Froggie Cards

I meet the most interesting people in StampNation! A few months ago I found out one of the Sistahs used to have her own stamp company, and she mentioned she had some stamps leftover and would be happy to send me some from her catalog. I looked through it and picked out what I considered to be a reasonable number of stamps, and in time they arrived on my doorstep. I offered to at least reimburse her for postage, and she said she'd love it if I would make a card using the stamps. And thus it began, one of the most detailed batches of cards I've ever made.

At first glance they don't look like much, but I used this project to practice coloring and shading as well as to practice creating a scene. Here's the first of four cards, my prototype for the rest:

I used ten of her stamps (plus a few of my own) to make this card front. (For other insanely curious people like myself who might have to know which ten, they are: the frog, two dragonflies, the flower with ladybug already on it, the "enjoy" sentiment, the grass, and the branch with three leaf clusters.) 

I started each scene by using Stampin' Up! inks (Wild Wasabi and Soft Sky) to lay down the background color. I used two sizes of scallop circle punches to create the clouds with a sponge. The most time-consuming part was creating grass that I could be proud of. I had one stamp of grass close to an inch long, and I used it to create hills and valleys, shadows and sunny spots.

The rest was coloring and fussy cutting, then mounting the images with Stampin' Dimensionals.

I experimented with a different froggie color on the fourth card since I was getting restless. Here's the inside of the card:

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Coming up next: Bendy cards! Oh, my... so much fun!

Froggie smiles,

Joyce Spear a.k.a. Stamper Joyce