Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Chill Out

Hey Everyone! It's time for a new challenge on the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. This week our theme is, Chill Out, and I created a fun card with a cool cat with a chilled out attitude. Check out my my tutorial, with photos, on how I used some masking techniques to create my card. I hope you play along with us this week for this fun challenge. Enjoy!

I begin my card by cutting a 4-1/4" x 6-1/4" piece of Bristol watercolor paper and tape it to a hardboard panel.

I want to create a scene of cats using the Tim Holtz Crazy Cats stamp set with little to no dimension so instead of cutting each cat out and placing them in front or behind of each other, I use some masking techniques to achieve this effect. I planned my card to have four cats in a row. I stamp the second cat from the left because I want him to show slightly in front of the first cat.

I create a mask for each of the cats I will be using on the card. I stamp the cat on Inkadinkadoo masking paper and cut it out with it's coordinating Crazy Cat die piece. (Note: it isn't necessary to stamp the image out onto the masking paper if you have the coordinating Crazy Cat dies, I did this to make it visually easier to follow the tutorial.)

I place masked cat over the stamped image of him on the card.

I can now stamp the first cat in the row without worrying about stamping over the second cat in the row.

I remove the mask from the second cat in the row and you can see the effect this masking technique left behind. The first cat looks like it is sitting slightly behind the standing cat. I continue using this masking technique until my row of cats is complete.

I replace the masked cat over the second cat again and stamp the third cat in the row. When I remove the mask from the second cat, as you can see above, this leaves the impression that parts of the second cat are in front of the back side of the third cat.

I continue the process by masking the third cat in the row so I can stamp the fourth and final cat for the card.

After removing the mask from the third cat, it looks as though I didn't need to use the mask but if you look closely, parts of the fourth cat's whiskers and the tips of his ears would have stamped over the third cat in the row and ruined the scene.

I want to add the milk bottle, ball of yarn and fish bones that come in the Crazy Cat stamp set to the scene so I mask off the third and fourth cat and add the milk jug between them.

Here, you can see the addition of the milk bottle.

I mask off the second cat and stamp the ball of yarn underneath him. After removing the mask, you can see I have no trouble creating the impression that the ball of yarn is under him and parts of the yarn are underneath his toes.

To finish the scene, I want the fish bones under the foot of the first cat so I mask him off and when the mask is removed ,you can see it left the impression of his foot over the fish bones just as I wanted. My scene is now complete and I'm ready to color the crazy cats.

I use Zig Clean Color watercolor markers to color the scene.

My cats are completed and I begin coloring the other items left in the scene.

I'm pleased with how the cats and the other items turned out so now I want to create a couple of accessories to add to the first cat because he's going to be the cool one.

I stamp the tie and sunglasses from the Tim Holtz Crazy Things stamp set and color them with Zig watercolor markers.

I use the Crazy Things die set to cut out the tie and sunglasses and go around the edges of each of them with a BV29 Copic marker to cover the white edges left behind after cutting.

I'm ready to color and add some stamps to the background of the scene, so I create a mask for each of the stamped images on the panel. Having the Crazy Things die set enables me to create these masks quickly because I don't have to stamp them and fussy cut the images out.

I place all the masks over their coordinating images.

I use Broken China Distress Ink for the main portion of the sky and Simon Says Stamp High Dive dye ink along the edges of the sky. For the main portion of the ground, I use Mowed Lawn Distress Ink and add Forest Moss Distress Ink along the edges of the ground for dimension. I use a mini ink blending tool to apply and blend all the inks for the background. When the sky and ground are complete, I add the Simon Says Stamp Abstract Triangles background stamp with Simon Says Stamp Lake Shore hybrid ink and the dot clusters from the Simon Says Stamp Look for the Miracles stamp set with Simon Says Stamp High Dive dye ink to add interest to the sky.

My scene is now complete, so I remove the panel from the hardboard and cut away the white edges left behind the tape when it's removed.

I color in the sunglasses with a black gel pen before adding them to the cat with 3D foam tape. I add the tie and stamp on the sentiment made from Lawn Fawn's retired Fanciful Swirl alpha stamp set. I attach the scene to a 4-5/8" x 6-1/2" white panel made from Neenah Solar White 110 lb. card stock to give it a nice white border. I then add that panel to a 5" x 7" panel made from Bazzill Licorice Twist card stock. I adhere the entire piece sideways onto a 5" x 7" card and it's complete!

I hoped you enjoyed seeing the process I used to create my Cool Cat card. Please join us in all the fun and add your project to Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge Blog for your chance to win a $50 gift voucher to their amazing store.

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You can find all the following supplies I used to create this project at Simon Says Stamp:

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