Banana Frog Blog: Lessons at the Lilypad

Wahoo we are almost at the weekend and to finish off the week i have a cute project with an alternative use for the Kawaii Kokeshi stamp set!

I found these gorgeous templates last week at the Harrogate papershow (Craftwork Cards) and knew straight away that the owl was just perfect for a project! I got together my template, inks, papers and Kawaii Kokeshi stamps.

I set to work stamping out a whole page of the larger fan stamp in 3 co-ordinating colours.

I covered the owl in glue and placed it face down on dark cardstock to create the background. Cut around the shape and pop to one side for now.

Ink around the edges with a dark ink to block out any exposed chipboard. I used a dark brown Copic Caio.

Cut out all of the fans....

You are now ready to start the assembling (aka the fun part!) :)

Layer up the fans starting from the bottom, overlapping so that only the real patterned part is showing.

Cover the entire owl, dont worry about going over the edges and also on the slimmer parts the fans can be cut in half or thirds to minimise waste.

Using a very sharp craft knife carefully cut through all the overlapped fans.

Go back over the edges with the brown Copic to get rid of the edges of white paper. (remember to do inside the eyes too)

Now decorate the owl as you wish - obviously this depends on what occasion it is for. Here is how i finished mine off and into a birth card.

The card was made by folding the top layer in half and covering both that and the base in patterned paper (Quite Contrary - My Minds Eye), of course, edged in brown ink to tie it all together. The Cherry Blossom Stamp from the Kawaii Kokeshi set was then stamped on the base and i dotted glue which was then sprinkled with Flower Soft in pale pink. I added a little baby sticker to keep the card propped up.

The flower soft is so easy to use and is really effective with all of the flower stamps! :)

I cut the eyes with 2 circle nestability dies and used a smaller one of the dies to create the pupil, a little white rub on dot gives the eye more depth, as does the Glossy Accents. I cut a small triangle for his nose and Glossy Accented that too. The banner is made out of the same My Minds Eye paper cut into teeny triangles with white rub ons used for the sentiment. A little gem on the end of each piece of bunting just adds that little bit of sparkle!

Hope you like this alternative use for stamps - there are millions of ways of using these different styles, see how many you can find and just have fun playing! :)