Attempting Two New Techniques

You'd think that I'd try to master one technique before moving on to the next, but I can't help it!  I follow so many blogs that showcase these great fun things that I have to try it for myself.  The first method for card making that I wanted to try was paper piecing.  Basically, instead of coloring in part of a stamp or image, patterned paper is used instead to fill in the space.  I tried it for the first time last night with a Recollections stamp set that I bought from Michaels called "Don't Bug Me."  I had it for a while, but I never actually used it yet.  I figured the butterfly would be perfect for paper piecing.

After I stamped it on white cardstock AND on patterned paper, I realized that the butterfly wasn't going to work because it already had a pattern on it ... 

Let's try again!  This time I chose the snail.  Posting this is going to totally ruin it for my fiance Howard because he'll see this before it's used!  Recently, he told me a relativity joke involving a snail that got me cracking up for the longest time.  I won't tell it as well as he does, but here goes: A snail went to the police station.  He said, "Officer, officer!  You gotta help me.  I was just mugged by a turtle.  He took everything I had; you gotta do something!"  The cop said, "Calm down; it's okay.  Just tell me what happened."  The snail then replied, "I don't know; it all happened so fast!"  HAHA.  Okay, I'm going to guess that I'm the only one laughing, but Howard built it up with this story that I was so surprised with the abrupt ending, but once I realized the joke, I couldn't stop laughing!  Haha, but I digress ...

I stamped the snail on white cardstock as well as patterned paper.  And yes, for those of you who follow my blog, you may notice this piece of patterned paper has been used before a few times.  Yup, I really do try to use the paper until it's done before starting a new one!  Besides, I LOVE this pattern!

The next step was to cut out the shell from the patterned paper.

I colored in the part of the snail that would show.  Then I used my Zig 2 Way Glue pen to adhere it to the white cardstock.  I used my lovely Tweezer Bees too because I love those things and have so much more control when I work with little pieces!  I've gotten so used to working with them that when I try to do something without it, I feel as my fingers are just really chubby kielbasa or something.

Then for the last step, I cut out the entire snail as one piece.  And of course, I used my Cutter Bee scissors!  I got these scissors a LONG time ago before I got into Cricut-ing and digi stamps.  I actually used it to cut out regular stamped images way back when I made cards growing up.  I didn't imagine that years down the road, I'd have so many of these EK Success products.  Feels like the right time to say that I love my Cutterpede trimmers.  Yup, BOTH of them!  I have the 12 inch and 5 inch; I use the latter if I can just because my desk is so small.

The next step would be to use it on a card, of course, but I ended up going to sleep.  Haha.  This morning I decided to try paper piecing again, and this time, I used the cute sheep from a Sandy Lion stamp set.  Next time I'll look for different paper, haha, but I still have a little bit left of this striped one!

As you can see, my second attempt at a new technique involved using the Ranger Distress ink pads.  I used my Worn Lipstick and Peeled Paint and put some of that ink on the new craft mat that I bought.  Then I sprayed water on it and stuck the paper in it.  I had to put more ink down because it wasn't enough to cover it.  It still wasn't completely covered, so I put ink directly on the cardstock and sprayed that before crumpling it.

Um, I'm guessing it would've come out better if I had the little mini misters instead of using an actual spray bottle ... haha.  That's going on my "to buy" list.  Even so, I still think it came out pretty cool.  I don't know that it fits that cute lil' sheep, haha, but I think I'm going to have fun with this craft mat and the distress inks!  I really should've watched a video before attempting it.  That's usually what I do before trying something new, but I was already in my room, so I did this from memory.

I guess I did do one more new thing here too.  I actually welded the letters together on my Gypsy to create the sentiment!  I used one of the fonts on Cuttin' Up and I turned every other letter left and right before welding it.  That's pretty awesome!  I'm going to love welding for scrapbook page titles!  Hmm, come to think of it, I should've just put "thank" because then the sheep would've been the you/ewe!  Oh well, maybe next time!

Here's the challenge that I'm entering:

• Challenge #2 (circle thank you card) at Cricut 360º [Click the first link to see that I'm linked in at #48]