How hard can it be to trace out a pattern using carbon paper, right? Well, you do have to be careful that both the pattern and the poster board you are copying it onto are securely fastened to one another. The carbon paper itself can freely move but the poster board and the pattern MUST be held together firmly because one slight slip between the two will ruin the entire pattern.
Then there's MLS otherwise known as Missed Line Syndrome. The more complex the pattern, the greater the chance is that you will accidentally miss tracing a line or two (or three or four). The easiest way to avoid this is to use a colored pen while tracing. Red works best but in the example below I didn't have a red pen handy so I used a bright blue pen. Just use something that stands out and is easily differentiated from the black line that your pattern is drawn in.
A black pen tracing over black lines makes it hard to see just what you've gone over and what you haven't. The same goes for a dark blue pen-- it's just too hard to see a difference. Below you can see that the angel pattern on the right was traced using a bright blue pen. The blue outline allows you to easily determine whether you've already traced a line or not.
Anything that saves time is worth doing. That's what these tips are all about.
Paul
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