A Rainbow of BoB Ribbon! (Give Away Thread)

Thanks for visiting Colorfully Creating. If you have hopped over from the BoBunny blog, ACOT or Scrapbook.com - welcome! Before I get started with today's project I want to announce that everyone who is a FOLLOWER of my blog will be put in a drawing to win BoBunny's new PARADISE collection! The drawing will take place when I reach 100 followers, OR when the new product arrives at my door from BoBunny. Happy mail for me means happy mail for you is sure to follow!

Our daughter, Abby, is seven, and the subject of many of my scrapbooking projects. She has a wonderful imagination, is almost always doing something artsy, writes and illustrates short stories, loves to read - especially of horses and unicorns, and has the best horse neigh I have ever heard - they come running when she neighs! Some of my favorite moments are putting her to bed at night, and starting our day together in the morning. I love our conversations, and one that especially stood out was her recent excitement of a dream in which unicorns had wings and were flying around her room with butterflies and birds.

Today's project preserves that conversation in a project that also graces her bedroom door. I wrote a little poem about her dream, her talent and imagination, and created a door hanger that includes all of the things she loves: winged unicorns, birds, butterflies, pretty ribbons and as much bling as I could come up with. The poem is printed on Love Bandit "Bee Mine" paper prior to being punched with a 3" scallop circle punch. The tree trunk is made from layered strips of Coffee Dot cardstock, each strip inked, and stitches added for extra dimension.

Supplies Used:
Bo Bunny products
Cardstock: Coffee, Sunflower Dot
Blush Cascading Album – last page
Ribbon: Wild Berry, Burnt Orange, Buttercup, Clover, Brilliant Blue, Concord, Aquamarine
Persuasion papers: Persuasion paper, Combo stickers – alphabet
Love Bandit – Bee Mine paper, Combo Stickers Alphabet, U Stole My Heart rub-ons (birds)
Persuasion and Love Bandit Buttons & Bling
Stamp & Store Fancy Frills
Other:
Chipboard Unicorn shape: Magistical Memories
Ink - Colorbox Fluid Chalk Ink
Embossing Powder: Ranger Poly Sparkle, Stampendous
Paint: Lumiere Sunset Gold by Jacquar, Liquitex Titanium White
Glitter Mist: Glimmer Mist Golden Terra Cotta
Thread: Sulky Metallic Monofilament, Coats & Clark
Staples: Making Memories
Craft felt

Some ideas to note about this project... I used the last page of a pink BoBunny Edgy album as a base, and coated it first with a sparkle medium. The grid side of Persuasion patterned paper was used on top of the album page, and stitched along outside edges for added durability - as the project is intended for a "high traffic" area in our home.

HOW TO:
1. Utilize the last page from BoBunny's pink “Edgy album” as the base. Paint with sparkle Mod Podge if extra bling is desired. Chipboard page measures approximately 5” x 11.25”.

2. From Persuasion patterned paper trim section 4 5/8” x 10.25”. If desired, stitch around edges with brown thread, ink edges, and adhere to Edgy page using Mod Podge. Note: Some machines may be heavy duty enough to stitch through the notably thick chipboard of an Edgy page, but I did not want to risk it.

3. Use circle templates, or round items to sketch rainbow onto thin chipboard or white cardstock. I used the medium and small circle templates of my Creating Memories set. However, on the smaller, inside circle I widened the base on each side of the rainbow. My chipboard arch measures approximately 4” wide and 2.5” high. This piece will serve as a base to assemble the ribbon strips onto.

4. Gather 3/8” Double Dot ribbons in the colors of the rainbow: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. I opted to fold the ribbons as I went around the arch, beginning with purple on the inside and working my way around to the red. Perfection is not necessary in regards to equal spacing between the folds. Folds will help you angle the ribbon to follow the arch shape. You may secure with temporary adhesive, if planning to stitch into place, however, your needle can eventually become sticky and I found it best to work slowly and deliberately while sewing on each ribbon. Monofilament thread was used to give the rainbow sparkle. If you do not wish to sew, a strong double sided tape should work quite well for this application. Set rainbow aside.

5. If you wish to have a tree with a quote or phrase on the door hanger, pre-print onto a piece of 4x6 Love Bandit “Bee Mine” paper, green side up. (length may be determined by what works best with your specific printer.) Use a 3” scallop circle punch or other, and punch with the text in the center. Punch a second shape if desired if you would like to add offset dimension to your tree top. (Option: A rub-on phrase or sticker may also be used to add text to the tree top.) Set tree top(s) aside.
6. To create the tree trunk cut several strips from Coffee Dot cardstock approximately 3” in length and 1/4” - 3/8” wide. (This is a great opportunity to utilize skinny scraps of brown cardstock!) Ink edges brown for even greater dimensional effect. Assemble tree trunk by layering the brown strips about 1/25” from bottom scallop of Edgy album page. Position so that the tree top(s), once centered on the trunk, will hang off the side of the door hanger just a little bit. Stitch tree trunk if desired – this really gives it a wonderful “bark” appearance.

