Hello, it’s Karen here and I’ve got a Valentines Day card today that I think is a masculine one. Every year I get excited about making some pretty pink and red Valentines cards with hearts and flowers, but come Valentines Day, none of these seem appropriate for my husband! So I tried hard not to get out the pink and reds for this one, except for a wee pop of pink on the inside.
I used the cutest frogs I could find, which were the “Frogs” stamp set from Gerda Steiner Designs and I used copic markers to colour them in (YG11, YG03, YG17 and G20. For the spots, G94, YG67). I had a background already made on my gel press so I used that for the background. I just ran it through a geometric 3D embossing folder from We R Memory Keepers after I had stamped on the sentiment which is from the Frogs stamp set. There is actually much more dimension on this card than the above image shows. The white frame is the Wood Frame from Hero Arts and once I had that attached, I adhered the card front to the base.
For the heart, I dabbed the wet edges in some Distress Oxide ink in Tumbled Glass, Old Paper and Evergreen Bough. On the back, I spritzed the center with water and then carefully tore a hole in the heart. From the front, I kept pulling back the edges until I had a big enough hole for the frog to come out of. I was hoping to make it look like the frog was bursting out of the heart. After attaching the frog and his hands, I mounted the heart on foam adhesive and attached it to the front. Finally, I added some alcohol ink acetate hearts to make it look like the hearts were falling out of the bigger heart.
On the inside, I used some packaging acetate to cut a 1/2 - 3/4” wide strip for the frog to be mounted on, and used another small piece to attach some hearts in an arc above the fogs’ head. I attached all of the acetate with double sided tape and then glued a second diecut behind the frog to sandwich in the acetate.
For the border, I used two pieces of cardstock, each with a scoreline I made at 1/4” from the bottom, and die cut a cattails border. The back piece needs to be a reverse image, so I diecut this with the wrong side of the cardstock facing up. This border can be anything you want - I think grass, hills or even a heart border would be fun. When I had the border cut, I turned the flaps to the back and creased them with a bone folder. I placed 1/8” double sided tape along the flap. Next, I adhered the leaping frog to the back border piece, glueing it where it touched the grass, and using double sided tape at the bottom. Then I glued the front border to the back border by only glueing together the top third to half of the borders. You need to leave the bottom unattached so it will form the pop up. I stamped my inside sentiment next. Finally, I opened the flaps of both borders so they were straight, removed the backing from the adhesive on the back border, and lined it up so the edge ran along the inside crease on the top half of the card. After pressing it down, I removed the backing on the adhesive on the front border, closed the card and pressed down to make sure it was adhered.
These inside pop up cards are really easy to do and they add so much fun to the inside of a card. I love that extra little surprise the recipient gets when they open the card. Thanks for joining me for this card and I hope you’re having a great day!
