Supply Savvy: Stencils and Paper Piecing

Stencils are a good investment for your scrapbook supplies. Choose designs that you know you will use again and again. Designs for backgrounds will more than likely see the most use, though alphabets and fonts are another good way to extend your stencil collection. Some stencils can be used for paper peiceing, just as I will show you today.

This particular stencil doesn't necessarily follow my own advice. I have had it for years. As you can see by the stray crayon marks, my son got more use from it then I did. The design is very specific and for the most part, would be used mainly for little boy or dinosaur layouts. Unless you plan to use it often ( and some people would be able to do just that), it might not be the best investment for use as a long term tool. In my case, it sat for quite some time until I challenged myself to use it. I decided to create a paper pieced  dinosaur.

The first step is quite simple. Just trace the design onto a piece of paper.

This particular design breaks apart the body of the dinosaur. I don't want it to look like that on my layout. So I filled in the areas around the legs and body, then erased any undesired lines. Two of the legs will be layered under the body to give the dinosaur a little extra dimension.

From the Age of the Dinosaurs by Christy Strickler Supplies: Cardstock: Colorbok; Patterned Paper and Stickers: October Afternoon; Stencils: Delta; Brads: Basic Grey; Alphas: Sassafrass; Ink and Markers: Ranger;Other: Google eye






I used papers from my October Counterfeit Kit. The stencil allows me to theme the papers used to match my story. This small tree is actually a fern whose ancestors lived in the time of dinosaurs. We were visiting a Rain Forest in Puerto Rico. Bright colors remind me of Puerto Rico and I did not want to use the traditional grungy colors in the Dinosaur themed kits from my Stash. I added some Dinosaur footprints to the layout using the stencil and Ranger's Picked Raspberry Distress ink.The flowers were fussy cut from the patterned papers. I outlined the dinosaur with a Chipped Sapphire Distress marker and added a google eye.He is a simple, but effective paper pieced dino.

I'll be submitting my Dinosaur layout to Scrapfit's paper Piecing Step Challenge. If you'd like to play along but need more ideas for Paper Piecing, check out these links:

How to make a Paper Pieced Monkey from Get it Scrapped.
Free Paper Piecing Patterns
More Free Patterns

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