Leopard Cards - Journey on the Wild Side with Wild Cats

I'm continuing my journey on the wild side by featuring some wild cats on my cards.  As with my zebra card (here), my giraffe card (here) and my tiger card (here) I'm using the same sketch, just varying the paper and color combination.  For my next two cards I wanted to show the wild side with a little elegance.  I elected to feature a leopard on these cards because of its sleekness (plus I had a leopard stamp and leopard print paper).  One of my leopard cards exudes sophistication with its rich color palette and subtle wild flair, while my second card exudes more poshness with a stylish wild flair.

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of my leopard cards I want to show you a few pictures of another crazy critter in our backyard.  I looked out of an upstairs window into my backyard and this is what I saw.

It's another chipmunk making his appearance.  He had to dig through a foot of snow to stick his head out above the surface.  When I saw his head pop out of the snow I thought "What the heck???" and I'm sure he was thinking the same thing when he finally reached the surface.

 

Once he crawled out of his hole he spent quite some time just looking around.  As I watched him I was thinking that he had better be careful because he looked like hawk bait sitting out there highlighted against the white snow.  He must have read my thoughts because he scampered across the snow to one of our shoveled paths and took off to explore the darker landscape.

The Making of My Leopard Cards

Card Statistics 

• Final Card Size: 5.5" tall x 4.25" wide
• Tools: Martha Stewart scoring board, Making Memories paper cutter, blending stumps, ruler, sponge pieces, Cowtown Stamps leopard stamp
• Materials: cardstock, animal print paper, cover stock, adhesive, gamsol, Stazon inks, Colorbox inks, Prismacolor pencils, Koh-I-Noor pencils
• You can purchase these cards in my Polished Moxie Etsy Shop: Leopard Card in Red and Leopard Card in Pink

Card Fronts

This is my "sophisticated" leopard card.  I've created the base card from a deep red cardstock and layered it with a realistic leopard print paper and black cardstock.  I think the color palette gives it a rich and elegant feel.

For the image panel I stamped the leopard on white cardstock with black ink.  I pulled out several of my wildlife books to look at leopards in the wild and colored my leopard to reflect those in the pictures using gamsol and colored pencils.  After coloring the leopard, I sponged a combination of colors around him to mirror the overall color scheme.  Upon completion of the image, I matted it with deep red and black cardstocks.  I popped the image panel off the surface of the card to add a little dimension to its front.

My second card is similar to the first except in color palette.

This is my posh and trendy leopard card because of its pink coloration.  I used brown ink to stamp the leopard and then took some artistic liberty and colored the leopard in pink hues.  Also, I matted the image on black cardstock only.  Same leopard stamp, same sketch, but a very different feel to the card.


Angle Views of Card Fronts to Show Dimension

 

The pictures above show the dimension added to the cards by popping the image panels off the surfaces of the cards.  You can also see the color variations in both of the leopards.


Inside Cards

 

The inside of the cards I created from white cardstock matted on black cardstock and decorated with a strip of the leopard prints.

I also constructed a coordinating envelope for each card from heavy cover stock and added a decorative strip of the leopard print down the left side.


Final Cards and Envelope Combos

 

I think each of these cards have their own personality even though they utilize the same image and sketch.

You can purchase these cards in my Polished Moxie Etsy Shop: Red Leopard Card and Pink Leopard Card


Card Recipe Specifics

• Cardstock: Wausau, The Paper Company, Embassy
• Animal Print Papers: Me and My Big Ideas
• Cover Stock: Staples
• Leopard Stamp: Cowtown Stamps
• Inks: Stazon black and timber brown, Colorbox petal points
• Prismacolor Pencils for Red Leopard Card: white, cream, dark umber, sepia, spanish orange, terra cotta, burnt ochre
• Koh-I-Noor Pencils for Red Leopard Card: 8750/23 dark brown, 8750/11 light brown, 8750/21 yellow
• Prismacolor Pencils for Pink Leopard Card: mineral orange, cream, terra cotta, spanish orange, burnt ochre, warm gray 50%, warm gray 90%
• Koh-I-Noor Pencils for Pink Leopard Card: 8750/23 dark brown, 8750/11 light brown, 8750/5 green
• Tools: Martha Stewart scoring board, Making Memories paper cutter, blending stumps, sponge pieces, ruler
• Misc: gamsol, adhesive silicone

 

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