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"