a flamingo and a fox...

Hey friends!!! Happy Friday!! I'm popping with a couple of cards today for several different challenges.  First up is a card is a card that combines two of my favorite challenges:  Freshly Made Sketches and Color Throwdown.   I really like flamingos and have for a long time so I'm really loving all the flamingo inspired stamp sets out there.  Recently I purchased the Hero Arts Color Layering Flamingo stamp set along with the matching die and I couldn't wait to ink it up.  I know that flamingos are not red, but red is one of the colors in the Color Throwdown palette and so I just went with it.  I have to say that I really love how my flamingo turned out!  I had a bit of panic when I couldn't find the tiny beak stamp, but thankfully I found it!!  I used my mini MISTI to help me stamp the body of flamingo.   In order to get the variation in the layers of color I inked up the main body image and then stamped it off on scrap paper before stamping it on my cardstock.  Then I stamped the second layer at full strength and the third layer was actually stamped twice to get the depth of color needed.  For the oval element on the sketch I used the MFT Inside and Out Stitched Rectangle dies.   I added some clear Wink of Stella to the body and it looks really pretty in real life.

My second card is for the current My Favorite Things Wednesday sketch challenge.   One of the trends lately has been critter stamps.  I have resisted buying critter stamp sets because I'm just not that great at coloring, but I stepped outside my comfort zone and purchased one of MFT's cute little critter sets, Sweet Forest Friends, and did some watercoloring.  My watercoloring is a work in progress, but I really do like how everything turned out.  Initially I tried using my Zig Clean Color markers, but I need more practice with them so I used my Kuretake Gansai Tambi watercolors.  All the images were stamped in VersaFine Vintage Sepia ink and then water colored.  After everything was dry I die cut the images with the matching dies.  A background was watercolored with light blue and green watercolors to create my grass and sky.  When that piece was dry I die cut it with a Inside and Out Stitched die. Obviously the round element from the sketch was replaced with my little scene of the tree, fox, bird and flowers.  The banners were cut with the MFT Stitched Fishtail Flag Stax die from some MFT patterned papers in neutral colors.

Thanks for stopping by today...

Supplies:  Cardstock:  white, SSS fog; Stamps:  Hero Arts Color Layering Flamingo; My Favorite Things Sweet Forest Friends; Dies:  Hero Arts, My Favorite Things and A Jillian Vance Design;  Inks:  Stampin Up! Gumball Green and Real Red, VersaFine Vintage Sepia and Onyx Black; MFT patterned paper; Ranger watercolor paper