Welcome back! April 8 is National Zoo Lovers Day. We have four school-age kids and we love visiting the local zoos. My kids are avid animal lovers. I had to use the Zoo Globe stamp set and coordinating dies: Snow Globe Scenes. Both of these will be retiring May 3, 2021 and the Snow Globe Scenes dies are 60% off right now.
I stamped and colored images and fussy cut so I could move things around to see how I liked them. This will do nicely to invite family to go to the zoo with us!
The globe and base were stamped together before being cut out. Everything is fussy cut or die cut which helped create all the layers. The cardbase is Poppy Parade and the wood paper is the Natural Touch Specialty Paper available in the Butterfly Bouquet release online. I used Stampin’ Blends and Memento ink to add color.
If you look close you can see that I color with the light Blend and then go back and add shadows with the dark Blend. Sometimes I add dots in various shades colors to add shading, such as in the tree. The Blends are by far my favorite coloring tool. I use them ALL the time.
Are you feeling in the mood to visit a zoo now? I will be planning a trip with the kids with this nice spring weather. It was 70 degrees here in mid-Michigan recently and I’m looking forward to more of those days.
Thank you for hopping along. Make sure you click NEXT to visit the next blog celebrating another National Day. Happy stamping!
We are creating cards using the National Days as listed on the National Day Calendar online as inspiration. For March I’ve chosen March 13, “National Open an Umbrella Indoors Day.” It just made me giggle. To read more about it you can click HERE. It’s an experiment to see if bad luck really happens when you do things that are supposed to cause bad luck. I am in two of the posts this hop so stay tuned to see what I did for April.
I used the Under My Umbrella stamp set and the Umbrella Builder punch. This is a wonderful set for springtime; sending cards to friends when we are unable to visit in person, perfect for right now! Look at those great sentiments. These are both retiring on May 3, 2021 and the punch is on sale right now for $7.20. What a steal!
To jump-start my creativity, I always start by stamping each image and coloring with a limited amount of colors. Since we have a theme, I researched what the lucky colors were for 2021 and went opposite of those, haha! These cards turned out quite bright and cheery if I do say so myself.
The Stampin’ Blends I used are Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Poppy Parade and Granny Apple Green. I did a quarter sheet of flower background and then cut it down to fit on a notecard. That left me with some strips to decorate the envelope flaps.
I was going to stamp and punch the umbrella images out of the background piece but realized the pattern would extend beyond the edge of the stamp. I wanted the nice white border on my punched image.
So I created my own mask using Post It Super Sticky Notes (fabulous for creating masks since the whole sheet is sticky!) Then I stamped on a clean piece of Basic White and laid my mask over the top. Now the punched images are perfect! I will keep my masks in the stamp case for future use.
Of course the insides have to be decorated as well as the envelopes.
So which card is your favorite? And would you open an umbrella indoors? 😉
Thanks for stopping by. Make sure to hop along by clicking on the NEXT button below or clicking on a name in the list. Happy stamping!
Yes. The answer is yes. Haha! I have a couple of butterfly bundles already and I didn’t think I needed another set…but then I laid eyes on all that is in this limited-time collection. The papers are just so beautiful and the dies…the dies are AMAZING! Solid outlines cut out 6 butterflies at once and there are 6 detailed lacy butterfly dies, plus 3 fun texture dies and 2 mini butterflies. I’m thrilled with this whole collection. The bundle will actually be available in the next annual catalog, BUT the papers are limited time only! I was thinking about just getting the paper (because it’s a must), but I am glad I caved in to getting the whole thing.
The colors in this paper are so pretty together. They are Basic Black, Bermuda Bay, Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Just Jade, Magenta Madness, Mango Melody, Mint Macaron, Misty Moonlight, Poppy Parade, So Saffron and White. One side of the paper has fun butterfly patterns and the other side is more subtle with happy blends of softer colors and patterns. Do you see the pink and blue “camo” looking patterns? They look awesome cut out with the detailed butterfly dies. I just laid the dies over the paper and snipped around it to save paper before I ran it through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss machine. These look amazing layered over coordinating solid cardstock!
Speaking of intricate die cuts, I tried to go ahead and cut 6 detailed butterflies at once in vellum. That didn’t work so good. It needed another pass through the machine to really get it and since the images filled the whole plate the front ones were shifting by the time the back ones came through. It really worked amazing when I did one at a time and ran it back and forth twice in the machine. Then all the little pieces just fell out like magic. I hope this tip saves you some time and frustration. The detailed dies are sooo pretty, but run them back and forth twice to save yourself from poking out every little piece. 👍
And check out this fun piece of DSP with all the big colorful butterflies on it. There is a big die that cuts out all of them in ONE pass through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss machine! Six butterflies all ready to go on your projects in one pass. Love. It.
I made a fun Shadow Box using this collection today. You can view the replay of the Facebook Live HERE on YouTube. I had an epiphany right before filming this today and you’ll have to watch the video on my fun tip for making the butterflies so 3D and colorful they nearly jump out of the box. I’m so pleased with myself with this one! Let me know what you think.
I hope you like this Butterfly Bouquet collection as much as I do. If you LOVE it, there is one item code to add the whole collection to your cart. I love that Stampin’ Up! knows me so well that they gave me an easy button to get it all. If your order is under $150, please use Host Code JTVK4JCJ for March 2021.
