Stamping without ink?

Okay, so not really stamping, but cardmaking.  That was the challenge at Black Tie Fridays this week.  I'm not kidding!



I had so much fun with this challenge.  I can't wait to show it to you!  But first, I want to share a little more about my Dominican trip!  Brett and I sponsor a 9-year-old girl named Ana Raisa, and my mom sponsors her 6-year-old sister, Marianyeli.  We brought gifts to give them when we visited the school on Friday.  We had actually worked in the school on Thursday and got to see Marianyeli, but not Ana Raisa.  They call the students down to the principal's office (I know...scary!) one by one to meet with their sponsors and get their gifts.  It is so exciting to see their faces light up when they see you.  They are almost as excited for their hug as they are their gift!  Anyway, the principal (Yohanna-I LOVE her!) called the girls down and they do not show up.  They were absent! I was so sad that I started crying!  Yohanna was so nice about it and said "You came all this way to see them...we will bring them here!"  She worked her magic, and lo and behold, here they came walking to school, all dressed up in their Sunday best.  They had a birthday party, which is apparently an all-day event in the DR, and missing-school worthy!  They looked so beautiful in their dresses and it was wonderful to see them.  They were so grateful for the things we had brought them and held them proudly as they walked home.  It was enough to bring tears to my eyes!

On to my card...well, it's not so much a card as a desk decoration.  It could be a card too, I guess! 

It's a little stairstep card and the penguins are layered.  I took strips of torn Shimmer paper, layered them and added Dazzling Details to look like freshly fallen snow.  Since I couldn't use ink, I was glad to have this as an accent!  Here's an angled view so you can see the stairstep a little better:

The little penguins were so fun to make.  I used the Owl Builder punch and snipped off the "ears." The santa hat was punched from the Pennant Builder punch and the top of the ear muffs is just a 1" circle punched twice to get a little crescent shape.  The muff on the hat and ear muffs are just pieces of torn cardstock that I covered in Dazzling Details.

For the tree, I freehand cut the triangles and embossed them with the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder for some texture, then added the Dazzling Details. The trunk is a rolled up piece of Early Espresso Core'dinations cardstock embossed with the Woodgrain Embossing Folder. 

I don't usually do detailed projects like this, so it was fun for a change!  It was definitely a challenge not using any ink!

Stamp Sets: NONE!
Cardstock: Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Early Espresso Core'dinations, Gumball Green, Real Red, Shimmer paper, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White
Ink: NONE!
Tools: Owl Builder Punch, Pennant Builder Punch, 1" Circle Punch, Lacy Brocade and Woodgrain Embossing Folders, Holiday Collection Framelits
Accessories: Dazzling Details, Googlies, Dimensionals, Brights DSP stack (for the star)