A Purple Hippo for Mimi

Hey y'all!  Today I've got another card that Ryan and I made together.  Earlier this month he asked to make a card for my mom (his Mimi) so this is what we did:

He knows his Mimi loves hippos, so that's what he chose for the main image.  He stamped the purples on the hippo and did the sentiment; I stamped the hippo's face and helped him line up the dies to cut everything out.  Then we worked together to stick everything down and Ryan dictated a message for the inside, which was pretty much "Mama and I made this together but I did the most of it."  Ha!  I sent it off the day after we made it, so she's already received it.

Ryan is five, so it is still an exercise in patience to have him in my craft room, but I do try to let him play in there with me on occasion because I don't want to stifle his creativity.  But he's only allowed in there with supervision :)

Have a great day, peeps!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness, Friendly Hello
Ink:  Positively Pink?, Highland Heather, Gorgeous Grape, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Coastal Cabana, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Hippo Friends dies, Dimensionals

Hippo Hooray

Hey hey, happy Friday!  I managed to get a couple of cards made yesterday on my day off so I have something to share today.

I went through the retiring list yesterday and thought I'd have some fun with retiring stamps for a while.  I almost never get rid of any stamps, once they're in my collection they stay there, but I know I tend to play with the new and current stuff more often.  It's still fun to play with my older stamps though.

These are triple challenge cards, starting with the Global Design Project theme:

I chose the rainbow paper first and the cute little hippo just seemed like a good match for it.  Next up is the Retro Rubber challenge:

I've had Hippo Happiness in my collection for a year and a half, so it counts as retro...not as retro as my Paris card since that stamp set is about 15 years old ;)  Speaking of that card, it was chosen as the winner for that challenge, thanks RRCB team!  I did try to contact you about being a guest designer for a future challenge but I didn't get a response.  My email has been a little funny lately.

Anyway, for today's cards I also used this week's Try Stamping on Tuesday challenge:

I did the card with the rainbows at the top first, and then thought maybe I should have put the pattern on the bottom so I decided to make another card.  I took the DSP left over from the first card and trimmed it...and then realized I'd automatically done 4" across instead of 4.25" like I had intended.  Oops!  Oh well.  So which do you like better, rainbows on top or rainbows on bottom?  Also this punny challenge solidified my choice to use the hippo, you know I love me a good pun :)

Anyway, I'd better get moving this morning.  Hubs and I are both off work so we're going to go explore a couple towns not too far from here over the weekend.  Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness
Ink:  Petal Pink, Magenta Madness, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Pool Party, Thick Basic White, Sunshine & Rainbows DSP Stack
Accessories:  Hippo Friends dies, Dimensionals

Happy Birthday, Freckles

Hey y'all, how's it going?  Turning out to be a rainy week here in Germany but that's okay.  I didn't get as much craft room time yesterday as I might have liked because I had an event to go to with the hubs, but I do have something cute to share today!

My mom loves hippos, so now I just have to remember this card in July when it's her birthday! :D  I think it's funny that the Coastal Cabana layer on the hippo came out looking like he's got freckles on his face.  This is only the second time I've gotten Hippo Happiness inked up, it's so cute so I'm glad I chose it for today's challenges.  Check out the Fab Friday sketch:

The die cut for the polka dot layer is also in the Hippo & Friends dies, and it was roughly square so I thought it was a good choice for that layer of the sketch.  I picked the birthday sentiment to fit in with the Global Design Project theme:

The recently retired Playing with Patterns DSP stack had some fun colors for birthday cards, so I picked two patterns to play with and let them dictate the colors I used for the stamped images and the card base.  Easy peasy!

Hope you have a great day, stampy friends!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness
Ink:  Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay, Night of Navy, So Saffron, Crushed Curry
Paper:  Calypso Coral, Thick Basic White, Playing with Patterns DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, mini Dimensionals

Thanks a Ton

Howdy, y'all!  Surprised to see me?  :D  Yesterday I had Ryan in daycare for six hours and it was GLORIOUS.  Okay so yeah I spent a good portion of the time catching up on housekeeping chores, but I've got clean bathrooms and I enjoyed some quiet time and unpacked a nice fat SU! order that I just got.  Then I had juuuuuust enough time to quickly put together one card before I had to go pick him up.  He's currently outside, playing in the yard because once again it is snowing buckets.  We were told over and over that it doesn't snow much here but I've lost count of how many times it's happened.  I'm told this is unusual ;)

Anyway, on to the card!

Question:  what's the difference between a hippo and a Zippo?  One weighs a ton, the other is a little lighter.  My mom loooooooooooooooooves hippos and Hippo Happiness was in the order that I just got this week and I needed a thank you card and here it is.  Fun fact:  you know the famous Fiona the hippo at the Cincinnati Zoo?  Fiona and I have the same birthday (different years, obviously).

For my card, I started with the Global Design Project challenge:

For these types of challenges, I usually write down a couple of key words and maybe sketch out what the inspiration card looks like, then go upstairs to work in my craft room.  So this time I kept blue as the main color (light and dark), the plaid background, and worked with a similar layout thanks to the sketch from the Paper Players:

I added a vellum shape behind my hippo since to help her stand out since she's the same colors as the plaid background.  I could not get this card to photograph really well no matter what I did.  Well, right now the sky is the exact same color as the ground so it's white everywhere outside.  Just trust me when I say this little hippo is cuter in person.  I used some retired glitter enamel dots (I have a ton left over from making birthday party invites in 2019) and I painted over the die-cut word with Wink of Stella so it has some sparkle too, which of course doesn't show up in the picture.

Ryan will be at daycare again tomorrow (I can hardly contain my excitement) and since I did most of the chores yesterday I'm hoping to get more stamping done.  After ten months of various levels of quarantine restrictions, it is amazing to have some time away from Ryan.  Not that he isn't amazing and wonderful, but I need a break.

Cheers, y'all!

Supplies, all SU!
Stamps:  Hippo Happiness
Ink:  Seaside Spray, Misty Moonlight, Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper:  Seaside Spray, Melon Mambo, Thick Whisper White, Vellum, Wrapped in Plaid DSP
Accessories:  Hippo & Friends dies, Well Written dies, retired glitter enamel dots, Wink of Stella