52 Mantels: Gimp Trimmed Bunny Art {by Little Miss Celebration!}

February 22, 2013

Hi everyone! I’m Cindy from Little Miss Celebration and I am beyond excited to be sharing a project here at 52 Mantels! It was so sweet of Emily to have me here today. I’ll bet a lot of you are just like me and SO ready for Spring! It’s totally not too early for some cute, Spring art that could be perfect on your Spring or Easter mantel, or a bright spot of color for your wall. I happen to love pink and green, though you can put this project together in your favorite, Spring colors. The real star of our project is this whimsical, textured bunny, made with Chinese gimp and sporting a bright, colorful bow. He’s super easy to make with our template, so let’s get started!

Here’s what we need for our bunny:

Bunny template (Open, save and print the full-sized template here. Bunny Template)
Medium weight chipboard or heavy cardboard
About 3 /12 yards of Chinese Gimp (Purchased at Joann; I bought mine in white, but it’s available in cream. It was $1.49/yard and I used a 40% off coupon!)
Low temp glue gun and glue sticks
About 24” of 1” satin ribbon (I used a bright, two toned Spring green!)

Print and cut out your bunny template. Trace the bunny onto medium weight chipboard.

Chipboard can be a challenge to cut! Here’s a little tip that’s worked well for me. Trim your chipboard with scissors about 1 ½ inches from your cutting line. Make small cuts, almost to the cutting line, all around the bunny. This way, you’ll be cutting smaller sections and not putting as much pressure on the chipboard. Don’t worry if it’s not perfectly cut, we’re covering up the whole outer edge with gimp!

Here's a photo of our pretty, Chinese gimp.

Keeping your gimp uncut, put a thin line of hot glue on the very edge of the chipboard bunny and press your gimp into the glue, allowing the gimp to come off the edge of the chipboard. Glue a continuous line of gimp all around the bunny. Here’s the first row finished.

Continue gluing a second row of gimp right next to the first row and go all around the chipboard bunny again. Keep gluing in a continuous row; when you can’t go around an area, like the ear, just leave it and come back and fill in any open areas with another piece of gimp.

Continue gluing around in a circle on the “tummy” section until the bunny is completely covered with gimp. You can layer it a bit in the center, however you like it, to add texture. This is how the finished,
gimp covered bunny looks.

Take your satin ribbon, tie it around the neck area of the bunny and finish into a bow at the front. Our little bunny is finished! Isn’t he cute?

This wall art is quick and easy to put together. I used a 12” x 12” artist canvas and the same sized scrapbook paper. I used a bright, pink piece from Anna Griffin’s Isabelle collection and Mod Podged it onto my canvas. Since NOTHING is ever really even, once the Mod Podge was completely dry, I tried a little excess paper with a craft knife. I found these cute foam stickers at Joann’s! I added a little Stickles in matching colors to the eggs for a little sparkle. For the grass, I cut two layers of green cardstock and two layers light green, sparkle cardstock. I made it “grassy,” with cuts using my Martha Stewart fringe scissors. I alternated the plain and sparkle green layers and glued all together.

I used some pink piping to trim all around the edge of the paper and just hot glued it to the canvas. After gluing the grass, I add a few Stickled eggs into the grass and a couple of sparkly carrots. I used some white, Heidi Swapp lowercase chipboard letters to spell out “Some Bunny Loves You” and added a few gems in the center of the o’s. I glued our cute, gimp trimmed bunny on and the piece is done!

I just love how bright, colorful and cute this piece turned out and he’s going to be the first piece on my Spring mantel! I hope you like this little bunny and I would love to see what projects YOU make with it! I have had the best time being here today with all of you! A warm welcome to each of you to visit me at Little Miss Celebration any time! A big hug and heartfelt thanks to Emily!

A little about me:

I am a wife and mother of a fabulous son and daughter, both in their twenties. I love holidays and celebrations of all kinds and making, baking and growing things for all of them. Rediscovering craft products and techniques from the past and putting a fresh spin on them for today is another thing I love to do on my blog. Most of all, I LOVE sharing and encouraging everyone to find and express their own, special creativity. Life is about making friends, sharing and laughter, and I would love your visit to Little Miss Celebration!