Oliver is about to turn two, and I was thinking of throwing him a ‘zoo animals’ party theme this year. When I started looking around my local scrapbook store for ideas, I came across the excellent QuicKutz Animals Idea Book pictured above, and it got me thinking Martha Stewart style… along the lines of “I can make the cupcake toothpick-y things and goodie bags and invitations and it will all be so cute and easy and I will be the best most creative mother on the block!”
Now, of course all of this is not quite as easy as it looks. I already had the QuicKutz Squeeze Personal Die-Cutting System. I then purchased the lion, giraffe, monkey, and elephant die cuts (Animals Die Cuts) required for the projects in the Animals Idea Book, but for the life of me there is no way I can replicate some of the crafty ideas described. For example, some of the animals have several die cuts that make up one complete animal, which basically equals small, small pieces, and some of these small pieces require a neurosurgeon to put them all together on a toothpick! Luckily, I know that my local scrapbook store staff are an excellent resource and will be able to give me ideas on how to make the toothpick idea work. Also, it really bugs me that QuicKutz has several key animal parts on the same die (like the elephant tusks on the same die as the elephant’s head). This means that if you want your elephant to have white teeth and its head to be grey, you have to use the head/teeth die on two different colours of (wasted) paper to get your final product. So … be patient and ready to problem solve, but also to create beautiful and original cards, goody bags, and cake toppers for your child’s party.
The Squeeze Personal Die-Cutting System starts at about $80 USD, but look for sales on-line and through your local craft stores as I purchased mine with an alphabet die set for about $30 CAD. The Animals Idea Book costs $1.99 USD, with the separate animal die cuts starting from $12.99 USD each.
