Snip Tips: Ho Ho Ho

I’ve been a little snippy lately.  While yesterday’s Paper-Pieced Pop-Art Penguins for The Paper Players card left my fingers sore from snipping every little piece of those stylish little ice birds, the three penguins were simple compared to the snipping efforts it took to crop a single Santa the day before.  Today I’m going to share a couple of snip tips, along with a method I developed for consistently lining up the “H” and the “O” on these squares.  First, here’s my card from Sunday:Tag It, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Stampin' Up!, Brian King, FMS110And here’s a closeup of the adorable St. Nick.  This is a frightening photo to share.  It’s like posting a closeup photo of the pores on your face – it shows every blemish that can’t be seen by the naked eye.  Anyway, here he is: Tag It, Teeny Tiny Wishes, Stampin' Up!, Brian King, FMS110

Snipping Santa

To achieve this look, I stamped Santa in Real Red and then again in Basic Black.  This photo shows how I snipped the two Santas.  The one on the left is a little disturbing (I cut right into his face), and the one on the right is a bit haunting and ghostlike.  Snipping Santa Claus, Tag It, Stampin' Up!, Brian King

As you can see, I snipped the red Santa as the base for the image, and I snipped all the white pieces (bordered with black) to glue on top.  So that I didn’t have any places where the black pieces might end up smaller than the red, I cut into the red Santa a bit where the black pieces would be placed (e.g., I cut into his face so that the black and white pieces would cover the entire shape of his face, and I cut his mittens off).  In all cases, though, I left enough of the red Santa to glue the finely cut black and white pieces down (see the stub of his mitten?)

I have fumbled around with trying to get glue on tiny, little pieces of snipped cutouts.  This might seem obvious to you (but I’m telling you so you don’t have to figure this out the hard way like I), but the easiest way to adhere the tiny snippets is to drop a little liquid glue onto the base [in this case, the Red Santa] and then drop your little snippet on top.  Since the glue doesn’t dry immediately, I slide the piece around with the tip of my paper snips (they are already on the desk) or paper piercer.

Consistent Letter Placement at an Angle

The greatest inventions are found out of necessity.  OK, so this isn’t that great, but it was pretty fun to figure out.  I wanted to make sure my HOs were consistently lined up on the white squares each time.  This would be difficult to eyeball since they are at an angle and run off the sides of the square.  I created a little “cheat sheet” in the form of Post-It Tape.  I placed a strip of the removable tape along the bottom of one of the squares and placed the H and O where I wanted them.  I then marked the bottom, right corner of the square (see the little “reverse L” shape on the bottom of the strip?  That’s the corner of the square.)  I then marked the right side of the H and the center of the O.  I glued them down, turned the square over and snipped off the overhanging edges.  Best part – I now have a template to complete the lineup of the HOs on the other two squares.  Yipee!Consistent letter placement at an angle, Stampin' Up!, Brian King

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Brian

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23 Comments

  1. Thanks for your tips Brian especially lining up the ‘HO’. That would be very frustrating and time consuming lining up those each time otherwise. File that idea away for future reference. 🙂 Love the card too BTW. A very groovy Santa!

  2. That’s a nice card! 🙂 Like it

  3. Love the card.
    Thanks for the tips. I have been known to put small items on double sided tape and trim.

  4. That is such a clever tip, Brian. Thanks for sharing it with us. I love the graphic look of this card!

  5. Well Brian, this detailed instructions on how you managed to snip little Santa to perfection just adds to my admiration of your abilities with the paper snips. I’ve done some paper piecing myself a few times and I know how hard it is to hold the little cut out pieces in your hands. I have a pair of eyebrow tweezers that I use to help me along. You have nice, big man hands Brian so I’m trying to picture you sitting in your fungeon, diligently snipping away your Santa’s mittens and boots and that puff in his hat. Simply amazing, my dear.
    The directions for your perfectly aligned HO’s is also fantastic, I love how you sketch the designs for your cards, that is what great artist do before they start their masterpieces.

  6. I’ve been a little snippy lately too, but not with my scissors 🙂 You brightened my day. And thanks for these great tips! After perusing all of the entries for the Clean challenge, I think you should be the King of Clean again.

  7. Love the card. Santa parts were little creepy but the end result beautiful!

  8. You always do such a great job with your “teaching moments”, Brian! Thank you!

  9. Great idea, that template!!

  10. Yes, the single parts Santas are creepy….and the little penciled “L” is a great idea! I like this card more every time I look at it! Thanks for the snip tips, too.

  11. Thanks for those tips. I especially like the snipping of two Santas. 🙂

  12. Oh Brian – I thought I had patience, especially while working on quilts, until I read this email. You, as they say, must have the “patience of a saint”! Honestly, if I had to spend that much time on a single card – well, I can’t even imagine doing it. Obviously your cards are amazing and obviously you put a ton of thought and time into them but I never imagined the total intricacy involved. All I can say is that your cards are almost as amazing as you are!

  13. Now I understand the resounding “NOOOOoooo” when I mentioned making a bunch of these for the fundraiser next week…lol! It was worth the tedious work for the card though. It is just fabulous.

  14. Thank you for the tips! You can be snippy any time! I bet you would be good at building ships in bottles – your patience and dexterity are amazing! Love, love, love the card!

  15. At first, I thought your snipped Santas looked like a crime scene! Thanks for all of the tips.

  16. Wonderful card Brian – but how long did it take you to do it? Are you going to mass produce it for Christmas? Tee hee!!!

  17. Thank you so much for all those tips! Amazing! And it really takes someone who does that kind of stuff to understand and see all the work involved. Someone would have to be really “worthy” to receive this work-of-art.

  18. I would do all this snipping for a special card for a special someone . But, I doubt I would be too interested to do more than 3 or 4 . It`s this type of card making that takes it to another level .This isn`t in the Washi Tape league. This card and the Wild side card with those colorful Penguins are to me what real card making is all about …..Bravo !

  19. Wow Brian you did great , and it looks so nice !!! Only YOU !!!
    Hugs frenchie ,

  20. So CUTE and FUN…love it!!!

  21. Hi Brian,
    It certainly shows, the effort , you put into your card. What a wonderful job!
    This card is AMAZING, and should get a “Brian Trophy” Award!!!!
    I wish, I could be near, to learn from you! You’re such an Inspiration and PRO!!!
    Thanks for Sharing your wonderful…Tips!

  22. As nobody else asked, the British girl will 🙂 Can this be sent to me for Christmas”? hahahaha – Great job my friend !

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