Sunday 6 June 2010

Birthday Hippo

Can I just say that studying can be really crappy!?! It has been a while, and it sucks all the positive energy out of you if it's not a labour of love!

That said, June is a very busy month for birthdays and so I have taken a couple of hours out to make a few cards. Still have three more to go, and will be spreading them out as much as I can. David's is next, and I'm still trying to think up something special for him.

In the mean time, a good friend of mine Chris, had a gorgeous little boy called Isaac about a year ago. I missed Isaac's first birthday party a couple of weeks ago because I had a severe bout of gastro and it was U.G.L.Y. So even though I had a little card I had previously made, I decided to make something a little extra special to make up for missing it. I hope he likes it.

It also works out perfectly in entering (nervously for the first time) the Just Add Ink challenge to "Just add stitching"!!! (thank you Tina Gillespie for the idea!)

The hippo stamp is from the SU "Pun Fun" set. It's so cute and versatile.


I used the mat pack for the border of holes and the white uni-gel pen for the faux stitching. I would LOVE to learn how to sew, but until then, this will have to make do!

I have printed the hippo on vellum and coloured it in with markers from behind. I have double mounted it onto Whisper White CS and then Night of Navy CS. I have popped up the whole lot with dimensionals, (including the red balloon) and just drew in the string because I liked the idea of the balloon being off the mount.

The card is Ballet Blue (soon to be retired!) In my basic black marker I just free-hand wrote the "Hip-hippo-ray" sentiment which exists with the stamp but included Isaac's name in it to make it a little more tailor-made.

When it came to the envelope, I was going to repeat the process and then found some designer paper that I had bought from one of those $2 shops. The paper had a greeny-paisley design on it which I liked, but can't for the life of me match to any cardstock I have. The back of the paper low and behold had just the right grey! So it became the cardstock for the envelope and the inside of the card. Much quicker than vellum and colouring, and gives a much smoother finish. I am going to make this card again, this time using the grey paper for all of the hippos.

For the inside, I just went over the existing holes from the front with the white gel pen again for a reverse faux stitching as it was too close to the edge to mount paper over it.

The sentiment is from the SU "Best Yet" Hostess set. It's stamped in Ruby Red (also retiring! boo hoo) onto WW and mounted with the Night of Navy CS.

I have used the same mounted WW and Night of Navy CS for where the greeting goes, and made another little hippo (sans balloon) that straddles the two pages for some interest.

I hope you all like it. I can see me making this one again, with a range of the Pun Fun characters. They really are too cute!

Take care, and I hope to pop back in here in the next few days with a post of the birthday card I made for Sandra. I can't tell you much about it as she is one of the few existing friends I have who actually read this blog from time to time, so I don't want to spoil the surprise!

Well that's it from me for now. Hope you have a lovely time for what's left of the weekend. I'm back to hit the books (Alas the Federal Criminal Code is no where near as fun!).

10 comments:

  1. Great card Anne-Marie. I love that little hippo too. You should enter it in the current Just Add Ink challenge - it's to Just Add Stitching!

    Good luck with the study!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a gorgeous card, and doing the inside and the envelope to match makes it extra extra special. Love what you did with the hippos. What did you use to stick your vellum on to the white??

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anne-Marie, this card is gorgeous! Love how you've coloured on vellum, and popped up the images. It's beautiful. Great to see you entering the Just Add Ink challenge - beware, they're addictive!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can't find your email address (and feel free to delete this!), but go back into Just Add Ink, and change the link to your card - you need to link directly to the URL of the post for your card. (At the moment it's linking to your gorgeous Stamp-a-memory scrapbook page.) Christine xx

    ReplyDelete
  5. This card is far too cute, I love it TFS

    ReplyDelete
  6. Gorgeous, Anne-Marie! So glad you could join us on Just Add Ink! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. So adorable! Thanks for playing!! xx

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for all your lovely comments! (btw Sue, I used Scitch brand vellum tape. it has a wax paper covering you just treat it like normal double-sided tape but rub the waxed backing paper with your finger before peeling off. it disappears! its great, and only a few dollars from Big W!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very cute! Love how he continues onto the middle of the card and the enevelope! Love the colours too!!! Hope to see you again at Just Add Ink!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very cute! Love how he continues onto the middle of the card and the enevelope! Love the colours too!!! Hope to see you again at Just Add Ink!

    ReplyDelete