The Joyful Soul Creates

I had a lot of fun making this card. I had a rough idea what I wanted to make when I started on it, and it all came together brilliantly. There were a couple of issues along the way, mostly with fussy cutting the monkeys – they’re very fiddly! – but nothing too frustrating.

I knew right from the start that I wanted to use the two monkeys from The Cat’s Pajamas Go Bananas stamp set. I decided a kraft card base would work well, and I wanted to add a wide strip of patterned paper. I figured I would go for something leafy, and was trying to decide between two. In the end I went for the one with the smaller leaves, as I felt the larger leafed one (which I used in the background of my photo!) was a bit too large of a pattern for the area.

I used a piece of washi tape to hold the patterned paper in place on the card base. Then I put the whole thing into my MISTI and worked on creating the border above the patterned paper. I used a dark green pigment ink and the finer vine image from the stamp set.

Whilst I had everything in my MISTI I also stamped out the outlines of the monkeys. I used a brown pigment ink and stamped it directly onto the card base and again onto the patterned paper. I did this because I knew I was going to fussy cut the monkeys, and their tails are so fine that it wouldn’t be practical to fussy cut those.

With the same brown pigment ink I stamped the monkeys onto a snippet of heavyweight white paper. I then coloured them in with my coloured pencils. I tried to colour them with texture, using a flicking motion to create lines of colour. For the larger monkey’s fur I used three shades of brown as well as a grey. For the smaller monkey I used the same colours but without the darkest brown. I did add some very basic shading too. For their faces, hands and feet I used a very pale pink blended with the lightest brown shade, and a touch of light pink for a little blush. The same light brown added shade to the bananas, and a hint of yellow for the banana skins.

Having finished all the colouring I got started with fussy cutting the monkeys. Not an easy process! Whilst the lines are fairly straightforward the thinness of the arms and legs (and the fact I’d used a heavy paper rather than a cardstock) led me to feel like I was going to tear them. I ended up switching to use my craft knife rather than my scissors. The result isn’t as neat as I would like, but at least I didn’t dismember the poor creatures!

Once the monkeys were both cut out I used my glue pen to apply adhesive to the back of them, then stuck them down onto the patterned paper over the outlines that I’d previously stamped.

I wanted to add a sentiment as a final touch, but didn’t like the way a straight sentiment would look. With the help of my MISTI I used the Lawn Fawn Jessie’s ABCs to spell out my sentiment, curving it along the lines of the vine. I stamped it with the same brown pigment ink as I had used for the monkeys.

Finally I used my tape runner to stick the patterned paper down and removed the washi tape that I’d been using to hold it in place. I probably could have just glued it down right at the start, but for some reason I didn’t!

I’m very happy with how this card came together. I think the patterned paper was a good choice, and the kraft works nicely with it. I really like the look of the curving sentiment. And I’m pretty happy with how the colouring came out too!

Love,

Lady Joyful

Challenges included:

Global Design Project – Sketch/Layout

Paru’s Card Making Challenges – Anything Goes

The Cat’s Pajamas – Thank You