And they called it Monkey Love

I had so much fun creating this card for another one of Splitcoaststampers.com's sketch challenges (SC134). The end product looks nothing like the original sketch, but the sketch did inspire my idea.

As you can see in this side view, the base of the card is actually a 5-1/2" x 1-3/4" card which you can write your message in. The palm fronds are made from the large oval punch, with little horizontal slot bites taken out of them. The palm tree trunks were cut free-hand and were rubbed against the small scallop edge of the seeing spots brass stencil. Then rubbed with a sponge dauber and close to cocoa ink. The banana bunch holder is a scallop circle punched out of vellum and folded in from the sides. The crazy grass is the bananas stamped over and over again, cut out in strips and layered. All products used to make this card are Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Monkey Business
Paper: River Rock, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Barely Banana, Purely Pomegranate, Vellum CS
Ink: Wild Wasbi, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Purely Pomegranate, Summer Sun
Accessories: Linen Thread
Tools: Large Oval Punch, Horizontal Slot Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Ticket Corner Punch, Seeing Spots Brass Template, Stylus Tool, Paper Snips

Challenge Card: Snow Blossom

If you have never done a challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com, you must try it. The challenge I worked on yesterday was Sketch Challenge 138 (SC138). I love creating cards based on the sketches, because layouts are one of the hardest things for me to create. It's almost like filling in the blanks, but the truth is that the cards from the sketch challenges all come out looking completely different from each other.

For this card, I used my snow blossom punch first and then centered my scallop circle punch over the hole of the snowflake and punched. I then tapped this piece on my versamark pad and embossed it with iridescent ice embossing powder. This piece was mounted on dimensionals to give it depth.

I have to admit that I love the new designer prints paper from Stampin' Up. I was a slow convert to using patterned papers. I somehow felt it was like cheating using paper instead of stamping a patterned background myself. I also had a fear of using it up and not having any leftover to play with. What I have found though, is that I always end up with leftover paper, even when I use it for make and takes at workshops. It truly is versatile and adds dimension to your cards. For this card, I also stamped the patterned paper with the snowflakes from the snowfall stamp set. I really like how this turned out.

The hardest part of this card was stamping the word "peace" from the Everyday Flexible Phrases stamp set 22 times. A stamp-a-ma-jig is absolutely essential to line these words up properly.



Here is everything* that I used to create this card:
Stamps sets: Snowfall, Everyday Flexible Phrases
Paper: Not Quite Navy CS, Blue Bayou CS, Soft Sky CS, Whisper White CS, Soft Sky DP
Ink: Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Versamark
Accessories: Turquoise Rhinestone Brad, Iridescent Ice EP, Dimensionals
Tools: Snow Blossom Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponge Dauber
*all supplies and tools used are from Stampin' Up!

Wanted Cowboys

After a few delays, I'm finally able to show you the invitations I made for my son's birthday. This year we went for a cowboy theme. I wanted to create a unique pocket card, so I added a little curvature to the pocket opening. The vanilla piece with the horses on it, pulls out to reveal the invitation details. All products used to make this invitation are Stampin' Up!

Stamps: Wanted
Paper: Kraft, Very Vanilla, Really Rust, Sage Shadow, Outlaw
Inks: Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Sahara Sand
Accessories: Twill Tape, Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet, Antique Brass Brads
Tools: Crop-a-dile, Scallop Circle Punch, Star Punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig, Sponge Daubers

First Post

I never thought I'd be here ... typing and posting to a blog. Many stamp artists have blogs, but I've always been too time challenged to start and maintain one. Fast forward to this morning. I wanted to add a new signature line to my username at Splitcoaststampers.com. Since I was in a cheery mood the old saying: Smile! It's contagious came to mind. Then it suddenly hit me it wasn't Smile! It's contagious that I wanted. It was Stamp! It's contagious!! I liked the new saying so much that I immediately decided that I wanted to have a blog with the same name. So voila! Smile! It's Contagious was born. Welcome!!