Sock monkey!

I just got More Sock Monkey Accessories. Isn't he adorable in the wagon? I stamped the wagon onto Very Vanilla cardstock and again on Cherry Cobbler. I watercolored the wheels and handle on the Very Vanilla and cut out the wagon from the Cherry Cobbler. I cut out my watercolored Sock Monkey (including cutting out his left arm to hang over the wagon) and adhered him to the Very Vanilla piece and then added the wagon on top. I also watercolored the cupcake and stamped the hat on Marina Mist and cut them out and added them to Sock Monkey.

The cardbase is Marina Mist with Jolly Holiday DSP layered on top. I ran the whole cardfront through the Big Shot in the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder. I lightly sanded it to make the dots stand out more.

A knotted piece of twill tape (adhered with Mono Multi) completes the card.

Happy stamping!

Bright and crazy monkey

One of the March Creative Crew challenges is to make a card using a stamp set from the Growing Up section of the catalog. I used 2: Sock Monkey and Extreme Elements. I chose a really bright and crazy color combo: Rich Razzleberry, Pacific Point and Daffodil Delight.
Happy stamping!

Sock Monkey's Back!

This week, I'm using a previous card I made as a sketch.  The color combo came from Diva Coffee Break Designs: Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze and Marina Mist.  I immediately thought these would be great for sock monkey, and Rhonda had embossed a bunch of cardstock for me including Cajun Craze!  Whoohoo!  I stamped him on watercolor paper so I could try to color him well.  I'm not much of a watercolorer (is that a word??), but I think I got a little shading on there anyway.

Supplies: Stamps: Sock Monkey, Woodgrain, Perfect Punches; Paper: watercolor, very vanilla, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake; Ink: black StazOn, crumb cake, cajun craze, marina mist; Accessories: square lattice embossing folder, large oval punch, aquapainter, Marina Mist narrow taffeta ribbon Happy stamping!



Pop Art

Yesterday, I was looking through some of my Stampin' Success magazines, and I came across a page about Pop Art. That reminded me that I had seen a pop art card using Sock Monkey a while back. So I got busy and created one of my own. I stamped Sock Monkey four times (twice on Bashful Blue and So Saffron) then punched them out with the 1 1/4" square punch. They are layered on Basic Black punched with the 1 3/8" square. The mat is a 3" square of Old Olive. The card base is Temping Turquoise with Sanded stamped in Tempting Turquoise and spritzed with Tempting Turquoise ink. I colored the image with my chalks in Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Bashful Blue and So Saffron.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Sanded; Paper: Bashful Blue, So Saffron, Basic Black, Old Olive, Tempting Turquoise; Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Jet Black StazOn; Accessories: square punches, color spritzer, Real Red satin ribbon, stampin' pastels
Happy stamping!

Sock Monkey swap card

I signed up for a new catalog swap hosted by Crystal. I try to do her new catty swap every year because the quality is so good. This year she did smaller groups so I signed up for 4. Since I only had to make 6 of each one, I was able to do what I felt were really good cards. I haven't gotten my swaps back yet, so I've been waiting to post. But the wait is over!
You all know I love the Sock Monkey, so I was happy to make a card with him on it. He is so versatile! It would be easy to make this a birthday card by swapping out the cupcake for the hearts. In fact, this is very similar to the Sock Monkey spring card that I made for Daniel's birthday.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Whimsy jumbo wheel; Paper: Whisper White, Kraft, Tempting Turquoise, Real Red; Ink: Creamy Caramel, Black StazOn; Accessories: scallop border punch, round tab punch, Real Red narrow grosgrain ribbon, watercolor wonder crayons
Happy stamping!

Daniel is 19!

Here is my one and only on Saturday, which was his 19th birthday. (Don't even ask about the hair and the beard! He's 19. What am I supposed to do??)
For Daniel's birthday I made him a spring card using the Sock Monkey. No, it's not a card for the springtime; it's a card with springs inside! This technique was demonstrated at Convention, and it has been all over SCS ever since. The awesome Jenn Diercks, our September WICKED stamper, chose the spring card for the WICKED technique. She posted a terrific video here. If your internet doesn't handle video well, I've got a few photos below.
Here is the inside of the finished card. I've used stamped images from the Sock Monkey set, but you can use flowers, butterflies, punched circles, you name it. The springs each start life as a 1 3/8" circle. Then you just cut it into a spiral.
Adhere one end to the inside back of the card. (I used Mono Multi--just a drop!) Put a little adhesive on the other end of the spiral, hold the spirals down so they look like a circle again, and close the card. This adheres the other end to the inside front of the card. I put a little weight on top of the card and then let it sit for a few minutes so the adhesive could set. Then open the card and use a little drop of adhesive to adhere the embellishments to your springs.
You can also use embellishments to cover up your ends. On the top of the card, I used the ribbon to hide them.
The reason I used Sock Monkey, besides the fact that he is fabulous, is because Daniel won a sock monkey for me at the fair a couple of years ago.
TIP OF THE DAY: The scallop border punch cuts 5/16" off of your cardstock, so I added 3/8" to my normal mat dimensions to get the right amount of mat showing.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Heard from the Heart; Paper: Whisper White, Kraft, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise; Ink: Black StazOn, Close to Cocoa; Accessories: watercolor wonder crayons, paper snips, aquapainter, 1 3/8" circle punch, scallop border punch, Real Red striped grosgrain ribbon
Happy stamping!

