Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge {Dec 15th – Dec 28th}

A new Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge begins today! As you can see, this is going to be a super fun holiday challenge. Even though it’s a very busy time of year, I hope you’ll find a bit of time to play along! I was inspired by multiples of three, red antlers, red noses, googly eyes and brown background. For my card, I used one of the newest releases, Chubby Chum Pals.

Initially, I was going to stamp three reindeer using Santa Paws but when Chubby Chum Pals landed in my mailbox on Monday, I just had to ink up these cuties. While I was stamping the moose, it dawned on me that the tops of all the heads were the same size. Being the type that loves silly animals and silliness in general, I decided to include the bear and chick in moose costume! Aren’t they festive with their holly berry antlers and red snouts? LOL I came close to using googly eyes but I couldn’t bear covering up Kim’s illustrations and the original eyes give them so much more character and expression than googly eyes so I just added some glossy accents instead. I didn’t have blue ink that matched the patterned paper so I played around and came up with a solution that I’m going to make note of for future reference. If I ink the stamp twice, first with Faded Jeans distress ink and then a second time with Basic Gray dye ink, I get the exact shade of slate-grey-blue required to match the patterned paper! Since Gina K’s kraft cardstock is Copic-compatible, I gave the animals some light shading and finished by adhering them to the card with foam tape.

This Paper Smooches SPARKS Challenge runs until December 28th so I hope you will play along with us! As always, there are fabulous stamps to be won and, if you don’t have any Paper Smooches stamps yet, there is a holiday promotion going on HERE or, you can always grab the free digis that Kim offers every month. I look forward to seeing how you interpret this photo!

Sources: Gina K Designs pure luxury kraft cardstock; Echo Park Wintertime Collection; Paper Smooches Chubby Chum Pals; Memories Black ink; Tim Holtz for Ranger Faded Jeans distress ink; SU Basic Gray ink; Copics; SU Crystal Effects; foam tape