Giraffe Anniversary - Winnie & Walter

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Hey...EVERYONE!!!!
IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!
I'm having a PARTY and YOU are INVITED!!
Be sure to join in my "virtual" Birthday Party and enter my GIVEAWAY!!
Imagine you live near me and pick out a gift (limit $15) to bring to the Party for me.
Leave a comment on MY BD POST telling me about the "gift" you "brought".
Party doors close on Mon. March 6, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST.
A randomly-drawn party guest will receive a door prize!
Open World-Wide!!
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Hi, Friends.....

I am here with a super-fun anniversary card that I made for the big Winnie & Walter - 3rd Birthday Bash celebration over on their blog!!! Not only do they have a GIGANTIC giveaway, but they have 10 different challenges that you can play along with.....including a chance at a big Guest Star slot, if you participate with at least 4 different cards starring their products!! (See their blog post for details on that.) Winnie & Walter challenges are among my favorites anywhere in the papercrafting blogosphere. I hope you will join me in wishing Shay and everyone at W&W a Happy 3rd Birthday and play along with the challenges!!!

I try to make an anniversary card for each couple in our small church, so I always like to have some on hand. This one started with a stenciled background that had been lying dormant in my stash for quite some time that I die cut with my Winnie & Walter - Essentials: Katharine Cutaways die set. When I saw the adorable giraffes in the brand-new Winnie & Walter - Big Hugs with Evelin T Designs stamp set, I knew I wanted to use it with this background.  (The background was made by sponging Versamark ink through a stencil from the Artistcellar - JKB TEXTures 2 Series 4-stencil set and then heat embossed with gold powder. Love the exotic animal print look!!)


 For my giraffes, I used a sheet of mixed media paper dyed with Imagine Crafts (Tsukineko) Walnut Ink Crystals. Have you ever played with these before? If you have used Brushos or ColorBursts, you have a pretty good idea of the process. These are more granular and crystalline than the fine powders, though, so you get some deeply concentrated areas where the larger crystals dissolved slowly. I LOVE the variations inherent in these kind of coloring media!! I hovered my clear giraffe stamp over my 9 X 11 sheet till I found a place with the right distribution of spots and waves. Then I stamped and die cut the sweet little pair.

Uh, oh.......Another Crafty Janis Brainy Idea hit me!!! Why not embellish the pair so you know which one is which!!?? I stamped and cut a hat out of the same Walnut Stain background using my Winnie & Walter - LS Exclusives: So Tweet with Evelin T Designs stamps and die sets. (Who knew the little hats for the birdies would fit the giraffes???? I thought I would give it a try and it worked!! Yay!!)  For Mrs. G, I made a simple blingy necklace from sequins. Aren't these two just adorable??? 

I pulled out a deep yellow patterned paper oval (MFT stitched oval die cut) and as soon as I had it behind them, I saw a big huge moon rising over the African savanna! Perfect. I cut some gold foiled cardstock hearts with the little heart dies from the same So Tweet set and combined them with some wonderful Serendipity Stamps - Mixed Wood-Grain Sequins. (How perfect are these for a safari look? I wish you could see them better in the photo!!)

Do you like my little giraffe couple?? I just love how this card turned out. So much fun!!!  Hope you enjoyed it, too.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope to see you at my Virtual Birthday Party and also over at the Winnie & Walter - 3rd Birthday Bash celebration. I still have more cards to share with you, but most of them will have to wait until tomorrow!!

<3
Janis
Thank you for the honor of entering this card in the following challenges:
1. Winnie & Walter - Three Challenge with Shay (I used sets of three hearts and three sequins.)
2. Winnie & Walter - Stencil Challenge with Kelly
3. Winnie & Walter - Cute Critter Challenge with Gayatri
4. Winnie & Walter - Sequins Challenge with Kate
5. Cuttlebug Mania - It's a Zoo Out There (must use a manual die cut/embossing machine)
6. CARDZ TV - Anything Goes Designers Challenge #3
7. Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes
8. Penny Black and More February Challenge - Use Favorite Stamp
9. Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper February Challenge - Use Patterned Paper
10. DL.Art February Linky Challenge - Anything Goes