7. Add tree tops, dotting scallops with green bling if desired. If you would like to add birds to your tree top, rub the “U Stole My Heart” rub-on birds onto a piece of Persuasion, blue grid side, and cut out with micro tip scissors. The reason I chose to rub on the grid paper was to allow my cut-out to be imperfect, yet it would blend into the grid paper background. Yes, there is a method to my madness! (LOL) Note that one bird is positioned on the front of the tree top with one piece of foam adhesive, whereas the bird on the right is positioned behind the first tree top, with 2 stacked pieces of foamed adhesive. The tree is now complete!

8. Onto the unicorn – paint a Magistical Memories Unicorn from the Retro Set (rainbow, cloud and unicorn) white. Depending upon the thickness of your paint, two coats may be needed. Use gold embossing powder to paint hooves and horn gold. If you do not care to heat emboss use a gold Krylon paint instead. Coat the unicorn with sparkle Mod Podge and add tiny blue gem at this time – the Mod Podge will also serve as adhesive to keep the eye in place.

9. Use white craft felt to fashion yourself a couple of white clouds and two wings for the unicorn. Remember that clouds and wings are not perfect shapes – clouds are puffy and feathers on wings can have a ragged appearance – play with it until you have a shape you are happy with. (Optional: to add more detail to the wings I stitched curved lines with monofilament thread.) The wings are stitched onto the unicorn chipboard, with one in front and one in back, offset a bit so both wings are visible from the front. Coat both the clouds and wings with sparkle Mod Podge, if extra bling is desired. Place a small foam adhesive square/dot between the two wings to give space between them and angle the top wing outward.


10. Use a 2” circle punch to make “sun” from Sunflower Double Dot cardstock. I chose to mist mine with Terracotta Gold Glimmer Mist by Tattering Angels, which broadens the warm color range. The edges are lightly inked in brown.

11. Cut an 8” piece of 5/8” Wild Berry Double Dot ribbon to use as the hanger. Use tape to hold in place and test on a door knob to ensure the loop created is large enough. Once the right length is determined, staple the ribbon into place. I recommend using two staples on each side to ensure the ribbon is secure.

12. Now that the unicorn, rainbow, clouds and sun are all made, it is time to position the pieces onto your “canvas”. Feel free to set them down, move them around and play a bit before securing permanently. Foam adhesive squares were used on all items except for the rainbow, which is glued chipboard backside direct to blue grid paper. Note the sun has foam adhesive on the upper portion only as bottom is tucked behind rainbow, and the clouds have stacked foam adhesive for extra lift.

13. Add strip of 5/8” Aquamarine Double Dot ribbon along the bottom, decorating with Buttons and Bling from Persuasion collection. Note: Because I had stitching around the blue grid paper, I chose to run the ribbon through the sewing machine to place brown stitches down the center lengthwise, before adhering to the project. Turquoise staples were also used for added interest.

14. Use letter stickers from Persuasion and Love Bandit collections to add your child's name to the door hanger, and the word “room” if space is available and desired. Outline with fine point brown marker for extra definition.

15. If desired, fill some “holes” in the sky with little butterflies. The smallest butterflies in BoBunny’s Stamp and Store Fancy Frills set was used, along with Staz-On teal ink. One small butterfly was stamped on white cardstock and cut out to set upon the unicorn’s hindquarters, and a larger butterfly was stamped and cut out to alight onto the cloud. For a little extra sparkle, all butterflies were heat embossed with Poly Sparkle embossing powder. Other alternatives include painting over the top with sparkle Mod Podge, or Shimmerz paint in turquoise. (I had actually ordered this product with this project in mind, but it did not arrive in time.) Embellish the centers of the butterflies with small brown pearl stickers. Use a fine point brown marker to draw antennae on the butterflies stamped directly onto the blue grid paper.

With all winged creatures and beauties of nature in place, this door hanger is now ready to grace the entrance to the princess' room in your household.

If you have created a special project for a loved one using BoBunny products, please comment and share a link to your project. It can be older product or newer - it doesn't matter! From the comments there will be a random drawing to win LOVE BANDIT! Be sure you include a way for me to contact you. Anonymous winners have missed out before!

Happy Creating,
Rita S.