Collage Owl

 

Mini-Card:  FUN FOR BIG AND LITTLE KIDS!

Threw this one together today, felt like making something a little bit fun :)

1. It's pretty simple really:
2. On white paper (I used normal copy paper), scribble with a watercolour pencil, then roughly spread the colour around with an aqua brush (or brush and water) so that you get a wash with the scribble still visible in it.  Alternatively you could just use a patterned paper, it's up to you.
3. Once the paper is dry, tear out an owl body shape so that the edge of the owl shows the white tear of the paper
4. Tear some rough wing shapes out of newspaper or a book, create eyes with small circle punches or use googly eyes
5. Glue a stick to your card and hovering just above the stick, glue your owl pieces onto the card.  Draw a beak, 'feathers', ear detail, and legs onto the card
6. Roughly cut out little leaves and stick them on the card around the stick to create a tree branch - I created the paper for the leaves the same way that I created the paper for the owl
7. Apply your greeting however you want!  I liked keeping the "torn" theme going.  My greeting was simply printed from the computer and cut out.

Done!

Happy Hooting!

 

Dani :)

 

 

 

 

First Wobbly Tooth

STORY OF A PSYCHOTIC MOTHER

Sorry if this is messy - posting from my mobile because my camera is flat again.

What an eventful evening! My son declared he had a sore tooth whilst eating afternoon tea so off to the dentist we raced - I'm an anxious mum and he doesn't brush properly!

 

 

 

 

All good though - he liked the dentist, his teeth are wonderful ... And he's get his first wobbly tooth! I'm ridiculously excited!

So what do I do? Why, I spend my evening agonising over the possibility of him losing his tooth at school, so I create a cute/fun incentive for him NOT to.

A Tooth Cosy!

I showed it to my husband - he gave me an "are you mental??" stare.

See the below pics - its a simple envelope with the sides sealed with double sided tape (I'd sew but I suck at it), the flap held down with restickable glue, a folded up tissue (cut down to a suitable size) stashed inside and whatever decorating you want on it. I even stamped the tissue decoratively :)

The restickable glue will need to be reapplied, I think, and is not entirely ideal but my best option for making sure he can open and reseal the envelope. My original idea involved punching a little hole in the flap and another in the front wall of the envelope and feeding a piece of ribbon through each hole with a knot at the end so that the package could be tied shut ... But he doesn't know how to tie knots and bows yet! Even if the glue doesn't hold, it should be secure enough anyway :)

It doesn't have to be fancy - just needs to be cute and hold together long enough for the tooth to make it safely under their pillow.  Hey - even if you're not psychotic like me, it's also a cute way to "present" the tooth to the tooth fairy!  Easy enough for the kids to make / help make / decorate, too.

 

 

Happy Wobbling!

 

Dani :)

 

 

 

 

Happy As A ...

 

PIG IN MUD!

My friend and I were at the shops last night buying gifts for 6 year old girls (panic!) and in the card section my friend happen to exclaim at the cuteness of a pig card.  So, since I wanted to avoid cleaning today anyway, I made one for her!

...probably she just awww'd at it because she thought it would be cute for a 6 year old girl.

First of all, I cut out a bunch of pink circles with some punches I have.  Large one for the body, smaller one for the head, even smaller for the snout and teeny ones for the ears!  I edged them all with a similar pink ink.

Piece together as above picture.  To add some dimension, use foam tape between the head and body and the snout and head.  Attach the little ear circles to the BACK of the head.  Find some silly goggle eyes and glue them on.  And finally, use a regular hole punch to create nostrils with black card.

I wanted to have nice rounded feet but because the legs are really no more than a centimetre wide, it was a little tricky to achieve ...so I went for pointy, still using my corner punch to make it as neat as possible.  Of course, me being me, I changed my mind later on and quickly rounded off the ends :)

Anyway, I inked the edges of the legs just as I did the circles.

Since he is a pig in mud, I used a brown ink pad and some cotton buds to gently apply some "mud" to the feet.  I started with a rolling action, to carefully apply the ink, then started to smudge it around a bit.

Stick the legs to the back of the body so that they're the desired length.  Smudge some more "mud" over the rest of the pig, wherever you like really!  No sense in having a happy pig in mud if it's clean!

