Cuttlebug Mania is 2!

It's two years since the Cuttlebug Mania Challenge was launched and, to celebrate the event, Jannie has added a little extra challenge this week. Make something using a manual die cutting/embossing machine and also incorporate the number 2 on what you make. At first I was stumped as I don't actually know many two year olds - then inspiration struck:

I used:

- white DL card blank

- a slightly smaller backing of turquoise card stock

- a smaller again piece of white card stock, which I die cut using the Memory Box 'Wild Blooms' die and then backed with a little piece of adhesive sheet so that the apertures were then backed with a film of sticky before adhering it to the card front

- using the 'Wild Blooms' die, I then cut the stems and then the bloom heads from snippets of green and pearlescent turquoise card stock. Then, very carefully and trying not to mix the little pieces up, I popped them into the apertures. Little tip here, if you try this 'inlay technique' with a die that cuts a lot of small pieces - do try to keep the pieces held in the die as you work. Then you have a fighting chance of knowing where each piece fits :)

- the sentiment is actually one I found online, just resized then printed so I could punch it using my SU 1 3/8 inch circle punch and then pop it onto a SU 1 3/4 inch scalloped circle. punched from more of the pearlescent turquoise snippet

- final touch, a few green and turquoise 'sequins', die cut using the Die-Namics (MFT) 'Sequins' die set

So there you have it, my offering for Cuttlebug Mania's 2nd Birthday. Why not come and play as well?

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 167

This is 'wot I made' using some scraps/snippets of card left over from a Brushos session:

I used:

- A6 white card blank, tent style

- a piece of DP from BoBunny's 'Barefoot and Bliss' paper pad

- the orange card had been coloured (much too heavily!) with Brushos and then sprayed with Perfect Pearls 'Heirloom Gold'. I just ran it through the Cuttlebug using SU's 'Honeycomb' embossing folder and snipped a few outer hexagons away

- the small turquoise hexagons came from another snippet of Brusho'ed card, again run through the Cuttlebug using the 'Honeycomb' folder and this time I just snipped out half a dozen of the hexagons to stick here and there on top of the embossed orange piece of card

- also held a turquoise piece back when doing the embossing and just die cut that with a solid Memory Box butterfly die called 'Isabella', then topped it with a lacy white matching butterfly which was cut using Memory Box's 'Pippi' die

- finally popped three little turquoise gems onto the butterfly's body

Snigger, Len saw this and said 'If that's a honeycomb, shouldn't the insect really be a bee?'. Good point! 

I need to knuckle down again with the Brushos and get the 'teensy little sprinkle' technique worked on too :(

Righty-ho - onto this week's picks:

I picked this card, made by Laurie, as it's truly so Spring-like and it made me smile. We have loads of snowdrops blooming along the lane as you leave here, and there are crocuses and daffodils out in the Playground too.

Sue J makes such gorgeous cards, and I just adore all the blues here - loads of snippets used and such a darling image too!

Brilliant use of snippets by Eve, for her Nan's 94th Birthday card. A really tactile result with all those lovely flowers plus the snipped grass :)

I think this card is super! Made by Jackie T, the patchwork effect of the pretty hexagons is a perfect background for the lovely butterfly. And doesn't the sentiment sit beautifully too.

Oh gosh, that's four picks and there are still so many others I could show - but not enough time I'm afraid. Although - just feast your eyes on this final card:

How clever is  that beautiful dress, made by Carol L, from loads of snippets and a tiny flower punch?! I know from comments left over at Carol's that this is a real hit - and it's my 'top pick of the week' :)

Moving swiftly onto the draw for the 'Flowering Spring' embossing folder - the winner is:

 Sandy J

I'm almost sure this is Sandy's very first Playground win, so well done Sandy! Can you please drop me an email (di_wray@hotmail.com) with your address and I'll post the embossing folder off to you ASAP this coming week.

And, totally unrelated to my snippets card, here's the prize for this coming week - kindly donated by Eve:

I think this is such a darling Penny Black stamp (called 'Hide-out')  - and if memory serves me right it was an accidental duplicate purchase by Eve. Luckily for us I say!

