I'm not certain I have told you this little tidbit about my background and so I thought I would share a bit of my past with you. My major in college was Education, with a minor in Interior Design. I came to find out in my senior year that - oops, the state of Washington would not certify me to become a teacher with a supporting minor of Interior Design. I ramped it into full gear and switched my minor to a major in Home Economics. So I learned to cook and sew, in addition to learning all about the Principles and Elements of Design - LOL!
One my sewing classes required us to design our own patterns - voila, template design. Yes, I do love to sketch, draw and fiddle :) Last year I created a special ensemble for Paper Crafts, You Go Girl magazine. Being that magazine is no longer available and I get many requests I wanted to now share my template with you here in the Classroom. I ask that you not post this document in other places around the internet and if you would like to use this for purposes of making money selling it you need to contact me first, but please feel free to download it and make oodles of these in all sizes to share with your friends and family.
I am hoping that this link to my PDF documents will allow you to download this pattern and create your own cowboy boot gift bags, place cards, or whatever else you would like to dream up as a use for this little boot.
Download Cowboy Boot Template here
To create the cowboy boot below I actually reduced the size of this template by 77%. Be certain to use the same program or copy machine when reducing these templates so that you reduce them both by the same amount. You can also enlarge them and use 12" x 12" paper. You may have to piece the papers together, but that is the fun of "playing" with the template size. This little boot measures approximately 4 1/2" from toe to heel and is approximately 5" high. I have made my largest boot approximately 7 1/2" long by 8" high.
The name Urban Prairie was one I just couldn't resist - LOL! It sounds so "country." I used this wonderful paper collection to create my boot and coordinating card.
To begin I simply cut the paper down to pattern size and adhere it using temporary adhesive to my actual paper. In this case I used a piece of 6x6 ebony colored decorative paper.
Being that the boot top is too large to fit on a single 6"x6" piece of decorative paper I went ahead and cut it in two. You will note though that I left extra room on the piece on the right to make certain that I would be able to add a "flap" on to adhere it to the other piece.
I do love my 8 1/2" Tonic Guillotine cutter. It is the one that I always keep on my work surface to "perfect" my cuts. I typically will use it to cut my small straight edges because I know the blade positioning so well.
As you can see I extended the right side as shown above and then using a pencil I added my cut line. I use my little snips (I have two - they are identical only one is black and the other pink - that's for when I loose one and don't want to look through my stacks of paper in progress. LOL!) to cut out the remaining portions.
Next I position my piercing template on the boot toe top. Piercing is such a key to making these boots look more authentic. I love the difference this detail adds!
Here is a closeup of the pierced detail with the fun addition of the rose pearls. Gotta make that boot totally glam you know :) You could also easily use the coordinating Urban Prairie brads or buttons to get a totally different look and feel.
Next I score all the dotted lines. As you can see I leave my template in place as I score. This allows me to really see exactly where I need to score my lines. I prefer my Scor It for this job because of the true scored line it creates. It is critical to keep your score lines as accurate as possible being it will be difficult to put the pieces together if your score lines are off. I acutally have two Scor It's being I am one to have to test everything. I have found that I can't live without my large one and I keep it up right next to my Carl Cutter. This Mini Scor-It is a tool that I keep at my work station. It is a convenient size to have on your work surface, but if I could only have one I would select the larger. Unfortunately at this time we are completely sold out of the larger size, but we are hoping to get some in within the next couple of days. I will add a live link to the larger size so that you can make a visual comparison at a later date.
Next I fold all my score lines and do a thorough job of adding that crease with my teflon bone folder. If you haven't had the opportunity to try one of these I am SO in love with this tool and have been for a number of years. It does not leave shiny spots on your paper as true "bone" folders do.
As you can see I have now applied the adhesive to all the parts of the boot bottom. This is where I made my mistake. It has been so long since I have made one of these boots that I forgot to apply my adhesive to the interior (or the other side) of the boot base. The picture following the one below will show how I made up for this, but I can tell you that it is SO much easier to use your ATG tape runner to apply the adhesive at this point in time.
I then put my boot base together. It is best to give this a try before applying the adhesive so that you know how the folds fit together. I start by putting my toe piece in place and then affixing the top of the toe. I then bring the base up and put the heel together starting with the back and then the heel front. The final step is to place the boot base as shown above.
This is the part that I had to come back to do. Never fear - there is always a way to get it put together, but being I did not want to mangle what I had already done I simply applied red liner tape at this point. As you can see I couldn't get it to follow the edges exactly, but it was close enough to really keep the boot put together.
In inserted the boot top (which was already adhered at the seams at this point) into the boot base and once again using my teflon bone folder to help me I attached the top to the base.
The final addition to this little project were boot tabs. I love the look of boot tabs and so using my Stampin' Up! label punch (I think that is what it is called - sorry, but I don't remember the technical name) I punched out two tabs and then pierced them as well.
Pick and choose the part of the design that you want to use. That is what is so wonderful about piercing templates - YOU get to choose what it is that you are going to pierce. One last little pearl on each tab and my boots were complete.
Being that I only had white tissue paper I quickly pulled out my Copic markers and my airbrush system and sprayed some coordinating tissue paper. With loads of time you could actually airbrush a wonderful design on your tissue paper, but this post was already overloaded with information and so I kept it simple. Go figure - me, simple??? LOL!
To complete the card I knew I wanted to use the Lockhart boots. I have always had a fettish for boots and was so tickled when Karen created these. A girl can never have enough boots Ü Being I couldn't leave well-enough alone I wanted to create a suede finish on my Urban Prairie paper. This is an old technique that I haven't seen done in a LONG time and so I thought I would share it with you once again.
Ink your brayer with dye ink. I used Memento's Angel Pink for this project. Then squirt Liquid Applique over the surface of your paper in a fairly quick and random way. Immediately use your inked brayer to spread a thin, even layer over the surface of your paper. I quickly snapped this picture and then went and washed my brayer. Do not ink your brayer again until you have a clean one if you want to add more color because you don't want liquid appique all over your ink pad!
I then let this dry momentarily and followed with up by using my heat embossing tool. At this point I found that I hadn't added enough pink to my project and so I brayered it once again with more pink ink and reheated. I'm so disappointed to realize that I forgot to take a picture at this point.
I stamped my boots with Palette Noir and cut them out.
Being I had my little Scor It on my work surface I decided to add detail to my card front by setting my patterned paper between scored and pierced lines. I love the combination of scoring and piercing - there are so many different looks that you can create by combining these two textural effects.
A few more pearls and I now have the cutest little gift "boot" with a coordinating card for any upcoming emergency gift giving opportunity. I think that young girls and those of us more "mature" girls will both love this little gift ensemble.
