Welcome back everyone! Whether you're a longtime reader or coming here for the first time from the lovely Lounon, I'm excited to see you!
It's time once again for my favorite challenge: The Squirrelz Stash Bash! We had a little moment of surprise when we realized we've never actually had a squirrel theme! Cue the dramatic gasp! To give us all some of that sweet, sweet wiggle room we crave though, we decided to expand the main theme to "rodents". We also decided rainbows would be a technique/supply/accent to work with (and a little alliteration never hurt nobody). I was giddy as a particular thought bubbled right up to the surface for me. But how would I incorporate it into a card?
Turns out that question was WAY harder than I anticipated! You see, my very first (and very persistent) thought was one of the phrases I've always found funniest: "I don't have ducks in a row. I have squirrels and they're at a rave." I saw this phrase years ago and it resonated very strongly with me! Plus it always brought up the funniest visuals in my head! Squirrels with tiny glow sticks! Squirrels in wide leg jeans! Squirrels with mohawks! Squirrels dancing under flashing lights while one squirrels works a turntable! It's a whole thing! Buuuuuuut: I didn't have time to draw this and that certainly wasn't making the best use of squirreled away supplies.
Instead, I reached into my supplies and pulled out this Color Layering Squirrel stamp set from Hero Arts. At first I thought I would make Rainbow colored squirrels with the different layers. I was displeased with my efforts and quickly lost heart on that solution. Next, I pictured the disco tiles that would change color as you danced on them (or at least they did in movies: I've never seen that in person honestly). I could have just stamped the outline onto different colors of paper and cut out the squares, but I wanted it to be a flatter card, so I decided to try to ink blend squares. Turns out I don't have that much patience (probably because I was trying to do it in most inefficient way possible, but let's not talk about that). And that's how I landed on this:
I decided ink blended rainbow spotlights were the answer! I pulled out a large circle stencil and ink blended a red and orange together. Quick confession: I was feeling sufficiently excited and yet browbeaten that I didn't note any of the actual colors or brands I used. If you have an urge to recreate this look, just grab primary colors! Anyway..... First circle done, I went a third of the way down and to the right and blended yellow and green together. Finally, in the bottom left corner, I went with blue and purple.
Next, I took the outline layer, which is a complete squirrel drawing, and just stamped a squirrel in black over each circle. Easy peasy! Rainbows? Check! Rodents? Check! Now what about that phrase? I didn't have a stamp with that phrase, but I figured I could print it out onto cardstock (white with some sort of mild confetti background). I broke it into chunks so I could put a piece of it next to each squirrel. When I cut it out, I decided to ink the edges of each piece just to give a little more definition and weight to them. I wanted to mat the whole thing, so I trimmed it down a little and remembered with glee a selection of glitter scraps I had left over from a previous project! I trimmed off solid chunks of the pink and blue for the top and bottom. For the orange and green, I trimmed off slivers just wide enough to cover the sides. I inked the edge of the squirrel panel for continuity and glued the whole shebang down!
It took a bit, but I got there and I love it! But you know what I love more? Seeing how the Squirrel Squad interpreted this theme! You're going to love it too, so be sure to keep hopping! The Squirrel Squad is a small group so the hop won't take you long,but will leave you feeling totally inspired! Next up: the Maven of Mojo Karen!! If you love what we're doing, please leave a comment! We love it even more when you subscribe!