I haven't mentioned our own little Playground hedgie recently. He tailed off on his visits to feed about five weeks ago now - and then he quit calling altogether. Until the weather warms up a bit more we don't know if he went into a very late semi-hibernation or what. And we daren't check the hedgie shelter just in case he's fast asleep in there. It's a case of 'watch this space' for now.

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 14th March. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
x

Merry Monday #148 - Red & Green

The current challenge over at Merry Monday is Red & Green:

Plus, Hazel over at Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge wants us to 'Cut it Up', so I chose die cutting as well as rounding one corner of my card with scissors. And this card is also for Craftyhazelnuts Christmas Challenge Extra for March, where it's always 'Anything goes'. Whilst at it I made two cards the same :)

 I used:

- 6" x 6" white card blank with the bottom right hand corner rounded using Fiskars corner rounder scissors

- a gold gel pen for the cords - I did those first and worked out the positions so that the fir tree bough and the baubles would be lined up properly when they were added

- a plain green snippet for the tree bough, die cut using a Marianne Creatables die 'LR0181'

- baubles die cut from a snippet of red matt mirri card die cut using a Marianne Creatables die 'LR0183', 'dangled' from the drawn cord and a knotted piece of gold lurex ribbon added to the top of each bauble

- sentiment was stamped using Brilliance 'Galaxy Gold' and a sentiment stamp from the Woodware 'Tipsy Tree' set

Two more cards towards Christmas 2015, and three challenges in one go - wahoo!

Di
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Silver Wedding Anniversary

I do love making cards on request, even though Len will be the first to say that I stress myself out wanting them to be just perfect.

This card was made for a friend's husband, they celebrated their Silver Wedding Anniversary yesterday. And of course, as you probably know, I fret even more over making cards for men! Anyhow, I'm glad to say that Kim was delighted with the resulting card for Graham, her husband:

I used:

- 6" x 6" white scalloped edge card blank (by Craftwork Cards)

- a pre-coloured topper by LOTV, based on their adorable stamp called 'Love Boat' - chosen by Kim when we were planing the basics 'cos she usually buys cards with animals on :). I trimmed it a teensy bit and re-rounded the corners before adding it to a backing of silver mirri card - also with rounded corners

- the number 25 was die cut from a snippet of silver mirri card using a Memory Box 'Classic Numbers' die

- silver mirri card from the snippets folder for the main backing on the card front

- a white layer of card, embossed using a Quickutz 'Diamonds and Dots' folder. This was slightly 'tricky-woo' 'cos it's just an A6 folder and I had to emboss in two passes to create a square - thankfully the pattern repetition, along with the depth of the impression, makes it quite easy to line up  and sort of 'lock into' the embossed design to emboss further down the piece of card for the second pass. The trick is never to actually go over the edge of folder at the point where your patterns will join - have an overlap that allows you to stop short of the folder edge whilst still achieving the additional embossing. Ha! Bet that was clear as mud!!

- Kim had chosen the words, which I produced on the printer, trimmed to size and then layered onto a backing of silver card stock

So, although it took me almost the whole of an afternoon to make, it's a very clean looking card and not a flower in sight - just right for a chap I hope.

Di
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Cuttlebug Mania - Green with envy

We have another fun challenge over at Cuttlebug Mania this fortnight, called 'Green with envy'. This time you have to use monochromatic shades of green with white, cream or black. And please don't let the fact that it's Cuttlebug Mania stop you from entering - just so long as you use a manual die cutting/embossing machine that's fine, and also do remember to say which embossing, die cutting products you used.

Our sponsor this fortnight is Crafty Sentiments Designs - the winner will pick 3 digis and they have some lovely goodies in their shop!

So this is the card I made:

It's for St. Patrick's Day and 'the luck of the Irish' with the shamrock - I didn't have a proper St. Patrick's Day sentiment stamp :)

I used:

- A6 white tent style card blank

- five shades of green card, a few of which were snippets of course

- two layers of green card on top of the card blank.

