2 Swinging Monkey Valentines

Hi CottageCutz Friends,

Kris here with you today, sharing 2 Valentine's Day cards featuring the cute Swinging Monkey and the Valentine Phrase & More!.  The first one is a quick & easy valentine's card.  For my 2nd card, I made an interactive swinging card!

CARD #1

DESIGN STEPS:

I cut my A2 top folding card base in a dark pink, then I layered a piece of Doodlebug Design Hearts paper slightly smaller, 5-1/4" x 4".  

I die cut the largest Nested Wacky Stitched Rectangles from white c.s. and stamped half of a sentiment onto lower portion as shown, then mounted it onto card front. 

I also die cut the Swinging Monkey and the Valentine Phrase & More from white cardstock, and the hearts from  2 shades of pink.  I also foiled the 2nd half of my sentiment onto pink c.s.

I colored my monkey and assembled.  Then I cut off his hands so I could glue them on top of the hearts like he's actually holding them.  

I decided to hang him by his tail instead of his arm, so I glued the tail to tree limb and then onto the card.  I added some foam tape behind his body to pop him out a bit.  

Next, I popped up 2 hearts where his hands would be with foam tape, then glued his hands to the hearts.  I then glued the li'l hearts to the tree limbs and around. 

And lastly, I popped up the foiled sentiment with foam mounting tape and Voila!   How stinkin' CUTE is he??!!!  

CARD #2

(This one actually swings!)

DESIGN STEPS:

For this one, I started with a 5-1/2" square top folding card in light pink.  I stenciled on front to add a li'l interested, then stenciled hearts (from the Valentine Phrase & More cut outs) where the dotty lines intersect.

Next, I die cut the largest Stitched Rectangle set from the center of my card front (with the card open).

Next, I die cut a darker pink frame by nesting the largest Scalloped Rectangle and the 2nd largest  Stitched Rectangle set as shown

I glued the frame to the card front. 

I cut a piece of white c.s. to 5" square and cut 2 pieces, also 5" wide and die cut tops with the Grass Slimline dies.  Then I colored with distress oxide ink.

 I glued the monkey's body and arm to an acetate strip.  Then I punched a hole where his hand would be that was big enough to go around a tiny spinner disc (you could also stack 2 round mini foam dots on top of each other if you want) and position and glue it to the center of the inside of your card as shown below.  

*It helps to close the front of card for positioning.  

Then, with the acetate strip around the glued disc, I glued the tree limb to the top of disc (or dimensional dots). Then I glued his hand to the top of the tree limb where his arm is at and glued the hearts to the tree limb.

I then attached my sentiments to the front as shown. 

And lastly, I cut a piece of lime cardstock 5-1/2" x 3" and scored at 1/2", 1-1/2", 2-1/2" then mountain fold, valley fold, mountain fold it.  Burnish score lines, and add Scor Tape to the 2 outer flaps.

Attach the flaps to insides of card at the bottom. 

For the back, I cut a piece of white cardstock 5" square and mounted a piece of dark pink that was die cut with largest scalloped square die.  I then mounted the sentiment and have room to hand write on the white border.  ☺

Thanks so much for looking today!  I hope you get creative with your favorite CottageCutz dies and be sure to check out the Black Friday Release!!!  It's still on sale - individual dies are 30% OFF and has lots of versatile dies for Valentine's, Spring or Summer! 
~Kristine

Watercolored Fall Tree

Happy Fall Y'all 😊

Kris here sharing some Friday inspiration with you!   My card today features the Fall Tree from the new New Fall Release!  All the individual dies from this release are still 30% OFF for a limited time and there are 15 beautiful Fall designs!

I joined Mary & Pam in the Color Challenge CC971 at SplitcoastStampers this week which is...

Pretty Peacock
Crushed Curry
Cajun Craze

The dessert option is TEXTURE.

(All dies I used are linked at the end of this post)

DESIGN STEPS:

I started with an A2 top folding card and since I was out of the Curry c.s., I used Daffodil Delight and ink blended some wild honey Distress Oxide ink to get the deeper curry color. 