Heat & Stick Powder tutorial

Today on SCS, someone was having trouble with Heat & Stick powder. It can be a little tricky to use at first. That made me think I should do a tutorial. I think I already did one, but it was pretty lame. I think this one is much better! Hopefully, you will agree.
Heat & Stick powder is basically a granular glue that melts when heated. It comes in a little jar like embossing powder. The grains are larger than EP, and it tends to clump but the clumps break apart easily.

I keep all of my EP, glitter and Heat & Stick in plastic containers like the one shown above. This allows me to hold my cardstock or chipboard over the container. I use a little scoop to cover the item, and all of the excess falls right back into the container. It doesn't totally eliminate the mess, but it is greatly reduced!

Now, on to the tutorial. For this card, I will be covering a chipboard heart in glitter.

Step 1: Coat the chipboard well with VersaMark. I don't just give it one tap into the pad; I smoosh it if possible. Notice how shiny and well-coated the chipboard is in the above photo.
Step 2: Pour on the Heat & Stick powder and shake off the excess. Step 3: Heat the powder just until it melts and turns shiny. Don't overheat it! Notice that mine still looks grainy. It's okay if it doesn't melt totally. It's better to underheat than overheat.
Step 4: Pour on the glitter. Tap off the excess. Heat again briefly to set the glitter down into the glue. That's it!
Card details: I watercolored the monkey with ink and aquapainter. "Just for you" was stamped with Chocolate Chip craft ink. I used Mono Multi to adhere the twill tape.
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Sanded; Paper: Confetti White, Rose Red, Close to Cocoa; Ink: Black StazOn, Close to Cocoa, Rose Red, Creamy Caramel, Chocolate Chip craft; Accessories: On Board Basics (retired), fine cosmo glitter, Heat & Stick powder, heat tool, cutter kit, scallop border punch, aquapainter, twill tape
Happy stamping!

Still Feeling the Monkey Love

I am still loving this monkey! And I think it will be great to make cards for my 2 (soon to be 3!) youngest nephews. This is one of those cards that started out one way and ended up different. Does that ever happen to you? Originally, I was making a card for one of the Dare to Get Dirty challenges. It was a sketch, and the focal image was an oval. Well, I had just seen the coolest scalloped circles made with the Coluzzle and the slit punch on Marilyn's blog, and I thought that would be cool to use on this card. So I got out my Coluzzle and cut an oval using the 3rd cutting line from the center. Then I put the slit punch in through the hole and punched all the way around. (Marilyn has pictures on her blog, so I didn't take pictures of that part.)
You can see in this photo that there is a little gap on the left side. I thought this might happen, so I started on the side of the oval so I could cover it up with a knot. If you look at the finished card, you can see that's exactly what I did, and you would never even know that gap is there! Whoohoo!! The oval on the right is cut using the 5th cutting line out from the center. I tried stamping the monkey on it, but I couldn't get it exactly like I wanted, so I ended up stamping the monkey and then cutting around him with the Coluzzle.
I watercolored the monkey and banana (both stamped with Basic Brown) with my watercolor crayons. Barely Banana was actually too light for the banana skin, so I used So Saffron and added a little More Mustard around the edge. I used Very Vanilla for the banana. The monkey was colored with Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa and Real Red. I used the cutter kit around the oval's edge and hit it with my Close to Cocoa Stampin' Spot.
I used Confetti White for the card base, topped with a Pacific Point layer followed by So Saffron Prints DSP with the banana stamped randomly in Close to Cocoa. I distressed the edges of the DSP just like I did the oval.
So then I hold my beautiful oval up against the card to try to decide what size the other sketch layers should be. That's when I discovered that my oval is WAY too big for the sketch! Well, I'd gone too far to turn back, so I figured out where to put the ribbon, adhered the oval, and punched the sentiment out with the word window punch.
I guess I can't complain because I like how the card came out, but I'm bummed that I didn't do the challenge. There are so many great ones over at SCS, and I just don't see how I will get them done. That's life, I guess!
Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey; Paper: Confetti White, Pacific Point, So Saffron Prints DSP; Ink: Basic Brown, Close to Cocoa; Accessories: aquapainter, watercolor wonder crayons, Coluzzle, slit punch, word window punch, Very Vanilla taffeta ribbon, cutter kit

Sock monkey!!!

Isn't he adorable??? I just love him! Apparently, you either love or hate him according to polls I've seen on SCS, but how could you hate that cute little monkey?
Anyway, this is an invitation for my friend Kristi. Her son will be turning 3. She has never stamped before so I wanted to create something cute but easy enough for her to make herself. The card is just one quarter sheet of cardstock. This is the front. I colored all of the images with chalk--super simple! I added just a couple of highlights with markers (the top of the hat, the balloon strings and the candle flames on the back).

This is the back. I only used 4 colors of chalk: Close to Cocoa, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Yoyo Yellow. Tip of the day: Don't forget that an eraser comes with your chalks! This is excellent for cleaning up those areas where you get way outside the lines.

I did all of the stamping with Basic Brown. I cut the white pieces 3 3/4 X 5 1/2 and used the scallop border punch on top and bottom.

Here is how I stamped the monkey. I wanted to mask for the hat, but I was afraid it would be too hard to stamp the hat first and then the monkey. So I used the mask on the stamp before I inked it up!
Here's how the monkey looks with no head top.
And here he is after I added the hat.

Supplies (all SU): Stamps: Sock Monkey, Hugs and Wishes; Paper: Naturals White, Brilliant Blue; Ink: Basic Brown; Accessories: Stampin' Pastels, scallop border punch

Well, I'd better get stamping, plus I have some Decor Elements to put up on my wall. Check back later in the week for pics!