Hello Pumpkin! (TCPTUESSEP13)

Well, hello hello! How are you doing crafty peeps? Hope you are doing well. Here is a RARE September post for you guys today, I know, I know.... Someday it will be October and things will "calm down" (I hope!) ;) We were VERY fortunate to not have been affected by the recent flooding in CO.

Also, the Cat Pack has some exciting NEWS to share! Kelli Hull and Jessica Rone have joined our Pack! I am so excited to get to know Jessica better and to have even more fun with Kelli! :) If you know, Kelli, you know she is AWESOME! Love ya, girl! :)

Last week, I was checking things off my to-do list, and this challenge was one of them. The weather had cooled off to a lovely, damp, autumn day, after being in the 90s for the whole week+ prior, ugh! I started thinking about how I love the Fall,  and that Halloween is right around the corner. :) So, I decided to make my first Halloween card for this year.

The challenge at The Cat's Pajamas in September is to use PAPER PIECING in your project. Here are a few words about it from Alma:

Last month was the Long, Tall Challenge. This month is all about Paper Piecing.

Paper Piecing is a technique that I use all the time. And you see it everywhere. It's a relatively "new" technique, though. And, when I started stamping over 12 years ago, paper piecing didn't really exist. Now, with all the pretty papers, it's fun to actually use them.

Paper piecing looks complicated, but is really easy, especially if you like to fussy cut. You simply stamp your image on pieces of paper. Use one as the "base" and cut along the inked lines on the other papers. (The Cat's Pajamas stamps are great for that, because of our think lines) Then, you attach the pieces to the main image.

Here is my card:

And, just in case you've never tried paper piecing before, here's a little tutorial for you:

1. Stamp your image down both on your main piece of cardstock and the patterned paper you'd like to piece from. In this case, for the "main" piece I used the largest die from the Framed Up CutUps. I love the shape of this one!

2. Color your main piece if you are not paper piecing the entire image. In my case, I pieced the pumpkins and the penguin's scarf, so I colored the penguin feet, beaks, cheeks, and pumpkin stems.

3. Rough cut out the part you are piecing.

4. Then fussy cut out the things you are piecing. Fussy cutting used to REALLY freak me out, but them I got some great advice from Sylvia, who, in my opinion is the QUEEN of fussy cutting, if there is such a thing! She said to go very slowly, and use a very good pair of scissors. These are the ones I use. Take as many tiny cuts as you need. Sometimes I will just cut closer and closer to the image for more control while cutting. You can see I opted NOT to cut out the tiny penguin feet, and just colored over them instead.

5. Then adhere the pieced parts to the main image, and I have a patterned jack-o-lantern on my card, now! Doesn't that up the cuteness factor a ton? :)

I used sequins for the first time since this trend has come to be. My friend Annette gave me a bag full of them when I saw her a few weeks ago. Thank you, Annette! :) I added teeny gems to the centers of the sequins. 

I used some glitter paper (American Crafts), with the following CutUps:

And the set is "Hello Pumpkin." I just got this one a few weeks ago when Alma had her big sale! :) 

And, my card again: 

If you want to play this fun challenge, head over to Dancing In Pajamas and you can link up on the sidebar! Hope to see your fun, paper pieced creations! :) 

Halloween hugs, Noelle