Kangaroos and tigers and elephants, oh my!

Earlier this week I took a little time to try to organize all the card photos I still need to share on my blog (there's a lot!). I grouped them into different categories, and today's cards feature a variety of wild animals.

Supplies:
Kit: April 2020 My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Lemon Lime Twist card stock (Stampin' Up!)
Ink: Crumb Cake, Lemon Lime Twist (Stampin' Up!); Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko)
Accessories: Clear droplets (Pretty Pink Posh), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

These two cards were made with the April 2020 My Monthly Hero kit, which was full of Australia-themed images and sentiments. I decided to use a bunch of the animal images to fill up an entire panel for a fun guy-friendly birthday card.

To create the stamped panel, I set up a two-step process in my stamp positioner. First I cut a piece of white card stock to the size I wanted. I placed the card stock in one corner of my stamp positioner and started arranging the stamps on the card stock. (I knew I wanted to use the "hoppy birthday to roo" sentiment, so I made sure to put the kangaroo near the lower right corner.) Once I was happy with how it looked, I closed the lid of the stamp positioner to pick up the stamps. I test stamped the images on scratch paper and then removed the kangaroo stamp. I inked up all the rest of the images with the colored ink and stamped them on the white panels. I re-inked and stamped a couple of times to get good ink coverage and then cleaned off the stamps. I repeated the process with another piece of card stock and the second ink color.

Then I moved my white card stock to a different corner of the stamp positioner and set the kangaroo stamp on the card stock. I picked it up with the lid of the stamp positioner, inked it with black ink and stamped the image, repeating to get good ink coverage.

Once both panels were done, I matted them with black card stock and adhered them to coordinating card bases. I stamped the sentiment on two strips of white card stock and used foam tape to attach each one just below the kangaroo image. I finished the cards with a few clear droplets (nothing too girly).

Supplies:
Kit: June 2019 My Monthly Hero kit (Hero Arts)
Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black, Shaded Spruce, Crumb Cake card stock (Stampin' Up!); Solar White 110-lb card stock (Neeneah)
Ink: Colored pencils - PC1063, PC935, PC918, PC1003, PC912, PC909, PC946, PC945, PC939, PC901, PC995, PC908 (Prismacolor); Memento Tuxedo Black (Tsukineko); Garden Green, Old Olive (Stampin' Up!)
Accessories: Princess sequins (Craft Medley), blender brush (Picket Fence Studios), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute), gamsol blending kit (Taylored Expressions)

To make these two cards I broke out another My Monthly Hero kit that I hadn't used yet. I'm not great at coloring realistic animals, so I was a little intimidated by this kit. But I looked up some sample cards made with the kit to get some coloring ideas and then went to work with my colored pencils and gamsol. Overall, I think they turned out pretty good.

I colored the elephant first because that seemed the most manageable: mostly gray with a little pop of purple. I also colored two flowers so I could bring in more purple. For the background I used the leaf stencil included in the kit and blended two shades of green ink. I matted that pieces with black card stock and added a strip of white stamped with "happy birthday" across the bottom half of the card. The strip acted as the ground for the elephant and flowers, which I attached with foam tape. I mounted the whole panel on a white card base and added three purple sequins for a little sparkle.

For the second card, I colored and die cut several pieces: a toucan, monkey, tiger, branch, and three grass clusters. I used the leaf stencil for the background again, but this time using Crumb Cake ink on a Crumb Cake card base for a subtle textured look. I die cut a few fancy vines and arranged them to look like they were hanging from the top of the card. I arranged the rest of the pieces to create a scene and added the sentiment on a strip of white card stock at the bottom of the card.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up!):
Stamps: Moroccan Nights, Lucky Elephant, Itty Bitty Birthdays
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake card stock
Ink: Crumb Cake, Basic Gray, Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Crushed Curry
Accessories: Gold Glitter Enamel Dots, Dimensionals

There's not much to explain for these cards; they're both made with basic stamping, a layered sentiment, and some enamel dots. I had wanted to try using the Moroccan Nights and Lucky Elephant stamp sets together for awhile, and I think they complement each other well. I will note that for the medallion stamp in the background, I stamped the image on scratch paper before stamping it on the card panel so the ink was lighter.

Thanks for stopping by!