Sam Poole's fantastic new animal stamps!

I've been having great fun with these new stamps from Sam Poole.  They are very reminiscent of children's book characters.  Being a child at heart myself, I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them!  You can find them on Sam's website: Hoot the Owl, Nutkin the Squirrel and Mr Bear.  Those are the three I have used in the cards that I will post today and tomorrow.  There is also a rabbit, fox and mouse that I need to play with next!  I need to buy the fox at Ally Pally tomorrow!!!

Here's my first card made with Hoot the Owl.

I used some lovely textured gold cardstock that I had in my SABLE (Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy)! I embossed a sheet of brown Centura Pearl cardstock with Sheena Douglass' woodgrain embossing folder.  I then used gold gilding wax to bring out the grain.  I overlaid a leaves mask onto the green cardstock which is one of the That Special Touch Masks.  I used a Versamark inkpad through the mask and then gilded the leaves.  I used Sheena Douglass' branch stamp over the top and then painted it in with Pebeo acrylic brown paint.  I stamped the Owl and the sentiment in brown Versafine and embossed with detail clear embossing powder.  I painted in the owl with the fabulous brand new Cosmic Shimmer Shimmer paints which are fabulous.  (I have several of the Luminarte silks and wanted to try the new Cosmic Shimmer ones to see how they compare.  I am VERY impressed as they seem to be just as good but are a lot cheaper which is great!)  I cut him out and stuck his feet flat on the branch and 3d foam on his upper body to give some dimension.  I mounted the owl and sentiment on brown Centura Pearl and then added another layer of the gold behind the owl again.  I matted this onto the woodgrain background and then added some grosgrain and ricrac ribbons.  I made an embellishment with a button, some baker's twine and some more ribbons.

Here's my next card made with Mr Bear.

I used Spellbinders Grand Labels One to make my card base and the frame.  I cut the base out of Centura Pearl Brown twice.  I then scored in an inch down one side of one of the pieces to make a flap.  I glued this flap down to the other piece to make the card base. I then made a frame out of mink Centura Pearl.  I cut another piece of stamping card the same size as the outer size of the frame.  I stamped the tree background onto this and again onto another piece of stamping card with brown Versafine.  I then embossed the line with detail clear embossing powder.  I did the same on another piece with Mr Bear. 

I used a couple of different brown H2O colours to paint in the trees, making the tree at the front darker for more definition. When dry, I cut out the front tree from the second piece of card.  I used luminarte silks to paint in the grass by dabbing together two different green shades to give texture.  I then painted in the sky with blues.  To create the moon, I punched a circle of Hint of Silver Centura Pearl cardstock and stuck it down.  I added the front tree over the background trees using 3d foam.    I added a little bit of colour to Mr Bear with Spectrum Noirs EB1 and EB2.  I cut him out and mounted him with thicker 3d foam than I used on the trees to make him stand out more.  I then added some stars using silver Stickles.  I added the mink frame that I had made using 3d foam again (I like my 3d foam to add dimension, it really makes a difference to having flat elements).  

I used the leaf stamp from Sam's set: Woodland Seals to stamp into several molten layers of Cosmic Shimmer Ancient Copper Detail Emboss Powder.  I then used Golden Green Gilding Wax to rub over and bring out the leaf detail.  I made an embellishment with this, some baker's twine and some fab textured  handmade paper ribbons from my SABLE and a bit of Gold Tulle and stuck this on.

I hope that you like my creations and that you have a go at using these stamps as they are fabulous!  

I will be back tomorrow to blog my Nutkin Squirrel card when I get back from Ally Pally!

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