Piecing together the holidays
Designer: Lisa Storms To me paper piecing with templates and punches feels like cheating, and I love that! What looks time consuming was actually quick and easy. By combining unexpected shapes, you not only get more miles out of your tools, but you also create one-of-a-kind designs with wow factor. And it is just fun to see what you can come up with! You should be forewarned that I have an addiction to glitter. And during the holiday season, this addiction grows out of control. Glitter is obviously used to add sparkle to designs, but it also has functional purposes such as highlighting important areas. With paper piecing, glitter can pull a bunch of pieces together as one as it lessens where one piece starts and another ends.
Jingle Bells I love jingle bells. I put them all over my home and on packages during the holidays. But they are just too bulky for mailing cards or for scrapbooking, so I had to find a way to make a flatter version.
The XL Don't Leave Me Hangin' squeeze punch paired with a ¼" circle hole punch makes super cute bells! Hand cut a line from the bottom center to each hole and layer over a darker shade of gray. Of course I couldn't resist adding silver sparkle with chunky glitter.
Snowflake Gift Topper I love that "no two snowflakes are alike" and with that in mind, I tend to come up with a lot of different snowflake designs! The possibilities are truly endless. This time around, I cut out five Y's from the lettering template paired with a hollowed star created by cutting two different sized snowflakes with the Ultra ShapeXpress centered over each other.
This is a perfect example of glitter uniting a paper piecing. With its layer of sparkle and texture, glitter makes this feel like it is one single element. This is substantial enough to command attention on a gift or create a huge impact on a card or layout.
Topiary Christmas Letter Some years I like the idea of doing the family letter thing. Here I wanted to create a tall card that would fit a letter inside and slip into a standard business sized envelope.
You don't have to use an entire shape. Here I used a petal from the Flowers template but cut it shorter for my topiary's pot. The topiary itself is simply two sizes of scalloped circle punches. To give the illusion of leaves, I stamped the Vintage Farmhouse background stamp in green onto a lighter green cardstock before punching. Red gems and brown toothpicks (with the help of a marker) give extra interest.
Christmas Photo Layout I turned back to the Flowers shape template to create a Christmas tree with character.
The stem turns into a trunk while the leaves form the body. Of course a star tops it off as well as gems for ornaments.
The new Limited Edition Pine For Me tree squeeze punch works double duty in this layout. I used it in the title and to make it even more special I switched out different papers for each piece and even added a small star punch at the top.
The bottom piece of the tree punch is also used here as holly leaves for a fun photo corner topped with gems.
3D Tree Paper piecings don't have to be flat! Here piecing goes 3D with a Christmas tree that stands alone. You could create a beautiful winter forest with a line of these.
The Flowers template comes with yet again using the petal shape to form the tree. Cut out a bunch using the Ultra ShapeXpress, fold them in half, and glue them together. You can even do the same with a star punch at the top connected with a piece of wire.
Now this guy is just plain cute! He has definitely captured my heart and will likely end up on my Christmas cards this year. And he is so simple!
And XL Oval 'n Oval Again punch forms the head while the ears are created by feeding a circle punch back into the punch again and cutting off a piece from each side. Theantlers are created cutting out a piece of the Boundary Waters border punch as shown. Don't forget to glitter his circle punched nose!
Chimney Gift Tag I wasn't up to the task of creating a Santa at the moment, so you can cheat by just using part of him. A red pointed hat sticking out of a chimney could only be one thing! Keep it simple.
The Nice Tri punch topped with a small white pom pom is layered under a chimney created with Brick by Brick punches. A layer of snow tops the chimney by way of the Scallop Sentiment border punch.
Ornaments Gift Card The XL Mint Condition squeeze punch instantly creates ornaments ready to "hang" on your projects.
With the help of the Nice Tri punch with gold cardstock run through the Paper Crimper, a hanger tops it off with a finished look.
Now go piece together your holidays! By Lisa Storms « Back to Scrapbooking |
