Little Leprechauns - quick and easy with Design Studio

I was asked to make a centerpiece for a St. Patrick's Day luncheon at our Church. I will be leaving tomorrow to take my son back to college and then visiting my Dad for a few days so I won't be here for the luncheon. I had to get the center piece done tonight.

It is not quite finished - but I have cut out lots of shamrocks and two little leprechauns from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. I thought I'd share my file just to save anyone else who is working on something like this at the last minute!

As I have previously posted with Disney princess files, the Design Studio is great for setting up the full cut and using small pieces of paper in an efficient manner to create all of the layers for the character you are making. If you save these files, future cuts will go so much faster for you - just load, cut and assemble.

I have to confess, I have only made one other Paper Doll - a ballerina that I made before Design Studio came out. These really are fun!



The first page of the file shows you the sizes, colors and elements that will be cut. This page is for reference only.



By placing your paper in these exact positions you can cut once and have everything you need to make the doll. I actually loaded my mat twice so I could turn the mat, reload and cut a second leprechaun with a slightly different hair color.

The second page of the file is the cutting page. The third page is another cutting page full of shamrocks in various sizes, set up for the Expression, but you could adjust it a bit and have a baby bug size file (delete and rearrange the shamrocks so none of them are outside the baby bug cutting area). The fourth page has some shadow bodies which I used for the centerpiece.



Above you can see all of the pieces removed from the mat and ready to assemble. I wasn't sure if I wanted black or green trousers, so there is an extra set of black trousers (you can save these for another project). I always use my Creative Memories Precision Point Adhesive to put together layered figures - it is easy to control and holds very well.

Once I had the leprechauns put together, I thought their "blank" eyes looked peculiar so I decided to give them eyes!



I drew a small rectangle around the eye area on the back with the adhesive pen.



When the glue had dried to clear, I placed small rectangles of blue paper over the openings.



Here is a close up of my blue-eyed leprechaun!



I didn't want this messy back to show in my centerpiece so I cut some green shadow bodies to blend in with the rest of the arrangement.



You have to pay attention the the exact shape to be sure you glue the backs on correctly (it helps to look at the hands since they are slightly different) and "dry fit" the shapes - then flip the backing body and add the glue.



Tomorrow I will show you the finished centerpiece and share a bit more information about how I made it.

Four Inch Leprechauns