Hi friends! Welcome back Debby Hughes for this month’s Creative Uses post! Would you believe that Debby created all of these adorable critters with just one die base?! She did!! Read (& watch) on to find out more! Enjoy!

Hello, it’s Debby here today with a look at stretching your spring plush dies throughout the whole year. I used the Plush Big Ear Bunny die which has a wonderfully versatile body element to create an endless supply of critters simply by changing up felt colors and the use of the set dies.

Initially I cut pieces as the die set is intended for – a big eared bunny, but by adding a scarf he’s all set for the winter. I made my bunny a sweet light brown but on hindsight a winter white bunny may have been more appropriate! Two white bodies do make the perfect start to a snowman however and all that was needed was a simple triangle carrot nose and a couple of wiggle eyes. A black body and pipe-cleaner legs and you have a simple spider for Halloween. I used some purple seed beads from the Shaker Shack selection to embellish the body of the spider.

Slightly more complex but still easy to sew up are a penguin and owl. I used the ear die from the bunny set to cut wings. For the penguin I tucked black wings between the front and back of the body and for the owl I sewed brown ones in place on top of the front of the owl. Winter scarves abound and are easy to make from a long strip of felt tied around the neck and then two snips in to each end to give a fringe effect.

Watch the video:

The possibilities for this die set really are endless – a reindeer body with pipe-cleaner antlers perhaps or a reindeer face with red Rudolf nose, or how about a turkey with a fan of tail feathers cut using the ear die? I hope you take a second look at your dies and see how you can use them all year round :D

SUPPLIES:

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Hi readers! Happy Tuesday! Please welcome back special guest Mendi Yoshikawa of Sunny Studio Stamps to our blog today! Check out both of the beautiful cards and read on for more info!

Hi there! It’s Mendi here today and I’m so happy to be back today sharing some playful cards using a couple of Sunny Studio’s newest sets for Fall!

Up first I have a card using our new Woodsy Creatures stamps which were designed as a follow up to our Comfy Creatures and Sending My Love sets–I love how when used together these sets provide endless design options!

This set comes with 5 different woodland critter faces and three unique tails that can easily be stamped together with the provided body or die-cut with the coordinating dies and layered together. For my card I chose to use the birthday sentiment and sitting body from Comfy Creatures together with the images from the new set to form my “gang” of critters for a fun group themed birthday card.

I started by sponging on Wilted Violet Distress ink to the bottom center portion of my card panel where my critters would be, fading it out towards the edges. This gives them a nice glow and sort of grounds them on my card. To give them a base to stand on, I stamped my sentiment on a banner from our Sunny Borders set which was inked up in Peacock Feathers distress ink. I completed my card with some balloons from our Birthday Smiles set which were also sponged with distress ink and given highlights with a white gel pen.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

For my next card I turned to our new Halloween Cuties set.  Designed with scene building in mind, this set is filled the brim with iconic Halloween images and five fun sentiments.

I don’t know about you, but I’m crazy about using the complimentary colors orange and blue together–I just adore how they pop when paired together.  With that in mind I started my card by inking up a cardstock panel with all my favorite blue distress inks working from lightest to darkest.  I then trimmed my panel down to 2.75″ x 4.25″ and rounded my top, left corner with a corner punch for just a little something different.  I stamped my web in the top, right along with my spiders.  I then stamped the bodies of the spiders on some extra scraps of cardstock, colored them with Copics and fussy cut them out to layer over the legs on my background.  I love doing this when images are simply too tiny to cut out!

 

As my scene was starting to take shape, I thought it would be fun to add some stars to my evening scene so I used some solid “sprinkle” stamps from our Birthday Smiles and Sweet Shoppe sets to stamp some scattered dots using clear embossing ink and gold embossing powder.  I love when I’m able to stretch my stamps like that, don’t you?

I completed my card by coloring the kitty and jack o’lantern with my Copic markers and stitching around my card panel on my sewing machine with some coordinating thread.  When I’m feeling like my project could use a little something extra, stitching always comes to my rescue.

Thanks so much for having me today.  I hope you’ve enjoyed my cards and are feeling inspired to create some fun fall projects of your own.

Supplies:

Thanks for reading today, and thanks to Mendi for being our special guest!

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