Hey! Hi there :) Carolyn Peeler with you today to walk you through a sweet, fun, stamped card. Today's project uses the INSANELY adorable "All inside" bear stamp set designed by Julie Ebersol for Essentials by Ellen. I have been dying to use this stamp set ever since it was released, and am so excited to finally share a project using it. Today's card is not only Clean and Simple (CAS) but is also adorable (so, I guess that would be CASAA clean and simple and adorable). Whaddoyathink? Do you think we can make that new acronym stick? hehe!
To get started, the first thing you'll want to do is cut out the sweet adorable bear with watercolor paper using your die cutting machine. (Quick tip: Usually, when I die cut an image like this, (a small critter which is being cut on watercolor paper) I will cut out a few at a time, so that next time I want to use the image I already have one cut and ready to go.) After cutting out the shape it's time to stamp the bear onto it. For today's card, I wanted the eyes and nose to be black, but the outline of the bear to be brown, so, when inking the stamp, I first inked the whole thing with Brushed Corduroy Distress ink, then, using the small, "Tuxedo Black" dew drop black inkpad, I used the tip to go in and ink the eyes/nose/mouth. You could also use a black marker if you prefer.
After you have stamped your bear onto your die cut shape, it's time to paint him! Using the Ranger Craft Sheet as your palette, smoosh Brushed Corduroy and Walnut Stain Distress inks onto your mat.
Now it's time to color the bear in. Mix the Distress ink with water and paint directly onto the bear. (Sorry, I forgot to take a photo of this step in action, so, here's another bear, who is not cut out for you to see the step in action.)
Now we're going to prep the background that will house our bear. First, using Solar White cardstock, cut the frame using the Mama Elephant Instalove Die. After it is cut out, use the heart die from the same set to cut the heart out of the bottom left of the frame. Using the same "Tuxedo Black" ink we used above, stamp the "hi, there" greeting from the stamp set onto the bottom right area of the insta frame. Find a small spare piece of pink cardstock, or patterned paper, and glue it underneath the frame so that it is behind the heart cut out.
Choose the solid paper, or cardstock that you would like in the background of the center of the Insta Frame. I used a beautiful, varigated paper from this Jen Hadfield DIY Home 6x6 paper pad. Cut your paper to size so that it is slightly larger than the hole in the center of the frame. Then, cut your stamped bear so that he is peeking out from the bottom of the frame. Finally, using the "Tuxedo Black" ink pad again, stamp the "HEY!" greeting above the bear.
In order to add some contrast to the greeting, fill the hollow of the "hey" greeting with Kuretake Gansi Tambi White Watercolor paint.
Cover the front of a 5.5" x 4.25" card front with pink dotted patterned paper from the Jen Hadfield DIY paper pad. Using pop dots, or other low profile adhesives, mount the completed frame and bear, centred,to the upper, front portion of your card and you're done! All that's left is to send the card to a friend.
Here's a link to the products used in today's project:
