At H2H We are featuring Animals and Birds!

Okay ............... Here is your Heart 2 Heart challenge:  include any animal or bird into your artwork.  


By the way, this is NOT what we mean when we say to include any animal or bird into your artwork:

That is my sidekick, Chloe, helping me photograph my card for this challenge.  She heard about our challenge and thought that she was supposed to be used in my artwork!  LOL


So here is my actual artwork.  

I love to make cards and I absolutely fell in love with one of our new stamp sets, Trees & Things.  It has all of these adorable stamps that you can use to adorn your trees, like hammocks, lanterns, tire swings and animals.  I initially visualized a backyard with two trees and a hammock.  I wanted to find an animal to sleep in the hammock, but did not find one that worked for me.  I also realized that making a card large enough to accommodate two trees and a hammock, probably would be too expensive to mail.


So I downsized my card a bit and went with one tree and a tire swing.  Do you see the squirrel sitting on the tire swing?  Isn't he just adorable?

I sponged the ground in first with Desert Sand Ink and then went over it with Garden Green Ink. I then stamped the tree by loading the stamp with Chocolate Ink and rock-and-rolling it in Cocoa Ink.  Then I stamped the leaves after inking it up with VersaMark Ink and then Sweet Leaf Ink and embossed it so that the ink used for the sky would not cover the light green of the leaves.  I stamped the leaves at the top of the tree and then again at the bottom.   The first time around I tried sponging the sky in and it just seemed too blotchy for me.  So out came the brayer and I used my brayering skills that I picked up from the class I took with Michelle Zindorf.   I like the brayered sky much better!! Here is another view.  Can you see the inside?  It is decorated too! 

The tire swing was stamped once on the card and then separately on a scrap and cut out.  After stamping and cutting out the squirrel, I sat him on the tire and entwined his tail around the tire.  The birds are stamped in Smoothie Ink and embossed.  I always emboss with clear embossing powder and colored dye ink. That way I don't have to buy all the different color embossing powders and it always matches my paper.  I used hemp for the rope on the swing and adhered the hemp with Liquid Glass.  I copied this idea from our new Idea Book that comes out February 1st.  I stamped the leaves again with Olive Ink, sponged the top of the grass with Olive Ink, brushing up with the sponge to look like grass, and then used the cute grass blades stamp in the set to stamp the longer grass around the tree. They are stamped in Garden Green, Olive and New England Ivy.


The sentiment comes in this set and I stamped it with Cocoa Ink on Twill Ribbon.  The Twill Ribbon Bow in the corner of the card has one of our new wooden buttons in the center along with a hemp bow.  


Below is the inside of my card awaiting a sentiment to be stamped.  Check out the Color Ready Craft Border I used.  Can you believe that it is already cut for you and is self-adhesive?  There are tons of different shapes in each package and then ink up real well when you sponge it.

Products Used

• Stamps:  Trees & Things (D1467)
• Paper:  My Relections Mayberry Level 2 Paper Pack (X7136B)
• Inks:   New England Ivy (Z2135), Garden Green (Z2120), Olive (Z2137), Sweet Leaf (Z2153), Lilac Mist (Z2133), Spring Iris (Z2148), Indian Corn Blue (Z2130), Smoothie (Z2196), Brown Bag (Z2108), Chocolate (Z2111), Desert Sand (Z2118), Cocoa (Z2114), and Black (Z2105)
• Embellishments:  Designer Wooden Buttons (Z1387), Twill Ribbon (Z1099), and Natural Hemp (Z280)
• Other Products:  Adhesive, Sponge Dauber (Z726), Bonding Memories Glue Pen (Z553), Versamark Watermark Stamp Pad (Z891), Clear Embossing Powder (Z671), Craft Heater (Z555), Rubber Brayer (Z616), Versamarker,  3 D Foam Dots, Liquid Glass (Z679), and Kraft Color-Ready Borders (Z1377)

Please check out the other design team member's projects 

Lorrinda Holman

Debbie Carriere

Lisa Stenz

Corina Mitchell

Karen Day

Haley Dyer  (This week's Guest Designer)

Mary Vogel

and then create your own project using animals or birds.  Your projects must include CTMH products, but do not have to be 100% CTMH.  If other products are used, a list or description of what was used would be appreciated. Remember to post it on the Heart 2 Heart Challenges Blog.  You could win some fantastic prizes from our January sponsors, Haley Dyer and Susan Winter.  Thanks Haley and Susan! Haley Dyer is our Guest Designer and is also participating in this week's challenge.  By the way, you have until the end of the month to participate in our challenges.