Do you ever have those days when you just want to play with paper? Cutting, gluing, folding, mixing and matching? I do, and I also wanted the paper to be bright and happy so I could create a cheerful birthday card for someone special.

Paper piecing is a fun way to add colour and interest to your handmade cards.

All you need is a stamp, a sharp pair of scissors and a collection of coordinating papers or cardstock.

1. Start by choosing some papers. The amount you require will depend on your stamp and how many different sections you'd like. I've chosen four, which means I'll have four different patterns on each image.

2. Stamp the image you're working with on each of your patterned papers.

3. Carefully cut around each image with a small pair of sharp scissors. Try not to cut away too much of the stamp outline.

4. Now it's time to disect the image. It's up to you how many sections you divide your image into, but if you're careful, you can mix and match all the different parts to reform all four images.

5. Prepare some cardstock for your images. If you wish, you can stamp a base image on each piece of cardstock to help you position and reassemble your image.

6. Mix up the colours for a patchwork effect. Secure the paper to the cardstock with glue.

7. If desired, add a little colouring and shading to your images.

8. Now they're ready to become card toppers or embellishments for layouts.

My "P" word is paper-piecing, a technique where an image, or part of an image, is stamped on patterned paper, fussy cut, and then adhered to a base image. In my case, I paper pieced Mr. Snowflake's hat, scarf and mittens with a scrap of plaid paper. I think it gives him a bit of country charm.

Fussy cutting and layering parts of an image to create a 3D effect is a great way to add extra dimension to your cards. You can use as many layers as you like to build up the image, sandwiching them with foam tape or silicone glue to lift each section. Paper tole artists create amazing works of art using this process, completing the project with a shiny layer of varnish to protect the surface and intensify the colours.

I'm keeping things super simple by using just two pre-coloured images. One will form the base and the other will be selectively cut to create the dimension.

I'm going to start by adding some background colour to my base image using alcohol markers (B02, B01, B00, B000 and B0000). The first layer, which is the darker of the blues, will be concentrated toward the bottom of the image and under the flowers and leaves. As you can see from the image below, I'm colouring in horizontal sections that taper to rough points at either end to simulate little wavelets.

Bring in the next shade of blue and work over the first layer. You don't want to actually blend the colours together, just soften the edges slightly, and continue to work in horizontal sections.

Work through all the blues until you are at the lightest colour. Fill in any remaining space with the lightest shade of blue.

Now it's time to harvest sections of the second image. You want to choose petals that are at the front of the flower rather than the back.

I have a friend who creates beautiful paper tole images and one of the tips she shared with me is to colour the very edges of the pieces you fussy cut. This hides the stark white of the paper and helps each piece blend with the base image. Make sure you work from the back of the piece so the ink doesn't run into the image.

Use a ball tool on a piece of foam to give a little extra shape to the piece you're placing. Add some glue or foam tape and secure the piece onto the base image.

I cut out the large lily pad and secured it to the base with a combination of foam tape, at the bottom of the image, and glue, at the back of the image. This means that the bottom of the leaf stands up off the background while the back of the image is flush, adding to the illusion of depth.

Rather than trying to cut each individual petal on the large flowers, I cut the entire shape and slit down the sides of the petals. Some foam tape in the bowl of each petal will give the dimension I'm looking for.

Carla has paper pieced this wonderful card featuring lots of beautiful springtime colours and embellishments. From the fabulous plaid background to the striped eggs hidden in the grass, everything about her creation sings of springtime celebrations!

This image lends itself well to paper piecing and layering, which gives a 3D-look to the finished project. I started by printing the coloured version of the image three times at the same size - one for the base card and the other two for layering. I fussy cut the blanket and head of the donkey, including the ears, and adhered it to the base image with foam tape. For the last layer I only cut around the face of the donkey, and again adhered it with foam tape.

Stamps:

You don't always have to spend lots of time colouring to get great images for your cards, scrapbook pages and paper craft projects. For a fabulous, consistent look, try stamping directly onto coloured card and then add some highlights and shadows with pencil. As you can see in the photo below, I've also used a gold pen for some extra colour and shine.

Stamps: