Hi Everyone,

So I have an obsession with craft videos on YouTube. Sometimes I spend more time watching craft videos to get ideas than actually crafting. One of my favorite video series is Vicky Papaioannou's 10 cards 1 kit series using the Simon Says Stamp card kit. I have watched many of her videos and absolutely love what she creates. I decided after watching so many of them, that I wanted to try one of these kits. Below is a picture of the items that were in the Simon Says Stamp April kit. I also made a list of the items.

Items in the kit

• 2 sheets of Neenah 80# white card stock
• 1 sheet of Simon Says Stamp Island Blue card stock
• 1 sheet of Simon Says Stamp Royal Purple card stock
• 5 white tags
• 5 kraft tags
• 3 wobble springs
• 4 Simon Says Stamp ink stops (colors: Key Lime, Watermelon, Orange Slush, Lemon Zest)
• Lawn Fawn "Rainbow Plaid" 6x6 paper pack 
• Simon Says Stamp "Wild Cuddly Creatures" Clear Stamp set

As soon as I saw the stamp set, I fell in love with it. It is so cute and I absolutely love animals. My next thought after seeing the stamp set was the animals would be perfect for a little kid's birthday card and it just so happens that my nephew's first birthday is coming up. So I decided to make him a birthday card (I know he won't really card about the card, but I think his mom will appreciate it).

So the items that I used from the Simon Says Stamp kit are:

• The Wild Cuddly Creatures stamp set
• Lawn Fawn Rainbow Plaid 6x6 paper pack

From my own stash I used the following items:

• Thick White card stock cut at 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" (I folded it in half so the measurements are 5 1/2" x 4 1/4")
• Circle dies
• Tape runner
• Dimensionals
• A Happy Birthday clear stamp (I used June 2016's Paper Pumpkin stamp set)
• Melon Mambo Stampin' Up ink pad
• Delightful Dijon Stampin' Up ink pad
• Early Espresso Stampin' Up ink pad
• Tip Top Taupe Stampin' Up ink Pad (not pictured below)
• Basic Black Stampin' Up ink pad
• Stampin' Up blender pen
• Basic Black marker (not pictured below)
• Lime green card stock (not pictured below)
• Sequence (not pictured below)

First I had to decide which cute animal I wanted to use. I decided to use the giraffe since the baby shower had a giraffe theme and a lot of things in his nursery had giraffes on them (plus our family is big on giraffes). So taking my basic black ink, I stamped a few giraffes on some scrap paper. I wanted some extras in case I messed one up. I did notice that the giraffe stamp had some lines that did not connect to each other and I had to use my black marker to connect them. 

My next step was to color in the giraffe. I used my Early Espresso, Delightful Dijon, Tip Top Taupe and Melon Mambo ink pads for this. One of my favorite things about these ink pads is that when they are closed the pad is facing down. So if you squeeze the top and bottom of the ink pad together, you will get a pool of ink on the bottom. Sadly, I did not get a picture of this to show you. 

Using my blender pen, I colored in his spots and horns with Early Espresso. I used Tip Top Taupe for his face and hooves. I colored is body, outside ears, and top portion of his face with Delightful Dijon. I used the Melon Mambo for the inside of his ears and nostrils. Between each new color, I would draw squiggly lines on my scrap paper to get rid of the old color. I did this until the squiggly lies became clear. When I was done coloring in my giraffe, I had to cute him out. Since I do not have a die for this, I had to fussy cut. 

Once he was cut out, I went around the edges of the giraffe with my black marker to make him a little more pronounce and so no white was showing on the edge.

My next step was to choose one of the designer papers from the paper pack and cut it down so it would fit the front of my card. I did not want a white border around it so I cut it at 5 1/2" x 4 1/4". Once that was all set, I had to figure out which of my circle dies would fit around my giraffe. 

 I choose the one that left a tiny bit of room above his head and below his feet. Once that was decided, I took the designer paper and my white card base over to my Big Shot and cut the circle out. For my card base, I only cut the circle out of the front so my giraffe would be on the inside of the card but show through the front. I made to pop the giraffe on demesionals before adhering it to my card.

The next thing I did was work on my sentiment. Taking my basic black ink I "Happy Birthday" to a piece of white scrap card stock. The scrap I used was a half an in wide and maybe an inch and half long. I then cut a triangle out of each end for a double sided banner. 

While I was working on the sentiment, I decided that there needed to be something around the circle and giraffe. Luckily, I had some lime green card stock in my stash that matched the green in the designer paper that I thought would make a pretty border around the giraffe. To create the border, I took the same circle die I used on the designer paper and the next size up in my scallop dies. I just used Elmer's glue to adhere that down. 

After adding my border I thought I was done but as I was looking at it, I kept thinking that something was missing. For the longest time I could not think of what would be missing. I stepped away from the card for a while, made dinner, and finally figured out that the giraffe needed something else around it to help draw the eye. I went looking through my stash to see what I had that I could use. I eventually found some sequence I had that were a faint bluish color and thought they would be perfect. I added three around the giraffe. Once those were added, I was satisfied that my card was done.

In the end, I am very happy with how my card turned out and I certainly did enjoy the Simon Says Stamp card kit. I don't know if it is something I will do every month like I do Paper Pumpkin but I think at some point down the line I will order another kit. 

Thank you for joining me in my creative haven and I hope you enjoyed this card. Please let me know your thoughts and any suggestions you may have.