Cute critters, part 1

When I made a stash of birthday cards for my uncle, I had to include a variety of kid-friendly cards for all his great-nieces and -nephews. So I pulled out a bunch of animal-themed stamps and made six fun cards. (Personally, I think they'd be good for adults, too, but they might be too cutesy for some people.) Today I'm going to share three of those cards, all of which were made with Lawn Fawn stamps.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Into the Woods, Gleeful Gardens (both Lawn Fawn)
Paper: Soft Sky, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, Crumb Cake, River Rock, Soft Suede card stock
Ink: Early Espresso, Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Garden Green, River Rock, white gel pen
Accessories: Best Year Ever buttons, yellow embroidery floss (from March 2015 Paper Pumpkin kit), Stitched Hillside Borders dies (Lawn Fawn), Dimensionals, Mono Multi liquid glue, Glue Dots

The sentiment on this card was probably not necessary, because how can you look at this card and not smile? It's just so cute! I used two Lawn Fawn sets for these images: Into the Woods for the deer, sentiment, log, and bushes and Gleeful Gardens for the mushrooms. It was a lot of stamping and "fussy cutting," but I don't mind doing that. (Lawn Fawn does make coordinating dies for both of these sets, but I only have the one for Gleeful Gardens. And since I cut everything else by hand, I figured I'd just keep going with the mushrooms.) Once I had all the pieces in an arrangement I liked, I adhered them to the card, using liquid glue, Glue Dots and Dimensionals to get different levels of depth. For a little pop I added a bright yellow button and bow in the upper left corner to look like the sun.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Year Five (Lawn Fawn)
Paper: Soft Sky, Island Indigo, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Blendabilities: Skin Tone, Soft Sky, Old Olive assortments
Accessories: Circles Collection Framelits dies, Tide embossing folder (Lifestyle Crafts), Stitched Hillside Borders dies (Lawn Fawn), linen thread, Cupcake Builder punch, Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

I think this otter is pretty darn cute, too. (The coordinating sentiment, which I stamped inside the card, reads "Have an otterly great birthday.") To make this little scene, I first cut a circle out of and then embossed a piece of Soft Sky card stock. I love how the embossing looks like rolling waves. Then I used the Stitched Hillside Borders dies (which I used in the card above to make the grass) to cut out "waves" from Bermuda Bay and Island Indigo card stock. I overlapped and adhered the waves to the back of the embossed card stock so they were visible through the circle. I stamped the otter and present images on Whisper White card stock, colored them and cut them out. Then I tucked the otter in between a couple of the waves and added the present.

For a simple embellishment I wrapped linen thread three times around the bottom half of the embossed card stock and then adhered the panel to a Soft Sky card base with Dimensionals. Finally I added two fluffy clouds that were punched out with the Cupcake Builder punch.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Year Four (Lawn Fawn), Work of Art
Paper: Smoky Slate card stock, 110-lb white card stock (Recollections), Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Ink: Smoky Slate, Memento Tuxedo Black, white gel pen, Project Life journaling pens; Blendabilities: Cherry Cobbler, Daffodil Delight, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate
Accessories: Ovals Collection Framelits dies, corner rounder, Hello Honey stitched satin ribbon, white baker's twine, Brights buttons, Dimensionals

I love this stamp set with the hippo and birdie. It also includes the party hat, balloon, music notes, and a punny greeting: "Hippo birdie to you!" (I think it would have been perfect if it also came with a sheep image so you could have "Hippo birdie two ewe!") The focal image is basic stamping and coloring. To create the shadow under the hippo, I first masked off the hippo image. (Stamp the hippo on a piece of scratch paper -- a self-stick note works great -- cut it out and place it over the image on your project.) Then I used Smoky Slate to ink up one of the images from the Work of Art set and stamped it so it overlapped the bottom of the hippo. I removed the mask, and now it looks like the hippo has a shadow. This was the first time I've tried that technique, but I'm sure I'll be using it again.

The rest of the card is pretty straightforward: a layer of DSP, a piece of ribbon, and a button with a baker's twine bow. I also doodled a little border around the DSP.

I'll be posting my other three cute critters birthday cards in the next few days. Until then, thanks for stopping by!