Tutorial: A snowy paper-pieced scene

While on vacation for Thanksgiving, I was watching some podcasts, and got inspired to make a card featuring a paper-pieced Christmas scene. If you haven't seen it already, check out Christine's Scraptime podcast that shows her paper piecing snowmen, or Amy's blog and video featuring a snowy scene.

I started by stamping my snowman (Happy Snowman from Hero Arts, no longer available) on white paper and patterned paper.  Trim around the outer edge of the white snowman, and the pieces that want to be patterned paper - in my case, the scarf and hat.

I used my Fiskar's Rotary Cutter to trim pieces that look like a rolling hill from a piece of blue patterned paper (a 6x6 pack from Stampin' Up!). 

Carpet Tape Techniques - more scrappy cards

After my first set of scrappy cards, I was inspired to try some more geometric shapes.  For some reason, the pieced cards gave me the idea of bricks, so I started making panels for cards, without any particular goals in mind for the greeting or overall design.

First, I had some card bases already prepared that folded as a gatefold card, so I made skinny panels for these.  Because they were skinny, I think putting the pieces at an angle results in a nicer looking effect, but I like both of these.

For the larger panels, the tape isn't as wide as the panel, so I try to cover the seam with something before applying the scraps of paper.  I tried putting ribbon on top of the seam from the carpet tape, but I had mixed success with this technique.  On one of my attempts, the embossing powder stuck too much to the ribbon, and made it look messy. The ribbon on this card was cleaner, so I added a sentiment and some flowers on top. The flowers cover up some white area where the embossing powders didn't stick as well as I would have liked. Initially, I didn't like this panel too much, but after adding my sentiment and flowers, it's turned out to be one of my favorites.

Finally, this sample uses a paper strip after the fact to cover the carpet tape seam. I positioned the strip and sentiment to cover the parts of the technique that didn't turn out as nicely as I wanted. To get the multi-colored stamp image, I used markers to color the individual areas before stamping.

Paper, stamps, ribbon, and embellishments from Club Scrap.  The paper flowers are from Hero Arts.

Image Transfers on a Tag

I'm taking the "@ Home with Claudine Hellmuth" class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking this summer.   The first technique was an image transfer technique using gesso.  The circle on the left is the original patterned paper, and the heart on the right is the paper transferred to a chipboard heart.  This is just regular scrapbooking paper from Stampin' Up!  I had a pad of 6x6 paper, and for me, it's an odd size to work with, so I thought it would be great to cover chipboard shapes.

This was sort of an "aha!" moment for me. I've always wondered why you would want to do an image transfer - why not just glue the image on? Well, the result of an image transfer is a faded, or sometimes transparent image. For me, the patterned paper is a bit bright, so the image transferred paper is much more usable for me. 

Here is another example on a tag.  The secret to an image transfer is to apply plenty of adhesive (we used gesso, but gel medium is another popular medium), burnish your image on so there aren't any air bubbles, and let it dry thoroughly.  I let mine dry overnight.  I did them just before bedtime so I wouldn't be tempted to touch them for at least eight hours!

After the paper is dried, wet the back of the paper and rub off the paper. This takes patience, and sometimes you rub off all of the paper (see the white spots in the pictures above).  I think all of this adds character to your piece. I love the worn look with a little of the white from the gesso showing through.

I wanted see how I could apply this technique to my scrapbooking and cardmaking, so I set out to embellish the tags.  For the heart tag, I sprayed on several layers of Memories Mists:

• Layer 1: Pale Ale
• Layer 2: Covered the tag with a stencil from Tattered Angels and spray with Amaretto
• Layer 3: Copper Shimmer

As I sprayed the mists, I noticed that they bled more than usual, because the paper is worn a bit. You might see this on the edges of the dark ink. Inks and sprays will apply a bit differently to these image transferred papers.  I rubbed some ink on the edges, added some ribbon, a stamped word (Printer's Type by Hero Arts), and a little birdie from the Touch of Nature stamp set by Stampin' Up!.  The birdie is colored with a bit of chalk.

I wanted to make my next tag a little lighter and brighter.  For this one, I sponged on some various distress inks (old paper, tea stain) to give the edge a little definition.  I stamped a swirl image from Club Scrap on the left with acrylic paint.  When I was done with that, it sort of looked like a flower stem to me, so I found a neat saying from Club Scrap to put on vellum, and added some paper flowers, a brad, and ribbon to finish it up.

I think this tag will be a great embellishment on a scrapbook page about our garden. We're currently enjoying lots of beautiful lilies.

I'm really enjoying the online format of this class.  I get to explore the techiques on my own time, and there is a really supportive group of ladies, and Claudine Hellmuth, to help us out.  A lot of ladies from the class have a blog, and they're listed on the left.  Check out what everybody else is discovering through this class!

Quick Jot Journal

This was the first project I made from Club Scrap's "Cruise in a Box" and I'm already thinking of ways to make different versions of this. I modified mine by adding an elastic closure, and using my bind-it-all to bind the book inside. If you look closely, you'll see my holes, and the ones they provided. I like to take a little journal with me on vacations, so I tailored this for my trip to England this summer - we'll be in London at least one day!

The book part isn't glued into the cover - it slides into a cute little pocket. The pocket is conveniently the same size as a little ring notebook, so I can see myself using this for more trips in the future. There is also a sweet little pocket on the inside front cover.

The back cover - which wraps around the spine and onto the front cover - was stamped using a variety of stamps and masking techniques. I don't usually get this ornate with stamping. It was fun to play around and try some new things out here.

Most of the stamps are from Club Scrap - the Journeys, Weather, and Collection kits. The stamps on the inside journal also come from Club Scrap's Serengeti collection (2009), Hero Arts (London) and Stampin' Up (suitcases and compass).

It was a nice day outside, so I thought pictures outside would be a nice change. It sure is nice to see some green in our garden - our daffodils are just getting started, so we're a bit behind most of the US with regards to our garden.