- one white layer of card stock, embossed using  SU's 'Square Lattice' embossing folder

- next I positioned and fixed the 'Chloe Stem' green die cut in place, minus the head of course, using Collall All Purpose Glue

- the shamrock head was super-easy and good fun to make using Spellbinders Plain and Scalloped Hearts die sets - two layers per leaf then just gently creased down the  centres before fixing to the card using thin small snippets of sticky pads so that the leaves bend upwards a bit

- the 'Good Luck' sentiment was an Elzybells stamp (sadly long discontinued), stamped with SU's 'Wild Wasabi', then punched out using SU's 'Word Window' punch. Then it was layered onto a snippet of green card which had been punched using SU's 'Modern Label' and popped onto the card with a little piece of thin sticky pad at either end

- final touch, a little green gem at either side of the sentiment

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 166

A really quick and easy snippets card from me this week:

I used:

- A6 white tent style card blank, bottom left corner rounded using Fiskars Rounder Scissors

- snippet of white card stock, embossed using Nellie Snellen's 'Flowering Spring' embossing folder

- the sentiment (Penny Black's 'dance sing love') was then stamped using Memento 'Gray Flannel' ink pad. Little tip, I checked through my sentiments stamps for a suitably sized one just by holding the embossing folder on top of the stamp to see if it lined up OK

- the embossed panel was then trimmed down, bottom left corner rounded and adhered to the front of the card blank

- a small snippet of pink card was then used to punch out some little flowers with a Tonic punch

- after adding the pink flowers here and there on the embossed flowering branch I just popped a small pearl into the centre of each one

Job done! I first spotted this lovely embossing folder over on one of your blogs but forgot to make a note of who it was (sorry!). And the folder is sometimes referred to as 'Cherry Blossom' BTW - just to confuse things a little :)

OK, straight onto this week's picks:

I do love this adorable scene, made by Diane H. What fun!

I picked this card 'cos it 's another one that made me smile - brought to the Playground by Lynn - I love the balloons tied to the kitty's tail! :) Company for the Playground guard dog perhaps?

On a more serious note, this card made by Liz really caught my eye. A perfect sympathy card and I do so love the alternating rows of coloured spots - some clever paper positioning underneath the die cut I imagine!

This card using the paper tole technique, made by Carol, has been well admired over on her blog - not surprisingly either. So fresh looking!

I think this is such a pretty set of note cards, made by Alison C . For a closer look do hop over to Alison's blog - they're really lovely.

This card, made by Pat, incorporates such a clever trick - look closely at the embossed stars background behind that lovely wreath. Pat only went and made her own embossing plate using acetate! Brilliant idea.

And finally - each week there's at least one entry that stops me in my tracks, this week it's Hazel's brilliant 'onesie' card. I adore it and there's so much detail - right down to adding the little eyelets as 'poppers' on the gusset :)

And we have one new Playmate this week:

Hi there Dora! I do hope you'll come back to play with us again :)

And the winner of last week's prize (the 'Nautical' XCut dies kindly donated by Viv) is:

 Jane (Willis)

This tickled me no end, Jane is a huge fan of XCut dies, and in fact the entry that Mr Random drew was made using a lovely XCut die set! Spooky or what. I still have your address Jane and will post your prize off ASAP this week.

Here's this coming week's prize:

It was pretty obvious really, it's a folder exactly the same as the one I used today of course! A small prize but I think, in this case, small (well, approx. A6 size!) really is beautiful :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 7th March. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
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Rudolph Day - February 2015

Well that came round fast, it's Rudolph Day again over at Scrappy Mo's. All you need to do is to make a Christmas card and link into Mo's blog HERE to be in with a chance of winning a really lovely Memory Box die. And this month you only have until tomorrow (Saturday) to join in as it's a 28 day month!

