Hello Everyone!  What better way to celebrate the end of summer than with a sweet bonfire bash!  Today, I am sharing a friendship card where best critter friends toast some marshmallows over a crackling fire, sing some campfire tunes, and enjoy each other’s company while taking advantage of the last days of summer.

The adorable stamp set and background used in today’s card is called “Bonfire Buddies”, and the Campsite Scene Die, all part of the most recent 2022 August Release.

I began the creation of this card by stamping out all my adorable critters using Versafine Pigment ink in Vintage Sepia onto bristol smooth cardstock paper. I then colored my images using Polychromos Color Pencil. I did some white subtle highlighting using Sakura white Gelly Roll Pen in 05. After stamping and coloring, I die cut all my elements using the Bonfire Buddies Coordinating dies. I love how each die cut has a white outline that stands out against the dark colors of my night time scene.

Setting aside my colored and die cut images, I move on to the creation of my background. Using the Campsite Scene Die, I cut out my background using Bristol Smooth cardstock paper for easy ink blending. I then cut out a large Square panel of Bristol Smooth Cardstock using the largest of the square die in the Nesting Square Dies. I then proceed to ink blend, and color all my scene pieces.  For the night time sky portion, I inked up only the top of my background panel with “Uncharted mariner” Distress Ink, and “Boysenberry Dye in from MFTStamps, and the outer part of the sky is inked using “Black Soot” Distress Ink. To color the mountains I used copic markers in BV02 (Prune)  and BV00 (Mauve Shadow).  And the Mountain caps are in Copics C-1 (Cool Grey No. 1) and C-3 ( Cool Gray No.3) . The rest of the back ground and trees are colored with Distress Oxides in “Gathered Twigs” and “Ground Espresso” and “Rustic Wilderness” Distress Ink. I used some water splatter to look like stars in the night sky. and ink splattered some brown inks to look like dirt.  After inking, I paper pieced and glued down all my scene elements on to my square panel using Bearly Art Precision Craft Glue.

I then Glued on all my die cut critters with score tape/ craft glue white using foam adhesive to give dimension to the moose, owl, and skunk.

For the sentiment “Forever Friends” I used the Typed Everyday Stamps. and using the smallest rectangle die in the Nesting A7 Dies, I cut out my sentiment for the perfect skinny strip banner.

And that concludes my Card inspiration of the day!! The Bonfire Buddies stamps is one of my favorite sets from the August 2022 Release and I hope it becomes yours too!