TCPTUES47

This week's The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Carole. It is a sketch challenge.

I actually stuck to the sketch and made a square card! Mine measures 4.25 x 4.25, so that it will fit in a standard envelope and can be mailed with normal postage. I do intend to mail this one. Dad has had a rough year so far, medically. I hope this card will cheer him up. Inside, it says, "Hope Yer Feelin' Shipshape Soon!"



Stuff used:
Stamps: All by The Cat's Pajamas: Simon Sees, pirate ship, Ahoy There!, and Feelin' Shipshape all available in the "Arrgh! Piratey" clearly swanky set.
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar white; Curious Metallics Ice Gold; Stampin' Up Vellum, Bashful Blue, Not Quite Navy, Chocolate Chip, Naturals Ivory (card base)
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Prismacolor pencils, SU Bashful Blue and Chocolate Chip
Other: Petite Oval Nestabilities, Provocraft wavy paper edgers, sponge

Anniversary

Today is the day Ed and I celebrate our Anniversary. "Celebrate" may be the wrong word, since one or both of us usually forget. I didn't forget this year. This is the card I made for him.



Ed will count the layers. There are 4 at the highest, not including the card, so he will count 6. He hates lots of layers on cards. Since I am not mailing this card, I could have made it an inch thick, but I kept it simple and masculine.

He may understand the significance of the phone, since it is how we met. I was a wrong number, and we ended up talking for hours.

Stuff used:
Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas: White Phone and 3 Legged table, sentiment by Studio G, inside sentiment by Rubber Cottage (which says, "Happy Anniversary")
Paper: Stampin Up: Blush Blossom, Garden Green, Ruby Red; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, plaid paper from Basic Grey "Two Scoops" 6x6 pad
Ink: Palette Noir, Blush Blossom (shadow under table), Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Large and Small oval punches from Stampin' Up, Crystal Effects (center of phone's dial)

More tracks

Here are more tracks in the snow, from our mystery visitor. Here, he or she is coming and going along the same path.



And here is my own size 6 boot print, next to the tracks, to provide scale.



Minikat identified the tracks correctly. They are raccoon tracks. I was not aware that we had raccoons in this area, until I saw a dead one along a street last summer. I have named our visitor "Rocky" from the Beatles song, "Rocky Raccoon". However, I also call him "Ranger Rick", but Ed does not understand that reference. It is the name of a kids' nature magazine, from the National Wildlife Federation, and Ranger Rick is the mascot--a raccoon. When I was in grade school, my best friend Kathy had a subscription to the Ranger Rick magazine, and I was so envious. It is cool that the magazine still exists. Funny how both names bring back memories of my childhood. I learned the Rocky Raccoon song from Girl Scout camp counselors. We never saw raccoons at Girl Scout camp, but we did see bear prints on an outing and later saw a baby bear. We didn't stick around long enough to meet its mother. Ah, good times!

Laser tag

Tigger needs to trim down. His K/D food makes him pack on the pounds. He won't eat less, since he steals food from Pooh, so he needs to exercise. He is very good at yoga, but when it comes to his aerobics, he just can't stay excited. I get more of a workout chasing his Nerf Ball around the house than he does. So, I finally broke down and bought a laser toy. Tigger seems to like it. Pooh was not interested in it earlier, so I was surprised he chased after the 'red bug' while I was trying to catch Tigger with the camera.

Here is a minute's-worth of cat aerobics, starring Tigger with a guest appearance by Pooh.

tracks

One of the fun things about fresh new snow is that you can see if anyone interesting has come by for a visit. Now, I get quite excited when I come home from work and see human footprints on the driveway leading to the door, because it can mean a package has been left. :-) But the usual tracks on our driveway are made by cats, dogs, pheasants, and bunnies. I see squirrel prints too, but never on our driveway.

We have had a new visitor this year. Do you know who made these tracks?



Here is another set, in a path also taken by dogs.



This is a closeup of the above, with the contrast increased. The prints at the top and bottom of the picture were made by dogs. But what about the one in the middle?



