Big birthday balloon

Hello lovely people,

I've been doing a little die cutting for my Dies to Die For DT card this week, using one of the recent MFT sentiment dies, which I teamed up with a balloon edge die from a blueprints set.  This particular blueprint set is currently out of stock, but you could also cut the balloon shape by hand, or use a circle die and add the little piece at the bottom.

I die cut the balloon shape from purple stripy card, then taped the words in place where I wanted them before die cutting them.  I removed the letters but made sure to keep all the little bits from the centres of letters like the B.  I added some twine before attaching the balloon piece to a square of white card so I would have a backing to attach the letters to.  I die cut the words again from silver glitter card and inlaid them in the spaces, popping the purple centres back in where necessary.

Once again, I've made this design in a few different colours...with girl and boy options!

If I've tempted you with any of the lovely supplies I've used then you can go straight to the individual products via the links below or just pop over to Dies to Die For and have a little browse around!

Thanks for popping in and I hope you have a fabulous day!

Lovely things I've used from Dies to Die For;
Birthday boy & girl - My Favorite Things
Blueprints 26 - My Favorite Things
Dots and stripes jewel tone 6x6 paper pad - Sunny Studios
Shaker tags - Avery Elle (for the stars)

Other ingredients;
white bakers twine, silver glitter card - from stash

Party hippo

Hello lovely people,

I have a Dies to Die For DT card for you today and I finally had a little play with the uber cute MFT Happy Hippos...

...and my new balloon shaker dies/pouches...

...and a fab new sentiment!

To be fair, I do have a LOT of new things to play with so I've gotta squeeze as many in as possible - lol!

This hippo looks all set to party I think with his cute party hat and that lovely big balloon!

I filled the balloon shaker pouch with die cut twirly things (technical term!) and sequins, then sealed the back with coloured card that I had stamped the sentiment onto.

In case anyone is wondering, I used the 2 larger dies from the MFT Blueprints 29 set, taped together with an even gap in between, to create the frame.

I'm off to my parents for the weekend but will of course be taking my colouring with me;-)

I hope you all have something nice lined up for the weekend...even if it is raining...AGAIN!

If I've tempted you with any of the lovely supplies I've used then you can go straight to the individual products via the thumbnails at the end of my post or just pop over to Dies to Die For and have a little browse around!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Copic colours;
Hippo: T0, T1, T2, T3, T4
Toenails: R00, R01
Hat: B000, B00, BG01

Lovely things I've used from Dies to Die For;
Happy hippos stamp set - My Favorite Things
Happy hippos die-namics - My Favorite Things
Sweet Celebration 6x6 paper pad - My Favorite Things
Balloon shaker window & frame - My Favorite Things
Balloon shaker pouches - My Favorite Things
Handwritten happiness stamp set -My Favorite Things
Blueprints 29 - My Favorite Things

Other ingredients;
Lucy's sparkly shaker selection sequins (lagoon and carnation)
Silver sequins, silver twine, plain coloured card - from stash

Elephant love

Hello lovely people,

It's weekend time again so I hope you are having fun!

I had something else lined up to blog today but decided that since it was World Elephant Day yesterday that the pair of birthday cards I made for some lovely blog buddies were more appropriate...

I have coloured the elephants with Copics but I do want to try colouring these cuties with Inktense pencils as well...I'm pretty sure they will look gorgeous either way!

The buttons are clear buttons that I customised by adding washi tape across the back and trimming down.  The pattern shows through but in a lovely subtle way.

This worked out so well that I now need to get my hands on some more clear buttons because I only had a couple!

Looking at the photo above reminds me...does anyone else trim twine because it's too fluffy?!

Yes, I know it's supposed to be rustic and fluffy but my neat freak brain just can't cope with long strands all over the place, especially on the bow, so I always find myself tidying it up a little - lol!

