Make It Monday: Froggy Thank You
Everyone deserves a little thank you now and then especially when they are kind enough to donate to a good cause. Today I’m going to show you how to make these adorable Thank You cards using the Ribbit Ribbit Die and Stamp Set by Avery Elle. These little guys were too cute to pass up when I was planning to make these cards!
Materials:
Disclosure Statement
Let’s prepare all of your papers first!
Grab a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock and cut to 4 1/4″ x 11″. Using a scoreboard, score the cardstock at the 5 1/2″ mark. Now you’ve made a standard A2 card size!
Taking the Create and Craft Satin Board, cut a mat that measures 4″ x 5 1/4″.
For your Canson XL, you’ll need a piece that measures 3 3/4″ x 5″ and one that measures 3″ x 4″.
Optional: For the interior, instead of leaving it white you could add some background papers (create an insert). In this case, your insert will need to be the same size as your card blank unless you wish to mat the inside as well.
Stamping Time!
It’s time to use your Precision Press! If you don’t
Using your Precision Press position your Canson XL 3″ x 4″ piece.
Now’s the time for your Avery Elle froggies! Place your frog of choice, and a lily pad. If you are making multiple cards, cut a larger piece of paper.
Ink it up!
Now that everything is in its place ink up your stamps with the Memento ink, and press firmly. You may want to repeat this process at least two or three times to get a nice crisp image. Note: Be sure to let your ink dry as it will smudge on this paper. Heat set if you need to.
Keep your Precision Press handy because we’re not quite finished yet! We’ll come back to do more stamping later on.
Color it in!
Let’s give our little guys some color! I’ll be using Prismacolor Premiere Softcore Colored Pencils in Apple Green, Grass Green, and Dark Green.
Start with the lightest color first, Apple Green. Fill it in completely. Be sure that when you are coloring, you work in small strokes. It makes for a better-colored image.
Using Grass Green go over the Apple Green. Doing this gives you the perfect color for this cute froggy!
Lastly, using Dark Green add shade. This will be on the outer edges and in the areas you believe will be the darkest. Be sure to blend your colors in well.
After finishing your frog, color in the lily pad. Now you want to use the same green colors, but you can use any color combination you want. For my lily pads, I used Grass Green and Dark Green.
Oh, and forget to fill in the mouth!
Cut ’em Out!
Align your dies with the matching images and tape them in place. Be sure to use a low-tac tape. I use Scotch Tape, and to make it less sticky I just stick it on the back of my hand a few times.
Run these through your die cutting machine. Here, I’m using my trusty Baby Blue! Can you tell I use this thing a lot? It’s portable, lightweight, but sturdy. It gets the job done every time! It’s my go to when I know I won’t be using any large dies.
For an extra punch, I shaped them with my Flower Shaping Mat and some Embossing Tools. Very easy to do, and adds an extra dimension to your project.
Back to Stamping!
Using your Canson XL position it on your Precision Press.
Arrange your frog and lily pad as you desire on the paper.
Using the Cat’s Tail stamp from the Avery Elle stamp set, position this on your page where you see fit.
Grab the grass stamps from the Dreamees stamp set and arrange these where you please.
While you still have the frog and lily pad positioned figure out where you would like your sentiment to be. I decided to use this Thank You sentiment from the Lots of Thanks, stamp set. It would be a good idea to stamp your sentiment before stamping the other elements.
After stamping your sentiment, stamp your accents.
Drawing the Pond!
This little froggy needs a pond to chill in! Let’s give him one, shall we!
Using a blue colored pencil of your choice draw a pond shape around the cat tail, and grass. Use these as your guidelines. Be sure not to draw lines through them.
Color this in. You can add shading with a darker color if you wish.
After shading, outline your pond with your Tombow N15 Dual Brush Marker. You can also use a Micron Graphic or any other felt tip drawing pen you wish.
Now you can color in your cat tail and your grass!
Assembly Required!
Now it’s time to put the card together!
Grab your card base, and start by matting
The next layer is going to be that lovely piece of stamp work you just finished! Adhere this with foam pads. Here’s a tip, if you’re using EK foam pads use the outside strips for this part. It’ll act for like foam tape than squares.
Don’t forget about your frog! Attach your lily pad and frog using foam pads.
On the inside, it’s all up to you. You can use a printed insert, stamp another sentiment, or even write a personal note!
ALL DONE!
Your card is complete! Good show! These instructions may seem a little tedious, but because this was my first card tutorial (excluding Violet Bear), I wanted to be as detailed as possible so in future tutorials I wouldn’t have to be so detailed, and new readers can just refer back to this post.
This card is a very special Thank You card because it is being made for those who donate to an organization close to my heart, DYNA. If you want to know more about DYNA, you can read this blog post. We have a very lovely lady who founded this organization, and right now our members are helping lighten the load. So we’re sending batches of Thank You cards, so she doesn’t have to do so much writing!
Note: If you’re wondering what the butterfly is, and why it’s not included in the tutorial let me explain. My sentiment decided to smear on me, so I had to cover it up, and the best way to conceal anything is to put a butterfly on it!
So I stamped a butterfly from the Dreamees Spring Sweeties set where the smeared occurred and used my Tombow to go over “you” where it had been stamped. This made sure that the butterfly looked like it was behind the sentiment. I then colored it in. You don’t have to do this unless you’re like me and make a boo boo. This is, however, an excellent way to cover up boo boos!
Hope everyone has a blessed day!