Bunny Gardeners Birthday Card

This is a birthday card for my son who is a newbie gardener.  Since I had a Hero Arts stamp and die set of gardening bunnies that I having been itching to use, I incorporated the images into my son's card even though they are a little cutesy for an adult male.  Trying to not get frilly, I simply watercolored the background using my favorite cake-style watercolor set by Kuretake (available at HM Ben Franklin Crafts). I love the colors in the set straight from the pan!

I did a little Copic pen coloring on the images and then foam dot mounted them onto the Mama Elephant die cut piece of  watercolor paper. This gave it a nice stitched edge to compliment the scalloped die cut edge of the Studio G dark blue paper (from HM BFC).  All of this was then mounted with Heiko double stick tape onto a burlap colored note card (Paper Accents).

 Here is the whimsical inside of the card.....my son will get the humor of this scene.  Lawn Fawn cardstock was cut with the Mama Elephant scallop rectangle die before impressing with the Lawn Fawn cloud die. (Click on the image to see a close up of the impressed clouds.) The balloon bunnies were mounted on foam dots and black thread was wrapped around their noses and the die cut, foam dot mounted carrots. A little Glossy Accents was added here and there to insure that the thread would not come undone. I am pleased with the outcome of this card. Please leave me a comment if it made you smile. It would make me smile to hear from you!

Make a Splash with Shaker Tags

 These tags were inspired by a set of stamps and dies I got free with a magazine I purchased at Barnes and Noble. The magazine, Papercraft Essentials, is a British publication.  In this issue there are lots of ideas for using the stamps and dies. I thought it would be fun to make a shaker tag that when shaken would sound like rain. I started with paper from a pack that had lots of blue rain themed papers. Using the Little B tag die (from a set), I cut a front piece, foam layer and tag back. I tried two methods to make the shaker part that holds the Queen and Co. micro beads. In the end I went back to using foam tape around the edge of the tag because this allowed the beads the most room to slide and make noise. Tip: Some foam sheets have an adhesive sticky side so don't forget to pull off the paper before you stick it down. For the rubber boots tag I used shiny, dark blue foil paper for the back layer. This along with the silver beads gave the watery look and sound of rain.

 This similarly made tag has a very different look because of the image and paper used. For this one I used metallic blue micro beads but I should have put a foil behind the splash like in the other tag.  Both tags have ribbons that I chose to coordinate with the look of the tag.....I love finding just the right ribbon from my stash...so worth having a 25 -year -old ribbon stash!  It was extremely satisfying to complete the tags using mainly the free items from the magazine.,,,super deal! I have plans for more tags and cards with the rainy day set... so keep reading my blog for more ideas. Thanks for visiting!

Japanese Fabric Craft Kit

 When I was in Japan, I was given this fabric craft kit...stylistic frogs?  I decided to try it even though the directions were totally in Japanese.  Following the numbered pictures, I succeeded in completing the kit with just a couple of fixable mistakes. What do you think?...pretty close to the one in the kit photo?

Here is a close up of the finished product.  It was an easy to execute project especially since all the parts and patterns were provided. The pieces cut easily due to sticky backed paper and were attached by poking them in with a  barbecue skewer. A little glue (I used 1-2-3 Beacon from BFC) was needed to secure the cording.

Here are some similar kits I purchased in Osaka.  I'm hoping that HM Ben Franklin Crafts will soon be selling these fabric craft kits with English instructions.  I think charms like these will pair well with resin charms already being sold at BFC.  Take some time to do some BFC craft shopping and see all the new items that are sure to spark your creativity.

Father-to-Be Day Card

 Usually I put all the colors and bling on the front of my cards but this time I wanted to surprise my quiet, dignified son so I kept the front plain and subdued.  The word stamp is an Inkadinkado product and the blueprint coffee cup is from a Tim Holtz Sizzix stamp set.

 Like his life will be in a few months (they're having twin boys) I filled the inside of the card with color, texture, shine and movement.  The cute doughnut kids are stamp images from Neat 'n Tangled
that were colored with Copic pens and fussy cut.  I do have the matching dies but I applied the sprinkles before cutting and the dies of course wouldn't work because the paper wasn't flat...duh?

Here's a close-up of the doughnut twins with the Bo Bunny pearlescent paint icing and the fake sprinkles (from HM Ben Franklin Crafts resin department). 