I also used a cotton bud with pink ink to accentuate the ears a little, as well as shadows at the tops of the legs and under the chin.  I drew a mouth directly onto the pig's face because, you know, it's happy!  Plus without a mouth it was starting to give me the creeps..

I created the pig pen mud with brown card that I cut a gentle wavy design into the top of.  I then used the off-cut wavy design as the front layer of mud that the fence posts sit behind.  The fence is made, obviously, from ice cream sticks.  For the standing posts, I trimmed them down to about 3/4 length.  I roughly, but generously, rubbed a brown inkpad across each stick before sticking the mud and fence onto the card.

The order is:  Mud, fence, mud top layer, pig.  I used foam tape between the mud top layer and the fence; and the pig and the fence.  The pig's feet are stuck directly onto the top layer of mud.

I drew a curly tail directly onto the card (it's short in this picutre but you'll see I later extended it).  I had big plans for using string or wire or something curly but at the end of the day, this seemed easier  and less busy on an already busy card.

Next I decided (yes, I was working without a plan!) to add some colour so it would pop a bit more.  I created some tufts of grass by cutting out thin green triangles and then fussy cutting the spikes at the top.  Then I put a little tape behind them, slotted the bottom tips of them under the mud, so they were positioned against the fence, and stuck them down.

See?

I also decided to shorten the top layer of mud a bit.

The finishing touches:

• Lengthened the tail
• Using the same technique as with the grass, I punched a circle and fussy cut spikes to create a little sun to fill the top right corner  I trimmed it to fit the card after I stuck it down so that it would fit the corner perfectly.
• Fussy cut a little apple and leaf for the bottom right corner, again just to add a little colour
• Used my computer to create the "Happy as a ..." and " ... in mud!", cut them out and stuck em down!
• Used colour markers to draw tiny highlights onto the apple, leaf, grass and sun.
• Done!

Happy as a ...

Dani :)

Black & White

 

ROCKIN' THE MONOCHROME!

When making cards, there's no denying that the monochrome look can have a terrific impact - it can  be eyecatching, sexy, classy, modern, masculine (or feminine!), and fun!

And there's no reason you can't tie that into your stamp colouring as well.  If you're  fan of using copic markers, the impact is incredible.  I use watercolour markers, a little more subtle but still fantastic!

I went for cute and fun in this card :)  I think it would appeal to girls in the 10-13 age range :)

I started out by stamping my image and colouring it with various shades of black, grey and white.  To boost the impact I did colour the skin properly and added one element of red, in the cherry, to make the picture pop.

I used only THREE pens in this colouring:  black, red and skin tone.  Any actual black colouring, I used the black marker directly on the card.  Grey was achieved with the black pen, but painted on with an aqua brush (click here for instructions).  I used the pen-tip of the marker to add texture to her hair.

I finished her off with a little jewel on her bow :)

I got a piece of black card with a faint design to back my coloured image.  You could probably use flat black but I think a faint design adds something.  At the other end of the scale, anything with a clear pattern will be too busy and your picture will be lost.

I distressed the edges of the backing card to relax the style and add some definition to the edges (the other side of the card has a design on white so it worked well because when I distressed the edges, the white showed).  I then mounted my image onto the card with foam tape, to give her lift.

I then mounted my image and card onto patterned paper (black pattern on white) that is only a little smaller than the size of my overall card.  The patterned paper I chose is flocked and also has a little shine to it - gotta love textures!

I added black ribbon to break up the pattern a little.

And to finish it off, I stuck the patterned paper onto my base card and inked the edges of the card with black - again to continue the relaxed feel of the card, but it also helps add some definition since you have laid white paper on white card.

I made a little tag - this one I cut out with my cuttlebug, but you could always cut out a rectangle and snip the corners at an angle at the end with the punched hole to give it a tag look.  I used bright red ribbon to embellish the tag, continuing the theme but not overdoing the red.

I then gave it one final touch:  a black heart on the tag with a little red jewel in it!

Happy Monochroming!

Dani :)

Ice Cream Card

DELICIOUSLY SWEET

ICE CREAM & WRAPPER CARD

Full of apologies already - my camera battery is flat and I can't find the charger so I can't do a step by step photo instructional.  I took this photo with my iphone in the middle of the night - it will have to do!  FYI:  That bow is actually a pretty pastel yellow :)

Anyway, it really is a simple card!

