Saturday, October 18, 2008

Tips and Tricks - Mountain or Valley?

I had an 'aha' moment tonight. The other day, I was reading a discussion on a forum about which way to fold cards after scoring them. I know, I know. About 0.5% of the population may actually be genuinely interested.

Hi, my name is Amy, and I am part of the 0.5% of the population.

Anyway, the original poster had asked if the scored side was supposed to be the mountain side or the valley side. Well, since the scoring leaves an indentation in the paper, I had always thought that it was the natural valley side. I stand corrected. Here is why:

The purpose of scoring is to uniformly weaken the bonds in the paper along a straight line to prevent the paper from cracking when it is folded. Because the bonds are weaker along the scored line, the fibers along the score line are able to travel a farther distance, and thus should form the mountain of the fold.

If that didn't convince you, it's the way Hallmark (and more) does it. Try it. When I folded my score lines as a mountain, I ended up with a crisper crease, smoother inside, and edges that lined up better.

If you still don't know what I'm talking about (i.e. what is scoring?), disregard this post and continue folding your paper as you always have been. Or leave a comment.

2 comments:

LiveLaughScrap said...

Great explanation. I have a scorepal & they tell you how to fold the scor, but I could never remember the correct way. Your explantion will help.
Lori

Anonymous said...

Huh?? What's a mountain?
love, mom