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Wednesday, September 18, 2013

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

8 comments:

  1. Love your sweet Paper Pieced card and the chalkboard look. The shaker card is so cool- love the horse punched and framing he picture- so fun!

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  2. Michelle- Your paper pieced bee card is fantastic!!! Love it too peices!! LOL Your Western shaker photo layout, is awesome!! Love the unique way you used the stamp to create the frame around the picture!! Great projects~~~

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  3. Beautiful and inspiring projects! Thank you for sharing.

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  4. I love seeing the process - so often my projects end up differently than I had planned!

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  5. Wow, two awesome cards, love the paper piecing on the bee and the little pieces of chalk. Love the little cut out horses that you used to frame the shaker card. Sweet!!

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  6. Just both they are smashing! Love how you did you paper piecing!
    Sweet Hugs
    Denise

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  7. Great cards. The bee is just too cute.

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  8. The bee card is bee-utiful! :) Lovely design!! Love what you did with the 2 Horse Silhouette!! Very cool!! Such a fun card design!!

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