder on Your Scrapbook Pages and Photographs

1. Practice. Using a corner rounder is easy, but you should practice a few times before applying the rounder to a treasured photograph. Start by taking a stiff sheet of paper and inserting a corner of it into the blade end of the corner rounder.

2. Press down on the corner rounder. Do this for all of the corners of your practice sheet of paper. Keep practicing until you get the look you want.

3. Try an electric corner rounder. Much like an electric stapler, an electric corner rounder automatically punches the design into the paper when you insert the paper in the blade end. These rounders work quickly and can sometimes take more than one sheet of paper or photograph at a time.

4. Experiment with different types of corner rounders. Not all corner rounders are alike. Some create softer or deeper curves than others, and other corner rounders are made to punch out squiggly lines or other unusual shapes into the corners of paper products.

5. Cut off the corners of scrapbook pages. You don't have to limit yourself to using a corner rounder on photographs. For scrapbooks belonging to children, use a corner rounder on the scrapbook pages to keep them from scratching themselves on the sharp corners of paper pages.

6. Gather and discard your scraps. Most manual corner rounders simply let the clipped corner pieces fall to the ground. Electric corner rounders sometimes come with a receptacle for collecting these scraps.

Tips & Warnings

• You can get corner rounders at crafts stores or on eBay (see Resources below).
• A corner rounder operates like a hole puncher, so keep this in mind when using it for the first time.
• Try using a corner rounder on only a couple of the corners of a photograph to create interesting pattern combinations on the page. This works especially well if the scrapbook page itself has geometric patterns on it.

Resources

• Scrapbooking supplies at eBay