Yankee Doodle Monkey

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy, la la la la. The theme for this week's challenge over at A La Card Monkey is Red, White & Blue plus the sketch. Even though the theme was inspired by the upcoming Independence Day weekend, it wasn't required that card portray a patriotic image. Here's the sketch provided:



I happen to know a pair of sisters who like to make a big thing about July 4th, so I thought I would do a card with them in mind. 

The card itself is Cherry Cobbler cardstock (and who doesn't want cobbler for dessert?), with the matching ink on the sentiment, the flag that the owl is holding and the sponging around the sentiment and behind the owl. You can't see it very well, but the "stick" for the owl's flag is a piece of cherry cobbler/white baker's twine. I cut the little "Uncle Sam" hat freehand from scraps and put some black behind it so that it would give some dimension to it. It was just a coincidence that the brads on the oval seem to match the owl's feet LOL. I used little pearls for the stars on the larger flag, the owl's eyes and across the brim of the hat.

Girly-girl card for Monkey

I'm not much of a girly-girl myself. Give me a pair of jeans & a t-shirt over dressing up anytime! However, over at A La Card Monkey, the challenge this week is to create a card that a "Girly-girl" will love. Terry Su & Shirley Su said that the card didn't have to be pink, but really, what girly-girl doesn't love pink? Here's my card for this week's challenge:

I used my pink dotted swiss cardstock that I got from Michaels as the background. The edge punch is a Martha Stewart "deep" punch. I spiced up the edge with glitter, colored brads for the centers and a layer of darker paper, similarly punched and offset behind to give some depth.

The stamped main image is the flowers from the Punch Bunch offered in the Sale-a-bration catalog. I colored the flowers with Rose Red, Pretty in Pink and Pink Pirouette. The stems are done with Old Olive. I used my sponge dauber with Rose Red around the edges. The layer behind the image is Ice Cream Parlor dsp, also from the Sale-a-bration catalog.

The sentiment at top features one of the Four Frames set and the sentiment is from the Vintage Labels set. The ink is again Rose Red. I even added some pink pearls to the edge. The purple satin ribbon I actually found at Walmart and the little white satin bow is from Michaels.

Here's a close-up of some of the features:

You can see the glitter, the brad, the flowers and the pearls on the label.

Oh, yeah, here's the original sketch:



Another for Monkey 60

I was having so much fun with my new Open Sea stamp set that I decided to make another card for this week's Monkey Challenge:

I used cajun craze cardstock, plus some blue cardstock from my stash. All the images were stamped with Soft Suede and the sponging was done with Cajun Craze. I used some nautical print cardstock for the "ribbon" accents. The sentiment came from the "Vintage Labels" stamp set.

Anchors Aweigh!

This week's challenge at A La Card Monkey is a little easier, just a sketch, no theme.

Here's the sketch:



As soon as I saw it, I thought "Hey, I just bought the Open Seas stamp set and it has 2 round stamps in there". I also had some nautical print cardstock and I thought "why not" see what I could do. Here's what I came up with:

Instead of using ribbon, I layered a piece of the same nautical cardstock over some blue that I had and cajun craze cardstock. I used cajun craze ink (which seemed to match the "red" in the red/white/blue paper) to stamp the globe and compass.

Vintage Flowers

The theme is "vintage" for Monkey Challenge #59. And this week they have blog candy for the winner:



As I said, the challenge this week is to make a card that looks old-fashioned / vintage. Here's the sketch:



And here's what I came up with:

When I think of old-fashioned cards, I think of all the floral, swirly cards I've seen. I used some Stampin' Up paisley dsp for the background. I stamped some leaves in Wild Wasabi (which seems to be on its way to becoming one of my favorite colors). I used brads to make the centers for the silk flowers. The butterfly was punched out of yellow and orange cardstock then the two were attached to each other with glue dots to add some dimension. The silk flower buds were attached to green felt.

Man's Best Friend

I wasn't sure if I was going to do a card this week for the challenge over at A La Card Monkey. After all, this week's theme is "man card", and my stamps didn't seem to lend themselves to that. Here's this week's sketch:


I have several Stampabilities stamps of Peanuts characters and this one of Snoopy & Woodstock fishing just seemed to fit the bill:

I colored in the stamp with markers (bashful blue, old olive and wild wasabi) and colored pencils. I used soft suede for the stamp itself. I distressed the edges and stamped the sentiment with Old Olive ink. I used nylon string in the button. The top & bottom prints are two sides of the same SU paper, I think it's from the pawsitively prints line.