How To Make A Cute Cat Card From A Coloured Image

Table of Contents

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I’m a member of The Coloring Channel and often follow along with their colouring lessons. I like having a specific image to work on, especially when I want to practise colouring without having to decide what to colour myself.

One lesson I followed was the Teddy colouring lesson. Teddy is a cat holding a heart, and I used the colours suggested in the lesson for my version. I turned Teddy into a handmade cat card.

As the lesson is paid content, I won’t share the colouring instructions or colour combinations here. Instead, I want to show you my finished colouring and how I turned Teddy into a card.

Colouring with The Coloring Channel

The Teddy image I used for this card came from a colouring lesson by The Coloring Channel. I enjoy having a lesson to follow when I want to spend some time colouring and practising with an image that has already been chosen for me.

If you’d like to colour Teddy yourself, you can find the lesson through The Coloring Channel. The lesson is part of their paid content, so I have kept the colouring instructions and colour combinations out of this tutorial.

This post is about what I did with my finished colouring and how I turned it into a cat card.

Find The Coloring Channel here

Materials and Dimensions

For this card, I used a few layers of cream and purple cardstock. Teddy is quite a large image, so I kept the rest of the design fairly restrained.

You will need:

Cream card base, 10.5 x 14.8 cm
Purple cardstock, 10 x 14.3 cm
Cream cardstock, 9.5 x 13.8 cm
Printed and coloured Teddy image, approximately 11 cm high
“Sending Love” digital sentiment
Purple cardstock for the sentiment
Foam tape
Clear adhesive pearls

The Teddy image and colouring came from the Teddy colouring lesson by The Coloring Channel. The “Sending Love” sentiment was one I had already printed, but unfortunately I no longer know where I saved the original digital stamp.

How I Made the Handmade Cat Card

Once the colouring was finished, I could start turning Teddy into a card. I first prepared the coloured image, then built the card layers around it before adding the sentiment and a few small details.

Step 1. Cut out the coloured Teddy

When I finished the colouring, I cut Teddy out carefully, leaving a narrow white border around the fur.

I would normally be tempted to cut very close to the image, but the furry edges made me change my mind this time. Leaving a little white around the fur meant I could keep the shape of the cat without having to cut around every tiny piece.

The white edge also works well with the cream cardstock I used for the card layers, so it feels like part of the design rather than something that needs to be hidden.

Close-up of Teddy the cat coloured for a The Coloring Channel lesson

Step 2. Prepare the card base

I started with a cream card base measuring 10.5 x 14.8 cm.

I cut a piece of purple cardstock to 10 x 14.3 cm and attached it to the card base. This leaves a narrow cream border around the purple layer.

On top of that, I added another piece of cream cardstock measuring 9.5 x 13.8 cm.

I used the same cream cardstock as the card base, so the purple layer sits neatly between the two cream pieces.

Step 3. Place Teddy in the centre

Teddy is quite a large image, so I wanted to give him plenty of space on the card.

I attached him to the centre using foam tape. This gives the image some dimension and helps separate Teddy from the layers underneath.

At this point, I already liked how the card looked. Because Teddy takes up quite a lot of the card front, I decided to keep the rest of the design quite simple rather than filling the remaining space with lots of embellishments.

Step 4. Add the sentiment

I had already printed the “Sending Love” sentiment, so I cut it out and used the same purple cardstock to create a border around it.

I placed the sentiment above Teddy’s left ear.

I like using the same cardstock in different parts of a card because it ties those elements together. Here, the purple appears in the main card layer and again around the sentiment.

Close-up of the Sending Love sentiment on a handmade cat card. The sentiment sending love is in black letters on white paper with a purple edge around it.

Step 5. Add the adhesive pearls

For the final details, I used five clear adhesive pearls.

I placed three above Teddy’s right ear in a small triangle. The other two went underneath his tail, positioned diagonally.

That was all the decoration I added. I wanted the extra details to sit around Teddy without covering any of the colouring, so I stopped there rather than adding more embellishments.

This card also reminded me that I don’t always need to plan the card design before I start colouring. If you have a coloured image you really like, you can use it as a starting point and let its size, colours and shape help you decide how to build the card.

Handmade cat card featuring a coloured Teddy cat holding a heart

Let’s Get Creative Together

Have you ever finished colouring an image and then decided to turn it into a card?

You don’t always have to know what you are going to make before you start colouring. Sometimes the finished image can give you a starting point for the colours, layers and layout of your card.

For this cat card, I let the size and shape of Teddy guide the design and kept the rest of the card simple. It was a nice reminder that a colouring project can become the starting point for a handmade card.

I’d love to know whether you usually plan the card first or decide what to make once your colouring is finished.