Lapin Jardinier Father's Day Card

My husband likes gardening and has a beautiful vegetable garden. We live in an area that is over run with rabbits. Not the cute little bunnies but big, ugly brown rabbits with voracious appetites. These pests destroy our flowers and vegetables and nothing seems to deter them.

Recently I ordered some stamps from Stamp Francisco and Lapin Jardinier was among them. I couldn't resist the cute bunny carrying his flowers and spade and decided to use the image for a Father's Day card. I am very impressed with the quality of the stamps that I received from Stamp Franciso, the images stamped clearly on the paper each time.

Update: My husband loved the card and couldn't believe that it was a stamped image. He thought I had printed it. He also liked the irony of Lapin Jardinier and the sunflowers. It's not clear if Lapin is planting or stealing the sunflowers. The rabbits at our house have destroyed all but one of my sunflowers.

Directions for Lapin Jardinier:

White, dark teal, olive green and kraft card stock
Sunflowers
Lapin Jardiner stamp- available from Stamp Francisco
Aqua and white print ribbon
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder
Ranger Tim Holtz distress inks- iced spruce and vintage photo
Ranger foam ink blending tool and foam pads
Derwent Color Soft colored pencils
Archival Ink coffee bean
Recollection blue spray ink
Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist- Pearl Mist
Martha Stewart Rose Leaf paper punch
Tan decorative trim- available at Hobby Lobby


1.   Ink the Lapin Jardinier stamp with coffee bean colored ink and stamp the image on to white card stock. After the image is dry, color with colored pencils.

2.  Trim the stamped card stock to approximately 3 7/8 inches high by 3 inches wide.  Apply iced spruce distress ink to the ink blending tool and color the edges of the card stock with the ink using a circular motion. Dip a paint brush in water and paint over the distress ink to lighten it. Pull some of the ink toward the stamped image so that the ink fades into the white card stock. Don't apply too much water or the card stock will start to degrade. Continue to apply ink to the sides and edges of the card stock to darken them.

3.  Mist the stamped image with Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist (Pearl Mist) and set aside to dry.

4.  Cut a piece of dark teal card stock approximately 1/4 inch larger (on all sides) than the white card stock with the stamped image. Spray the teal card stock with the Recollections blue spray ink and let it dry.

5.  Cut a piece of kraft card stock 5 1/4 inches high by 4 1/4 inches wide and emboss using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. Use the ink blending tool and clean foam pad to apply the vintage photo distress ink to the embossed card stock.

6.  Glue the Lapin image to the teal card stock and then glue this to the embossed kraft card stock. Cut two small pieces of aqua and white print ribbon to wrap around the corners of the kraft card stock, glue in place and attach a bow to the ribbon in the upper left corner.

7.  Print Happy Father's Day with Microsoft Word and trim around the greeting. Glue the greeting to a piece of teal card stock to frame it and then glue this to the top of the card, centering it over the bunny image.

8.  Place three small sunflowers evenly spaced across the bottom of the card. Using the Martha Stewart Rose Leaf paper punch, punch 6 leaves out of olive green card stock. Glue the leaves under the flowers.

9  Cut the decorative trim the length of the card and glue along the right edge of the card.