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Card recipe;

Image & sentiment: Adorable elephants - My Favourite Things

DP: My Girl - American Crafts

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Button: from stash

Copic colours;
Elephant: T0/1/2/3/4
Elephant ears: R000/00/01/30 (R00/0120/21 on darker one)
Aqua balloon: BG10/11/13
Pink balloon: R30/32/35
Ground: E40/41/42

The bunnies are back!

Hello lovely people,

If you haven't seen or heard about this yet then let me fill you in...the LOTV Ideas to Inspire blog is back - hurrah!

On top of that, some of the best loved LOTV  images are coming back too, including a couple of the gorgeous bunny stamps.  So, I thought I'd use one of them for my Design Collective card today.

This bunny was the first ever LOTV stamp I bought and he is just as adorable now as he was when I bought him :-)
I did a little paper piecing again on the balloon and cupcake.

Card recipe;

Image: Balloon bunny - LOTV

DP: Vintage baby - Maja Design (available from Live and Love Crafts)

Dies:

Copic colours;
Bunny: W00/0/1/2/3/4
Ears: R0000/00/01

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,

Romantic stepper card with tutorial

Hello lovely people,

Gosh, doesn't time fly?!
I intended to post this over the weekend but got carried away with other things...all good!
I hope you all had a lovely weekend whatever you were up to :-)

I have another stepper card to share with you and this time I have done a tutorial to go with it.
I am also showing off some lovely LOTV products on this card as part of the Design Collective.

So, first up I'll show you the finished card and then I'll get into the tutorial.

I started with a 14.5 x 29cm rectangle of card, and the picture below shows where I made the scores (dashed lines) and cuts (solid lines).

I always start by making little marks on all four edges of the back of the card (what will be the inside) at the indicated measurements on the picture.

Then I make the 2 cuts (the solid horizontal lines) with a craft knife and finally I score the other lines with a very ancient metal toothpick...but I guess any scoring tool that you have will be fine!

This method means that I cut and score exactly the bits that I need to and no more, so you end up with a nice complete back panel and no unsightly extra score lines.

I then gradually fold it up, starting with the middle fold and working down from there.
One of the folds (second from right hand side) is technically scored the 'wrong' way round for folding if you do all the score lines on the back, but I find it's a lot easier to score everything just on one side and just take care when folding it.

I sometimes like to get a little extra space on my central panel so for this design I cut a rectangle of white card and die cut the left and right hand sides, so the finished panel, as below, ended up about 11.5 x 13cm.

I cut rectangles of DP just slightly smaller than the side and bottom panels so a little white border is visible.
As usual, all the panels were inked and stitched.

I wrapped the bottom panel with twine before I attached it.
Now, I've been asked a few times how I attach twine and my main tip is just to fray the end of the twine first so it lays a bit flatter, then I simply tape it down!
Like so...

I then added the pink heart panel and image panel, sliding them under the twine.  I had to be very specific about the order in which I added the layers and twine so I could get the twine on top of the image!

And I can't finish without a close up of the adorable dog, which Dr. Hubby says is entirely unrealistic because dogs don't have opposable thumbs so there is no way he could hold on to the balloon - lol!

Card recipe;

Image: Odd Dog  -Balloon - LOTV

DP: Yours truly - Pebbles

Twine: Ivory button twine - The Ribbon Girl

Tag: Sentiment tags - LOTV

Tag: Family sentiment tags - LOTV

Sentiment: For you circular sentiments - LOTV
Sentiment: Greetings postmarks - LOTV
Tag: Christmas sentiment tags - LOTV

Dies: Heart flower lace - Magnolia Doohickeys, Heart stems - Impression Obsession

Sentiment:

Copic colours;
Dog: W1/2/3/4/5
Ligt patches on dog: W00/0/1
Shading on balloon: RV34 & blender

The stepper card is not the fanciest of fancy folds but it's one I really like and I hope some of you may find something of use in my tutorial, so thanks for reading :-)

Thanks for visiting and I really appreciate any comments that you leave,