Cute critters, part 2

I'm back today with the second group of kid-friendly birthday cards featuring fun and cute animal images. So let's get right to it!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Party Time Petit Fours set, Safari Animals Trifles set (both DeNami Design)
Paper: 110-lb white (Recollections), Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; markers: Bermuda Bay, Tangelo Twist, Old Olive, Basic Black; Blendabilities: Daffodil Delight, Skin Tones, Smoky Slate assortments
Accessories: Word Bubbles Framelits dies, Dimensionals, Mono Multi liquid glue
Other: Computer and printer for the sentiments

Who wouldn't like to party with these guys? OK, maybe not the real-life full-size versions, but these little cuties? Definitely.

I had the idea for this layout in my head, but I couldn't seem to find the right sentiments among all my stamps (and that's a lot of stamps). So I decided to go ahead and print them on the computer. I settled on "party animals" for the front and "Go WILD on your birthday!" inside. Once the sentiments were printed, I stamped and decorated the front of the card, cut out the shorter sentiment with one of the Word Bubbles Framelits dies (I trimmed off the "tail"), and adhered it to the front of the card with Dimensionals. Love it!

I also want to apologize that the lighting in this picture is not very good. I don't have a great place to take photos inside, so I've been trying to take them outside, which creates a host of other problems: the wind blows my cards down, the sun is too bright, the trees cast shadows. Sigh. I think I need to invest in a portable light box. Anyway, back to the cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Dog's Life (Inkadinkadoo), Ruff Life
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Real Red, Soft Suede
Accessories: 1" square punch, Postage Stamp punch, dog brads (Around the Block), Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

Several years ago I bought the Dog's Life stamp set (as well as a cat version) for a really good deal at a rubber stamp show. But they present a challenge for me because, while there are many nice images, the images are different styles -- artistic, silhouette, cartoon-like, etc. -- which makes them hard to use together. I was determined to use this set for one of the birthday cards, though, so I decided that I'd create a small sheet of "postage stamps." These images are just about 1" square, so I could have easily stamped them on white card stock and just punched them out with the Postage Stamp punch. But I wanted to give them an extra little detail, so I punched out the images with a 1" square punch and then adhered the squares onto the postage stamp shapes. I used Dimensionals to adhere the "stamps" to the card base, stamped a sentiment, and added a fun dog-print brad.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Hug a Hamster (Raisin Boat)
Paper: Smooth and textured Soft Suede, Coastal Cabana, Very Vanilla card stock
Ink: Soft Suede
Accessories: Dimensionals, Mono Multi liquid glue

I just love this little guy's chubby cheeks! To make the focal point for this card I first stamped the hamster in the middle of a piece of Very Vanilla card stock. This image eventually will be covered with card stock, but it helps for positioning the sunflower seeds, and it gets the whiskers on the card stock. Then I stamped the pile of sunflower seeds underneath him, spreading out toward the bottom corners of the card stock and making sure that some of the seeds overlapped the bottom of the hamster. I stamped the hamster twice on Soft Suede card stock, cut out one of the images and adhered it over the original image on the Very Vanilla panel. From the second Soft Suede hamster I cut out just the paws and then used tiny pieces of Dimensionals to add them to the focal image. To add more depth and detail I stamped a bunch of sunflower seed images on leftover strips of Very Vanilla card stock, cut them out and adhered them to the pile with Dimensionals. The cuteness continues inside the card with an image of a hamster running in an exercise ball and the sentiment "Have a ball!"

I'll be back later this week with a few great masculine birthday card ideas. Thanks for stopping by!