Ahoy Matey!

Next week my Nephew Josh will be celebrating his fourth Birthday and like many four year old boys he is actually a blood thirsty pirate, the scourge of the Caribbean who only goes to school on his days off!

With that in mind I created a birthday card using some plain card stock a set of circle Framelits dies (Circles #2 by Paula Pascual - 658684) and a pair of scissors, Here's how I got on!

I love working with circle dies, they are so versatile and with a few simple techniques you can get some wicked results. If you want to find out more follow this link and look at the simple shapes section.

I started by cutting out the circles to make the bandanna  head and ear, I cut the red and white circles roughly in half and used strips of the white semi circle to decorate the red semi circle.

To make an earring I cut a small silver circle and placed a smaller Framelits die onto the circle to cut an offset aperture, snip through the top and attach to the ear. Next, I die cut a black circle, folded it in half and used a pair of scissors to cut two semi circles, these will eventually form a very sinister moustache!

To make the eye I cut two different sized circles one black and one white, attached them together and cut them in half. To make the eye patch, I cut a black circle and trimmed away the top before attaching to a strip of black card. For the pirates Bandanna knot and nose I die cut a red and cream circle and then re-cut them with the same dies to create the leaf shapes.

Now its time to assemble the pirate. I began by gently curling the nose and Moustache and attaching with PVA. The eye was attached with a 3D foam pad followed by the eye patch. Finally I used another 3D foam pad to attach the ear to the head.

The 'Cap'n Joshua' poster was created using my PC and printer, after trimming to size I used my scissors to make it look old and care worn in a pirate styley! The base card was made from wood effect card from the My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline Collection and I used a craft knife to trim the edges to imitate rough boards.

TOO MUCH FUN! I'm sure you'll agree?