Tonight I'd like to share a relatively simple PaperTrey Quilter's Sampler card. For my other new release quilt cards, I colored the pieces of the squares individually and sewed them like little quilts, For this one, however, I merely stamped the quilt blocks as a patterned background. Along the way I figured out a few tricks and thought that I'd share them with you.
First, the simplest way to make a quilt background pattern is to start with a gridded acrylic block and align each quilt square on two touching side. (I chose the bottom and the left here.)
Second, I let the bottom of my acrylic block serve as a spacer so that I could get the rows even. (Just so I don't confuse you later, after stamping this 5-1/2" wide sheet, I switched to a 6-1/4" sheet so that I could use my Spellbinders long rectangle die to cut the finished card front. The pattern I actually used is therefore slightly wider than shown here.)
To make my tag, I had to turn a one-line stamp into a two-lines to fit into my Spellbinders ribbon tag die cut. The easiest way that I have found to do this if I am using an ink pad instead of markers, is to cover the end of the sentiment that I do not want to stamp with a bit of tape. Then I simply ink my stamp, pull the tape off, and stamp away. I then clean the stamp well, tape the opposite end, ink, remove the tape, and stamp the second line. It takes longer to explain than to do it--really! The picture that you see here is of my tag right after I airbrushed it with the Copic BG13 marker and airbrush system. I left it in the die while I airbrushed so that I'd have a clean vanilla edge, and and extra visual layer. By the way, PaperTrey will be carrying these tag dies very soon. :-)
Next, I stamped my spool of thread using PaperTrey Dark Chocolate ink on Vintage Ivory cardstock, and colored it with Copic BG11, BG13, and E43. It isn't shown here, but I also colored the thread in BG11 before cutting it out. You can see my finished tag after removing it from the die and aging it with some Antique Linen Distress ink.
Now, for some cutting tips: I found it simplest when cutting the spool and thread to use a sharp craft knife to cut that inside thread loop on the left first, then cut the outer part with scissors. Leaving the outer part in place while you cut the inside helps to stabilize the area and allow for a nicer cut. On the darning needle, I stamped it in Versamark ink, then heat-embossed it with silver embossing powder. Again, if you use a craft knife to cut the inside (eye) of the needle before you trim the outside, your needle eye will be easier to cut properly. After slitting the eye of the needle and trimming the whole needle, I threaded it onto my thread and set it aside while I constructed the rest of the card front.
After attaching the ribbon and ribbon slider tag to the card front, I attached my spool , thread, and needle, using foam tape. the trickiest part was slicing the tape thinly enough so that it would not stick out from behind the needle! Design tip: you may have noticed that I placed my needle right above the word "Hoping" so that it would lead the eye to the tag. If it were further up on the thread and pointed off the top of the card, it would be leading the viewer's eye right off the card.
All of the PaperTrey new release will be available at midnight, July 15, EST. The blog party begins around 10EST in the PTI forum. Hope to see you there!
