Since I do so much paper piecing and paper tole, I decided to do my very first tutorial on those techniques. I've been having a ton of fun with the sets from My Favorite Things, so I'm using their
You Take the Cake set today. {You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge.}
The first step is to stamp out the image on white cardstock and all of the patterned papers I want to use. In this case I've chosen a couple of prints from Basic Grey's Lily Kate line.
I try to figure out ahead of time how many different layers I want and stamp as many images as I'll need. But of course, I can always stamp out more later, so it's not a big deal if I forget a layer or two.
After the ink is dry, I color with Copics and start cutting out the layers. You can see I colored the spots on her dress, her arms, and then the different layers of the cake. For her arms, I left just a bit of extra cardstock (circled in red) to go underneath her dress. I generally don't like to have 2 cut edges fitting together (in this case the edge of the dress against the edge of the arm in that spot) so I'll put that bit of white underneath the dress, as if the arm is actually behind her body. BUT, that's just my personal preference; you could just cut right at the edge of the arm there.
Next, since I'm using cardstock instead of foam tape for dimension, I stamped the image 3 more times on scrap cardstock and cut them out
inside the lines so these layers won't show. I like using cardstock for dimension when foam tape would be too thick (until I find a thinner foam tape). Also, I like how the scrap layer really supports the upper layers all around, rather than just at the few spots where the tape is.
<--Here you can see the scrap pieces are glued down to the blue patterned paper. There is just the slightest bit of room around the scrap layers. My next step (which I forgot to photograph) was to glue the arms with the cake to the dress piece. You may have noticed that I left the cake uncolored for this layer. Since I knew it would be covered up, I didn't bother wasting marker ink on it, but occasionally I will color even the underneath layers for a nicer finished look (if you leave the under layers uncolored, you can see the little white edges when you turn the finished card). It's way more obvious with thick foam layers, but not as much so with scrap CS layers.
In this next picture, you can see I glued the body piece down. I also stamped just the cake portion 3 more times on scrap CS to pop up the cake. Again, I cut these pieces just inside the lines. Then I glued them onto the previous layer, and glued the yellow cake piece over top.
For the very last layer (pink frosting), I again stamped the cake 3 times on scrap CS and cut inside the lines. This was kind of tricky since the frosting layers are so skinny. If I'm having a hard time cutting small pieces like this, I'll actually hold the pieces with a pair of tweezers while I'm cutting.
After the last bits of scrap and frosting were glued down, I colored the little flames with Copics right on the blue paper. If it were darker, I may have had to cut out little white flames and glue them over to make sure the flames looked yellow. However, this blue was light enough that I felt I didn't need to do that. I then went over each flame with a yellow Spica glitter pen, and then over the pink frosting with a clear Spica glitter pen.
And here's an angled shot so you can really see all the different layers.
Whew! That was a long tutorial, but I hope it helps some of you with your paper piecing and/or paper tole. Thanks for visiting!!
Here's the finished card using the piece I made in yesterday's tutorial. {If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you can see a better shot that really shows all the different layers.}
The first step is to stamp out the image on white cardstock and all of the patterned papers I want to use. In this case I've chosen a couple of prints from Basic Grey's Lily Kate line.
After the ink is dry, I color with Copics and start cutting out the layers. You can see I colored the spots on her dress, her arms, and then the different layers of the cake. For her arms, I left just a bit of extra cardstock (circled in red) to go underneath her dress. I generally don't like to have 2 cut edges fitting together (in this case the edge of the dress against the edge of the arm in that spot) so I'll put that bit of white underneath the dress, as if the arm is actually behind her body. BUT, that's just my personal preference; you could just cut right at the edge of the arm there.
Next, since I'm using cardstock instead of foam tape for dimension, I stamped the image 3 more times on scrap cardstock and cut them out inside the lines so these layers won't show. I like using cardstock for dimension when foam tape would be too thick (until I find a thinner foam tape). Also, I like how the scrap layer really supports the upper layers all around, rather than just at the few spots where the tape is.
