Monkeying Around

So, I’ve been doing lots of stamping, but giving away cards and scrapbook pages before taking pictures of them. But, I stole this card off our mantel after his birthday managed to get a picture of this birthday card for my husband. I know not everyone likes the sock monkey, but I love him! He’s great for paper piercing and coloring in.

(all images copyrighted at Stampin’ Up)

Stamp Set: Sock Monkey

Ink: Brown Staz on

Paper: Bella Rose DSP, Not quite navy, riding hood red, confetti cream

Other: SU markers- old olive, always artichoke, kiwi kiss, not quite navy, close to cocoa, chocolate chip

Chocolate Chip Twill, brown journaler, slit punch

This card is a classic example of just add one more thing. I started by coloring the monkey, and kept going outside the line so I decided to blend the color in the background to give it a kind of older appearance. Well then the not quite navy screamed for distressing so I took my thumbnail to the edges (really need to get the distressing tool). Even that didn’t seem to be enough so I added some faux stiching on the not quite navy. And, finally I sponged on some staz on brown to the edge of the confetti cream. When it still wasn’t fitting I thought it would look better with the ticket corner edge so since I don’t have that punch I used my slit punch to get the same effect. Finally, it looked right! The same thing happened to the card base. I place the Bella Rose DSP onto riding hood red, but it wasn’t quite right so I added the chocolate chip twill. It was perfection, but who knew a boys card could be so fussy?

Zoofari meets Celebrate Everything

Zoofari and Celebrate Everything are both great sets that can be used a million different ways. So when I was trying to think of what to make for my nephew’s birthday it seemed like a good idea to combine the two. And, of course using Zoofari means I get to pull out my SU markers and watercolor paper.

Recipe:
stamp sets: Zoofari, Celebrate Everything
Ink: Black Staz On
Paper: Brocade Blue, SU watercolor paper
Extras: Pumpkin Pie grosgrain ribbon, mini glue dots, su markers, aquapainter
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

Piling the animals on top of each other is one of my favorite ways to use the zoofari set. I think it ups the playfullness of this set a notch. I colored the animals in using the following SU markers: Bordering Blue, Ballet Blue, Black (journaler), Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie, Creamy Caramel, and Chocolate Chip. I then stamped Celebrate down the side, and added a happy birthday sentiment on the inside. I mounted the watercolor paper off to the side, and then tied the pumpkin pie ribbon on the left side. I didn’t tie a bow, because I wanted it to be more boy like. To keep the ribbon from moving around I put some mini glue dots under it.

I love the zoofari set. It’s great for cards and scrapbooks. And, Celebrate Everything is one of the sets you can earn for free by holding a qualifying workshop in January.

Mistakes are a girl’s best friend

So, I am still busy scrapbooking, but this time for my nephew and godson. I am making him a 6×6 album for his first birthday. I know not every scrapper does them, but I love title pages in my scrapbooks. And, this one I made without a single picture.

Recipe:
stamp set: Word on Word, Nursery Necessities
paper: bashful blue, very vanilla, barely banana, and wild wasabi textured
ink: real red craft, fashful blue craft, handsome hunter craft
extras: large star punch, slit punch, sponge daubers
(all images © Stampin’ Up)

I started this design knowing I wanted to use my hostess set, Word on Word, from last fall and make a scallop with the slit punch. I decided to combine the two into the title for this page. The title of this post begins right there. I mount the paper to my page, and I find that I had a smudge of red in the corner so I stamped the small star in each corner, which I think adds more visual interest to the page. Without the mistake I may have missed the opportunity to add something a little extra. My mistakes continued as I carefully punched each star, and inked a letter from the Nursery Letters wheel, and stamped it on to each star. I got each individual letter to stamp by putting masking tape on the area around it and just putting ink on the letter I wanted. But, I must have had a pit of residue on the stamp, because I had a slight watermark of the other letters on my page. I fixed that by sponging (with a sponge dauber) bashful blue craft ink around the star. I didn’t think to do that until I was trying to get rid of the smudge, and it added so much to the page.

And, one more mistake increased my creativity. I went to place the stars on the page, and found they didn’t fit! I had taken all that time and for nothing. Then I thought to line the stars up and overlap them, and cut off the edges of the a and the n. It worked oh so perfectly, and gave me the space to put the little elephants on the bottom of the page.

This page looks nothing like I had originally planned, but I love it so much more. You can earn Nursery Necessities for free by hosting a qualifying workshop in January.