Happy Tails Has Nine Lives with the Alphabet Challenge

Welcome to the Alphabet Challenge! We have a new challenge, “E is for Earth Bound Animals.” There is so many stamps to choose from for this one! However, Stampin’ Up! retired two of my sentimental favorites, Happy Tails and Nine Lives so this is my opportunity to ink them up before moving them into my retired stash. I’m sure you have a few that haven’t seen any ink lately, so get them out and play along!

• This 6″ square card was lots of fun to make! As usual, I started it by building the background – Pretty Peacock cardstock, cut at 6″ x 12″ and scored at 6.” The Balmy Blue cardstock was embossed in a very old embossing folder I had, then layered it onto Whisper White cardstock. Afterwards, I took a white colored pencil and colored the clouds in to give the background a bit of dimension.
• I wanted there to be some foliage so it was a good time to bring out the die from Friendly Silhouettes and cut Pear Pizzazz cardstock before adhering it to the card base.
• Now, for the fun part! The kitty and dog were stamped and colored with Stampin’ Blends, then punched out with their coordinating punches.
• The wagon is from a retired die set called Garden Grown. I stamped it and cut it out with the coordinating die. The kitty was adhered to the back and then they were popped up with dimensionals. The doggo was adhered as well.
• The tree branch was then cut with the die from Sweet Silhouettes in Pretty Peacock. The little bird is from Grace’s Garden and colored to look like my favorite Goldfinch.
• Finding a place for a little sentiment proved to be a challenge! So, I decided to ink one up and cut it out with a cloud die. Not too bad, eh!?
• The finishing touch was adding a couple of dragonflies and the other little flying bird.

Inside the Card

For the inside of the card, I simply inked up the sentiment and flowers and gave the flowers just a little bit of color with Stampin’ Blends.

• 2 Crafty Critter Crazies Challenge: Anything Goes with a critter
• Ellibelle’s Crafty Wednesday Challenge: Summer Garden
• Sweet Stampers Challenge: Birds/Animals
• Through The Craft Room Door Challenge: Anything Goes

Nine Lives Photopolymer Stamp Set [148703] $16.00	Happy Tails Photopolymer Stamp Set [148682] $17.00	Grown With Love Clear-Mount Stamp Set [144433] $21.00	Grace's Garden Photopolymer Stamp Set (English) [151513] $18.00
Friend Like You Photopolymer Stamp Set [149237] $21.00	2019-2021 In Color 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock [149703] $12.75	Pear Pizzazz 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [131201] $8.75	Balmy Blue 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [146982] $8.75
Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad [149165] $7.50	Delightful Dijon Classic Stampin’ Pad [138327] $6.50	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad [147104] $7.50	Pretty Peacock Classic Stampin’ Pad [150083] $7.50
Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [147113] $7.50	Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154843] $9.00	Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154882] $9.00	Gray Granite Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack [149537] $9.00
Old Olive Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154892] $9.00	Pink Pirouette Stampin’ Blends Markers Combo Pack [144604] $9.00	Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154898] $9.00	So Saffron Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154905] $9.00
Soft Suede Stampin' Blends Combo Pack [154906] $9.00	Friendly Silhouettes Dies [149546] $32.00	Sweet Silhouettes Dies [149541] $35.00	Garden Grown Framelits Dies [143748] $30.00
Garden Gateway Dies [151512] $35.00	Cat Punch [144666] $18.00	Dog Builder Punch [148543] $18.00