Baby Elephant Card DIY

I made this elephant card for a baby shower.

Materials:

• Card stock
• Pencil, eraser, black sharpie, black ink pen
• Pink, gray and yellow watercolor paint
• scissors

I cut out the card stock to approximately 10" x 6" and folded the long side in half.

The card stock was glossy on one side, which is the side I drew on.

I drew in pencil first, drawing broad strokes, mimicking a picture I liked.  I erased the lines that were off until it resembled my inspiration drawing.

I traced over the finished pencil drawing in sharpie.

I erased the pencil and painted the star balloon, ears and stars in pink and yellow respectively.

For the inside of the card, I draw a ladder with lines in pencil to designate where each letter of my well wishes will go and keep it level:

I begin drawing in black ink pen:

I add an exclamation mark with a heart, outline in black, paint the heart:

And that's all!  I love making cards for milestone events.  There's a certain pleasure that comes with making it myself, like giving a work of art on top of the gift!  I've experimented with different card types in the past, but I find that what works is drawing an illustration with sharpie and coloring it in, keeping it simple.  

Lamb Nursery Illustration

I made this Lamb Illustration as a gift for a one year old's birthday party:

The illustration is done on matte white card stock paper folded over a piece of cardboard.

Materials used:

• White glossy card stock, approximately 9.5" x 15" rectangle with flaps at outer edges, width of flaps bordering rectangle measuring approximately 4.8".
• Pencil, eraser, black sharpie
• Oil pastels (beige and pink), Q-tips and oil (I used canola oil) or alternatively, paint
• Lamb inspiration drawing
• Thin malleable wire
• Whole puncher
• Scissors
• Cardboard cut to approximately 9.2" x 14.7" (slightly smaller than the rectangle of card stock) to serve as support

I drew the lamb on the large rectangular face of the card stock (9.5" x 15").  I drew in pencil first, drawing large broad strokes until the drawing resembled the inspiration drawing, erasing lines in pencil which did not resemble the inspiration drawing.

I traced over the pencil drawing in sharpie when I was pleased with it:

I mounted the card stock over the cardboard before I started coloring to prevent smearing of the paint.  I folded the card stock over the cardboard according to the fit I wanted.  I used a hole puncher to make holes in the card stock and punched overlapping holes in the cardboard with the pencil tip.

I  laced the metal wire, from the cardboard up, and once the card stock was folded down over the cardboard, twisted the metal wire to press down the cardboard.

  I make a hook with the excess wire which I would like to use to hang the illustration.

Flip the illustration over, face up.  Erase the pencil marks once you have completed the sharpie outline and begin coloring in with the oil pastels (or paint if you prefer) I first fill in the illustration with white pastel as a base, to keep the final coloring from appearing too dark.  I color over with my colored pastels.  I am heavy handed with the pastel, to so as to not remove the pastel completely when I begin to smear it around.

Place a small amount of canola oil in a paper cup and dip the Q-tips in it.  Use this to smear the pastel and give it the effect of looking like paint.

I write in the name of the birthday girl, imitating typography I find online (that includes letters from A to Z to be able to have the complete letter set to imitate).  I draw a line in pencil to write the letters on and keep them level which I will then erase.  I write the letters in sharpie, though you can write in pencil first, as is done with the lamb, if you would like to practice before selecting the look you like:

You can color in the letters as you did the lamb.  I added in the numerals corresponding to birthday girl's birthday:

And there you have it!  I used pastel because I did not have adequate paint, though paint works just as well.  Find an inspiration picture you like and go with it!  Then it's ready to hang up in a nursery or toddler's room.  Enjoy!

Kraft Queen

Tiger DIY Finger Puppet

I discovered this unfinished puppet and decided to go ahead and finish it.  I had started making this tiger based on a request and remembered how straight forward and easy they are.  See my finger puppet blog entries for a more detailed account, but the gist is, using:

-White cardboard

-Pencil (to outline drawing)

-Black sharpie (to trace outline)

-Markers (of desired finished product colors)

You can create any finger puppet.  The trick is mimicking a drawing you like in pencil, to allow for error and then to go over the final product in sharpie.  This is what I made and the visual:

The Finished Product

And that's all folks, there you have it!  Put your own spin on it :).  

LJR, Kraft Queen.