Enhanced Paper Piecing Tutorial

Hi everyone.  Today is Tutorial Wednesday at Bugaboo's "Catch The Bug" Challenge blog.  When I joined their team as a Guest Designer for September / October 2013, I was asked to write a tutorial.  Since I use the Paper Piecing Technique with a lot of the fun and fabulous Bugaboo images, I thought I'd share some tips and tricks for "Enhanced Paper Piercing".  What is that, you ask??!!  It's just a few suggestions of ways to "step up" your paper piecing technique.  FYI, I have added a link to a printable document on the Techniques Page of my blog.


Paper Piecing is one of my most favorite techniques.  I love the versatility of combining plain and patterned paper on one image … the possibilities are endless.  Today I’m going to show you how to “step-up” your paper piecing with a few simple techniques – it’s all in the details.


Tip:  I run my black marker along the cut edges of each paper piece so the pieces blend with the lines of the image when they are glued down.  It just takes a few minutes and makes a huge difference with the finished image.


Today I’m using the adorable image “Teddy - Rose Hat” from Bugaboo.  Here are all the pieces before I get started.  I have cut out the base image as well so I can pop it up on my card.  I colored the roses and leaves with markers before assembling.

Here is the paper pieced image.  Sometimes I cut out the pieces individually and fit them together.  But for this image, I cut out one base layer from the medium brown for the head and one for the body.  The lighter shade of brown is layered on top of the base and a third layer (nose and rose on tummy) is adhered on top of the second layer ... this is paper layering.  It's such an adorable image just like this!

Here are the same pieces, but I've added some sponging around the outside edges of each piece.  The subtle shading gives a lot more depth to the image.

And here is the same image again (with the shading).  This time I've added a second set of paws, raising them up by adding a touch of glue at the wrists to adhere them flush to the image, but adding a rolled up glue dot (or you can use a pop-dot if it's not too thick) at the tip of the paws where they meet the feet, to give even more dimension.  This is call the paper tole technique.  Not much extra work, but it adds a lot more character and dimension to the image.

Consider adding texture to the image by dry embossing some of the pieces.  Here I have embossed the straw hat.  It adds more character and dimension and I've also used the paper tole technique when adding a second layer to the rim of the hat.

And here's one final way to "step up" this paper pieced image.  After finishing the paper piecing, layering and paper tole pieces, I added shine by coating the flowers and leaves with glitter glue to add an extra element.

Here's the finished card ...

Close-up:

So next time you decide to paper piece, think about adding one or more of the techniques above to enhance your image.  Or add some other extras ... perhaps twine for the strings of a balloon, felt for a scarf, or flower soft for the center of a flower.  The possibilities are endless.  Have fun!