reverse punch applique

Every so often, I look at the tools I have in my stamp corner and wonder about new ways to use them. One tool that I have a bunch of are punches - I bet you have a few punches too. I have drawers and drawer of punches (I love punches!) and I use them frequently on my projects, but what about something a little bit different? Have you seen the t-shirts where they cut out the design from the shirt and then back the opening with a fabric and stitch around the edges? If you haven't, check out the cover of the current Family Funmagazine and you will see what I am talking about. It's called reverse applique and it inspired me to use my punches for a papercrafting version of this technique...

 

I made a card base out of kraft cardstock and then used my large and medium heart punches to punch a border along the bottom of the card. Plan your card design and layout based on how the punch that you choose is oriented.

 

Next, I added adhesive around the punched shapes on the inside cover of the card. No need to be neat and tidy with this as it will be covered up later...

 

This project is actually a great one to use with your scraps of cardstock. For this card, I pulled out the Pink Patterns cardstock pad and chose 4 of the prints.

 

I used the punched hearts as a guide for cutting out the pieces of patterned cardstock for the heart shapes. Make sure that the pieces are big enough to cover the shape and overlap onto the adhesive. Adhere the pieces face down, so that they show through the heart shape on the front of the card.

 

Here's a peek at the front of the card with all of the patterned cardstock pieces in place.

 

Cut a piece of cardstock, I used a piece from the (Pink Patterns cardstock) and adhere it to the inside cover of the card, covering the adhesive and cardstock pieces.

 

I used my sewing machine to stitch around the heart shapes and a border around the card front. This step is optional - you could leave the card as is, outline the shapes with a marker, or create a faux stitching line.

 

I used sentiments from the Friends 'Til the End set, Berry Sorbet saddle stitch ribbon, and Sweet Blush vintage mix buttons to finish off my cards.

 

Here's a look at the finished cards!

 

I have so many ideas for more projects using the punches I have - stars, flowers, circles, squares, etc, etc! I think I could do something for just about any theme... This heart card that I showed you today would be so cute as a baby card, a wedding/shower card, and even thinking early for Valentine's day (okay, even I am not that far ahead...!)

Thanks for stopping by today and happy punching!

supplies:

Reverse Punch Applique Hearts for a Friend Cards

stamps: Friends 'Til the End (Papertrey Ink)

ink: True Black (Papertrey Ink)

cardstock: kraft, Pink Patterns (Papertrey Ink)

other: Berry Sorbet saddle stitch ribbon (Papertrey Ink), medium and large heart punches (EK Success), Sweet Blush vintage mix buttons (Papertrey Ink), button twine, sewing machine/thread