I used:

- 4" x 4" white linen effect card blank

- red tartan paper from LOTV's 'Classic Christmas' paper pad

- snippet of white linen card topped with snippet of green plain paper from the LOTV paper pad

- then on top I just added a pre-made little Scottie dog felt topper with sticky pads (bought just after Christmas in Hobbycraft, their own brand)

I made four cards in total, two with red Scotties on and two with white Scotties on, I changed the backing to red for those, although all four card do have the lovely red tartan paper as the main background. And, as the LOTV paper pad is 8" x 8", I got four cards from one sheet too :)

But, although fine in daylight, when I've taken photos of the cards with the white doggies on you can see the shading of the sticky fixers I used - rather like little sets of underwear - through the felt :) Still, they look OK to the naked (no pun intended!) eye, it's just the camera that's acting like an x-ray machine - so that's another four cards added to the total of 2015's Christmas cards.

And, I'd also like to enter this card into Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge, where this week's theme is 'Feature a Creature' - as well as Craftyhazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra for February, where it's always 'Anything Goes'.

Di
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Less is More - Week 212 - Wings

The current challenge over at Less is More this week is 'Wings'. I did try to steer clear of birds and butterflies but in the end opted for a favourite birdie stamp of mine:

I used:

- A6-ish white card blank, the front portion of which I ran through the Cuttlebug using the SU 'Chevron' embossing folder with the back of the card folded outside the folder (needs must with a little Cuttlebug sometimes)

- then backed the inside of the front part of the card with a piece of plain white card stock to add stability as the breaking down of fibres during embossing can leave a piece of card a bit unsteady on its feet :)

-  the image is from Banana Frog's set called 'Shake your tail feathers', stamped using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and coloured using Whispers pens, then covered with clear 'Wink of Stella'. Sadly Banana Frog ceased trading over three years ago - I loved their crisp designs, sigh :(

- the sentiment of course came from the same stamp set, again stamped in Memento 'Tuxedo Black'

- then die cut the image using a Lil 'Inkers Stitched Rectangle die, and glued it onto a slightly larger rectangle die cut from a snippet of SU 'Tempting Turquoise' card stock

- then added the 'topper' to the card front using thin sticky pads 
Di
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Butterflies and ribbon

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card blank

- a white layer of card stock, embossed using the Couture Creations 'Tied Together' embossing folder

- wrapped a piece of lilac ribbon round the embossed layer before adhering it to the card blank and tied a single little knot of ribbon

- the image is a Penny Black pre-coloured Stickeroo sticker from the 'Language of Flowers' sheet, popped onto a snippet of SU's 'Perfect Plum' card stock. Can I add the little tip (once again) that these stickers really are impossible to shift once they're in contact with card so it's always best to put the sticker onto a slightly larger piece of card and then just trim it down after the Stickeroo is in place

- the sentiment is from the Personal Impressions 'Everyday Words Happy Birthday' set, stamped onto a snippet of white card using SU's 'Perfect Plum' ink pad

- used SU's 'Word Window' to punch out the sentiment and then layered it onto a snippet of SU's 'Perfect Plum', punched using SU's 'Modern Label' punch

- the image and sentiments were adhered to the embossed layer using thin sticky pads

Di
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Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 165

We've got the first signs of Spring here in the Playground at last! And so, what did I do but make a Christmas card for Merry Monday, using snippets of course, and the theme is 'Santa'. Easy you might think, but I have only a couple of Santa stamps here. So I turned to a great idea I found and bookmarked not so long ago - and this is where the fun begins.

The idea came from a really inspiring USA based Stampin' Up demo lady called Debbie Henderson, whose blog I've followed for a good while - and I was halfway through making the Santas when the penny dropped. I was only CASE-ing the very same Debbie who's on the Merry Monday Design Team! So, although I'm entering this into the challenge - after much 'shall I, shan't I' - I do hope that Debbie doesn't mind such a direct CASE of the Santa humself. It's a compliment for sure as I love the idea and I really thought you girls would love to find out more about using punches and dies to make a 'Snippety Santa'!!

