I love paper piecing. It’s cute and saves money on buying embellishments so you can spend your money on pretty papers and ribbons! It is also a great way to use up bits of paper scraps too. When picking out a stamp to paper piece, look for one that is more “cartoony” and is big enough to cut the different pieces. The Imaginisce Snag ‘Em stamps in the shop, here, are great for paper piecing. Using the paper piecing technique is also my monthly challenge on the SnS forum if you would like to join in.
Supplies:
coordinating patterned papers and cardstocks
paper trimmer
adhesives (one needs to be a heavy duty type to hold the seed beads if you are using them, Zip Dry Glue in the shop is a great one to use)
scissors
stamp (if using clear stamps, you’ll need your stamping block)
1 inch and 1.5 inch circle punches
coordinating ribbons
pop dots/3D foam
abc seed beads (you could also use abc sticker strips or very small stamped letters)
Other optional supplies: rhinestones, tweezers, Xacto/craft knife, corner punch, staples, other misc. decorating items
Step One: Cutting the base of your card
I chose a black, white, and hot pink color combination for my card. Cut the background cardstock for your card base (mine is black) 8.5 inches long and 5 inches wide. Fold in half long-wise and flatten, perhaps using a bone folder.
Cut the patterned paper background (mine is the pink flowers) to 4.75 inches wide and 3.75 inches long.
Cut the background base for your paper piecing to lay on (mine is black corragulated) to 2.5 inches by 2.5 inches to make a square.
Optional: Corner punch the edges of your papers. I like this look a lot.
Center and glue the patterned paper to your card base.
Step Two: Stamping your image
If there are any areas you do not want to use on your stamp, block them off. I did not want the bird on the hippo’s head to show, so I placed a double sided mounting square over it on the stamp so it would not get inked. Make sure you take off the mounting square before stamping or you will get a smudged ink square stamped on your paper.
Stamp the hippo stamp twice on the darker pink cardstock, once on the light pink cardstock, and once on the white cardstock.
I’m putting a little party hat on my hippo, so stamp the hat twice on the darker pink cardstock. (These hat stamps are by Studio G.)
Step Three: Cutting out your stamped images
Cut out around the outline of the first hippo on the darker pink cardstock. This will be the base to glue down your paper piecing on to. Cut out one of the party hat stamped images around the outline in the same fashion.
All of these pieces you will cut on the outline. Cut out the hippo on the light pink cardstock. From the darker pink cardstock, cut out the circles of the ears, tail, and back hind legs from the second hippo you stamped earlier. From the white cardstock, cut out the two teeth. Cut out the second party hat image from the darker pink cardstock. You may want to use cutterbee scissors if you have them to make this step easier. Just a suggestion, but I keep my cut-out pieces on a strip of dark cardstock so I won’t lose them on my messy desk.
Optional step: Adding some visual interest to your hippo paper piecing
Lightly coat a dotted stamp (mine is from the Target dollar spot, so I don’t mind gunking it up too much) with white Stickles and stamp on top of the light pink hippo. You could also dot in the party hat and hippo’s eyes with black Stickles.
You could do this with Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents as well. Other options are using a light colored designed patterned paper, but make sure your stamped image will still show. You could also use a dotted, textured cardstock or run it through your Cuttlebug with a texture plate. All of these options add a subtle detail so your paper piecing won’t be flat and boring. Keep in mind though, you don’t want this optional step to compete with the actual design of the stamped image.
Step Four: Assembling your paper piecing
Glue the darker pink party hat image (the one with the extra space around the outline) to the darker pink cardstock hippo base in the appropriate location. Glue the light pink hippo on top of the dark pink hippo base, matching up the outlines. Glue the dark pink ears, hind leg, and tail on top of the light pink hippo’s matching areas. Glue the white teeth on top of the light pink hippo teeth. This is where your tweezers may help you out a lot.
Step Five: Decorating your card
Punch out one 1.5 inch circle from a different patterned paper that coordinates. Punch out one 1 inch circle from the darker pink cardstock. Punch out one 1 inch circle from the light pink cardstock. Ink the edges of the circles.
Tie a ribbon around the bottom of the black base square. I used the light pink satin edge organza, found here in the SnS shop.
Adhere the 1 inch light pink circle in the upper left-hand corner of your card with a pop-dot/3D foam. Place pop-dots/3D foam on the bottom two corners and upper right-hand corner of your black base square. Apply just glue on the upper left-hand corner of the black base square where it will touch the light pink circle. Place down your black base square now to the card base.
Apply glue lightly and slightly slip the 1.5 inch patterned paper circle under the ribbon tie (near the knot) on the lower right-hand side of the black square base.
Apply glue on half of the 1 inch darker pink circle and a pop-dot/3D on the other half. Slip half of the darker pink circle slightly under the larger 1.5 inch patterned paper. Let the other half of the darker pink circle lay on the actual card part with the pop-dot/3D foam.
Apply a pop-dot/3D foam on the upper left-hand side of the paper pieced hippo. Apply glue to the back of the rest of the hippo. Slightly overlap the hippo over the ribbon and larger circle and place the area with the pop-dot/3D foam to hang over the edge of the black base square.
Step Six: Adding a Sentiment to the card
Glue down (or however you prefer to adhere ribbon) 3 strips of white twill ribbon as shown above. I used the white twill ribbon you can find in the shop, here.
Using a stronger holding adhesive, glue down your seed beads spelling out your card’s sentiment. The good thing about twill is that if you can stamp on it if you don’t have these type ABC seed beads.
TADAH! You’re done and have a lovely card now!
kimmy,
that is super duper cute…
– -dalis
How adorable… plus I learned a lot from this !! 🙂
Thanks yall!