Ice Cream

1. 2 pieces of coloured card 5cm x 8cm each - round the corners
2. 2 pieces of white card 5cm x 8cm each - round the corners
3. Pick your "eaten corner" and use a round scalloped punch to make a "four tooth" bite mark on the coloured card and a "three tooth" bite mark on the white.
4. Line up and stick each white piece to their pink piece
5. Stick a paddle-pop stick to the back of one ice-cream piece using double sided tape.  Cover the back of the stick and the icecream with more double sided tape and then line up the other icecream piece and stick them together
6. Trim if necessary.

Wrapper

1. One piece if coloured / patterned paper/card 7 x 22
2. Fold the coloured paper in half and test that the icecream will fit - trim if necessary
3. At the open end (opposite to the folded end), use a decorative edge punch across the edge, per the above photo.  At the folded side, round the corners.
4. Place double-sided tape along the sides and stick the folded paper together to form a pocket, with an opening at one end (the decorative end)
5. Ink the edges
6. Create your greeting (for both icecream and wrapper) on your computer, print and cut out.

From there it's up to you how you want your greeting to look and how to embellish your wrapper and icecream!

Gently slide your icecream in its wrapper and it's ready to sweeten someone's day!

Happy Desserting!

Dani :)

Cutie Dress Card

SWEETIE-PIE DRESS CARD

This is a card that makes me go "Awwwww" and then hope desperately that a little girl's birthday will hurry up and get here so I can churn one of these out!

What can I say?  Easy.  Quick. Super Adorable.

Go Google crazy and find a template online for a dress.  There are heaps out there, I liked the simplicity of this one - easy to cut out!

Here are links to a variety of other templates available on the web, too.

Fold your card in half and then lay the dress template over the top, with the shoulders along the fold (unless your template specifies otherwise).  Cut around it so that it comes out per the picture above.

On the front, lay out plenty of double sided tape.

Select the main colour/pattern you want your dress to be and stick your card to the back of it.  Cut around the card.  This is quicker and easier than using the template again because then you have to stick it on straight and trim here and there.  I'm a fan of cutting corners hehe!

So this is what you should have once you have cut around the card, which is stuck to your main dress layer.

Ink around the edges of the dress - not only does this help hide little imperfections, it just makes the dress "pop" a little more.  Keep it fairly subtle though!

Under the arms, going across the dress, run a line of double sided tape that folds over onto the inside of the card.  This is to hold the ribbon on.

Stick your ribbon along the tape and fold it over to the inside of the card also.  If you're keen, you can cut out another dress to stick to the inside of the card to hide the ribbon, but that's personal taste and I'm far from being a neat person!

Apply some teeny little roses to the centre of the ribbon using a strong glue.  Place some stick on pearls as buttons.

Decorate it how you want, really!

And there you have it - one cute little dress card :)  There are heaps of templates for all sorts of things on Google - why stop at dresses?

Happy Dress-Making!

Dani :)

Kids Keepsake

 

KIDS HANDPRINT KEEPSAKE CARD

Now THIS was a quick card to make!  I can't take credit for the design - I saw it on Pinterest and HAD to give it a go.

Brin helped me with it a little - I think this is a terrific project to share with a child.  You don't have to stamp the greetings, your child could write it.  And they can embellish it any way they want!

Fantastic for mother's day, birthdays, christmas.  I just decided to make them for no good reason other than I think Brin's grandparents and aunts and uncles will get a kick out of it :)

Using chipboard, trace around your little one's hand and cut out to create a template.  Really you could use anything, even newspaper, but I like the idea of using something as tough as chipboard so that it doesn't move around when you're tracing around it, plus it lasts and can be potentially kept as my OWN keepsake :)

Place the traced hand onto your chosen paper and cut out two hands.  If you're using paper that has a different colour on each side, make SURE that you appear to have a left hand and a right hand otherwise they won't go together!

Use a 30 x 5cm strip of cardstock as the middle of your card.  Consatina it, folding every 3cm.  You want the two ends to be folded in the same direction, per the picture above.

Stamp the greeting "I Love You" on the hand that will be the front of your card.  Stamp the greeting "this much" in the way you prefer, such as above, across one side of your folded cardstock. 

Alternatively, your child can write the greetings.  Brin "helped" me stamp, thus the very rustic look hehe!

