Bugz and Kissez

A local stamp store-Jane's -has a stamping contest every other month. The last two times I entered but I have no idea how I did because the final voting was not posted or announced, only the winner. First prize was 100.00 of product and only 20 participating kits were sold. Here and here were the first two times I entered. On both those contests, I made up several using scraps to try and get the look I wanted before finishing the actual submission and in both cases, I liked the ones I made that I could not submit better. So I tried a different strategy this time.

I only made one card. This way I had to be extra careful not to screw up as I was only working with the items in the baggie and had no room to spare. The bull frog stamp is from All Night Media . We were given the reddish brown card stock to be the background and that was the only paper restriction from the kit-every one's card will be a base brown.

There were also multiple papers included in the kit- a dark green stripe, a light green stripe, a plain dark green, a medium blue textured piece and a spotted piece-along with a quarter sheet of white to stamp out images on (which left enough to practice stamping and painting). Included were two leaves punched from Bazzill Bling, a sun punched from the same, 3 large shiny gold square brads, 2 odd buttons and some jute in two different colors. We could use as much as we wanted but could not add anything except ink, coloring of the image and Stickles if we wanted. We could choose to add a one stamp phrase if it was wanted. I chose a phrase but put it inside-it was Bugz and Kissez spelled with funky individual letters I placed on an acrylic block and stamped on blue and framed with green stripes.

I punched the original aperture for my froggie to pop thru from the blue piece. I then took the punch and used it to make a slightly larger hole in the base card by making the edge bigger on both corners-I could not find a slightly larger rectangle punch and this worked fine as I was careful. Just turn the punch over and align on the sides and edges evenly for the extra width. I did the same with the dark green piece (after I had finished the technique I had planned) so it looks layered and framed around the frog.

My idea was to make a swamp. I took the two leaves and used them as a template/mask. The first time I used dye inks in various colors of green and sponged them on the green but they soaked in and I didn't get the effect I wanted, so scrounging in my ink bucket, I came across some Cat's Eye pigments in greens and browns-one of them being a chalk ink. I again took the leaves and held them as I sponged the inks around the shapes using three colors. Then I poured clear detail embossing powder over the entire sheet and heat embossed it. If you zoom in on the card, you will see the variations in the colors. By now those leaves were also covered in inks (and soaking wet) so I set them aside to dry, not sure what I would do with them yet. I then applied all my layers using Trio tape runner.

Stamping two images of the frog and coloring with Prismacolor and Gamsol, I cut one out and then cut only the hands of the other image. Froggie was placed behind the aperture but glued to the inside front as I wanted him to look like he was leaping out at you. I then used tiny pop dots cut in half to place the extra layer of fingers over the lip on the outside front. Here is a close up for a better idea.

I did not like the brads as they were too large and shiny and the buttons in the kit did nothing for me. I did love the sun (even if hubby insists there is no sun in the swamps) and knew right away I had to use it-just on the non-shimmer side. And the texture of the jute twine was a jungle winner! I wound it around the front and taped it on the back of the embossed card stock. That is where the leaves came into play. I tried laying them here and there until they looked right-and pop dotted them down. I used the non-shiny side of the bling and actually added a little more color at the end for more variegated leaves.

The finishing touches were the piece of paper inside to look like watery fun and a touch of Souffle black pen on the irises for his eyes to pop! I spent a lot of time on this card-but found that making only one was better than playing. I did make a sketch and stayed with it 100%. It just played out right in my head I guess. I had only tiny scraps left over plus the brads and buttons. And I did not use the light green striped paper. Into my stash it went.

The contest is limited to 15 possible contestants instead of 20 and the prize is no longer 100.00 in fun stuff-we now get to take a free class. But with Laurie as a teacher, well worth it! The voting ends September 30 and it can only be voted in person, so wish me luck! Or stop in the store for some fun shopping too.