Clarence and the Watering Hole

 

I am so happy to have once again share a project with Tim Holtz Colorize. Clarence is the elephant from the Tim Holtz Chapter 2 2020 release and he is just adorable. This project is one that I'd had in mind since the first time I saw Clarence, so I originally posted it as a tutorial on the Sizzix blog back in 2020. But that blog is long gone and so is the tutorial.  I searched my archives and found it, so I thought I would post it here to help celebrate the 2026 re-release of Clarence and the addition of his little brother Mini Clarence.

Clarence reminds me of Colonel Hathi from Disney’s Jungle Book, but as I was considering a project with him, I kept thinking about the really cute scene in Disney’s Tarzan where they are all playing in the waterfall and the little elephant, Tantor, dips his toe in and says, “Is this water sanitary? It looks questionable to me!”

That scene is the thing that inspired this fun, themed piece. Every time I look at it I smile. I hope it makes you smile too. 

 

Here is a link to my video talk through of this tutorial if that would be helpful along with this written blog tutorial.

 

If you would like to make a similar piece, If you would like to make a similar piece, here is what you need to do:

1. You need the biggest two of the four Idea-ology vignette boxes.  Set these aside.
   
2. From Distress Watercolor Cardstock, cut all of the Cut Out Leaves twice. Set aside. 
   
3. Cut several of the grass and greenery dies from Funky Florals 1 from Distressed Watercolor Cardstock as well.
   
4. Cut two strips of Distress Woodgrain Cardstock to fit the long sides of the large Vignette Box and two to fit the small side of the box. Then cut the larger of the two smallest Stacked Tile squares in a diamond shape as shown. Three on the long sides and two on the short sides.
   
5. Cut 10 of the smallest Stacked Tile Squares from the Woodgrain Cardstock. You can cut them from the larger squares from step 4 if you would like. We won’t be using them. At this time go ahead and cut the Splat from Watercolor Cardstock. I cut an extra piece of the splat, the solid long inner piece.
   
6. I chose to use Distress Spray Stain to color my pieces. I started with the leaves. Put the paper in a Splat Box and then spray three different green colors on them.
   
7. As you can see, the green varies, which is what you want. Dry this side. 
   
8. Then flip the leaf papers over and spray the back with stain as well. You will see both sides of the leaves and they need to be green on both sides. 
   
9. Using some Mini Snip scissors, cut the leaves out of the paper. 
   
10. While you have the green stain out, color the other pieces of Funky Floral greenery as well so that you have a nice pile of greenery to use later on. I also used a blending tool to add some color to the edges of the greenery at this point. 
    
11. I took a few strips of watercolor cardstock and stained them with Barn Door, Walnut Stain, Rusty Hinge and Antique Linen. Cut out some of the Media Marks from these pieces. I cut the x, v and o shapes. We will use these later. At this time, I also colored the Woodgrain strips with Wild Honey and the small squares with Peacock Feathers. Lastly, at this point I colored the Splat and extra splat piece with three colors of blue, then sprayed them all with some Distress Resist Spray to add a little sheen. 
    
12. You want to attach the Wild Honey woodgrain strips to all four sides of the large vignette box. I adhered them with Distress Collage Medium. I took this opportunity to attach the smaller box to the center top of the larger box. I also used Distress Collage Medium for this too. It takes time for this to dry, so I set something heavy on top and left them to dry overnight.  
    
13. Once they were dry I adhered the Media Marks pieces in a pattern to give the base a tribal, folk art feel to it. You may notice the water on the piece now. We’ll talk about that in the next step. 
    
    
    
14. That extra piece of the Splat was adhered to the top of the large piece and the side of the smaller one. I trimmed the bottom of it so that it would line up with the front edge of the larger box, and the drippy bit folds up along the back.  
    
15. The whole Splat attaches to the top of the smaller box with the longest drippy bit falling down the side. To keep all of the pieces together, I cut an extra, large splat out of thin cardstock and then attached the separate pieces together on top of it so that when I bent it down the sides it didn’t have gaps between the pieces.  
    
16. Then using a craft knife, I cut two slits in the top box toward the back. These will hold two pieces of chipboard that I cut to fit into them to hold Clarence upright.  
    
17. I assembled Clarence according to the colors on the back of the dies and the shapes embossed on the pieces. Sizzix has a great assembly video that I recommend viewing before assembling the first time.                               Once assembled, the two pieces of chipboard were adhered to the back of Clarence coming out the bottom of his feet. I covered these by cutting a second Clarence base piece and adhering it to the very back of Clarence, sandwiching the chipboard in between. The slits should line up with the width and spacing of the chipboard pieces.  
    
18. Adhere the chipboard into the slits and secure with some Distress Collage Medium. The back foot will be slightly off the base, so cover it up with some of the greenery pieces. I did this by folding over the very bottom of the grassy bits and putting a bit of collage medium on them and then pressing them onto the box. This allows them to stand up and add dimension.  
    
19. Begin covering the sides of the top box with leaves. Bend them back to add dimension.  
    
    
    
20. Add more leaves in layers.  
    
    
    
21. You want the leaves to cover all sides of the box.
    
    
    
22. Include some greenery as you see fit as well.  
    
23. Clumps of greenery on the top add dimension and the feeling of a watering hole.  
    
24. It can also cover up little areas where Clarence is attached to the base. 
    
    
    
25.  Enjoy a little piece of the jungle.

Below are the products I found that are still available from this 6 year old make. I know that if you don't have an item you will be able to find something to substitute. Also, check out my more recent tutorial for Clarence - Paradise Found. It was inspired by this piece and I used some other dies for the box that are still available. 
Thank you so much for visiting my blog. I really appreciate your time and support!
Tami

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