Congratulations! It's Twins!

My girlfriend Tanya and her husband Marco are now the proud parents of twin girls!  I wanted to make a fun, bright and colourful card to congratulate them on the arrival of their girls so I decided to try a fun Sesame Street inspired card primarily using the Scalloped Circle punch (item #109043).



After I completed the card, I thought I had better make some more of these adorable little characters to document how it is done so that you can give them a try too.  The supplies I used are as follows:

• Scalloped Circle Punch (item #109043) 4x
• 1-3/8" Circle Punch (item #104401) 1x 1/2
• 1-1/4" Circle Punch (item #104403) 2x 1/2
• 1" Circle Punch (item #109046) 5x
• 3/4" Circle Punch (item #107217) 4x
• 1/2" Circle Punch (item # 104390) 4x
• the Itty Bitty Circle punch from the Punch Pack (item #118309) 4x
• Boho Blossoms Punch (item #110711) 2x 1/2 1x
• Modern Label Punch (item #116630) 2x
• Card Stock (Whisper White, Basic Black, Real Red and Retired colours: Bermuda Bay, Brilliant Blue, Glorious Green, Crushed Curry, Barely Banana, Dusty Durango, Caramel)
• Markers: Basic Black (item #105394) and Chocolate Chip (item #100071)
• Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen (item #105021)
• Snail Adhesive (item #104332)
• Stampin' Dimensionals (item #104430)
• Paper snips (item #103579)

You will need to punch out your 4 scallops in the 4 primary colours (Brilliant Blue for Cookie Monster, Glorious Green for Oscar the Grouch, Crushed Curry for Big Bird and Real Red for Elmo) you will need to punch out 4x1" Circles of Whisper White and 4x3/4" Circles of Basic Black (for Cookie and Elmo's eyes).  Then 4x3/4" Circles of Whisper White and 4xItty Bitty Circle in Basic Black (for Big Bird and Oscar's eyes).  Use the Modern Label Punch in Barely Banana and Dusty Durango (Big Bird's beak and Elmo's nose)  Also, punch the large blossom from Boho Blossoms in Barely Banana.  Another large blossom from the Boho Blossoms punch in Caramel and a 1" Circle as well as (tip: if you punch all 3 blossoms out before you punch your 1" circle for the cookie, you can line up the small flower to look like a bite then nips off a piece from that same small flower to be the "crumbs" in his mouth) colour chocolate chips onto this circle to make it a cookie. For their mouths you will need 2 half (or 3/4) 1-1/4" and 1 half (or 3/4) 1-3/8" circles of Basic Black (Cookie's gotta big mouth!)  

Then, assemble all your pieces for each character to make sure you have everything you need.  Then, using your snail adhesive and paper snips, assemble your characters.

 I used my paper snips to make a wavy cut along the top of each half circle to give it that "furry" lip look like in the drawings.

 Cookie Monster's eyes (1" whites, 3/4" black) are always a little cock-eyed and he has the biggest mouth.  Make sure to put his eyes on the very top of the scalloped circle, pointed in opposite directions.

Use the uni-gel pen to put a little highlight in the eye and use a dimensional to pop up his cookie, snip the 'crumb' in half and glue the pieces randomly into his mouth.

 Using the paper snips, cut out an oval from the center of the Modern Label in Dusty Durango for Elmo's nose.  Do not discard the scraps, you will need a part of this for Big Bird's mouth and I used another small piece for Oscar's tongue.

Elmo doesn't have any problems looking you straight in the eye (1" white and 3/4" black) but his nose does tend to hang over his mouth just a bit *grin*.  I used the larger circle punch for his mouth too but you can use the 1-1/4" whichever looks better to you.  Add a highlight to his eyes too.

Oscar's mouth is smaller then the other 2 because he's not really a smiley type of guy.  His eyes are smaller too (3/4" white & itty bitty black).  He also has funny bushy eyebrows - the large blossom from the Boho punch cut in half works great

You may need to trim the center of his eyebrows a little to get his eyes close enough and you need to snip his eyes into an angel to give him that frowny looks he's known for. (he looks a little funny at this angel but trust me, that's how he looks *chuckle*) Give his eyes a little highlight too and use your black marker to extend the corners of his mouth.

Of course, I save the trickiest one for last!  Big Bird!  Here is how I cut the Modern Label punched pieces to make his beak.  The top part in Barely Banana (right side) is the top of his beak, the Dusty Durango on the bottom left, is inside his mouth.  I also trimmed the left side of the Barely Banana piece to create his lower part of his beak with the Dusty Durango between the 2 BB pieces.

You also need to create eye lids with blue edges for his eyes.  I just punched out 2 x 3/4" Circles in Crushed Curry and using the itty bitty punch first, the inner edge of the Bermuda bay before punching out the other edge with the 3/4" punch creating a thin half circle for each eye.  Glue these slivers with a little bit of curry showing over the top and then trim out the centers and glue them to his eyes.

