This card was made for a sketch challenge that also had the option to include a pun.
I have a couple "punny" stamp sets, one of which is Stampin' Up! "Hippo Happiness" with it's "eye are special" sentiment. I took this as my theme and go out my brand new un-inked SU "Counting Sheep" with it's great set of three different images. I chose the frolicking sheep and imagined it's birthday joy with a cluster of balloons.
My coloring of the sheep was inspired by Diana Gibb's great video on the different ways to color the sheep to give it the "wooly" feel. You can review her video/photos at: https://www.stampingwithdi.com/2021/...pisode-93.html I chose to stamp my sheep with SU Basic Gray ink lightly twice using my Stamparatus stamp positioner to get the outline as a medium gray color. I then scanned the sheep outline using my ScanNCut CM350 and cut out the stamped image as well as two additional blank outlines to glue behind the image to extra dimension.
I then used a SU White chalk marker to color inside the sheep where the wool would be using round motions, but not solid, being careful to avoid the stamped lines. Then I used a white gel pen to draw circles all over the white "wool". This gave a pleasing effect that really does look like wool! The face and hooves were colored with Copic Markers, and the upper part of the legs were colored with a Crayola marker from my grand-daughters' drawing set.
I used a Spellbinders scalloped circle die to cut out a template to sponge the puffy clouds in the sky with SU white pigment ink.
The balloons were stamped onto colored scraps of paper (see table below for list of colors) using the SU "Balloon Celebration" stamp set. I used sewing threat to tie "strings" on each of the three ballons.
The grass is two colors of green cardstock that I cut digitally with my ScanNCut, glued together, then glued to the bottom of the SU Sky Blue front panel. The fence was cut on my ScanNCut from a jpeg outline image I found on the internet and converted using the free Brother Canvas Workspace software. After I cut it out of SU Crumb Cake cardstock on my machine, I ran it through my Big Shot inside the SU "Timber" embossing folder to give it a wood texture. This was glued to the card front tucked behind the "grass".
I stamped the "Happy Birthday" sentiment from the SU "Piece of Cake" set onto the blue background using Memento black ink using my Stamparatus, the the "ewe are special" sentiment from the SU "Hippo Happiness" set lined up under it. The Stamparatus is SO helpful getting things aligned, and with black ink, sometimes you need to double stamp to get it a solid black, so the stamp positioner is PERFECT for that as well!
Finally, I glued the sheep hopping through the meadow, and attached the balloons using foam tape for dimension. The trickiest part was tying the balloon strings to the sheep's hoof!
I am rating the difficulty level of this card as a "2" or "3" out of a possible "5". If you have the dies to do all the cutting instead of using a digital cutting machine, it would make it easier. However, these sheep don't come with matching dies.
This card is great for just about anyone... kid, gal, or guy!
Date: Monday, February 14, 2022 GMT Views: 727
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