Instead of punching islands or using commercial pads (islands) or making traditional pads myself, I simply make use of small pieces of single-sided PCBs to create the pads / islands easily for my boards.
This technique has a huge advantage over the punched islands or scored and divided boards techniques as it keeps the bottom ground plane perfectly 100% intact!
Also, it is almost a tool-free process to create the pads by breaking or cutting the single-sided PCBs. Single-sided prototyping boards also happen to be very reasonably priced.
Punched Manhattan Example(s):
Scored Manhattan Examples:
Source: Google Images + Reddit