June 2015 Release Week Day 3

Hello crafters, It's Kelly here with my very first blog post!

I'm so excited! But not like Jesse in Saved by the Bell excited because well I can't sing and that was a bit scary :/ I do want to say thank you to Dawn, Kara, Maureen and Joni for the warm welcome, but also to you guys! There was such an outpouring of love on my blog on Monday. There are no words to tell you how grateful I am.

Alright we're here for cards right? Right!

I'm going to be sharing a few cards using Party Animal with you today. Are these not the cutest Giraffes ever?! Seriously adorable. I was smitten with them immediately. They beg to be stamped into a scene don't they? Yeah, I thought so too.

I really wanted these little cutie patooties to take center stage. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black, because it's copic friendly, and then started coloring. I usually do my background first so that's where I started. After googling giraffes habitat I quickly realized there isn't much going on in the Serengeti. Definitely not a place where you want to book your kid's next birthday party, unless your kid is into dirt, sand, and very few trees.

I drew in my horizon line with my lightest color and brought that all the way to the front of my card. I added various shades of brown getting darker towards the horizon line. Anything darker automatically falls to the back which helps create a 3D look. I added a few sprigs of grass just to break up the brown along with some random dots to create the illusion of a sandy texture. The trees were simply sketched in as there isn't much to them.

Those sweet little giraffes were shaded with warm browns and warm grays. I used the same browns from the background on the giraffes. It helps create a continuity within the card. To ground them, I created their shadows by going a shade or two darker than the ground.

Isn't that sentiment just too cute! It's perfect for all kinds of congratulations cards, not just birthdays!

So you know this set has companion dies right? That big beautiful balloon has a die. Can you say shaker?!

I started by adhering orange cardstock straight to my cardbase. I die cut the balloon out of a white card panel and then stamped my cute little giraffe. I used my copics again and shaded him the same way as I did for the giraffes in my previous card. I shaded a delightful little patch of grass for him to sit on, complete with flowers. To create the flowers, I used an orange gel pen to help tie in the orange card base.

Let's talk about the sentiment shall we? I did all this, and then as I was stamping the sentiment, it slipped. Argh!! After a few choice words like gee golly darn, I'm lying - I didn't say gee golly darn - I hope we can still be friends. A friend (thank you!) suggested I try adding a shadow to it. BAM! WHAT?! It totally worked. So why am I telling you this? Because it's important to know no one is perfect AND even if you think it's too far gone almost anything can be saved. Don't can it as pretty trash right away. :)

For the shaker part, I created an acetate pocket like Jennifer did here. There is no bulk - which is lovely. I wanted the continuation of the black line so I used my Misti stamping tool to stamp the balloon right onto the acetate. I continued the balloon string to tie in a bow on my giraffe's tail. I added some gold and orange sequins into my pocket and adhered it to the back of my stamped panel, and finally, onto the card base.

That's it for me, but I do have one other card I'm sharing on my blog. It's completely different but I love it just the same. I do hope you'll stop over and take a peek, as well as check out the rest of the Design Team.

Design Team Inspiration

• Joni Nina Andaya
• Kara Vrabel
• Kelly Latevola
• Maureen Merritt

Giveaway Alert

Would you like to win a $25 store credit to wplus9.com? Just leave a comment below by 10:00 a.m. EST on 06/04/15 to enter and we will select one random winner from all comments. Winner will be posted on our Release Winners page by noon on 06/04/15.

Thanks for visiting! Be sure to come back tomorrow, Dawn will be here with more inspiration and of course, more giveaways!