Birthday monsters

In July Stampin' Up! had a contest to design a monster-themed stamp set. The winning stamp set, Monstermaniacs, was created by a Stampin' Up! demonstrator. It's a cute stamp set, and I thought it would be fun to use for a variety of occasions. I made my first card with it this week: a birthday card for one of my cousins' sons, who will be turning nine next week.

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Monstermaniacs, Yippee-Skippee!
Cardstock: Basic Gray, Whisper White, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo
Ink: Jet Black StazOn, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Island Indigo
Accessories: Circles Collection Framelits dies, 3/4" circle punch, Square Lattice embossing folder, googly eyes (Inkadinkadoo), Mono Multi liquid glue, Dimensionals

I stamped and colored the image and then cut it out with one of the Circles Collection Framelits dies. For the background I wanted to play off the circle shape of the focal piece -- there are also several circles in the image itself -- so I used the Framelits dies again to make several circle frames in different sizes and colors. (This was really easy to do with the new magnetic platform for the Big Shot. Love it!) I adhered the circles to a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Basic Gray cardstock then added some texture by embossing the whole piece with the Square Lattice embossing folder. I attached the layer to a Basic Gray card base and adhered the focal piece to the right side of the card.

To create the sentiment I used markers to ink the letters with different colors. I stamped the sentiment on a strip of Whisper White cardstock and used the 3/4" punch to round the ends of the strip. Then I used Dimensionals to adhere the sentiment so it overlapped the focal layer. I wanted to add a little embellishment to the card -- but nothing too frilly -- so I gave one of the monsters googly eyes. Googly eyes make everything more fun!

I stamped a birthday sentiment inside the card, and since I always like to include a hand-written message, I added a little note wishing the birthday boy a "monstrously" good birthday. (Another possibility I considered was "I hope your birthday is out of this world.") Thanks for stopping by!