HAPPY HANDY HIPPO DAY - WEEK 2

Good morning everyone

Happy Monday to you all!!!!

First of all can I just say a huge "THANK YOU" to everyone who left lovely messages on my Happy Handy Hippo Day launch last week.

It was lovely to read all of your comments .. .. not just those relating to myself but also all of the messages confirming what a super friendly on-line store Handy Hippo is to shop at.  It was so nice of you all to say such wonderful things.

Kerry will today be scouring all of the comments you left last week and tomorrow I will announce the winner of the £10 voucher.   I wonder who it will be?!?!?!  Nothing to do with me that part .. ..thank goodness .. .. I hate choices !!!

So round now to my second Happy Handy Hippo Day and my next creation.

My project this week actually utilised two stamp sets and I paper pieced the little cupcakes.

I hope you like it.

The super magic button was very popular last week .. and here it is again .. .. click below to see all the lovely goodies I used for this creation.  They will have been automatically added to a shopping basket and you can remove anything you do not need (or add anything you can't resist).

I thought it would be nice if some weeks I show you how I actually "do" some of the things on my creation.   

I have been crafting now for a few years and sometimes I think we take for granted what we know, and assume that everyone will know how we have done things just from looking at our creations .. .. but of course this isn't true.  

Some people might only just be starting out on the addictive path of cardmaking and might appreciate a few little hints and tips along the way. 

So if ever I do anything on my cards that you would like to know more about, then please ask, and I will attempt to show you what I have done.  Not that I see myself as an expert -  far from it - I still have loads to learn and master myself .. .. but I am happy to share "what works for me" and hopefully encourage others to try different techniques.

I don't care what you ask .. .. as with all things it is only easy when you know how!!

Anyway, in the hope of sharing some of my knowledge and inspiring new crafters to "have a go" here is how I do my paper-piecing (brilliant for using up little snippets of paper):

1.  I always stamp with a memento ink pad so that if I decide to add a bit of Promarker shading I can. 

I stamp my image onto my background card and on as many pieces of patterned paper as I wish to use.  In this instance I have only stamped onto one patterned paper but could have used one paper for the cupcake case, another for the cupcake top, and another for the heart. 

2.  Next I cut the stamped image out from the patterned paper.  I have chosen to use just the cupcake  case and the heart.
 

3.  I always use a zig 2 way glue pen for attaching my paper piecing to my main image and actually prefer to add the glue to the main image rather than to the back of the patterned paper. 

Because the glue comes out a blue colour I can see exactly where I have applied it.  (It dries clear though so if you have accidentally gone outside of the image lines it isn't the end of the world).

I find that if I add the glue to the patterned pieces it makes them harder to attach because they can be so small, fiddly and sticky!!  Nothing worse than sticky fingers and dinky bits of paper LOL!!!.

4.  I sometimes like to tickle my paper piecing with my Promarkers .. .. just to give it a bit of depth.

When paper piecing I sometimes just keep the image with the plain background and use that as the main focus on my creation and other times I cut the whole of my paper piecing out and use it as an embellishment .. .. as in my project today.

I hope that this helps.


If you decide to have a try at paper piecing as a result of my little tutorial please leave a comment here on this post to let me know as I would love to come and have a little look at what you have done.

I want this to be a happy friendly and sociable place to visit on a Monday .. .. so if you succumbed to any of the lovely goodies using your discount code last week I would love to hear what you bought .. .. and even see what you have done with your purchases in the weeks to come. 

Have a lovely Happy Handy Hippo Monday and don't forget to call back tomorrow to see if you were the winner of the £10 voucher!  Best of luck to everyone who took part.

Edited to say:

The winner of the £10 Voucher for spending at Handy Hippo has been passed to me by Kerry and the luck person is:

Ta da!!!

Clare of Littlebear Crafts

I have linked Clare's blog as I am sure you will want to have a peep at her fantastic projects.

Congratulations Clare .. .. I am sure you will find something super scrummy to spend your voucher on.  Have fun!

If you drop me an email Clare I can give you your instructions for spending your prize
(jules@halfwayhouse.force9.co.uk)

Love

(and all the lovely friendly people at Handy Hippo)