Sun inspired crafts

With Summer in full swing, what could be better than a little SUN-spiration? Five Fiskars design team members created projects inspired by the sun and they're ready to share with you. Rays, beams of light, the sun itself... it all makes for great crafting with your Fiskars tools - check it out!

Designed by: Becky Novacek
My favorite season is summer. The more sunshine and heat, the better! So this topic is right up my alley. I wanted to create something that would be fun and colorful to fit my feelings about the sun.

I started with a 6” x 12” x 2” deep canvas. I built the sunshine part of the design first with a base of blue dot pattern paper 5.75” x 6”. Then I added a piece of kraft cardstock 5.25”x 5.50” trimming the bottom edge with my Fiskars Pinking Sheers and using the Fiskars Corner Punch on the top corners. Punch a circle with the Fiskars Xtra Large Circle Squeeze Punch to use as the sun. I handcut the rays and added them. Vintage ledger paper with typed and stitched words add a bit of texture. Then a layer of Gesso goes over the whole piece. Allow to dry.

Stitch a strip of fabric and gather the threads to the right length to fill the width of the canvas. Use the Fiskars Upper Crest Border Punch on striped pattern paper and tuck under the sun piece.

Then handcut letters from alpha pattern paper. Using a good quality Fiskars scissors for this really does make a difference! After adding each detail, I went over the whole piece with Gesso. After that dried, I painted the sides overlapping to the front with pink acrylic paint.

Designer: Janna Wilson
I love adding texture to paper projects.  Plain cardstock can go from ho hum to happenin’ with the use of a few texturing tools plus some other quick and simple tricks!  I wanted to create a sunshine paper piecing that would be certain to shine some bright beams of joy on someone’s day when they take this card out of the envelope.  I’m sure this shiny, happy card will do just that! 

This is a greeting sized card measuring 5 ½” x 8 ½” –just fold an 8 ½” x 11” piece of white cardstock in half for the card base.  Trim a deep yellow cardstock to the size of the front of the card…you will build your design on this piece.  First use the Circle Cutter to cut a 5” circle for the deep yellow sun (same color as the base piece) and then emboss the sun pattern with the sun embossing plate from the Season set.  It’s quick and easy when you use the Texturing Tool; keep your Tool Taxi on hand in case you need the detail stylus as well. 

TIP:  You can really “bring up” the texture of embossed cardstock and make it pop if you rub embossing ink, such as Versamark over the embossed design.

Next I used the Wave Tear Edger to tear a variety of yellow cardstock scraps into strips, or sun “rays”.  I wanted a variation on each sun ray…so I embossed some dots and wavy lines (with the Texture Plates Assortment 1); I used yellow ink to stamp one ray with a flower design from a favorite Heidi Grace Designs stamp set; and finally I added strips cut with a variety of Paper Edgers, including the Pinking, Corkscrew and Stamp designs.  The Tool Taxi glue applicator is perfect for easily adding glue to these little bits and strips of paper with no mess!

I finished the look and added a bit more texture and interest by adding a variety of machine stitches to the card in two different colors of yellow thread.   Print your greeting onto white cardstock in shades of orange ink; cut into strips and add to the card.  I inked around the edge of the card with the Versamark ink to deepen the color of the edges as well.  Once all is finished add the sun design to the front of the white card and you’re all ready to share some beams of joy and sunshine with someone special!

Designer: Kelly Purkey
In the summer it seems that my creativity runs high but the time to sit down and work runs low.  I'm all about layouts that I can whip up in about half an hour, but still capture the memories that I want to. 

Use your Fiskars tools to help you create fun elements in no time at all.  For this page I wanted to make a bright layout as delightful as my best friend Kellie is!  This photo I snapped of her when I was out visiting her in California perfectly captures her sunny disposition.  I knew that sunburts would be a great design for a layout about my favorite California girl.

To whip up a layout quickly, I decided to use just cardstock instead of wasting time matching up patterned papers.  It also allows your punched shapes really stand out.  I started by punching circles for the suns out of yellow cardstock using my Round 'n Round XL squeeze punch and then trimming out an orange border using my Pinking Paper Edgers.  After adhering them to the page, some of them got embellished with a starbust punched with my Bling Bling squeeze punch and a jewel.  The other suns were embellished with a heart punched with my That's Amore squeeze punch.  By repeating the design you can save time and still create a detailed layout for your album!

Designer: Kendra McCracken
There is a quote by Romain Rolland which says, "It is the artist's business to create sunshine when the sun fails."  And in my craft room, with one tiny little window facing a line of trees to the east, sunshine definitely fails to stream in!  So I used a lot of fabric and stitching to create a collage of suns to hang on my wall.

I used 2 techniques to create my collage.  First, I wanted to use the Fiskars Limited Edition Soleil Squeeze Punch to create a patchwork border but I wanted to use fabric instead of paper. I do this often and have found a great product, Stiffy by Plaid, for stiffening the fibers of fabric so the fabric will punch just like paper.  It takes some practice to learn how much of this product to use. I tend to want to use too much which prevents the fabric from becoming crisp and easy to punch.  And I've found that turning it periodically through the drying process  prevents the product from pooling under the fabric which creates an unpunchable film on the fabric.  Once you get a feel for the right amount to use, this is a quick and easy way to add fun shapes to your fabric projects.

The second technique is done using strips of torn fabric.  Begin by snipping the edge of your fabric the desired width of your strips.  Then simply tear the fabric using the snip as your starting point. If you tear along the grain of the fabric, you'll end up with strips that are a consistent width the entire strip and a bit of nice fringing.  If you tear against the grain, controlling the width isn't easy but it makes for some interesting irregular strips with a relaxed feel and varying degrees of fringe.  I like to combine the two types on my projects.

To create the large sun in the center of the canvas, I began by using the Fiskars 45mm Comfort Grip Rotary Cutter, 3.5" x 18.5" Acrylic Ruler, and 18" x 24" cutting mat to cut a fabric base large enough to wrap around to the backside of my canvas. I then located the center point of my  fabric, layered 2 strips of torn fabric, and stitched them down, twisting them into a spiral pattern as I ran them through my sewing machine.  Adding a few torn strips to create sun rays completes the sun.

A few additional bead embellishments and some decorative stitching and my canvas is all ready to add a little sunshine to my craft room!

Designer: Susan Weinroth
I love the texture that ribbon instantly adds to a paper crafting project, and so when I was asked to create something “sunny” for this article I immediately thought of a bright sunshine-y card with lots and lots of ribbon rays! 

This card is easy to replicate, and you could even take the basic steps to creating the sun accent, and then use the sun with ribbon rays on a layout instead of card.

Start by trimming a half circle from yellow cardstock using the circle template and Ultra ShapeXpress tool.  Adhere the half circle to orange cardstock then use the pinking shears to trim around the edge.  Apply a thin layer of adhesive around the back edge of the half circle sun.  Trim small pieces of ribbon using the Microtip No.5 scissors and then stick them in place on the back of the sun.  After all ribbon is in place, machine stitch ribbon pieces in place, around the edge of the half circle.  Trim ribbon if needed.

Adhere your sun accent to the top half of your card, embellish with rhinestones.  Border punch a strip of cardstock using the Making Waves border punch and adhere under the sun.  Add greeting to the bottom of your card and then use the Soleil squeeze punch and Pop-Up circle punch to create another sun accent for your greeting.  Anyone who receives this sunny card is going to be sure to love it!

By fiskars design team