Polar Bear Ball

This week's So You Think You Can Stamp Challenge is the Waltz. Not sure how many of you are old enough to remember a cartoon from years ago called The Ugly Bug Ball, but it's this silly little too bit cartoon with all of these ugly bugs that we love to squash, flatten, kill and torture like crazy all dressed up in their finest at a totally elegant, yet cute, ball just for ugly bugs. You name the bugs, yes I believe there was even a black widow who couldn't understand why all of her partners kept dying, at the ball in tuxedos and full length dresses with hats, pearls or diamonds to match. So when Kim posted the Waltz as the challenge, this was the first thing that came to mind, an elegant ball. The only problem was no MFT stamps resembling a ball. My penguin set shows penguins sledding, jumping and having a grand ol' time. Definitely not elegant. I guess that's why we call it a challenge, right? So on went the thinking cap. Now what about Polar Love that I got with the last release for free?? I could alter that to make a Polar Bear Ball instead of an Ugly Bug one. Cool!!

I decided for the elegant piece of it to pull out my Die Cuts With A View LeCreme Mat Stack and found the background papers that looked the closest to snowflakes falling. Pulling out both a vanilla colored one and a black one, I now had my color combination for the card. Pulling out one of the cream panels from this months Just Add Color Kit, I stamped my polar bears in memento tuxedo black and colored with prismacolor markers. Now, since polar bears are white, I stamped them again on MFT Perfect Panels (since they were going to be popped up) and colored only the ears, nose, and scarves. I decided the noses had to be pink since the bears were at their "ball" where it's cold and frosty with the wind blowing making their noses so cold. The scarves would serve as the bears tuxedos and ball gowns, so I made sure the "men bears" had their scarves blended to a lighter shade than their female counterparts so the "gowns" would have a richer feel to them. To get enough couples for the ball, I stamped and colored three additional couples to fill in the card and then folded them at the hearts so they would fit on the card for mailing but could be opened up otherwise (as seen here).

To add some elegance to the ball, I added some pearl stickers from my stash at the corners of the paper layers like brads and MFT's Royalty Ribbon Nest at the top. Ice stickles were also added to the scarves of each of the female polar bears like "faux necklaces". I also added white fun flock to each of the polar bears tails since I've had this stuff for a long time (it's all Jody's fault) and have never used it.

This is what the entire card looks like with the three couples "folded" up for mailing.

Stamps: MFT Polar Love

Cardstock: Stampin Up! Black, Die Cuts With A View LeCreme Mat Stack, MFT Perfect Panels

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: Prismacolor Markers, Pop Dots, Ice Stickles, Pearl Stickers, Fun Flock, Martha Stewart 2-Way Glue Pen, Ribbon