Be Natural

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge #156

Getting ready for the SPCA of Wake County 3K Dog Walk with the Hubs and the pups, but I wanted to post this card as it is for the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge, which ends today.  When I saw the inspirational photo I knew what I wanted to do.  I have had the background patterned paper for ages and when I saw the photo at Cupcakes I immediately knew I was going to use that paper.

A very long time ago I attended a scrapbook fair with some friends and one of the tutorials was paper piecing in which we learned to paper piece a frog.  Mind you, this was a good 10 years ago, and I could not find that frog for the life of me!  So, I had to go on memory, which isn't all that keen these days.  However, I think my little frog is pretty cute.  I used three different sized circle dies for his body, head, and eyes; oval dies for his legs; and his toes are toes from a dog paw punch.  I embossed his body and head with the Cuttlebug tiny dot folder.  His mouth is about 1/3 of a circle cut and then I edged the bottom half of it with brown ink to make his smile.  His eyeballs are black pearl gems. The lily pad I also made from circles cut and then I just cut on side out  of it.

The background behind him is glitter mist and homemade glitter mist sprayed on white cardstock.  I then stamped the branches all over 3/4 of the paper to make the water reeds.  The dragonflies are a stamp from the bargain bin at Michaels.  I stamped them on white cardstock, colored them in with copics, sprayed a little pearl glimmer mist and cut them out to make them pop out on the card.  And....looking at my photo, I see one of the dragonflies' heads is tucked underneath!  Ok, guess I will have to fix that before putting it in the mail.  So much for careful proofing before photographing!  LOL

SPIES:
Stamps:  Sentiment (Prima, I think). Dragonflies (G Studio); Reeds (Inkadinkadoo).
Paper:  Brown, white and light blue cardstock.  DP from stash.
Ink:  Staz On Timber Brown.  Copics (on dragonflies).  Blue Skies and Pearl Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels); Golden brown and coastline blue homemade glimmer mist from acrylic paint.
Extras:  Postage stamp border punch (Spellbinders); circle and oval dies(Sizzix); dog paw punch (EK Success).Deckled Rectangle die (Spellbinders); small dot emboss folder (Cuttlebug).

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!