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

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Left Unsupervised -

If there is one thing you don't want to do, it's leave me unsupervised!

The Snarky Cats stamp set from Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous has turned out to be a real favorite. When I started making cards I decided to use several of them because they reminded me of my foster cat, Moose (pictured below) and his antics.

The background is made by blending Distress Oxides through the Tangled stencil using Distress Blending Brushes. They give a soft color but allow for the thin tangled threads to show.

Here is my foster cat Moose. He is so expressive!

See? This one immediately came to mind when I saw the stamps.

To make my card I wanted it to be interactive, but don't own any interactive dies or products, so I kind of Macguyvered mine. I don't recommend my way. There are plenty of dies and tutorials on line to teach you the proper way to do a pull card. I've linked some of the dies and things below, and here is a cute slider card done the proper way by Nicole Spohr.
Sadly, I didn't even take a picture or video of the interactive elements of this card for some reason, but if you pull a tab at the bottom of the card, this kitty moves down and reveals claw marks down the wall.

My interactive element on this one was a wobble. I have a link below to some wobbles. They are fun and allow the fussy cut cat to wobble back and forth like he is ready to attack something.

This one had two interactive parts. He wobbles and slides upward. When you pull the tab at the top of the card, it reveals little marks indicating he is shooting up, and he wobbles in fear as he moves upward. I wanted it to seem like he saw something scary and freaked out and jumped up like cats do.

I've put off posting this card because I really didn't want to do a tutorial on the interactive elements that I Macguyvered. But hopefully it gave some of you actual card makers ideas for putting your stash of interactive goodies to work with these Snarky Cat Stamps.

Thanks you so much for checking in. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

To Move the World... Sizzix Chapter 2

Socrates said “Let him that would move the world first move himself.”
🌎🌍🌏
Although I went with a travel theme with this quote, it has a much broader application. We can move ourselves and in turn move the world right where we are. I’m thinking of things as simple as being positive and kind and helpful and encouraging. So let’s load up our “suitcases” with kindness, positivity, support and love for each other and watch that move the world.
💙🌏💙🌎💙🌍💙
This is officially the last of the Sizzix samples I made for Creativation 2020. I feels like ages since I made this Mini Clipboard. It's designed around the suitcases and a simplified version of a Socrates quote.

The actual quote of the simplified version above is "Let him that would move the world first move himself." I shortened it and cut it out of Blackout Cardstock with the Tiny Text Alphanumeric letters.

 

The Mini Clipboard comes apart so you can paint or age the clip and board separately. I put some Distress Collage Crackle Paste on the star and on the clip. Then I smeared Distress Crayon over both to age them. Walnut Stain and Ground Espresso on the clip and Peacock Feathers on the star.

The board I covered with Distress Woodgrain Cardstock that I colored with Peacock Feathers Distress Paint.

I applied the paint with light brush strokes going with the grain.

Then I sprayed it with Distress Hickory Smoke Spray Stain.

I cut it into 1/2" strips, inked the edges with Walnut Stain, and then applied them to the board as if they were weathered wood siding.

This fabulous globe is from the Chapter 1 Circle Play dies.

The Baggage Claim suitcases are whimsical and allow for some fun customization. Baggage Claim is a Bigz die, so it will cut things that are thicker than cardstock, allowing you to get some great texture.

I chose to cut some faux leather I got from a craft store fabric section. The teal I used was some some I had purchased at a different time. Since I made this sample, Tim Holtz and Ranger have released the Distress Cracked Leather cardstock which would be absolutely perfect for this die, and you could make each suitcase any color you want.

I even cut all of the little details out of the faux leather. It really is fun to dress up these suitcases.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I always appreciate everyone who takes the time to come by and read my posts, leave a comment, or even try to make their own version of a project. Many thanks to each one of you.
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!

Make the Days Count - Stampers Anonymous

If there was ever a time for this sentiment, it's now, right? 

We can make the days count in little ways right now, it doesn’t have to be anything big. Things like having a talk with, or just listening to a family member, texting or facetiming a friend or loved one, making a favorite meal, playing a game or working on a puzzle with someone, crafting with someone, sending a card, looking through old photos and sharing memories, even cuddling with a pet. Those are all fairly simple things that really count because they are are part of investing in relationships. 💙💙💙

That being said, being creative and inspiring others counts too, so let's talk about how to make this card. It's really much easier than it might seem, and made using stamps and products from Tim Holtz. First, I stamped the Baroque stamp on the smooth side of a piece of Distress Watercolor Cardstock. Stamp the large stamp along the top and bottom of the card and then emboss it with gold embossing powder.

Press some ink from the Chipped Sapphire Distress Ink pad onto the glass media mat. Then using a water brush, pick up some of the ink to watercolor within the gold lines. That's all this is, just water coloring. It's very relaxing and if you stamped and embossed multiple cards, you could just watercolor through a favorite movie. This would be so nice to see done in lots of colors like Victorian Velvet, Evergreen Bough, Seedless Preserves, Aged Mahogany.....the list goes on.

 

 To finish it off, I matted the card base and sentiment with gold Metallic Kraftstock, stamped the sentiment from the Tiny Text Stamps and embossed it in gold, and added two retired Mirrored Hearts colored blue with Alcohol Ink.

I wanted to close with a reminder not to count the days right now, just focus on simply making them count.
Tami

I am an affiliate with Simon Says Stamp and Scrapbook.com so the links below send you to one of those stores depending on which logo you choose.  If you wish to purchase something from either store and use one of my links below, I get a small percentage of your order, at no additional cost to you. This helps me to defray the costs of this blog, the time, the ideas and tutorials I post here. Your help is greatly appreciated! Thank you!