Sock Monkey Christmas

I made this card as part of a technique swap. I just received the stamp set this week and couldn't wait to sit down and play with it. The technique was the spotlighting technique, and I immediately jumped to the circle idea for the card.


The card was made with Ruby Red, Soft Suede, and Whisper White cardstock. I used Holiday Lounge DSP on the background.

Here's a tutorial for this card:

1) Cut a piece of Ruby Red cardstock 11" x 4 1/4". Score the paper in half at the 5 1/2" mark.
2) Cut a piece of DSP 5 1/4" x 4". Take care with directional paper that you cut it the right way.
3) Stamp an image of the hat using any ink color. Cut the hat out (you don't need to worry about the ball at the top of the hat - you can cut that off). Put the image aside.
4) Stamp two hat images on a piece of Whisper White cardstock using black ink. Leave alot of space between the images - you will be stamping the monkey as well and then cutting them out in a circle.
5) Place the cut out hat image over one of the stamped hat images. This will mask your hat image. Ink your monkey image on the paper, aligning the head to give the image that the monkey is wearing the hat. Do the same with the second hat.
6) If not using Stazon black ink, let your images dry well, to avoid smudging.
7) Use a 1 1/2" circle cutter to cut a circle out of one of your monkey images.
8) Use a coordinating color (I used soft suede) and cut a circle 1 3/4" wide (I used my circle cutter to cut this second circle).
9) Color the small circle image in as you desire - I used Ruby Red, Soft Suede, and Creamy Caramel markers to color the monkey in. Set the small circle aside.
10) Use your circle cutter to cut a circle around the monkey. Make sure to not cut off any of the image.
11) Using the same coordinating color cardstock as above (I used soft suede), but a circle about 1/4" larger than the circle above. Adhere the monkey image to this circle.
12) Time to assemble the card - adhere the monkey image to your card. Then use dimensionals to adhere the small circle monkey image to your card. Line up the image to create the 'spotlighting' technique.
13) To make the gift box, ink a gift box with black ink and cut the box out. I used a Ruby Red marker to color in the dots, and to make the ribbon dotted. Adhere the box to the card using dimensionals.
14) Use a piece of ribbon (I used soft suede polka dot grosgrain ribbon) and tie it around the card and knot the ribbon.