Quick Tear Bear Tutorial

First I want to confess that I in no way shape or form am a professional at this!

Infact this is my very first tear bear ever made.

As I went along, I learned a couple things and found room for improvement..so maybe just concider this more as a "tips" post then a tutorial.

First I started with this rubber stamp, I beleive it's by Stampin Up!

I scanned it into my computer and sharpened the edges to make it darker and I enlarged it...this was my pattern. (But a tear bear google search will also give you plenty of patterns)

Next I cut the body apart...

Then I flipped each piece over and traced it..filling in around the body where the parts were missing.

Then I took the body parts and saturated around the edges of them with water using a paint brush.

I should also state, that originally tear bears were meant to be made with mulberry paper. However I did not have mulberry paper and I used cardstock..cardstock is ok, but it don't tear as easily and precise, I'm not sure how regular paper might work, but I'll eventually try it!

Once the edges were good and soaked, I carefully tore towards me.

I read a tip that roughing them up with a tooth brush along the edges gives them a more fluffier look. I did not try this tho.

Once all the pieces were dry I assembled the bear back together and this is my ending results.

Not the best tear bear out on the internet, and still room for improvement. (Like her head coulda been a bit bigger) but I will do this technique again.

If you make one of these I would love to see your work!!