FROM ALL OF US

With my love of fussy cutting and using  my Stampin' Blends, as well as having an all around cute image, the stamp set, From All Of Us, (page 93) was sure to appeal to me. Of course, it made its way onto my Wish List on my first run through of the new Annual Catalog. 

Then, when Stampin' Up! had a 24-hour sale on select stamp sets, and my adorable bunch was among them -- SNAP!! -- it was on its way to me!

While all the stamps in the set are cute, and I'm sure I'll get around to using them all, the one that grabbed my attention most was the portrait of the five animals. Of course.

After stamping them twice onto Whisper White cardstock,, I got busy using my Stampin' Blends to make them beautiful and colorful. Actually on the first image, I only colored in the happy looking bear, while I added color to the other four critters on the second stamped image. 

Following are the Stampin' Blends I used for my coloring: Light and Dark Gray Granite, Light and Dark Crumb Cake, Light Mango Melody, Light So Saffron,  Dark Cinnamon Cider, Dark Smoky Slate, Ivory, Dark Pumpkin Pie and Light and Dark Granny Apple Green.

Once all the coloring was done, I fussy cut the four guys on the second stamping. I then aligned them over their (uncolored) counterparts on the first image, and, using Stampin' Dimensionals, popped them up in place so it gives the portrait a tad of three dimensionality. 

You know, now that I look at my finished creation, I think I should have colored both the turtle and the bear on the first image. And, this would have saved me a lot of time, but then, just fussy cut the ostrich, the monkey and the toucan and popped them up. Next time I do this gang, I am going to do it that way.

Anyway, shown from the side, you can see the bit of dimension.

When I finished the coloring, cutting and popping, I decided to have it framed by one of the cute plaid pieces from the Plaid Tidings Designer Series Paper (page 57 in the mini catalog). I was sort of surprised at the plaid that I thought went the best with the colors I chose for my critters.

Notice that I'd added some stripes to the toucan's beak manually so I could use a few colors in it. One of the colors I'd used was Pumpkin Pie, so I matted the critter bunch in Pumpkin Pie cardstock.I then popped it up against the plaid I'd chosen, after I had added a touch of orange ribbon and a couple of enamel embellishments in Pretty Peacock, the dominant color in the plaid DSP.  

Finally, I mounted the whole thing on a card base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. Have any of you seen that color in person? It is so rich and beautiful!

Just another look at the nice dimension the card has:

And, close up and personal with the happy gang:

Even though several of the sentiment stamps from the set would work great with this card, I decided to not put any sentiment on the outside 'cause it's cute just the way it is. The sentiment would go inside the card.

Wouldn't this look cute framed in a kiddo's room?

Do any of you enjoy fussy cutting? How about coloring with the Stampin' Blends?

Stampin'

Smiles.