For the spilled coffee I colored the liquid with a Copic pen and then applied Glossy Accents to make it shiny.

The script words on the inside of the card were made using a Lawn Fawn stamp...lots of useful greetings in this set.  The above photo shows how popped-up the doughnuts are because I used the Action Wobble springs that I purchased at HM Ben Franklin Crafts.  These plastic springs can be trimmed down to hide behind the image and allow the piece to shake and jiggle.  The coffee cup was raised a little with the use of foam dots.  I hope you enjoyed looking at this Father's Day card and will take the time to make a card for all the special DADS in your life.  Thanks for stopping to read this post. Love to hear from you!

Boy oh Boy! Twins!

 Making a baby shower card for a couple having twins is difficult for TWO reasons: 1) There are hardly any images or embellishments designed for twins and 2) Making a pleasing layout with pairs always seems unbalanced; odd numbers work better.  It was a bit of a struggle to create this card but the result was pleasing.  I tried to keep the color scheme in blue and lavender to match the party favors but a little yellow was added in for contrast.  I used many rubber stamps from my collection of baby themed stamps most of which are retired.  (The Lawn Fawn crane is still available; I think.) Luckily, I had an old set of stickers which included the 'Boy oh Boy' one.  The umbrella paper was a lucky find too because it came from a pad of paper with mostly blue prints. I placed the cranes and bear heads on sticky foam dots to add some dimension. The glitter on the bundles were applied with the use of a glue pen.

 I had to decorate the inside of the card too since I had so many stamp images.  I fussy cut all of the images after coloring them with Copic pens.  The glittered 'TWINS' cardboard letters were from a sticker sheet that was so old I had to use glue to adhere the letters..hahaha!...I'm a hoarder with no sense of time aging my supplies. You can't see it in the photo but the bunny slippers have been embellished with Fun Flock which adds fuzz (easily applied with a glue pen). I liked the saying on the worded stamp but had to alter it to fit twins.  By affixing washi tape over the words I didn't want, applying the ink and then removing the tape before stamping on paper, I was able to isolate just the words I wanted.  Isn't that a neat trick? You're welcome!

 I couldn't resist decorating the envelope as well....had to use more of my stamp collection. LOL! Okay, now I'm ready to go to the baby shower....yahoo! Thanks for visiting this site. Leave a comment if you have some time to spare....love to get feedback!

Baby Shower Party Favor

 I spent so much time making the purse/cell phone charm that I had to cheat a little on the bear favor bags.  I bought them at HM Ben Franklin Crafts!  Yes, for very little money, I purchased the cutest blue bear bags....12 in a set. I couldn't resist them especially since they were the perfect size for the blue foil wrapped Hershey kisses. All the details on the bags would have taken me a least a day to put together.  The bear bags from BFC come in pink too for baby girl showers.

 Here is a close up of the finished bear/macaron phone/purse charm. Cute huh?

I also found at HM BFC, labels which say thank you to the party guests....another time saver.  Studio G purple twine was used to attach the labels to the bear bags. I'm happy to be done with the favors and looking forward to the baby shower party. Yay for babies!

Whatcha Makin'?

 I dislike crafting multiples of anything...I get bored.  While working on these baby shower favors, I continually asked myself, "Why am I doing this?"  The answer was always because I love my son,  daughter-in-law and my soon-to-arrive grandchildren...twin boys!  My daughter-in-law enjoys the resin products we sell in HM Ben Franklin Crafts and edible macarons so I thought it would be fun to incorporate them into the favors.  Since I had only one resin gummy bear mold and one macaron clay mold, it took me a really long time to make just the basic shapes. Both the resin and the clay had to be hand-colored too.  After days of mixing, curing the resin in the UV lamp, air drying the Mermaid clay (a water-proof version of Hearty Clay), affixing the metal loop with resin, gluing the macaron together with more Mermaid Clay, and attaching the purse pull (telephone charm) with jump rings.... they were finished!

Here are some of the supplies I used to make the resin gummy bears.  The UV resin and powdered colorant are from BFC.  The mold and Padico extra fine glitter were purchased in Japan but you can probably find them online.

The Americana multi-surface acrylic paint I used to color the clay was purchased at BFC too. The Mermaid Puffy clay is a Padico product which can be purchased online.  I bought the macaron clay mold in Japan but I think you can find it online (www. floree.jp).

In the next post I will show the finished party favor so please visit again in a few days.