Mama Elephant Bear Hugs Thank You Card

Hey everyone! This past week flew by! I hardly spent any time at my craft table! But, I did do some fun things - my husband and I shared a day off, so we went and got some ice cream and watched a movie together, I went out to lunch with a good friend, and I got some crafting orders done.

I had every intention of bringing this card and video to you last night, but I got some bad news. Not terrible - just financially bad news. My husband and I had to spend the night talking about ways to re-arrange our finances. Not fun. Unfortunately, it means cutting back on craftiness and picking up extra shifts at work. :( Don't worry! I plan on still using my existing supplies and crafting whenever I get the chance!

On to the card!

I purchased this stamp set from Mama Elephant (Bear Hugs) because the sentiments literally made me tear up! I just love them! I plan to use them for my Mother's Day cards as well. I started by stamping my bears, bees, and honey pots onto some cold press watercolor paper with Versafine Onyx Black ink. I used some Simon Says Stamp clear embossing powder over the ink. This helps my watercolors stay inside the lines - the powder acts just like a barrier. This is great for me because I'm still not that great with watercolors! I used multiple shades of brown for the bears. I watercolored them just like I would color them with markers. I started with my lightest shade of brown and then used my darker shades where I thought there would be shadows. Once they were dry I cut them out with scissors and used a black marker to go around the edges of the image.

I show my watercolor process in the video, but unfortunately I forgot to zoom in on my paper. It's pretty basic watercoloring, though!

I took all of my patterned papers from the Welcome Spring American Crafts paper pad. I used my Simon Says Stamp Stitched Rectangle dies to die cut all three patterns with the largest rectangle. I thought the yellow stripes looked just like rays of sun! I left the striped paper as is, but I used my My Favorite Things Stitched Snow Drifts dies to cut some hills from the leafy and flowery papers. I used the stitched rectangle die first so that the stitched detail would be on all sides of the hills.

I used tape runner adhesive to stick all the hills together and then started building my scene. I used a black pen to add some trails to the bees to give the appearance of movement.

I stamped all of my sentiments with Versafine ink. This card is going to my parents because they've been such a big help to me lately. I'm really trying to get a "big girl" job (I currently work as a waitress) and they've been instrumental in guiding me through applications. I thought all of the sentiments fit together perfectly! If I could do it again - I would reposition the "I look up to you" sentiment - I got it a little off center. But, I guess that's what happens when you make handmade cards! It's not in the video because I missed the teeny tiny stamp, but I ended up adding the "from your favorite" stamp. There are 4 kids in my family and even though we are all grown up, we still argue over who is the favorite kid :)

As a finishing touch I added some glitter with my clear Wink of Stella glitter pen to the yellow stripes and the flower paper. I used tape runner adhesive to stick the stitched panel to a white A2 card base. I didn't use any foam tape because this is going through the mail, but you could definitely add some for more dimension!

Here's the process video:

Thanks for stopping over! I have a few more cards planned for this week, so be sure to check back!