I used:

- 4" x 4" white card blank

- background is a snippet of SU's 'Real Red' card stock, topped with a snippet of DP from Dovecraft's ' Back to Basics Christmas - Modern' paper pack

- snippets of more Real Red, white and peach card stock

- if you look at the Santa, he's really fairly self-explanatory but here goes. For the moustache and beard I used the SU 'Bow Builder' punch and then embossed the pieces using a Cuttlebug 'Swiss Dots' folder (Debbie used the SU bow builder dies BTW)

- for Santa's face, using a snippet of peach card stock I punched a circle using SU's  1.3/8ths circle punch, and his nose came from the same peach snippet (using a round SU 'Itty Bitty' punch)

- ha, then I hit a problem. The hat is just a triangle but my SU pennant punch isn't big enough. When I'm playing without any real instructions I just used scrap paper to see how things will fit together - and the hat looked a bit like a pea on a drum when I used the punch to be honest!! So I used a Spellbinders 'Nested Lacy Pennant' die and just trimmed it straight but you could hand cut the triangles to size of course

- the 'fur trim' on the hat is just a white snippet punched using SU's 'Word Window' punch, and then the top of Santa's hat was folded down and stuck in place with a little piece of Ultra Strong sticky tape. The 'pompom' is another white snippet punched using the round SU 'Itty Bitty' punch again

- and of course Santa has googly eyes,  the box with them in was still on my desk after making the Ninja Turtles - which you can see here if you missed them along with my step by step tutorial on how to make them :)

NB. Whilst writing this my latest Stampin' Up order arrived and I think, having quickly punched a paper template and tried it on top of the completed card, the Christmas Tree punch (with the trunk cut off) would do the trick for Santa's hat!

Also, there are many varieties of punch art Santas on the internet, some with beards made using scalloped punches or dies - as well as moustaches made using the SU 'Bird Builder' punch set wings.

I actually made three of these little cards, all the same - am managing to keep on my target of 12 Christmas cards per month, yay!

Straight onto this week's picks now:

It's our talented playmate Carol L, with such a great pop-up card. One to CASE for sure!

Viv made this beautiful card, loads of snippets and the peach tones are so gorgeous.

This is such a bright and happy heart which Kate brought to show us. What a great way to use up snippets of cotton yarns.

Sharp intake of breath when I spotted Darnell waving this card - so CAS and a wonderful design.

And last but not least, Sally set to using the set of stamps she won in the Playground the other week - so clever to use two of the stamps like that and the background for those deep shaded roses is beautiful. I should know 'cos it's here on my desk :)

And we have one new playmate this time:

Welcome scrAPpamondo  and we'd love to see you playing again! Love all the flowers and butterflies on this lovely card.

Now the draw for last week's prize - the lovely set of our Sarn's 'Sarntangle' stamps - and the winner is:

Andrea (KandA)

Oh well done Andrea! I just checked my little book here and have a feeling this might be your very first Playground win!? Yet you've been playing for ages - just shows, good things come to those who wait. Can you please let me have your address (di_wray@hotmail.com) and I'll post your set of stamps off ASAP this coming week.

I know from what Andrea said in her comments this week that she really wanted her name to be drawn, as did quite a few of you. Gosh how I wish I had a big box of the stamps to offer :(

I know I'm doing more promotional work here but the Sarntangle stamps are a limited run of 50 and a lot have already been sold. I also know that Sarn doesn't plan to have any more produced so if you love them as much as me - why not hop over to this link to see just what other people have been making using the stamps. It might just make your mind up :)

And this coming week's prize has absolutely nuffin' to do with the snippets card I made for today.

It's a set of 'Build-a-Scene dies by X-Cut called 'Nautical' - kindly donated by Viv. I think these will be huge fun to play with (loads of fabulous dies in the set, up in the teens) and perfect for sea scene cards for boys and men! If you zoom in there are some examples at the bottom of the packet and more ideas can be found on the internet.

ON THE SUBJECT OF PRIZES: our Playmate Eve currently has a lovely giveaway over at her blog HERE, it's a really nice set of SU stamps and due to internet issues she's now leaving the draw open until 25th February. I've joined in for a chance :)

The Snippets Challenge will run for one week and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 28th February. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

Maximum of three entries and please say 'Yes please' (or similar) in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize.

