Sunday, March 21, 2010

Piecing Together a Beautiful Life...

Hello! Here is a sample Theresa posted for me at the party, I combined my new "A Beautiful Life" set with a greetings from Nina's "Nana's Sentiments", I thought the rectangular frame would be perfect as a quilt block with the paper piecing technique. The piecing was very easy, you might be surprised how few cutouts were needed to create this card!
First I stamped the frame out onto Pure Luxury White, Lemon Drop, and a patterned piece of paper from the new Spring Mix Stamp TV kit. Love that delicate floral!

Here you can see how I have cut out the floral to go into part around the ovals and the frame, it's just two large pieces for either corner, plus three more small pieces in between the flowers.

Mono Multi or Pro Glider adhesive is perfect adhering the large pieces to the background and Quickie Glue Pen to add those small pieces. As you can see, I cut inside the large border and outside of the oval one. Save the scraps from your cut out for tags or piecing on other cards, too pretty not to use every little bit! TIP: At this point, you could just color in your flowers and leaves with the colors of your choice since the image is open, but I wanted a layered look like a quilt block, with my tulips being a solid yellow, rather than shaded, like pieces of yellow fabric.

Next I colored just the stems and leaves with a Pale Olive Copic, leaving the blossoms yellow. I then cut these pieces out whole to adhere on top of my floral.

Here they are adhered to the frame. I stamped the stitched sentiment int the oval, inking it up with black and olive markers, then added my little butterfly stamped onto the Lemon Drop as well. The little dotted trail? That is actually created from inking up just a small part of the swirly stitched border from "Nana's Needlework", isn't that fun??
I cropped my frame to leave an additional 1/8" around all sides, colored in with a pale blue Copic to match the DP, then layered onto Black Onyx and Lemon Drop. A few Spring buttons adhered with glue dots in the corners and the card is complete. I am thrilled with the result, and just loving all these sets together!!
More to come, still have my tip sheet and family photos from our vacation! I haven't stamped in a week but my time away was very restorative and I am more than ready to jump back in! Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! If you are just finishing your Spring Break, I hope it was safe and lovely, and if you are just about to start one I pray you have a grand adventure! :)

8 comments:

  1. Gorgeous! So Spring-like - I think you just helped our couple inches of snowfall yesterday melt a little faster! ;)

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  2. I love the way you pieced this, Mel. You accomplished the quilted look for sure. It's gorgeous.

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  3. Wow!! I LOVE how you pieced this all together! How creative and it's gorgeous!

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  4. That is awesome - I love how you pieced that together. Can't wait till mine comes in the mail!

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  5. Wow! Great combination and very creative... luv it.

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  6. Glad you're back and rested ?? are we ever?? and that William is OK...lovin your new set!!!

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