Week 8 (February 18th) - Embellished Elephant

     This was a very special card for a very special little girl! My best friends daughter just turned two. She is the closest thing I have to a niece for the time being, so I love to make special things for her. SO, I decided to use her card for this week because it is a shaped card, and I would love to get into making more shape cards. They pretty much always look adorable!
      I actually used a template (sort of) for this card. I have a free digital copy of Paper Crafts Magazine presents Birthdays. This cute little elephant was right on the first page, and as soon as I saw it, I knew this would be the special card I was looking for. There is an actual template that you can use, but since it would have been a pain to get on and print it out, I just winged it. Its a pretty easy shape to draw, so I didn't have any issues with it. So here is my version of the elephant card!

From Stampin' Up

Card stock: Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Brushed Silver

Pool Party Bakers Twine

Snail Adhesive

From Michael's

Patter paper from Best of K and Company

Orange and black rhinestones

Spool O Ribbon

Glue Dots medium

-Cut a 6" x 8" piece of Silver card stock. Score and fold in the middle to make a 4" x 6" card. 

-Sketch the elephant shape on a piece of scrap paper and cut out. Trace the shape on the front of your card, and cut out. Make sure the card is folded...you do want both the front and back shaped!

-Cut a rectangle of patterned paper and then a larger piece of Melon Mambo to fit behind the patterned piece (I am not giving particular sizes, since it depends on the proportions of the elephant you drew).  Attach the two pieces together using Snail tape. 

-Using a standard hole punch, punch three holes at the bottom of your rectangle. 

-Cut three pieces of ribbon and attach them to the holes using your preferred tying method.  

-Attach your rectangle to the elephant using Snail tape. 

-Cut a triangle of Melon Mambo to cover your elephants head and attach with Snail tape. Cut a piece of patterned paper to attach to the hat as trim at the bottom. 

-Attach a glue dot to the top point of the hat on the backside. Cut various small lengths of ribbon to attach to the glue dot. Once you have the desired "tassle" look on the top of the hat, add an orange rhinestone to the top point. 

-Cut a ballon shape from So Saffron card stock. Add extra punched hole pieces to the front for extra decoration. 

-Position the balloon so part of it is covering your elephant...this is where you will apply your Snail tape on the back side. Before adhering the balloon, cut a piece of Pool Party twine and put the end between the balloon and the elephant. This will hold your twine in place. Then position the rest of the loose twine so it comes out the bottom of the balloon. Let some extra twine hang down, before wrapping the extra around the elephants tail. 

*TIP: You can add a tiny bit of Snail to the front of the tail to help hold the twine in place. Add the black rhinestone for his eye. 

     I apologize if some of the technical parts of this card are a little vague....they were hard to describe! When making this card, I just kind of kept testing different ideas until something worked, especially with the balloon and the twine. Feel free to figure out what works best for you and enjoy it! It is TOO cute when it's all done :)