"cake conquerors" card

So I decided to enter another challenge/contest.  This one is for: www.papersmoochesstamps.com >> 


The challenge was to use this picture as inspiration:

 I admit, I was completely stumped for a day or two.  I thought that I would just use the color scheme.  And then it came to me, looking at the flag picks in the the cupcakes -- and I had this picture in my head:

(Pardon my rough sketch and my Kokopelli-looking climber.)

And then I had it -- a birthday card.  What better cupcake climber?  The monster, of course.  And he would be a "cake conqueror", claiming the birthday cupcake.  And just for a "punny" twist, I would include the phrase "take the cake!" somewhere on the card, as a kind of birthday battle cry.  ;)

Here is the final result (pretty great, if I do say so myself):

Supplies:
I created the background kitchen scene with cardstock -- turquoise "tile" embossed with the Cuttlebug Moroccan screen folder and color-flecked off white "Formica countertop".  I added the kraft paper "trim" to be the boundary between the countertop and the kitchen wall.  I cut the cupcake wrapper, yellow cake, and front layer of frosting by hand (free-form).  The cupcake wrapper was embossed with the Cuttlebug distressed stripes folder (I sent it through the machine again to soften the texture a bit).  The top of the cupcake paper was cut with Fiskars decorative scissors -- the pinking shears pattern.  The monsters were cut out of blue-green cardstock, and the flags were made from either red or patterned (red gingham, brown houndstooth) paper I had on hand.  A tiny bit of coloring was done with Sakura white and silver glitter gel pen, as well as a Bic fine-tip black permanent marker and black & brown ink.  A lot of cutting, some foam dots, some brown & white twine, yellow glitter glue, red ribbon, a Hobby Lobby circle punch, and a silver star brad top it off.  -- I think it tells the "cupcake conquerors" story pretty much as I envisioned it.  :)

Stamps:
Monster, banner shapes (small and large), flag poles, five-point- and twinkle-shaped stars, cloud (for "frosting" texture as well as secondary "frosting" layers), and second monster's extra arm (borrowed from the breakfast-themed set and trimmed to match) -- Paper Smooches/
larger font -- American Crafts/
smaller font ("HB2U") & tiny stars -- Making Memories/
sentiment ("take the cake!") -- Clear Dollar Stamps, LLC/

Thanks for taking a look! ~ Amanda B., the manderbean :)