One of my favorite paper crafting techniques is paper piecing. I love coming up with my own embellishments ideas using punches and shape templates. I’ve found that I can do so many things with even the most basic shapes like circles and ovals. Today, I want to share with you two projects I’ve made doing just this.
This first piece is a card with an owl that is made using several circle punches. Almost every feature on his cute little self is from a circle punch including his body, wings, eyes and feet.
Title: Halloween HOOT Card
Designer: Patti Milazzo
Supply List:
Eerie - Freak & Beware by Basic Grey
Trick or Treat – Monstrer Mash and RIP by Fancy Pants
Haunted – Ominous by Cosmo Cricket
Anna Sophia – Worn Stripes by Bo Bunny
Tools: Halloween Fun Clear Stamps by Cloud 9 Design/Fiskars
Fiskars Americas - Ultra ShapeXpress Tool; Woodland Tree; Super Size Circle Template; Circle Pop Up Punch; Mint Condition and Round ‘n Round Squeeze Punches; Scallop Paper Edgers; 1/8” and 1/16” Circle Hand Punches; Stamp Blocks
Other: PermaTack Adhesive by Glue Arts; Machine stitching; black twill ribbon
Computer fonts: Lucida Handwriting
Instructions:
- Cut 5” x 8” card front from purple patterned paper; ink edges.
- Cut 6” circle from yellow patterned paper; ink edges; adhere part over upper left side of card front; trim off excess and machine stitch around twice.
- Cut curved hill from brown patterned paper; ink edges; adhere to bottom card; trim off any excess and machine stitch along curve twice.
- Cut tree silhouette from black cardstock; adhere part over left side of card; trim off excess and machine stitch trunk and branches several times.
- Punch circles to create the body; wings; feet and eyes for the owl. *The body is a 1.5” circle which I then punched again with the circle punch to remove the portion forming the top of his head. The wings are from a single circle cut in half. The eyes include white circles with smaller black circles (with tiny circles punched out) for the pupils and half circles to give the eyes a hooded appearance. His feet are a small circle trimmed with scallop scissors. Use adhesive foam dots to pop up the eyes as well as the body of the owl from the card.
- Stamp bat silhouettes on the moon in the background.
- Punch leaves; ink and adhere at tips of branches and at bottom of tree trunk.
- Print sentiment on cardstock; ink and adhere to card.
Other suggestions: Instead of a card, create this as wall art or home décor. Simply change or omit the sentiment; enlarge the scale of the project if needed; add a few more leaves, then matte or frame for display.
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For this next project, a mini tri-fold screen, I used ovals to create the pumpkins and a variety of basic geometric shape punches and shape templates to make the jack-o-lanterns' features.
Title of Project: Jack-o-Lantern Trio Home Decor
Designer: Patti Milazzo
Supply List:
Trick or Treat – RIP and Candy Corn by Fancy Pants Designs; Rough & Tough – All Stars by Fancy Pants Designs; Black Cardstock;PermaTack Adhesive by Glue Arts; Chalk Ink- Olive Pastel, Burnt Sienna, Charcoal and Chestnut Roan by Clearsnap
Tools: Fiskars Americas – Ultra ShapeXpress Tool; Oval Shape Template; ¼” Circle and Rectangle Hand Punches; Circle Pop Up Punch; Brick, Nice Tri and Round ‘n Round Squeeze Punches.
Spooky FrightfulClear Stamps by Li’l Davis/Fiskars
Other: PermaTack Adhesive by Glue Arts; Machine stitching
Instructions:
- Cut 6 – 5” squares of black cardstock.
- Cut 6 – 5” chipboard squares and ink edges in black.
- Cut 4 – 3” x 5/8” pieces of black twill ribbon and adhere to back of chipboard squares. 2 strips between each square with chipboard squares spaced ¼” apart. Be sure to keep the ribbon lined up evenly across.
- Adhere 3 – 5” black cardstock squares to chipboard covering the ribbon strips.
- Adhere remaining 3 – 5” black cardstock squares to cover front of each piece of chipboard. The body of the mini tri-fold screen is complete. Set aside.
- Cut 3 – 4.5” squares from kraft cardstock; ink edges ; and stamp Halloween background images. I used spiderwebs and flourishes for this project.
- With a stiff bristle paint brush, splatter black acrylic paint on surface of each squ are; let dry and set aside.
- To create each jack-o-lantern, cut 3 ovals for each pumpkin; ink edges and layer 2 side by side (slightly overlapping) and the last on centered on top.
- Use punches, die cuts or shape templates to create facial features. I like mine goofy and happy but you could certainly go for scary and creepy, too!
- Cut or punch leaves and stems. I free handed mine with a swivel craft knife after lightly sketching the shapes I wanted.
- Once the jack-o-lanterns are complete adhere them to the center of each kraft cardstock square and the project complete!
Tips and other suggestions:
--Ink edges by applying 2 or more colors. On the pumpkin ovals, I inked Burnt Sienna, then brown, and then black. I like the depth effect it gives to the pumpkins. They almost seem to glow! On the kraft cardstock squares I used black and brown to give the pieces and aged look that goes well with the stamping and splatter effect.
--Have your project be two in one. Create another trio of embellished squares for the backside of this project – maybe scary jack-o-lantern faces, other Halloween images (ghosts, bats, etc) or simply pumpkins and gourds to celebrate fall.
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There’s still a couple of days left to put together a few more crafty Halloween projects so I hope I’ve offered you a little inspiration in making your own fun embellishments. And I hope you have a Spook-tacular Halloween!
