As I looked for a card idea to make with a stamp set that was retiring from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog, I had a difficult time finding a set I had that wasn’t already sold out! This is the one I came up with and made this fun Zoo Crew Musical Birthday Card with this retiring designer series paper that I love! I wish this whole stamp set, dies, and designer series paper were sticking around another year! These little animals, doing various things from camping to crafting to playing instruments are just so cute and fun! It may be Tax Day, but these little guys will put a smile on your face!
For this card, I started with the Zoo Crew Designer Series Paper in the Zoo Crew Suite Collection. It was tough deciding which characters to use, but I decided on the musical guys. I used my Paper Trimmer to cut out each animal without getting too much other background. You could use a punch or rectangle die or whatever you like but I find just using the Paper Trimmer to be the easiest. Then I layered each animal on colored cardstock and then onto a narrow piece of black. You could do just one layer. I won’t put all the exact measurements because your cut-out animal might be a different size than mine.
The frog was already colored in, but I did decide to color in the bear and the first animal, whatever he is. Maybe he is a wild boar. I used Stampin’ Blends. Their instruments were already colored, I just colored the animal body. You could use Watercolor Pencils or some ink and a Blender Pen or even leave them blank. I didn’t think about how they weren’t colored at first.
The card base is Basic Black with a layer of Lemon Lime Twist. The background designer paper is in the Zoo Crew paper. You could choose from several different patterns.
Fitting these three musicians on the card was a little tricky, but I finally was satisfied with how I have them placed. I decided to pop all three of them up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Where the corners overlapped, I did not put a Dimensional.
For the greeting, I chose one in the Zany Zoo Stamp Set and stamped it on a scrap strip of Basic White. I have a lot of these scrap strips of cardstock, and they are often handy for a narrow greeting. Rather than making banner ends on my greeting, I added some Iridescent Adhesive-Backed Discs to each end. These are great because they are flat and didn’t add any more bulkiness to the card.
As I am writing this, you can still get the retiring Zany Crew Suite Collection or the individual products in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store! Let me know if you have any questions about what is available or not available during this Last Chance retirement time!