Sock Monkey & Dreams Du Jour

I finally took some time to play with some of my new stamp sets from Stampin'Up!. How fun! I spent some time online getting inspired by some wonderful stampers who are kind enough to share their creations on their blogs and on splitcoaststampers.com. (This is a wonderful way to get ideas......and many of them even share tutorials.) And here is a sample of what I came up with...

This is Sock Monkey. Isn't he cute? Did you have one of these? I wish I could find mine. He's in the new Fall/Winter 2008 catalog on p. 51, and there's another set there with a whole bunch of cute accessories that go with him.

I used Pacific Point, Kiwi kiss, Riding Hood Red and even a spot of Pink Pirouette (for the flower center) from the new In Color line. The polka dotted background paper is from the new Bella Rose DSP (caty p. 168). When you look at the beautiful Designer Series Paper in the new catalog, notice that Stampin'Up! has included all the colors that they used in each pack. What an easy way to pick out great color combinations for our creations! And love that new Scallop Edge punch (caty p. 188). Makes it so fast and easy to get a straight scallop edge!

In this card I used Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, and Kiwi Kiss (Bella Rose DSP). I made the flower window by first punching out a 1 1/4" circle from Riding Hood Red and lining up the Scallop Circle punch around it (hold your punch upside down so you can see the placement). The leaves were made by stamping the heart from Sock Monkey on the back of the DS paper, cutting it out and then cutting it half (just trim to round off the edges a little). This card was inspired by the layout of a card that Jackie Matyasovski created for our Spirelli class.

The next card uses Dreams Du Jour and the Floral background stamp. The triple panel piece was stamped with Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red and Kiwi Kiss (swiped with the edge of the Kiwi Kiss pad to give it interest), then cut into 3 - 1 inch panels (inspired by a card created by Cindy Lawrence). The center piece is watercolored using pads and a blender pen. I then went over the flower, leaves and border with a Versamarker and embossed it with Clear ep.