When I was a child I was told ‘colour inside the lines’ and ‘keep it neat’. I was told to keep it neat a LOT, I was a very messy writer, hehe.
You may well have been told similar things at home and especially at school. Use a ruler! Take your time! Do your best! Keep it neat!!!!
Well, now we are all grown up.. we can rebel! Yay!
When you are scrapbooking, or card making, it can be fun to ‘wonk things up a bit’.
Sure, you have rulers and paper cutting machines etc, but tearing out a mount can look really lovely. Or just tear one side and cut the others for variety. If you tear from front to back you get a different effect to tearing from back to front. See how the edge of the torn bit looks different? Two effects in one.
When I first started tearing for my scrapbooking I found it quite scary. All that stuff about being neat was still in my head. Besides, what if I started to tear and just ripped it in the wrong direction?
You can make a nice controlled tear very easily. Get a small paintbrush and some water and gently ‘paint’ a line of water where you want the tear to be. Then carefully tear along the line, it should be nice and easy to rip beautifully. Great for making torn circles and other shapes.