Creative Sundays With Jo Ann: Bunny Tryouts Today

Easter will soon be here, and along with it comes delicious chocolates, sugary candies, and marshmallow confections. One of my favorites is the Mini Cadbury Eggs. They have a hard candy shell on the outside and melt in your mouth chocolate on the inside. Love them! Which brings me to today’s post. Do you remember the commercial where all types of animals were trying out to be the Easter bunny? Everybody wants to be the Cadbury Bunny, including Penny the Platypus! She is honing her skills, painting bright and colorful Easter eggs, as I sit eating the Cadbury eggs that I used for staging the pictures. LOL

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(Compensated affiliate links are used with NO cost to you. Products highlighted in teal are active links. All the supplies used are also linked to multiple shops at the end of the post. Thank you for your support!)

I started by stamping the figure, from the Penny The Platypus stamp set, on #80 pound Neenah cover cardstock, using Simon Says Stamp’s Inktense Black ink. It is compatible with alcohol markers. I colored it using Copic markers. Many people like to know the colors used so I have included them in the picture below. I don’t have the coordinating die set yet so I cut it out using my favorite EK Success Cutter Bee scissors.

It had been my intention to do a simple card. I started out drawing a few eggs, paint brush and palette, and bunny ears. I drew with a pencil, erasing A LOT, and copied over the lines using a Copic Multiliner. Yes, I changed my mind and recolored the paintbrush handle red.

At this point I thought that a sign would be funny so I went ahead and drew one of those as well.

For the background I cut some cardstock, using the Cloud Border die set, to make stencils. I ended up with four edges that I could use both sides of, giving me an additional four edges. I sponged on Tumbled Glass and Broken China Distress Inks, using a Mini Blending Tool, onto a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. I cut it down from an 8 1/2” x 11” piece.

I stamped the sentiment, from the Blah Blah Blah stamp set, at the top. I cut some grass strips using Lawn Fawn’s Simply Grassy Hillside dies. I colored them using various shades of YG Copic markers, took a small piece of cut up washcloth soaked with Copic Colorless Blender solution, and blotted it onto the strips to blend the colors and give it some texture. I love this trick. I learned it from my Copic Certification classes and again from Kathy Racoosin. The tips were edged using Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a sponge dauber.

At this point I realized that my shenanigans were rapidly outgrowing a card base so I quickly switched to a mini Tim Holtz Ideology Framed Panel. I glued the panel down to the frame base using Tim Holtz Collage Medium and Brush. Now I needed more grass strips!

I started glueing the various pieces down using Matte Medium. Some pieces were given more dimension with Scotch Foam Tape. I also ended up needing more eggs so it was back to the drawing board.

Remember the movie Jaws where he says, “I think we’re going to need a bigger boat?” I soon realized that I was outgrowing this frame as well. I was out of control, but I didn’t want to leave anything off, so I grabbed an even bigger Ideology Framed Panel. I painted the frame with Dina Wakley’s Lime acrylic paint, using one of her brushes. When it was dry, I added a thin layer of her White acrylic paint to tone it down. To add a background, I copied a page from my college dictionary onto #80 cardstock. I added Distress Ink to it, with a Mini Blending Tool, and then added a thin layer of Dina’s White paint to it as well. The page was glued down, again using Collage Medium and Brush. The frame was glued down and held together with clamps until it was dry.

The smaller panel was glued to the larger frame using more Collage Medium. I love how it gives an illusion of floating in the middle.

As you can see, I don’t always end up where I think that I am going. Sometimes your creative journeys take unexpected twists and turns…and that’s okay. I now have a Home Decor piece that I can use every year. I am off to have another cup of coffee, and to finish the Cadbury eggs!

As always, thanks for joining me today.

Joyfully, Jo Ann

Supplies used:
The products that I used are listed below in compensated affiliate links. You can click the icon of your choice, below the product picture, to go directly to your favorite shop. There is NO additional cost to you when using these links. Thank you for your support! All products used were personally purchased by me, except for the Penny The Platypus Stamp and Die set.