Happy Earth Day!

Today was Earth Day and I decided to try out the "Give a Hoot" cartridge to make a card to celebrate.  I took a look through the sentiments available and settled on "Go Green" (this sentiment could also work for St. Patrick's Day!).

Here is the location of the sentiment.  All of the rest of the cuts for the frog are made by using this key and changing the special feature and shift keys.  I sized the sentiment at 1 1/2 inches and the rest of the cuts were made at 2 1/2 inches.  I did not alter anything in Design Studio and the elements can be cut without using the computer.  Design Studio is so helpful in allowing you to determine exactly how to cut and arrange your elements and saves you from wasting your good cardstock with cuts that turn out to be the wrong size.  So you could say by using Design Studio you are "going green!"

Here you can see how I figured everything out on my Design Studio mat.  It looks like a big mess but this is not the cutting page.  I just used this page to check on the sizing and to be sure I found all of the layers I needed for the frog.  The rectangle is sized at 5 1/2 inches wide by 4 1/4 inches tall to give me a guideline for a standard A2 card.  There are a lot of layers involved.  This cartridge is one with the new style of layering.  There are no tiny pieces to add - the eyes and mouth are cut into the layers and the background shows through.  This style of layering uses more cardstock and produces thick elements but it is very easy to do with no stress over losing tiny pieces before you can glue them down!

These are all of the layers I cut.  There is a shadow layer in dark green, a base layer in black (to show through as the eyes and mouth), two frog layers - one to add the front legs and the other is the top layer.  There is also a layer for the lily pad.  You do have to think carefully about which layer should be cut in each color to get the result you want.  I used Core'dinations cardstock for the green layers and DCWV glitter cardstock for the lily pad.

I also cut the sentiment in the same dark green and top layer green I used for the frog.  The background layer for my card is from the DCWV Glitter Spring mat stack from last year.  It is a wild design but I finally found a way to use it. I think it makes the card so bright and cheerful.  The flower at the top left looks like a sun.

After I layered all of the pieces I had a heavy chipboard like frog to place on the card.  I used foam squares to adhere it and add more dimension.  I inked the edges of the background layer with lime green and decided to use a yellow card base instead of the white I had originally chosen.

This is a simple card but you do have to do some thinking to get the colors and textures for the layers the way you want them.

I ended up using green glitter cardstock for the lily pad - since it is DCWV and has a white core you need to be sure to ink the edges.  I also inked the top layer frog with green but it does not show up very well in the photos.

I felt a little odd using so many layers of paper to make an "Earth Day" card.  It seems wasteful but it does make the assembly of the frog go much faster.  I will be sure (as always) to use my scraps carefully.