Found items and a Mish Mash of Companies

Hi all!  We're freshly back from vacation and I'm simultaneously digging out from being gone, and gearing up for school to start for the girls.  One of the benefits of my recent craft room cleanout/purge was that I found a bunch of items that I had previously stamped/colored/die cut, but hadn't used for one reason or another.  I decided I needed to put those items to use.  The first little guy to get used is this sweet squirrel that Elena Roussakis illustrated for Neat & Tangled a while back.

I decided to pair him with the retired Charmed set from Mama Elephant, they go together perfectly since Elena illustrated both.  It was around this time that I decided I would go ahead and create two cards using the same basic formula, so I stamped/colored/die cut two sets of the wreath, banner, and bow.

I knew I had used Warm Grays to color my squirrel, so I used more muted colors for the elements on this card.  The wreath was colored with G20, G21, G24, and G46, the little flowers in the wreath and bow were colored with R20, R22, and R24, and I used W0, W1, and W3 to add some shading to the banner.

I picked a simple pink print for the background and a frame using a couple of my go to dies, the large scalloped frame from the Neat & Tangled Scalloped die set, and a frame die from MFT with a great hash detail.

The sentiment for the banner was also from the Charmed set.

The wreath was adhered directly to my patterned paper, but everything else was popped up with foam tape, including the frame.  

For the second card, I decided to create a Christmas version since I need to keep building my Christmas card stash.

For my 'main character,' I picked this sweet little penguin from Neat & Tangled's Santa's Wonderland set.  He was colored with Cool Grays, and I used those to add accents to the banner also.  I went with some deeper/richer colors for the wreath and bow using G21, G24, G28, and G29 for the wreath and R32, R35, R37, and R39 for the reds. 

The card was assembled in the same way, but I used a red print for the background and kraft for the frame.  The sentiment is from Hello Bluebird.

It was fun to use some items from my stash and also get the Copics out.  I feel like I haven't done a ton of coloring lately, and I do enjoy it!  

Thanks for visiting!  I'm busy working on STAMPtember samples!  If you follow me on Instsagram you might have seen that I have started illustrating again and I have several new designs that will be available from Simon Says Stamp as part of the STAMPtember release.  I'm thrilled and so happy to be illsutrating again!