Making Fancy Templates :)

Awhile back on the Fancy Pants blog I shared a technique of making your own templates. You may have seen it there, but if not...here it is:

Have you noticed how many super cute designs are on Fancy Pants’ papers? There are so many images that totally inspire me! Like this one:

This is one of the many awesome and adorable die-cuts that comes in the It’s The Little Things: Design Embellishments. See how cute that rainbow is? And how about the whole stamp design? I love them. I let this one die cut inspire my whole layout that I am sharing with you today. And along the way I am going to share some easy ways of making your own templates for paper-piecing or making your own die cut paper.

Fancy Pants Supplies:
It’s The Little Things: Four Birds patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Honeysuckle patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Cards patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Headed South patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Strips patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Humming Bird patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Pecking Order patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Bird Cage patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Spring Fever patterned paper
It’s The Little Things: Design Embellishments

Other supplies:
adhesive
pen for journaling and outlining
floss for added stitches
printer/scanner for template technique
scissors


Instructions:
First I created my base for my layout using three pieces of patterned paper and my own template based off the die cut I shared with you above.

Here’s how I created my template for my own die cut paper. I took a picture of my die cut. You could also scan it. Then in my photo-editing program, I enlarge it to a size of 12 x 12. You don’t need to worry about the quality of the image because you are simply using it for a template. I made mine black and white to save my color ink. Most printers also have an option to print at a lesser quality. Now, if you have a 12 x 12 printer then you are one lucky gal and can just print it. I had to print it on 4 sheets of paper and then quickly piece it together to make mine 12 x 12.

Then I cut my template out and picked the paper I was going to use with it.


I laid my template over a sheet of It’s The Little Things: Honeysuckle patterned paper and drew with a pencil and then cut. If you are brave then you can just hold the two together and cut, skipping the pencil.

So I now had this:

I layered my handmade die cut paper on top of a 12 x 12 piece of It’s The Little Things: Four Birds patterned paper. **tip: when layering a piece of 12 x 12 paper behind everything, knowing all of the center will be covered, why not save your paper and cut the center out first.** Then I added a 9.75 x 9.5 piece of It’s The Little Things: Cards patterned paper.

Next I wanted to do some paper piecing on my layout. I loved the rainbow on die cut, so I again created a template with my earlier image. Take your scanned or photographed image and enlarge it to the size you want. Again, don’t worry about quality of time image because you are just going to use it as a template. I suggest printing a couple of your image, because you may cut into parts and it’s nice to have a back up.

I simply held my printed template over my paper and cut with scissors through both. My top was cut out of the It’s The Little Things: Humming Bird patterned paper. The next level was cut out of It’s The Little Things: Pecking Order patterned paper. And the bottom level was cut out of It’s The Little Things: Bird Cage patterned paper. The cloud was cut out of It’s The Little Things: Spring Fever patterned paper.

I then layered a 5 x 9 piece of It’s The Little Things: Headed South patterned paper and my assembled rainbow along with my photos.

I added a 9 x 2.5 piece of It’s The Little Things: Strips patterned paper and several different die cuts from It’s The Little Things: Design Embellishments. I also decided to outline the rainbow to make it stand out more and added a little bit of hand-stitching.

Here are close up's of my layout:

I hope I have inspired you to get a little creative today! I have done this technique with birds and owls and other things as well. You can see one project I did using the "This Girl" Kraft Kuts collection on my blog here. And Fancy Pants has so many cute designs to inspire you.