Mr Linky is below - do please let me know if you have any problems linking, it's easy for me to sort out so don't struggle on alone :)

Di and of course, Parsnip!
x

We now have a Playground guard dog - with attitude

Snigger :)

xxx

Ninja Turtles - and a little 'Raphael' tutorial

Earlier this week it was the Birthday of a little chap we know - this is the card I made:

I used:

- 7" x 5" white card blank

- SU 'Old Olive' card stock, cut slightly smaller than the card front, corners punched with a Woodware fancy corners punch

- four hand made Ninja Turtles (instructions below), popped onto a white square of card with thin sticky pads, backed by a slightly larger square of card in the same colour as the turtle's mask

- I then positioned the four 'toppers' onto the card using Collall All Purpose glue

- and at that point, to be honest, the card was fine. BUT, Len likes little ones to have their names and ages on cards so I used Britannia dies and leftover snippets to die cut the Birthday greeting, 3rd and also the little chap's name. I know it makes it personal but I still think all the extra 'bits' are too much :(

If that's all you want to know then skip away now, if you want to know how I made the Ninja Turtles then fetch a cup of tea or coffee and read on.

You'll need:

- a circular punch or die, I used SU's 1 and 3/8ths inch circle punch

- an oval punch or die, I used SU's 'Large Oval' punch, which measures 1 and 3/4 inches x 7/8th of an inch

You can just fiddle round trying different sizes if you don't have these, they were what I had quickly available here

- snippet of green card stock (I used SU's 'Old Olive' but again, you can just vary whatever to green you think would work) and a darker green ink pad - plus dauber or makeup sponge if you have those

- snippet of red card stock.  If you're making the full set of four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then you'll need blue for Leonardo, Orange for Michelangelo, red for Raphael and purple for Donatello (mine of useless information here!)

- scissors, adhesive, fine black pen and googly eyes approx. 1/4" diameter

And away we go:

Firstly, punch from green card stock one circle and one oval then just go round the edges using a darker green ink pad (I used SU's 'Mossy Meadow') and something like a sponge dauber or a make up sponge - this will add dimension to the turtle face.

Next, punch a circle from red card stock and about quarter of an inch from the top cut straight across the circle and then again at quarter of an inch below that to form the mask. At the same time cut another quarter inch wide strip from a piece of spare red card with one end cut into a V shape and keep to one side - I found it easier to use a pennant punch on the edge of a bit of card for the V and then to cut the strip to width.

This is what you're going to play with next, the mask piece - don't throw the biggest half moon shape away just yet though. I added a strip of very narrow (1/8th inch) ultra strong adhesive tape to the back of the top of the mask piece (ie. slightly tapering in) then gently put it in place on the round punched piece of green card. Doing it this way means you get a perfect fit for the curve of the circle, just remember to ONLY apply a very thin line of tape or glue to that top edge of the mask as you want space/a pocket underneath that mask for the next step!!

I then just ran a bit of tape roller over the 'circle punched piece' of the turtle's face below where the red mask was adhered and that allowed me to wiggle the oval into place, tucked partly underneath the mask - which of course then hides the join.

Remember the leftover half moon shape from the red punched circle I told you to keep? This is where you use it, if like me you're not very good at freehand. Just place the curve of the crescent where you think the turtle's smile should be and using a pencil draw partly round the curve.

Remove the half moon template, using a fine line black pen draw over the 'smile' and then rub away any excess pencil lines.

Final touch - snip the headband 'tail' down to about half an inch across the straight end, stick it behind the headband at the back of the turtle with the V shape showing.

Then just add the googly eyes and all of a sudden your little Ninja Turtle takes on his very own personality :) Introducing 'Raphael' :)

I gleaned quite a bit of the above from the internet but I didn't think there was enough detailed information in one place so that's why I've done this little step by step 'how-to/tutorial' for you.

Of course there are some things you can do differently which would speed things up. For example, you could just cut a straight strip for the headband, stick it in place and then round it with scissors to shape (work from behind the circle if you decide to do this as it will give you a guide). Of course, you won't have the template for the turtle's smile but I bet most of you are better at freehand than I am anyhow! And, you can get away with white and black card stock circles for the eyes - although I do like the googly eyes if truth be known!

If any of this is unclear (or all of it perhaps!) just let me know and I'll clarify things.

Di
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