A new (to me) technique: paper-piecing…

I was intrigued by this month’s AEIHeartUChallenge: Paper Piecing.  It’s not something I’d ever tried but it looked interesting.  By far, my favorite Avery Elle stamp sets are Storybook and More Stories and I knew I wanted to use them in some way.  I decided to try and give some of the animals the look of vintage stuffed animals made up of patterned fabric but using patterned paper.  Something sort of like this:

I love the way the ears on the deer (I think it’s supposed to be a deer) are a different fabric than the rest of the animal.  I definitely didn’t own any stuffed animals from a 1943 McCall’s sewing pattern but I remember owning a stuffed bunny that had pastel dots (maybe they were supposed to be jelly beans?!) and man, I loved that bunny!  Did you own any stuffed animals like this?

Anyway, here’s my interpretation of the patterned fabric stuffed animals:

I used various Lawn Fawn papers to die cut the animals.  Then I stamped the images in Versafine Onyx Black and fussy cut them.  I really liked the look of two “fabrics” on one animal so for the animals that had clearly outlined tails, beaks, chests, or faces I cut a second image on a different paper, fussy cut it and glued it over the first paper.  I also used my black copic marker to go over the edges of the animals so there wouldn’t be any white edges showing.  Thankfully there was a new episode of Dance Moms on tonight because it took me about an hour to do all the cutting…

Then for the assembly…I used a top folding 5.5″x4.25″ card in Neenah Desert Storm.  I cut a frame from Simon Says Stamp Soft Navy cardstock using two Stitched Rectangle dies (also from Simon Says Stamp).  For the banner, I used the curved edge of a die from the Avery Elle Custom Panels set to cut both sides of the banner and then I cut the notched ends.  I stamped the ‘Welcome Little One’ sentiment from the Avery Elle Storybook set and heat embossed it with Hero Arts clear embossing powder.

I glued the penguin and rabbit under the frame and the duck over the frame.  Then I popped up the hedgehog and fox with foam mounting tape.  I also attached the banner with foam mounting tape for a little extra dimension.  I’m REALLY happy with the way it turned out.  It was definitely a little labor intensive…especially that hedgehog but I think it was worth it.  Hope you enjoy!

I’m entering this card in the AEIHeartUChallenge #20: Paper Piecing, the Simon Says Stamp Flickr Challenge, and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Anything Goes!