Sneak peek: Animal Outing

If you've followed my blog, you probably know that I love animal stamps, especially cute, drawn animals. And if you know that, you can imagine how excited I was to receive the new Animal Outing stamp set at the Stampin' Up! OnStage event I recently attended. The set, which will be in the upcoming 2018-19 catalog, has four animal images perfect for coloring and several sentiments in a mixed font. (There also will be coordinating Framelits dies in the catalog.) I had a chance to play with the set on Sunday (while it snowed. all. day.) and made two fun cards.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Animal Outing, Artisan Textures
Paper: Whisper White, Soft Sky, Old Olive card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Soft Sky; Blendabilities: Soft Sky, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Skin Tone Assortment
Accessories: Layered Leaves embossing folder, Stitched Shapes Framelits dies, linen thread, Stamp-a-ma-jig tool, Dimensionals

Eeep! How cute are these guys? I just love them. I actually combined a few different stamps to get these images. The frog on the tree branch is one stamp. I knew I wanted to add the giraffe, so I stamped and colored her on a separate piece of white card stock, cut her out and added her over the branches. Then I stamped the frog/tree image again, colored and cut out the lower branch and adhered it over the original image so it looks like the giraffe is peeking through the branches (and having a lovely conversation with her froggy friend). I left one of the giraffe's ears and a couple of the leaves "un-glued" to add a little dimension to the image.

To get the bird on the branch, I inked just part of another stamp from the set (see the card below for the whole image) and stamped and colored it on white card stock. Then I stamped and colored the branch just beneath the bird. Perfect!

For the card base I used Soft Sky card stock. This is one of the colors that will be retiring at the end of May, and I'm so sad to see it go; it's such a lovely, soft blue. For the background I stamped a "splatter" image from the upcoming set Artisan Textures - a second sneak peek! This was the set I won during Prize Patrol, and it's another great one from the upcoming annual catalog. It has five different "texture" stamps that are perfect for backgrounds.

Along the bottom of the card I added a strip of Old Olive card stock embossed with the Layered Leaves embossing folder. I love how it brings out the leaves and the green from the stamped images. I wrapped linen thread around the card base above the embossed piece and added my three die-cut circles with Dimensionals. So cute!

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Animal Outing
Paper: Thick Whisper White card stock
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black; Blends: Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Calypso Coral; Blendabilities: Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Smoky Slate; journaling pen
Accessories: Tutti-Frutti adhesive-backed sequins

For the second card, I wanted to make a clean and simple, single-layer card. I started with a Thick Whisper White card base and stamped the image of the rhino with the bird. He's so sweet! I colored him with Blends and Blendabilities alcohol markers. You can see some of the coloring through the card stock when you open the card, so if that bothers you, stamp and color the image on a separate panel and adhere it to the card base. Or you could use colored pencils instead of markers for a softer look.

I stamped the sentiment just above the image and then, since the card felt like it needed "something," I doodled a border around the card front with a journaling pen. For a little pop of color I added three bright green self-adhesive sequins.

There is one image (and a few sentiments) in the Animal Outing set that I haven't used yet: a kangaroo with a koala peeking out of her pocket. How adorable! (If I were a squeally-type person, I would have squealed when I saw that.) Watch for a card with that image sometime soon, and thanks for stopping by!