Paper Tole Tutorial

Remember this fun card? I thought that I would pop it into this post because this adorable Clear Dollar Stamps Lion is the image that I chose for this tutorial... I actually took the pictures for this tutorial when I was making the card above *grin*

The supplies that you will need are:

Scissors
Dimensionals
Versa Mark
Embossing Powder
Heat Tool
Watercolour paper or any heavy cardstock
any Colouring Medium that you would like

The basis of this tutorial is paper tole steps itself, rather than how to colour the image. Tap, tap, tap...now class, let's begin *wink*



1. Here you will see my base layer (everything will be added to the top of this lion). I have stamped the image in Versa Mark, added embossing powder and heat set it on 140lb cold press watercolour paper. The purpose of this is to create barriers for my watercolouring (so that the colours don't run together) and to create kind of a speed bump for my scissors (so I don't cut off any extra pieces by accident). I always do this when I am going to later my images...it also adds a lovely glossy shine :D

I have watercoloured this image with re-inkers and let it dry. This lion has more layers than most of my paper tole (sorry about that!) I chose him to do the tutorial on because I actually remembered to pull out my camera when I was making him, but you can make this lion less dimensional by cutting back on some of the layers and he will look just as adorable.



2. I usually number all of my layers so that I know which parts of the lion not to colour because it will be cut off later. You will see here that I coloured everything except the tail. And yes, I do colour outside of the lines when I am just cutting out the images, but try not to at all on the base layer.



3. Layer 3 will consist of the main, head and feet. I always visualize what would be the closest part of the images to me if it were already 3 dimensional (in this case its the nose so that would be the highest part of my image.)


4. Here I have only coloured the paws, main and head.


5. Next up I have decided to bring out some of the facial features...


6. And the last step to colour is the nose. Are you confused yet? I am! lol



I put this photo in here so that you can see the evolution of my colouring stages.



I popped this image in to show you what they look like all cut out and ready to go. It's kind of nice having this view because you don't have any extra paper and colouring outside of the lines to distract you. *wink*



1. Here we go with the layers :) Add step #2 to your base image (whole body of lion minus the tail). I used dimensionals (mounting tape) to created the depth.


2. Add step #3 (front legs and head)


3. Add your paws and and lion's head with the main.


4. Add your lion head minus the main


And the last step is adding your muzzle and nose :D - Remember that I did warn you that this was a lot of steps involved *wink*


Here is a complete paper tole lion and the photo was taken straight on. Even on a straight on shot, this guy really stands out. Sorry about the crummy lighting for this tutorial! I couldn't get my lamps adjusted right to bring out the true colours of the images - even editing them didn't help!

There you go! Please let me know if this tutorial helped you in any way :) I love to hear feedback especially since this is only my second tutorial. If I was babbling too much and confusing you then please feel free to email me your questions :) Thanks for popping in!