Christmas at the Zoo

     Last day of the alphabet themes at the Month of Holiday Cards at Beccy's Place.  That means today has to use the letter "Z" and what's a better Z than at the Zoo?  I thought Milton, the Giraffe, was a perfect Zoo animal and here he is, dressed in all his Christmas finery!

I started with the sketch from Viva la Verve. 

I ended up not using the vertical strip because 

I didn't want to introduce an additional patterned dp

and only had that much of the one I used for the

horizontal strip.  It was a scrap from a Bo Bunny pad.

     He's pre-colored but the sky and ground are colored with ProMarkers.  It's amazing how much depth is added to an image when you color in a background.  I die cut him with a tall, skinny, rectangle die (QuicKutz) and added a dark green mat, also die cut.

     I used the smallest dies from that set to cut the sentiment and the mat for it.  The lightly striped background paper was in my stash.  I chose sparkly, metallic ribbon, wrapped it around the card front and tied a quadruple loop bow with the help of my bow maker.

     Challenges:
Beccy's Place
Crafting by Designs
Crafty Creations
House that Stamps Built
Outlawz Festive Friday
Polkadoodles
Star Stampz
TTCRD
Winter Wonderland

     I've had so much fun playing at Beccy's Place every day this month and when all is finished, I'll have an additional 30 Christmas cards in my stash.  That's an exceptionally good thing since this year I need 75 for the senior center where I donate cards each December.  Most of the seniors who attend the daily activities there don't have the opportunity or perhaps the resources to get out and shop for Christmas cards for family and friends.  I've been donating handmade cards there for the past 3 Christmas seasons and now it's to the point where some of the longer term seniors even ask me if I can do a certain style or design.  I love it!  Makes me feel so good to be able to do something for them that makes them feel special.  :-D

     Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie