I wanted to continue with my self-challenge of using stamps that are not intended for Valentine’s Day to make a Valentine’s Day card. For this one, I pulled out the adorable penguins from the old Some Odd Girl “Winter Friends” stamp set (this stamp set is retired, but it has a new life as a digital stamp set HERE). Penguins are known to yell out their love for their partners, greet each other joyfully with song and dance, and mate for life. What great examples for us all, right?!

To color the images, I kept the black areas of the penguins light enough to not lose detail and effect the look of chubbiness, and I added pale blues and light greys to the white parts for dimension and interest. These might not be the typical colors one uses to color “white” and “black”, but these are the Copic colors I used:
Black parts of penguins: C3, C4, C6 and C8
White parts of penguins: 0, B000, B32, C0, C1, C2 and R00
Beaks and feet: Y21, YR24 and YR27
Bow: R22, R24, R29 and R39

I fussy cut out the images with my favorite Fiskars Spring Loaded Scissors and inked the edges of the images to hide the white cut edges with a Memento Tuxedo Black Marker. I then glued the bow onto the girl penguin using my favorite Art Glitter Glue with Fine Tip Nozzle to make her extra feminine. 🙂

For the card front I used an old patterned paper that has been languishing in my scrap box for years (yes, years!) that had “love” repeated over and over in reds and pinks on a white and pale green background. I also used scrap red cardstock to add a “ground” and visually weight the bottom 1/3 of the card. Where the background papers meet, I used a Lawn Fawn Fancy Scalloped Rectangle die and flipped it to create a fancy scalloped border. And a small strip of red cardstock through the middle of the border added a nice crispness.

To set off the penguin couple, I used a Lawn Fawn Fancy Scalloped Circle Die and the Gina K Designs Stitched Circle Die with pink and white cardstock. Then to really bring out the penguins, I popped them up on foam dots. As a finishing touch, I die cut a tiny heart using the Lawn Fawn Happy Hello coordinating die set and placed it in the male penguin’s fin so that it would look like he was giving his mate a heart. A thick coating of Hibiscus Pink Stickles over the red heart both softened the color and added sparkle.

CLICK on the following picture to watch the process video of crafting this card:

Disclosure: Many of the supplies I’ve used for today’s project are linked. Some may be affiliate links, which means if you make a purchase I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. I truly appreciate your support toward the costs of running this blog!

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Crafty Gals Corner Winter Fun Challenge
Word Art Wednesday Anything Goes Challenge
Fab ‘n’ Funky In the Pink Challenge
Stamping Sensations Feminine Challenge
Through the Craft Room Door Anything Goes Challenge
Penny Black and More Animals, Birds and Butterfly Challenge
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday with Love Challenge

Creatalicious Anything Goes with Optional Hearts Challenge
MFT Wednesday Sketch Challenge #475