piece it together with Fiskars tools

Tools like punches and shape templates are wonderful for their intended purposes, but what else can you do with them?

Four Fiskars design team members are joining us today to show off what they were able to piece together using their Fiskars tools and some creative thought.

Designer: Kelly Purkey
With me, food is always on the brain, so I love taking photos and scrapbooking my foodie adventures.  I wanted to create an easy paper pieced cake for a layout about my half birthday.  Unlike my awful skills in the kitchen, whipping up a paper cake was a lot easier!  This one only take a few ingredients including some of my favorite Fiskars tools.

I started with the plates to set the cake on top of by freehand cutting out an oval using microtip scissors.  Next I trimmed a strip of patterned paper for the base of the caker.  The sides are left straight and then the bottom curves were cut freehand with microtip scissors.  Once the base of cakes were cut, I used the Scallop Sentiments border punch to add a little "frosting" to my cake. 

By punching out strips from cardstock and layering them on top of each other I created some pretty frosting squeeze out between the layers of cake.  An oval circle cut from patterned paper and trimmed with Scallop paper edgers topped it off.  Add a little strip of cardstock for a candle and a punched flower as the flame.  These paper pieced cakes are a fun element to add to a layout or try creating some for a cute birthday greeting!  Let's see what you can cook up!

Designer: Kendra McCracken
Sometimes I have a photo that doesn't really have a story behind it but I like it so much that I want to do something more than put it in a frame. 

I want to do something fun with it. Without journaling or a meaningful title, making a layout with a lot of embellishments always works.  But this time, I wanted to do something out of the ordinary so I created a super-sized paper-pieced star frame to hang in my youngest son's room.

To create the individual star points, I began with 5 rectangles. My rectangles were 7 1/2" x 6 1/2".  I marked the center point of one of the short sides, drew a line connecting that point to each upper corner, anc cut along these lines.

Next I embellished each point with stars created using all 3 sizes of the Twinkle, Twinkle Squeeze Punches.  I punched a lot of stars from various patterned papers and inked the edges of each one. This is a good way to use up small scraps left over from other projects. I layered smaller stars over larger ones by using foam squares from the Adhesive Foam Set added dimension.

After mounting my photo on a 12" x 12" sheet of chipboard covered with a piece of patterned paper, I arranged the embellished triangles into a star shape and adhered them. Using the Titanium Nitride No. 5 Softouch Scissors allowed precise control for cutting away any excess chipboard sticking out beyond the edges of the stars.

If you have a lot of scraps of patterned paper, get out those punches and create a repetitive pattern with one shape while mixing it up with contrasting patterns on the paper.  And then use them to fill a larger version of the same shape to create a mini-book cover, a frame like mine, or a fun focal point for a scrapbook layout.

Designer:  Lisa Storms
Paper piecing is so quick and easy it feels like cheating when you put your tools to use!  Here I created a card set with fun paper piecings and simple sentiments.  It's fun to put shapes to work in unexpected ways. 

You would never suspect this submarine is made up of shapes cut from the Bubbles shape template using the Ultra ShapeXpress! 

The only other shape I needed was a large Oopsie Daisy punched flower with all but two petals trimmed.  A drinking straw is a playful touch (make sure you double up foam adhesive on the back of your sub so the straw will fit behind), along with a Boundary Waters border punched sea. 

Adding texture to paper piecings adds a lot of interest using the Texture Plates.  Here I used the Netting plate to add texture to the cones, punching out with the Nice Tri squeeze punch. 

The ice cream scoop consists of a Round 'n Round circle punch combined with a scalloped trim.  The trim is created by punching an XL Square-a-licious and feeding it back in to cut off a slim, double-scalloped section. 

You never know where you might find a shape you need.  For my whale's tale, I found the Butterfly pop-up punch trimmed of its head and bottom wings, gave me just the shape I was looking for.  And really, what animal paper piecing isn't cuter with googly eyes? 

I put my Boundary Waters border punch to work again along with some flocked swirls to finish off this adorable card sure to cheer up anyone on the mend.

DESIGNER: Susan Weinroth
When I was deciding what shape to put (or piece!) together for this project, and what photos or theme to relate it to, I just kept coming back to a little stack of mini pics on my desk that were left over from something or the other.

I loved the shots and wanted to put them all together on a page, and thought what better way to tie them together than a camera shape?!  And thus, my camera-shaped paper piecing was born.  It was super easy to create, and I’m very sure I’ll be using this embellishment on projects in the future as well.

To make your own camera shape, select a few different cardstock colors, trim a 5x3.5 piece of cardstock as the base of the camera, and use the Round the Bend corner squeeze punch on each corner.  Trim a slightly smaller rectangle, corner round, and layer on top.  The camera’s “lens” is an XL and L circle squeeze punch, topped with an XL star squeeze punch. 

The view finder is a pop-up circle punch, and the “flash” is an XL Brick by Brick squeeze punch shape layered on top of a larger piece of cardstock.  Voila!  You have your own camera paper-piecing.  Using foam adhesive on various parts of the camera shape (like I did with the star) will give you a bit more dimension in your finished project.

We hope you've enjoyed this idea, and that you test out your Fiskars tools to see what you can piece together!

By Fiskars Design Team