Doodling Bunnies with BoBunny Alissa

Not your everyday picture frame... I'd like to share the altered project I submitted for the BoBunny design team application. It came about from a project call (until I reread it again this evening, and see the magazine is asking only for cards, not home decor), but nonetheless - and Easter project was my first prompt. Then it was a matter of rummaging through my bin of "things to alter someday". Do you have one of those? I found the naked 9x9 picture frame by DecoArt and a Lenten calendar in place of a photo immediately came to mind. If you are not sure what a Lenten calendar is, it is a liturgical season used by mainline churches that consists of 40 days plus 6 Sundays - beginning on Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter Sunday. This project is a spin-off of the more commonly known Advent Calendar.

The idea is to let the children take turns tearing off each day during the season, accompanied by perhaps a reading of scripture. I used to work in a Lutheran church and we ordered devotionals geared for the 40 days of Lent - something like that would be a great accompaniment for this calendar.

I created the desktop calendar as a gift, and thought it too pretty to be useful for only 6 weeks out of the year. I downloaded 2010 PDF files of a 2010 calendar, sized them to fit the frame opening, and stitched together the 12 months of the year for a year long gift.


Because the calendar was created for Easter, and because my friend likes bunnies, AND because a few bunnies just might catch the eye of those reviewing applicants for the design team call (hey, I know the competition will be stiff and I have to try to make my projects stand out!) - I figured a few pink bunnies on my project would be really cute. I looked for a stamp, looked for an image on line - nothing offered filled the vision I had in my head. As is usual, when I have a vision and cannot find what I am looking for, I set about to making it on my own. This project actually motivated me to sketch out an actual animal - took my back to high school art class. (LOL)

All summer long a cottontail rabbit has been grazing by our deck each morning, and we see him as we have breakfast. I used the image of this bunny as my model to get a basic bunny shape, sketching it out on chipboard. I then cut the chipboard and used it as a pattern to create four bunnies - cutting ears separate and attaching them with glue dots. A little bit of pink Ranger Stickles in the center ear on the foreside, and a few bends in the ear add to its cuteness. I had some Maya road "puff ball" ribbon in my stash, and snippets of it made a perfect fluffy bunny tail. A Sakura glaze pen and Kaiser black gem add facial features.


One last thing to share - I love the look of BoBunny dot ribbon threaded through a button. However, it is quality, thicker ribbon and can pose a bit of a challenge. Tools to help in this process include: 1. a sharp scissors -start with an angled end on the ribbon, cut to a fine point; 2. Have a tweezers handy so that once a smidgen of ribbon comes through to the front of the button, you can latch on to it and PULL with the tweezers; 3. have a fine tipped tool available to help "stuff" the ribbon through the hole. One might automatically think "paper piercer", but its sharp point merely goes through the fabric of the ribbon. I have an old embossing tool, of which one end has a quite small rounded tip -which works great for "ribbon stuffing". (LOL) I have since acquired an EK Embosser which I love for rub-ons and embossing, but hang on to my original tool, which is simply re-purposed.



Here is a rundown of supplies used in this project:
Cardstock, flowers, acrylic bracket frame, black polka-dot ribbon, brads, buttons: BoBunny Press
Frame: DecoArt
Glitter Medium: Sparkle Mod Podge, Green and Pink Stickles by Ranger
Paint: DecoArt
Monthly calendar: PDFs downloaded from the internet
Lenten Calendar: author’s design
Cut-out bunnies: author’s design
Puff ball ribbon: Maya Road
Black gem stickers: Kaiser Crafts
Pen: Black glaze by Sakura
White Pearls: Mark Richards
Inks: ColorBox fluid chalk ink
Other: thread, tulle

Note, if you try to make this on your own, that the 46 pages of the Lenten calendar are too thick for a standard sewing machine. I used my Coluzzle to punch holes in the corners (in three groupings - use binder clips to keep your stacked pages tight together), and then used pretty BoBunny brads to secure the calendar pages to a piece of chipboard, covered with black cardstock.
Did you know that we have now passed the half way mark of 2009 - and Christmas is that much closer? I hope this project has inspired you - perhaps you have a frame sitting around, waiting to be altered, that would make for a great desktop calendar. Go on, create!