The large blossom from the Boho Blossom punched out earlier gets glued to the center of the Scalloped Circle and the beak and eyes are glued close together over this piece - it is to give the suggestion of his extra feathers (on the card, I added 3 "feathers" to the top of his head snipped from the left over pieces used to make his beak).

That is how you make these cute little characters!  Since I had already made the first set for my card, I put magnets on the back of these 4 to use as fridge magnets (actually going to gift them to a co-worker for her daughter who just LOVES these characters - she will be THRILLED!!)

I used my 1-3/8" Circle Punch to punch out circles from an old magnet I had. Then used tacky strip to secure each character to their own circle.  And here is the gang on my fridge helping to hold up some friends and their art work too! 

Hope you enjoyed my little tutorial and will give these guys a try too!  That's it for now - tune in again to see how to make miniature purses using the Rounded Tab Punch! 

More Punch Art ... Hula Girl

In my Stamping Group this week, one of my fellow demo's asked about the recipe for a Hula Girl made with punches.  Another demo, inspired by the query - whipped out her punches and created the recipe and then posted it on her blog here.  I was inspired but I did not have all the same punches so had to improvise...

If you punch the 1" circle punch first - for her face, then the 11/4" (discard this ring) and then the 13/4" to get the larger ring used for the arms.  Then punch out her body with the Round Tab, using the 13/4" to trim away the curly cue (not very waist like).  I also used the small heart from the Heart to Heart punch (2x cut off one lobe of each heart for her feet)

I used the 11/4" circle punch to create her hair.  I used the 5 Petal Flower punch to create her bangs (just using 2 points of the flower).  The first time I did this in 2 pieces, the second time, I just punched the bangs from the 1 piece and tucked her face over lapping the punched part.

The grass skirt is the 13/4" circle punch again, using the small oval punch to nip away the part for the waist.  Using the paper snips, cut up from the bottom leaving about a 1/4" inch to make the grass part of the skirt.

It's already starting to look like a hula girl and it's not even assembled yet!  I used the Itty Bitty Shapes punches to make the flowers and greenery.  The centers of the flowers were punched during another project with the large hole on the Crop-a-Dile!  These parts will embelish the waist line of the skirt, accent her hair and create the garland around her neck.










 Now, line up the waist of your skirt along one flair of the torso.  I used the 2-way glue to assemble all the pieces.  First gluing the skirt to the torso then the

4 little green bits to the skirt.  You don't really need these, but it adds a little je ne say qua to the whole thing.  You will have to attach the feet to the background, once your hula girl is assembled and put in place.

Next, you will have to line up your "arms", the large 13/4" circle you pre-cut earlier.  Line it up on the back of your torso and trim off any excess "shoulder" material before you assemble the head and put it in place.

I didn't take any pictures of  this part, but you will see the finished assembly in the final picture.  I glued one of the little left over hearts from the using my Pinking Heart Boarder punch makes a perfect little cupie mouth.

The bangs cut out with the 5 Petal Flower punch (or you can use 1/2 of a 1" circle in the same hair colour CS) layered over the 1" face circle, with the little heart mouth, glue them all together and then using the bottom edge of the hair to attach the head to the torso.  Also, assemble all the little flowers with their centers and greenery accents and glue them to hide the edges of the shoulders in a garland fashion.

Now you are ready to place your hula girl on whatever you like, scrapbook page, card or to embellish a gift.

I put my girl in a tropical scene on a card front with a hand cut palm tree, some lovely hand torn sand and a couple of coconuts!


This little gal would also look wonderful with touches from the new Tropical Party stamps set, available in the Summer Mini (page 26).  Here are some shots of how I assembled my card and the final product.

*Chuckle* the second one (on the left) is a little taller and thinner then the first one I made (on the right).  Summer fun!  Give it a try!

Reminder: I am sending in an order on June 18th!  Email me today with your order and win a chance to be the mystery Hostess, free stamp set or $20.00 in free product!  Also, let me know if you are ordering a 2010-2011 catelogue!  They will be comming out July 1st, 2010!!  Are you excited yet?  I am!!

It's A Colour Renovation!!!

All of Stampin' Up! is a buzz about the Colour Renovation!  Many of the colours you are familiar with are soon going to be retiring and many of the colours that you've come to know over the past few years of "In Colours" will be welcoming back some old friends!

Have a look to see if your favorite colour has made the cut or not.  First, the New Colour Collections:

And here are the Fond Farewell:

I have been a Bright Bold girl since day one and all but 2 of them are retiring *sniff/sniff*  But in the new Bold Collection, I get Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point and Melon Mombo!  And, I do get to keep Real Red and my beloved Tempting Turquoise (my all time favorite!)  Some other colours from other families are now under the Bold collection too like Old Olive, Regal Rose and Pumpkin Pie!  I love the expanded version of the Neutral, the Regal and the Subtle collections too!  I can't wait to see the 2010-2011 Catelogue to see what other changes they have made!


Let me know what you think of the changes and if you need any re-inkers/paper/accessories in your favorite colour while they are still available!