Winter Birthday Card

(Originally posted for the Silhouette Blog design team on 11/14/2013)

In choosing a birthday card design for this chilly time of year, I opted for this adorable penguin as a focal point.  I enjoy paper piecing designs because it leaves so much room for tiny little details that the recipient is sure to appreciate.  Or maybe I just like to play with all kinds of details and textures!

I used white and black Silhouette adhesive-backed cardstock for ease (the less gluing to do on individual pieces the better), Silhouette printable cotton canvas for the scarf and hat for a nice fabric texture, a touch of Silhouette printable gold foil for a shiny gift-ribbon accent, and a touch of grey flocking for fuzzy little ear muffs.  This flocking powder comes in the Silhouette double-sided adhesive starter kit.  {Love!}  A bit of baker’s twine on the winter party hat adds the finishing “touch”.  (Using double-sided adhesive on the circle makes it really easy to twist the baker’s twine around in a tight spiral and secure it.)

If you’re wondering how I made the fringe on the pom pom, I simply cut about 4-5 one-inch strips of the same baker’s twine and criss-crossed the pieces on the back of the pom pom (on top of adhesive). I frayed the ends, then trimmed to an equal length all the way around.

The sled was a cut shape in the Silhouette online store, so I just colored it in Silhouette Studio, added white text, and chose “Cut Edge” in the Cut Style Window to make it a print & cut.  The snowflakes in the background needed to be turned into compound paths so I could weld them to my wavy shape.  The wide wavy edge on the rectangle was thanks to the Studio Designer Edition wavy knife tool, prior to welding on the snowflakes.  The background snowflake piece was also cut from white Silhouette adhesive-backed cardstock.

Here are some detail shots.

If you’ve never done a paper-pieced character, I encourage you to try it!  Find a critter in the Silhouette online store that appeals to you and see what kind of detail and texture you can add.  By adding the right accents and colors you can use them for any occasion!

Shapes:
Christmas Penguin by Studio Ilustrado
Snowflakes by KI Memories
Sled by Lettering Delights
Presents and Trees by Lettering Delights
Dot Pattern by SEI

Font : SNF Party Script