Hedgehog Hedge'hugs'

I ordered a card class kit from Ronda (which I felt really guilty about because when I'm in Michigan helping her I know how much work there is putting these class kits together!); I really wanted it because it's these adorable hedgehog stamps and even tho I have no one to send a hedgehog card to, I couldn't resist. Too stinkin' cute. And one of the stamp sentiments is "sending hedgehugs", awwwww.

The class includes all the cardstock pieces and shapes for 5 cards and I'm responsible for stamping, coloring, cutting as necessary, and assembling the cards. She even sends detailed directions for putting them all together. Cool. As much as I love her cards and instructions tho I decided to go out on a limb and put them together in different ways - I used her pieces and ideas but just assembled them on my own. There is absolutely nothing wrong with replicating the cards exactly like she did - in fact that's sort of the point to getting the class kit!- but I'm a "color outside the lines, and not with the usual colors" kind of girl so I decided to change them up a bit. This isn't nearly as rebellious as I'm making it sound - since I just really wanted the stamp set I'm willing to risk if my cards don't turn out LOL!! I can always cut more cardstock and follow her examples :)

Here's one of the cards:

above are some of the pieces and a couple of Ronda's examples. 

I wanted to stamp the 'sending' and 'hedgehugs' in a row next to each other, so using tape I first masked off all the words on the stamp except for 'sending' - ink the stamp and then remove the tape before stamping onto the card. Then I did the same for the word 'hedgehug' but I struggled with lining the two words up so ultimately went with 'sending hedgehugs' like the stamp shows but masked off the other words that are below it on the stamp. 

Following Ronda's instructions for a different card, I stamped the hedgehog on white paper and colored him in a little using an aqua painter (more on that tomorrow). Freehand cut him out and glued the paper heart on top. For the circle underneath I used the aqua painter to make little lines to sort of add texture and dimension to a plain brown circle. 

I learned this trick from Ronda - you can pull out a thread from burlap ribbon to just have one strand to work with. This is nice for making small bows, etc. that you couldn't do with a whole width of ribbon.

I tied one string into a bow and tied it around the white tag that has the sentiment stamped on it. Then using stamping dimensionals (little foam adhesive squares) stick the hedgehog to the circle, then the circle to the card.

It's simple but I like it. I tend to lean towards simple when it comes to cards (that might be about the only thing I stop myself from continuing to add more LOL!!!).

Oh, and all the supplies I used are from Stampin' Up.