Attach the folded cardstock to the "inside" of the hands, as shown above., with the "this" end of the card attached to the inside of the front hand.  If you want to put a greeting, you can do what I did and put it on the back of the card.  I had Brin write his name on the back

.

Embellish as you, or your child, want - this is what I threw together quickly!

Happy Clapping!

Dani :)

Kids Corny Cards

ANIMAL JOKE MINI BIRTHDAY CARDS

I've been busy busy busy in recent weeks with my son, which got me thinking I don't really make that many kids cards - challenge accepted!

Being a weekend chock-full of soccer, I had limited time to get stuff done so went for some very simplistic but cute cards.  Plus kids are not so gentle, let's be honest.  Once I spent DAYS making my son a giant (binder sized), super amazing mickey mouse card with disney characters that sprung out when he opened it.  He destroyed it in the blink of an eye.  He now appreciates even the most basic card that I make - he's at an age where they're ALL amazing to him!  I love that :)

No step by step photos for this lot, but it's not really necessary.  The animals were made with die cutters and my cuttlebug - Lion, Dog and Kangaroo are Cuttlekids dies (why should kids have all the fun??) and the Penguin is by QuicKutz.  The rest is faily self explanatory, with die-cut animals stuck to white card, stuck to colour card, stuck to base card.  I then found some corny animal jokes on the internet and, after typing it up and print it out, I put the question on the front and the answer (plus Happy Birthday!!) on the inside.

Finished up with some cute little buttons (one of my favourite embellishments!) and jewels :)


Kids could easily make cards like this too!

The (terrible) jokes I used are as follows:

Q:  On what day do Lions eat people?

A:  Chewsday!

Q:  What do Penguins sing on a Birthday?

A:  "Freeze a jolly good fellow!"

Q:  What do you get when you cross a Kangaroo and a Sheep?

A:  A woolley jumper!

Q:  What dog loves bubble baths?

A:  A Shampoodle!!

Happy Joking!

Dani :)

When I can't sleep ...

SPOTTY CARD

 

This is a great card to make when you're in a hurry!  Quick and simple but a card that will please most people - suitable for babies, girls, grown up women and even (with the right browns and blues) guys.

You can change so many aspects of the design, based on the size of the card, the size and shape of the greeting, the papers you use (cork for men is awesome!) and how you want to embellish it.  When I make this card, the spots are always the same size (roughly 2cm diameter).  I alter where and how I have the ribbon, the style of the greeting, the types of buttons...

I made this at 1 in the morning so bear with me!

First of all, punch out a bunch of circles - don't worry about how many, do plenty so you can pick and choose colours and be able to muck around with the layout - so aim to have too many.

Ink the edges of the dots.

Get a small piece of card, suited to the size of your greeting.  Stamp the greeting!

I then chose to round the corners of the greeting, ink the edges and pop a tiny bit of bling on it :)

I generally mount my greeting for this card on foam tape.  In this instance, I mounted the left hand side onto with foam tape.

Create a loopy piece of ribbon.  To do this, I cut a decent legth of ribbon, stuck one end on a paper reamer (big fat needly thing!).  I then looped the ribbon back and forth, giving each loop a little more length (well, that was my intention but I ran out of ribbon!)

Firmly holding the ribbon in place, remove the reamer and put a mini brad through the hole.  Doesnt matter what colour, it will be covered up!

Figure out where you want your greeting and place the foam tape on the left end of where the greeting will sit.  Place some double sided tape along the rest of the length and add a dollop of glue for good luck!  Stick your loops on top.

 

Put some more double sided tape on the back of your greeting, pop a dollop of glue at the end with the loops and stick it down!  Hold it down for a while to make sure it stays where it should :)

Arrange your dots!  Stick them down with double sided tape :)

Pop a few buttons in the centre of some of the dots.  I used teeny tiny cuties, but you can use bigger buttons :)  I also rounded the edges of my card, given the "roundness" of the theme of the card.

Happy Spotting!

Dani :)

 

 

 



My Brave Boy

My 5 year old is going into hospital on Thursday to get grommets and have his adenoids removed. He's understandably nervous so I quickly threw together this card for him (to take my mind off my own anxiety!!)

It's by no means award winning, but I think it will help conjure a smile or two as he recovers :)