For the background of my focal image I wanted to incorporate some texture so I used some thick watercolor paper and die cut the Leafy Background Slimline die and mounted it on a piece of 3-1/4" x 4-1/4" watercolor paper.  

I then turned it over and cut off the excess.

I adhered this to the middle of my card front.

Next, I die cut the Fall Tree and leaves from the Autumn Ladder from watercolor cardstock.

(I also die cut the wheelbarrow thinking I'd put it at the bottom of my card with leaves in it, but it ended up being pretty large compared to my tree, so I eliminated it.)

I die cut a piece of Mossy Meadow c.s. with one of the Hills Slimline dies and another piece I die cut with one of the Grass Slimline dies. I cut both to 3-1/4" wide and mounted the hill on top of the grass blades and adhered to card front.

I watercolored the tree and leaves with Crackling Campfire, Carved Pumpkin, Wild Honey and Vintage Photo Distress Oxide inks and set aside to dry.

Next, I created a frame from the Pretty Peacock c.s. by layering the 2nd largest Wacky Stitched Rectangle Die inside the largest Scalloped Rectangle Die and die cutting it.

I added foam strips to back of frame and adhered to card front.

I adhered my tree and leaves onto card front.

For my sentiment, I used this pretty teal watercolor Deco Foil to foil my sentiment onto the Cajun Craze cardstock.  To do this, I printed my sentiment on the Cajun c.s. using a laser printer, then added my foil on top and ran it thru my Minc (like a laminator, but made for foiling).

Here are the results up close:  

I love how it incorporated the peacock, yellow and green ☺

and done!

   

 

  

  I hope you are inspired to get crafty with your favorite CottageCutz dies!  

More inspiration and tutorials on our YouTube channel here. 

♡  ♡  ♡

~Kris

Fall Designs Group Post (Day 2)

Hello CottageCutz friends! Thanks for taking the time to stop and visit with us today. This post is featuring cards using the new Fall Release. There are 15 designs in this release and are available in the online store with special pricing.

The designs are so perfect for all your Fall projects- birthday, Thanksgiving, thinking of you, encouragement and home decor just to name a few. They allow you to add a beautiful touch of Fall to whatever you may be creating.

We have had a good response when we do a group post on a new release. It gives you the opportunity to see more card samples from the Design Team. There are 3 samples in today's post, and we also showed 3 samples on Wednesday. See Day 1 samples here.

Now onto our samples for today. 

Card 1: Our first sample today is from Kristine Breach.  She created such a playful Fall scene featuring the cute critters from the Autumn Friends die and paired it with the Fall Branch w/Swing. Love the owl sitting on the swing.  It's a larger format in a horizontal 5x7 card. 

Her images are all colored with Copic markers. The color scheme followed the Splitcoaststampers color Challenge #968 this week.  Optional was an "anything goes" theme. She took advantage of that by adding a few more Fall colors along with some neutrals.  

lemon-lime twist, daffodil delight, coastal cabana

Card 2: Our next sample for today is from Marla Harris. This tranquil Fall scene is so perfect for a Thanksgiving card.

She used the Fall Gate w/Flowers and the Fall Branch w/Swing dies to create this beauty. 

The images are all colored with Copic markers including the grass in the background. The sky is inked with distress oxide salvaged patina and peacock feather inks. The sunflowers, accents to the fence and pumpkin are all lifted off the background with dimensional adhesive to add depth. 

Card 3: Our last sample for today is from Melinda Beltran. She used the Fall Centerpiece and Autumn Garland dies and designed a beautiful home decor piece. She altered a Dollar Store find to create her own shadowbox. 

Melinda is quite the pro at altering items and achieving a finished upscale look. For this project, she moved away from the traditional Fall colors for her pumpkins and sunflowers to the trendy pastels that are being shown this season.  

That's it for our samples for today. We hope you have enjoyed the samples from the Team that we have presented these past 2 days. You can pick up these dies in our online store at a 30% off limited time sale.