Un-frog-ettable

My aunt has a birthday soon. She & my uncle love to perform "oldies" type songs, karaoke-style, for senior citizens. When I saw this greeting stamp from Repeat Impressions, it made me think of Nat King Cole, and his rendition of "Unforgettable." I don't know if my aunt & uncle go back that far in time with the songs they sing, but it still made me think of their singing. I combined the "Happy Frog" (also from Repeat Impressions) with a cake from Art Impressions' "Birthday Cake Set" & a party hat from Lawn Fawn's "Monster Mash" stamp set.

I first stamped the frog onto the plastic sheet for my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig. The stamp is red rubber, so I would have had a horrible time trying to position it accurately with the cake & hat using my MISTI or even just eyeballing it with the stamp mounted on an acrylic block. I then stamped & cut masks for the cake & hat from masking paper.

I used the frog image on my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig sheet to help me position the cake & hat stamps in my MISTI. I stamped them onto a scrap of Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper. I placed the masks over the cake & hat, and then used my Stamp-a-Ma-Jig & an acrylic block to stamp the frog. I was so happy it came out looking like one stamp, instead of 3 separate images!

After I cut my image with a Mama Elephant "Tags a Lot" die, I colored it with my Prismacolor pencils. I highlighted the frog's belly & chin with yellow (over a light layer of green), to indicate the candle flame shining on those parts. I die cut a hole reinforcer from pink cardstock & glued it to the top of my tag. I let the glue dry, then punched through the middle with a 1/8" hole punch. I threaded a few lengths of green & white baker's twine, that complemented the frog's colors, through the hole & knotted them.

At this point, I looked at my tag, and wondered what to do with it to make it into a card! Usually, I start with an idea of an image or greeting I want to use, then proceed to find a sketch to base my design decisions on. This time, in a bit of a "cart before the horse" fashion, I created my focal element before coming up with any design. So I pulled out my binder with card sketches, & found #SC727 from Splitcoaststampers.com. The one panel in the sketch was pretty close in size to my tag, so I went with that.

I used a patterned paper from Pink Paislee's "Birthday Bash" 6x6" pad for my background layer. I thought it was understated enough to be a background, but still give a festive vibe. I also cut a strip from a sheet in Crate Paper's "Party Day" 12x12" patterned paper pad. The paper had several strips with various patterns, & I thought the yellow chevron with the pink "Happy Birthday to You" along one side went perfectly as a supplementary greeting. I stamped my main greeting in Lawn Fawn Wild Rose ink, which matched the printing ink color on the patterned paper strip pretty closely. I cut that into a banner, and adhered it to my card front. Finally, I adhered my tag, & mounted the front panel to a white A2-size card base.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

The House that Stamps Built Challenge #DCC J320: "Tag, you're it!"

613 Avenue Create Challenge #234: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge: "Anything Goes"

25

Christmas Card Throwdown currently has a sketch challenge. I created this card, inspired by the sketch they posted.

I chose Bugaboo Stamps' "Christmas Doodles" digital set for the images on my card. I actually only used 3 of the 4, omitting the snowflake. To determine the sizing of each image, I created a blank "canvas" in Photoshop that was the dimensions of a vertical A2 card (4-1/4x5-1/2"). I opened the 3 image files (I had previously "broken up" the set into individual images), and dragged each onto my canvas. I drew 2 rectangles with the Shape tool, to represent the panels in the sketch. I set my images to different sizes and arrangements, until they looked good. I did keep in mind the sizes of circle dies I have, so I could easily cut the circles out later.

Once everything looked good, I transferred the images onto a blank canvas, so I could print them. I used a laser printer to print them onto a panel of Strathmore Smooth bristol paper, as I knew I wanted to color them with my Tombow markers, and I didn't want to have printer ink that would smear.

After choosing a patterned paper from my scrap stash, I colored the images with coordinating colors of Tombow markers. I adhered a panel of kraft cardstock to my white card base, added my patterned paper panels to that, and die cut & glued down the image circles. The empty space in the bottom left corner bothered me, so I added five 5mm silver sequins there. To balance that out, I added 3 more in the top right. And that finished this relatively quick & easy card! :)

I'm also entering this in the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door: "Anything Goes"

Creative Knockouts Challenge #354: "Anything Goes"

HBD

Hero Arts has been having a special series of challenges, called "Stay Crafty with Hero." I am entering this card in their current sketch challenge.

I decided to make a masculine birthday card. I chose my background paper from Echo Park's "Jack and Jill" 6x6" pad. I thought the numbers went well with the theme. The pennant paper is from Crate Paper's "Cool Kid" 6x6" pad. The yellow & blue patterned papers I found in my scrap stash. I normally don't use this many patterns on one card, but since the yellow & blue ones are basically tone-on-tone, they really read as solids. To help the papers stand out a bit more, I inked around all but the numbers panel with Hickory Smoke Distress ink.

I chose the "HBD" greeting from Simon Says Stamp's "Stop Drop Party" stamp set. It fit the greeting panel size in the sketch perfectly, and I thought it went with the masculine theme of this card. I stamped it on my blue panel with Delicata Black Shimmer ink.

After I adhered all my layers to my card, I die cut a balloon from dark blue cardstock with a Lawn Fawn "Party Balloons" die. I inked the left side with Hickory Smoke, just to add a bit of shading & dimension, and added the shine mark with a white gel pen. I tied a piece of white crochet twine around the neck, and glued the balloon to my card. Finally, I added 3 dots of glue to the card to tack down the twine, so it would have the appearance of some movement.

I'm also entering this card in the following challenges:

Dies R Us Challenge #146: "It's Dad's Day (Father's Day/Masculine)"

613 Avenue Create's Challenge #234: "Anything Goes" (not playing the twist)

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: "It's a Man Thing"