Hippo Birdie to You!

Ellen Hutson's current challenge at The CLASSroom is a "Mix It Up" challenge with Mama Elephant. The idea is to combine one or more products from Mama Elephant & the Essentials by Ellen line in a project. I decided to make this shaker card for one of my mom's assistants, whose birthday is next month.

I die cut a frame from a piece of paper from Echo Park's "Fine & Dandy" 6x6" patterned paper pad, using 2 Simon Says Stamp "Stitched Rectangles" dies. I also used the larger die to cut a piece of pink cardstock, and a piece of acetate. I adhered the acetate to the back of my frame with my ATG gun. For the backer piece, I used one of the "On Point Borders" stamps by Mama Elephant, to stamp a pattern on the pink cardstock panel, with Hero Arts Bubble Gum ink.

For the front of the card, I stamped the hippo, birdie, hat, and one of the balloons from "Wish Big," from Essentials by Ellen. I colored them with my Zig Clean Color pens, and fussy cut them out. To "regain" the hippo's tail, I stamped the tail & part of his rump on my frame. I also stamped the bird's feet on the hippo's back, since I'd had to cut his feet off, too. (I promise, neither one screamed! LOL)

To assemble my shaker, I used Ranger Multi Medium Matte to glue a few sequins to the backer piece, just so everything won't be in the bottom of the shaker when the card is stood up. I added 2 layers of foam tape to the back of the frame, making sure to butt them up closely, so none of the sequins or seed beads would fall out. After treating the acetate & edges of the foam tape with my powder bag, to cut down on static cling & neutralize the adhesive on the sides, I filled my shaker with a mix of sequins by Doodlebug Design & some seed beads from my stash. Since I've tended in the past to overfill my shakers, I purposely restrained myself from doing so this time. In the end, I think I could have put a little more in, but it still works. Finally, I carefully removed the liner papers from the foam tape, and adhered my backer piece to that.

I used Perfect Paper Adhesive to glue my images to the front of the shaker. I made a pompom for the hat from some embroidery floss, and glued it down with a dollop of Ranger Multi Medium Matte. I also used Multi Medium to glue a piece of baker's twine so the birdie looks like he's holding the balloon. Then I set that aside to dry while I did the greeting.

I die cut a piece of pink cardstock using one of the new "Mini Tags" dies from Pretty Pink Posh. I had already cut the "Hippo Birdie to You!" greeting (also from "Wish Big") apart for a previous card, so I just lined the stamps up, one on top of another, on my acrylic block. I then stamped the greeting on my tag in Versafine Onyx Black ink.

After the glue had dried on my pompom & balloon string, I used more Perfect Paper Adhesive to adhere the greeting tag. I cut a piece of yellow cardstock to 4.25x5.5", and mounted that to a white A2 card base, then adhered my shaker to that. And that finished this card! When my mom "commissioned" this card, she told me that her assistant likes shaker cards, so hopefully she'll get a kick out of this!

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door "Anything Goes"
Pile It On #95: "Any Holiday/Celebration"