<--Here you can see the scrap pieces are glued down to the blue patterned paper. There is just the slightest bit of room around the scrap layers. My next step (which I forgot to photograph) was to glue the arms with the cake to the dress piece. You may have noticed that I left the cake uncolored for this layer. Since I knew it would be covered up, I didn't bother wasting marker ink on it, but occasionally I will color even the underneath layers for a nicer finished look (if you leave the under layers uncolored, you can see the little white edges when you turn the finished card). It's way more obvious with thick foam layers, but not as much so with scrap CS layers. 
After the last bits of scrap and frosting were glued down, I colored the little flames with Copics right on the blue paper. If it were darker, I may have had to cut out little white flames and glue them over to make sure the flames looked yellow. However, this blue was light enough that I felt I didn't need to do that. I then went over each flame with a yellow Spica glitter pen, and then over the pink frosting with a clear Spica glitter pen.
And here's an angled shot so you can really see all the different layers.
This month's challenge is to make a red, white, and blue inchie and here's mine--->
You can see the dimension better in the close-up. As usual, I'm using scrap cardstock for layering because my foam tape is way too thick to pop up such little objects.
I've had this idea floating around in my head for a while and tonight I finally executed it! I'm very happy that it pretty much came out how I imagined it!
Here's a close-up shot of the roses so you can see all the detail built into the images. I stamped each rose with stem and leaves separately and then cut them all out before placing them in the "box." The top three are mounted with foam tape for dimension. I was originally planning on making more roses, but the "box" filled up really quickly and I stopped at 4.
Today's card is for yet another sketch challenge (I *so* love sketches!!), this one at the Gina K. forum. Just like yesterday's card, I stayed really true to the sketch.
You have to check out the close-up shot to see that I actually cut out another vase with flowers in its entirety (yes, even the stem!!) and raised it up just a bit with a few layers of scrap cardstock for dimension. I also did some sewing around the entire layer of patterned paper. I just love the extra little touch the sewing adds, even if it's really subtle.
I played in another sketch challenge for today's card, this time in the Stamping Bella forum at Splicoast.
I'm still playing with my new stamps from My Favorite Things. This sundae image is another one from the Here's the Scoop set. [It looks like it's currently sold out. Check back later if you want it!]
Today's card is made with a new set from My Favorite Things called Here's the Scoop.
I got the most *amazing* swap card in the mail today from Vanessa! The theme was "Things with Wings" and this angel is just so adorable! Please click on all the pix to enlarge so you can see all of the detail that she put into this work of art!
And here's a nice close shot of the scene so you can see how perfectly the whole tree is cut out and Vanessa even cut out the spaces in the picket fence!! I can't even begin to imagine how long all that precision cutting took! Also, there's more glitter on the heart on the tree and dotted on the flowers.
I showed the Copic Ciao color chart that I created as soon as I got my full set of Ciaos a few months ago. Well, since then I've started adding Sketches to my collection as well, so I decided I needed a new color chart. I just added to my old Ciao chart and reformated it to nicely fit on 2 pages. I taped 2 clear sheet protectors into a manila folder and slipped the sheets inside the page protectors to get the above.
I also recently re-did how I store my markers. I hated having to put the markers back in the containers they came in everytime I used them, so I tried the Pampered Chef turnabout. That actually worked really well, but I outgrew it pretty fast! So I looked around and found some stackable wine racks at Pier One and cheap plastic cups from Walmart, and I've got a great storage system that I love and has plenty of space for more markers! And if I really want to, I can just keep adding more racks and cups to store even more!
Today I want to share a really quick and easy, but elegant card. The Shady Daisy Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms can be used entirely on its own to make the simplest card, or you can add sentiments and embellishments to make it even more gorgeous. I just distressed the edges of the main panel a bit and added some Stampin' Up! ribbon stamped with Thanks from Kim Hughes' Tag You're It set (also from CHF). I didn't have brads quite the right shade of purple, so I airbrushed them with a Copic marker.
We're going to a first birthday party today so I needed a cute birthday card. I remembered I had this Darcie's stamp that would make a great shaker so I dug it out of storage and came up with this:
A little added touch: If you look at the close-up shot, you can see I colored the edges of the craft foam layer with Copics so that it wouldn't be stark white.