Woodland Wonder Valentine’s Day Card

Woodland Wonder Valentine’s Day Card

Woodland Wonder Valentine’s Day Card closed

Woodland Wonder Valentine’s Day Card opened

One of the nice things about having grandchildren is looking through the Stampin’ Up! catalogs and contemplating stamp sets that I would have barely noticed before.

That was certainly the case with the Woodland Wonder stamp set found in the Jan-June Mini Catalog.

I would have said to myself, “that is really cute, but what would I use it for?”

Now that we have grandchildren, I look at stamp sets like this with fresh eyes.

I immediately knew I had to have this set!

Perfect for our animal-loving grandchildren!

I used it to create a Valentine’s Day card for our 1 1/2- year-old grandson, Ryan.

It took a little time, but all in all, it came together pretty easily.

Woodland Wonder Valentine’s Day Card

Here’s how:

1. Start with a 4″  x 11″ piece of Whisper/Basic White card stock, scored at 5 1/2″ and 8 1/4″.  It’ll be easier to stamp if you don’t fold it along the scorelines yet.
2. You will build your tree using the different images of the stamp set.  You can certainly stamp free hand (the stamp set is photopolymer, so it is relatively easy to line up the images), but using a Stamparatus is a big help, especially if you need to ink and stamp multiple times to get dark color.
3. For this card, I started with the base of the tree image.  Using the Stamparatus, I stamped it on the bottom of my card front using Early Espresso ink.
4.  Keeping the stamp on the Stamparatus plate but moved the plate up one notch so the bottom of the stamp would line up with what was already stamped.  The trick here is to ink just the tree trunk and not the grass.  If it helps, place a piece of scotch tape over the grass, ink up the stamp, REMOVE the tape, and then stamp.  Repeat if needed to get a dark stamped image.
5. Remove stamp and replace it with all the cute animal images, lining it up with what has already been stamped.  Stamp using Early Espresso ink.
6. Next, remove stamp and replace it with the image of the top of the tree, lining it up with what has already been stamped.  Stamp using Early Espresso ink.
7. Color image using Stampin’ Blends, Stampin’ Write Markers or watercolor pencils.  I used a variety of each.  Remember, when using Stampin’ Blends, the color will bleed into the back of the card stock.  I did not want that to show through onto the bottom panel’s back side, so I used Stampin’ Write Markers to color the bottom part of the tree trunk and grass.  It was not a concern for the rest of the images, as I knew they would be backed by the Real Red card base.
8.  Stamp the rabbit, banner, greeting, butterfly, music notes, and clouds. I used the Stamparatus for the rabbit, banner and greeting.  The other images were stamped free hand. Stamp the string for the balloon using the Stamparatus.  I used Stampin’ Write Markers to ink just the string and bow as I did not want the balloon to be part of the design.
9. I stamped the Valentine’s Day greeting using the retired stamp Teeny Tiny Wishes.  This was stamped free hand as the stamp is on a woodblock.
10. Punch hearts using a small punch out of Real Red and Flirty Flamingo card stock.  Attach to the top of the string images using Mini Dimensionals to pop them up.
11. Fold card along the score lines, bringing up the bottom panel to meet the card’s top part.
12. Attach a piece of ribbon to the back of the card front, bringing the ends to the front.  Attach the card front to Real Red card base.  Tie a bow on the ribbon to keep the card closed.