diagonal scoring with the Scor-It

Some time over the holidays, I saw a discussion having to do with decorative diagonal scoring with score boards. I use the Scor-It for all of the scoring that I do on my cards. My method for getting fairly uniform diagonal scores is pretty simple, so I thought I'd take some pics and post it here.


Pictured above are my full size Scor-It, a wide clear C-Thru ruler, and a scrap piece of card stock. You don't actually need a clear ruler. You can use a regular ruler. You can use another piece of card stock. In an earlier post about diagonal scoring, I used clear cutting plates from my die cutting machine. All you need is something that has two straight edges set at right angles to each other.


To keep it really simple, I made the first score by lining up the opposite corners on the scoring track. That's what my two blue arrows are indicating.


This is the result of my first score.


For this example, I decided to score at 1/2 inch intervals. That makes it easy to see in photos. You can score any size interval though, and even vary them if you'd like to make plaid patterns etc.

What I did was line up that first score at the 1/2" mark on the Scor-It centering ruler at the top of the Scor-It board. The corner makes a nice pointer. Then I made sure that my new score line would be parallel to the first one by pushing the edge of the ruler flush against the top edge of the Scor-It board. Then I made sure that the long edge of the ruler lined up with that first score. Once I was satisfied, I made the new score line. And just so you know, it took me A LOT longer to say it than to just do it. :-)

I continued to do that until I reached the corner of the card stock. It went quickly and I could be fairly accurate because the rubbery surface holds the card stock in place nicely and keeps it from sliding, even without being held stable against the top edge of the board.


I then decided to score diagonally in the other direction. I started this set of scores by lining up the other pair of opposite corners and repeating the steps that I described above.


Since this was just an example piece, I only did half the scoring that I'd do for a fully scored piece of card stock, but the design is still very interesting and you can see that the intervals are uniform.

Scoring with a score board can add great visual interest to a card front. Scoring diagonally should be part of the arsenal of scoring techniques because it can look very striking and can be accomplished very quickly and easily.