What a Swinger!!

Would you believe I did NOT plan to make this card when I came up with this monkey pose*?? I know, right?! It just CAME to me after looking at him for awhile(which is just how these "things COME" to me), he kind of looked like he had his leg kicked up in wild swinging abandon! And believe it or not, making this card was VERY easy! You'll need: a pen, a straight edge, scissors, a brad, and a piercing tool.

Stamp your monkey at an angle. Then draw kind of a patch or long john-looking flap on his bottom for the swing's seat(you can do it, it's just a couple lines!) Take a straight edge and line up the top of the "seat" through the middle of his hand, and draw a line through it, skipping over the hand so it looks like he's holding the "rope". Then move your straight edge about a half inch to the left to draw a parallel line for the other rope. The length of your ropes will depend on your card lay out. (I freehanded mine, but I messed up the angle a little bit(but didn't redo it, lazyartist), you'll have much better results with a ruler!) Color. (Watercolor crayons and aquapainter here, as usual)

Cut around the monkey and ropes with your snips. Depending on how much time you have and what kind of background you'll be using, you may want to also cut out inside his arm and leg with a hobby blade/craft knife. LEAVE the space between the ropes as is, as you'll need this to attach your brad.
Poke a hole between the two "ropes" at the top. Punch out a circle (or two in different sizes if you want a mat like I did here) of CS, place on top of the ropes, and poke through the same hole, then lay on your card, and go through this last layer(the card) with another hole. Now add your brad through all three layers and bend back. Now it will swing around 360 degrees, whoop dee dooooooooo!
If you want don't want the brad to show inside your card, you can pop up a very large circle with a greeting or something on it over the brad, just make sure your dimensionals are on either side of the flattened brad, so it can rotate fully. If you don't have circle punches, you can skip this step and just put the brad straight in the card, or put it through some other fun embellishment(example to come later, check back!)
You could also choose to omit the hand that's on the back side, cut it off, or have him holding his sign or flowers or he swoops past! Here, I just did a "Look Ma, one hand!" kind of thing..yeah, I'm his mama, he's my baby...

Speaking of babies, here are MINE(and coincidentally, the inspiration for my original monkey drawing), Jonathan and William, or as my DH likes to call them, "Monkey #1 and Monkey #2" :) (Plan to hear about their adventures(misadventures often) I'd share one that happened TODAY, but I'm still MAD, going to have wait AWHILE 'til I can tell it and laugh about it, grrrr!)

Check back for another "swinger card"**, next time with a different kind of swing!

PS Have you read about my CONTEST??? Scroll down or click on my link to the left about FREE STAMPS!

*You have heard how I came up with the pose by now??(as revealed during the last release party in the Gina K Splitcoast Forum***? oh yeah, juicy stuff is revealed there, you don't want to miss them...!) So I was thinking about my set while driving behind this huge TRUCK ...

**Cool, I invented a NEW card (The Swinger Card-rowwwrr!) Remember, you saw it here first! ;)

***NEXT release party, Sunday, February 10th, be there or be square!