Giraffe Handmade Card for Sister with Stenciled Background Using Distress Inks on Photo Paper

Welcome to a new Cards By Kendra blog post!  

I'm excited to share this handmade card that I made for National Sibling Day (coming up in April), which is one of the March 2020 card swap themes for the Facebook Group "Card Swaps for All Seasons".  

The main products that I used for this handmade card are from ©Stampin' Up! and Whimsy Stamps®️.  

The background was made with the giraffe stencil from Whimsy Stamps. I taped the stencil to the back of a sheet of 4"x6" photo paper. I first attempted this background using Distress Oxide ink in Walnut Stain on distress paper (see video below). Once I sprayed it with water, it wasn’t really the look I was going for, so I tried it on photo paper. It went on great but once it started to dry, it had a cloudy film on it. (This is due to the pigments in the oxide ink). When I wiped it with a wet paper towel, I was amazed!! It was exactly the look I wanted. I figured out that if I used just regular distress ink, I wouldn’t have to wipe it. So I gave it another try using Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.  This was applied with Tim Holtz's Mini Ink Blending Tool.  On my video below, I tried the Walnut stain Distress Oxide ink on photo paper again to show the cloudy film that appeared right after the ink was applied to the photo paper and how the beautiful shiny background appears when wiped with a wet paper towel!  I applied it with a Picket Fence Life Changing Blender Brush.  Check out the video to see the results:

I used the giraffe stamp from Stampin' Up's Zoo Review stamp set (that is now retired).  

I stamped the giraffe with black Staz-On ink and then with Versamark ink.  The sentiments "hello" and "Sister" are from the Thoughtful Banners stamp set.  I stamped the sentiments with Distress Ink in Vintage Photo then while the ink was still wet, I coated it with clear embossing powder and heat set it with the heat tool. 

I used the stitched rectangle dies to cut out the giraffe on crumb cake cardstock and the frame for the giraffe piece on chocolate chip cardstock. This matched the Walnut Stain on the background the best. I also used it as a frame for the giraffe background (cut to 4 x 5.25”). The cardstock base I used was Ivory 110# heavyweight (4.25”x 5.5”), scored in the middle.  It was inked with crumb cake ink using a sponge dauber on just the front side edges.  


I wanted to use the saying "What's up?" so I just created it in Microsoft Word and printed it out onto Stampin' Up's Crumb Cake colored cardstock since I didn't have a stamp with that saying.  I cut it out and placed it on Chocolate Chip colored cardstock (retired) and punched it out with the classic label punch (but I shortened it by running just the end through the punch a second time).  

I attached the cardstock pieces with Tombow Adhesive.  The spots on the giraffe were colored with alcohol markers. I used 3D foam adhesive to attach the giraffe on the background and also placed one on the left end and two on the right end of the "What's Up" sentiment so that it sticks up even higher to give it more dimension.

I hope you like the card and I hope the video helped you in some way!  Let me know what you think in the comments!  If you make this card (or one similar), I'd love to see a photo!
Thanks! ~Kendra Morgan

(Compensated affiliated links used at no cost to you. Thank you for your support! Affiliate and product disclosure can be found here. All products were personally purchased. I was not paid to do this post nor am I on any design teams. I only use products I love!).  

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