Pick a Piece of Patterned Paper Please!

Hello everyone!  Welcome to another fun and fabulous Inspire Me Monday!  I'm Allison Cope and I'll be your hostess today.

Have you had a chance to check out all of our amazing new Happiest Holiday stamp sets yet?  Well if you haven't, take a gander at these!  Four amazing new holiday inspired stamp sets all waiting to be added to crafty stash, for you to begin the process of creating your holiday cards.

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE colouring with my Copic Markers but sometimes I like to shake it up a bit.  Sometimes I like to pull out some fun patterned paper, from both past and present, and just have fun cutting and playing with them.  Fussy cutting is my therapy.  These patterned papers aren't just for behind all your gorgeous stamped images... oh no!  Why not use these beautiful patterns to accompany your stamps!  Yup... this technique is called PAPER PIECING and that's the process I'm going to share with you today!

I couldn't resist pulling out the brand new "Poinsettia" stamp set and getting started!  This stamp set is PERFECT for this technique.

1.)  The first step was to stamp the whole entire image onto some cardstock.  I chose to stamp it on a rustic cream cardstock that has all kinds of cool unbleached paper fibers showing throughout it.

2.)  Next I chose to colour in the tiny pomegranates and the pine boughs with Copic Markers.  (I know, I know... I used some markers! :) Told ya I loved to use them!)  I thought it might be easier to colour them instead of paper piecing these guys.

3.)  Next I stamped my image onto some teal and cream almost checkered paper.  I accidentally didn't get all of the image to stamp properly but that's okay, it'll still work because the area that's not quite clear will be covered by other patterned paper pieces.  I carefully cut out my poinsettia. 

Notice the leaf at about the 10 o'clock position?  It's not entirely cut out on it's lines because I'm going to put more paper over it.

4.)  Then I grabbed another pattern and stamped my image on it.  This was a paper with snowflakes all over it.  I fussy cut or hand cut out less leaves around the outside of the flower this time.

5. )  I grabbed another kind of patterned paper again, a solid teal paper, stamped and then fussy cut out more towards the center, only the smaller leaves of the poinsettia this time.

6. )  And finally, I grabbed some of the same cardstock as my base poinsettia, stamped, fussy cut and coloured the center of the bloom with a yellow marker.

Once the center was glued on, I backed it with a die cut stitched circle and put it on my card base.

 Supplies:  Stamps, Power Poppy (Poinsettia);  Patterned Papers, (BasicGrey (Aspen Frost, 25th & Pine), KaiserCraft (Christmas Carol);  Cardstock, Stampin' Up!, Flourishes, Papertrey Ink;  Ink, Memento (Olive Grove), Copic Markers (BG72, R02, R11, R12, Y15, YG93, YG95);  Lace, Stampin' Up!;  Die Cut, MFT (Stitched Circles);  Other, thread.

The patterns are subtle but it make that poinsettia unique and beautiful... especially in it's teal blue shades!

If you like the poinsettia paper pieced from the "Poinsettia" stamp set, well then you'll love the stocking too!  Check out my paper pieced stocking card right here.

Thanks for joining me today!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of my Canadian stamping friends out there today!  Happy stamping, cutting and pasting everyone!

~  Allison Cope ~