Hi everyone! Tami here, welcoming you to another fun week on the blog. This week is going to be all about a technique that I love and use often — paper piecing stamped images!

If you have never tried paper piecing, you are in for a treat. Different sections of a stamp are stamped onto various papers, then cut out and reassembled. It’s a simple technique that offers great results and provides an alternative to coloring images.

From flowers and fruit to birds and snowmen, all sorts of  images lend themselves to paper piecing. Bottom line: if it has open lines it’s a great candidate. Among my favorite images to paper piece?…Cupcakes! Today I thought I would take a sweet cupcake from the Birthday Frame & Messages set and create a paper pieced card, as well as a simple step-by-step illustration of the technique.

1. First, stamp the chosen image on the base layer. Then stamp the image repeatedly on paper scraps. No need to stamp the entire image, just the portions you need. (See how small the red scrap is? That’s because the cherry is the only part I need to cut out.)

2. Next, precisely cut out each individual element. These are the pieces of the puzzle that you will fit back together and adhere over the top of the original image.

3. Now it’s time to reassemble. Simply match up the lines and adhere the cut pieces right over the top of  the base image. Then add details if desired. I added some simple colored pencil shading and a dash of Stickles.

And here is the finished card…

Supplies:

• Clear Design: Birthday Frame & Messages
• Wallpaper Background
• White, Sunshine, Blush, Pool Notecards
• Memories ArtPrint Brown Ink
• Soft Blossom Shadow Ink
• Clear Card Buttons
• Diamond Stickles
• Other: Swiss Dots embossing folder (Cuttlebug), scalloped square die (Nestabilities), Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels), colored pencils (PrismaColor), Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers), string, pop dots

My next card uses the infinitely versatile Thank You Cling stamp, which was practically begging to be paper pieced. All those sections and elements — irresistible! Here are the trimmed pieces prior to assembly…

Then I added some paper, ribbon, gems and stitching. The two pieced flowers are elevated with pop dots.

Supplies:

• Clings: Thank You
• Neutral Mixed Notecards
• Memories Black Ink
• Shabby Shutters, Peeled Paint Distress Ink
• Olive Gemstones
• Other: book text, cardstock, patterned paper (Daisy D’s), colored pencils (PrismaColor), Caramel Apple Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels), ribbon, machine stitching, pop dots

As a final example today, Kelly Rasmussen created a paper pieced holiday card using our cute Christmas Stockings stamp. She white embossed two of the stockings before trimming and piecing back together. This gives such a great finished look — I love it! Imagine all the ways you could custom piece these stockings for the holidays. Small scale patterned papers would look fabulous too.

Supplies:

• Christmas Stockings
• Clear Design: Holiday Sayings
• Clear Design: Holiday Cheer
• Pool, Kraft, Crimson Notecards
• Soft Pool Shadow Ink
• Memories White Ink
• VersaMark
• White Embossing Powder
• Small Accent Pearls
• Other: scallop border punch, label die cut, thread

So, this week we challenge you to include paper piecing on your stamped projects. Easy! Just load them into Hero Arts Flickr group with the tag paperpiecing (no space between “paper” and “piecing”.) Be sure to use at least one Hero Arts stamp or digital element on each of your projects and post them by 11:59pm PST on Sunday, October 11.  By entering, you could win a shopping spree of your choice of Hero Arts products from the NEW Hero Arts Online Store! (Shipping charges apply.) Winners will also receive a 2009 Hero Arts catalog, sent separately. The prize amounts are as follows:

• Fresh Face Winner (someone who has not yet won a contest): $50
• Digital Winner (create something using a Hero Arts Digital Kit): $50
• Scrapbook Page Winner: $50
• 1st Place: $50
• 2nd Place: $25
• 3rd Place: $15

Can’t wait to see what you piece together, this should be fun! Come back tomorrow for some frosty inspiration and a giveaway!

Filed under: paperpiecing

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 4:30 am and is filed under Motivation Mondays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.