Paper Piecing and Western Challenges by Michelle McClure, Guest Designer

Hello sweet peeps! I have two cards that I'm excited to share with you today.

Monthly Challenge - Paper Piecing Card
When I think about paper piecing, I usually get a bit daunted by the amount of detailed work involved and then proceed to the next technique. By after browsing the stamps and seeing the Bee Happy Duo set, I thought this was totally doable!

I stamped the bee twice, once on yellow and once on a light blue piece of patterned paper. I cut out the eyes and wings from the blue and popped it up on the yellow. I was quite quick and easy, yet really adds a special touch to the card.

I wanted the bee on a slate board so I rounded the edges of my card and used some chalkboard patterned paper. If you don't have chalkboard paper, you can dab a wet cloth with white chalk ink and gently rub a piece of black paper for the same effect. I stamped the sentiment in white and added a Word Frame Duo for the speech bubble, which fit perfectly. To continue the slate board theme, I cut pieces of white cardstock to make chalk. The bee is holding a piece to look like he wrote the sentiment on the board. I also made a little cup the hold the extra pieces of chalk. The background stars, letters and numbers are rub-ons. As a teacher, I would have loved to receive something like this at the beginning of the school year.

Weekly Challenge - Western Card
For my Western themed card, I really wanted to make a shaker card. I'm always a little hesitant because of the complications and mess involved, especially if precise measurements with an X-Acto knife is involved. I had read about a washi tape technique and decided now was the time to give it a try.

First I stamped some horses using 2 Horse Silhouette stamp and punched out the profiles with a .5" circle punch. I wanted the horses to be inside the shaker card.

Next I took a piece of acetate (transparency film) and cut it to the same size as my photo. I placed the acetate on top of my photo and taped three edges closed using washi tape. Initially I placed the punched circles inside but they didn't shake very well so I took them out and placed glitter inside. Then I taped up the fourth edge and popped the photo onto my card base. 

I stilled wanted to use my circles so I glued them around the photo as a scalloped frame. 

Here is a view of the card in action. This was a lot easier and less messy than my usual shaker methods. 

If you would like to enter the monthly challenge using a paper piecing technique, please see this post. If you would like to enter this week's Western themed challenge, please see this post.

So glad you moseyed on by,
Michelle McClure