More prints:



Close up. The one print in the upper right is a favorite shape of mine. It is a cat print! But what about the other one? It does not belong to a dog.



Feel free to post a comment with your guesses. I will provide the answer in a later post.

TCPTUES45

This week's TCP Tuesday challenge is hosted by Jen. It is a color challenge, to use red, pink, dark gray, and black.

Fun colors!

I decided to challenge myself even more, and to stick with these 4 colors, and not use white. I used the pink where I normally would use white.



This card will be sent to Ed's brother. Cars are masculine, and I didn't use any ribbon. The ric-rac is faux. The only girly things about this card is that there is pink on it and there are sparkles on the hearts. The punched hearts were leftover from using the Martha Stewart Valentine Lace edge punch. The hearts are on my work table because they were too cute to sweep into the trash. I glitzed-up 3 of them for this card by coating them with Versamark ink and dipping them in the embossing powder and holding them with tweezers while heating them.

The car stamp was inked twice. First, the car was inked with a watermark pen, and the image was embossed with black embossing powder. Then the hearts were inked with a watermark pen and they were embossed with the red embossing powder.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Heart Car by The Cats' Pajamas (available in the Loving Mew set)
Paper: Stampin' Up Real Red, Pink Pirouette, Basic Gray, Basic Black
Ink: Versamarker, SU Real Red marker, Prismacolor Cool Grey 40% marker (car shadow)
Other: Petite Oval Nestabilities, Provocraft wave paper edgers to make faux ric-rac, Stampendous Red Tinsel Embossing Powder, Ranger Black embossing powder, punched hearts from top of work table

Valentine cards

I made Valentine cards to send to some family members. One will be for my friend Jan too, since she always sends me cards for holidays, and she likes my cards.


The local Michaels store finally had the Martha Stewart Valentine punches. I kept hoping that I could get my hands on the Valentine Lace punch, and I lucked out. I had not even planned on going shopping last Friday, but Ed got sick and I wanted to pick up some cold medicine and soup and juice for him, and Michaels is next door to the grocery store so I made a slight detour, not expecting to find anything worthwhile at Michaels. I am glad I stopped in! I even got to use a coupon on the punch!

The only problem with the lace punch is that it did not want to punch through cardstock. I did, however, have some red printer paper that I had saved from who knows what. The red paper on the card was a bit lighter than the red card base I chose to use, so I added another layer of the red cardstock to frame the main image and to tie it all together. I used mini scallop paper edgers around the frame layer to mirror the scallops made by the punch. The tree is glittery, since I used sparkly embossing powder on it.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Tree of Love from The Cat's Pajamas (available in the Puppy Love set)
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Stampin' Up Real Red and Whisper White, patterned paper from Making Memories, red 'typing' paper from my stash, probably salvaged from work
Ink: Stampin' Up Real Red craft ink
Other: Stampendous Red Tinsel Embossing powder, Martha Stewart Valentine Lace edge punch, Provocraft Mini Scallops paper edgers, ribbon from Michaels

I've Been Tagged

MiniKat tagged me, and I decided to play along and play the

25 Random Things Meme

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to publish a blog post with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose up to 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.

I am not tagging anyone, since people who check my blog with any regularity are people who don't have blogs.

Here goes, 25 random things about me:

1. I hate it when people call me "Alison". (I am Alice, not Alison, Allyson, or anything else with a "son" on the end.)
   
2. My favorite color to wear is purple, but I didn't like the purple when I was a child. I use purple as a neutral color in quilts
   
3. My DH has never told me, "I love you".
   
4. I ended up in the hospital for weird surgeries both years my sister's children were born.
   
5. There are words that I like because they sound neat to me. Some of them are: Serengeti, Cheyenne, Acacia.
   
6. My paternal grandfather was shot and killed when he was hunting.
   
7. I love cats. Big cats, small cats, wild cats, house cats. I love them all.
   
8. I do not like butterflies. They totally creep me out, with the caterpillars and pupae and the whole metamorphosis thing.
   
9. The middle toe on my right foot is shorter than those on either side of it.
   
10. Mom and I have two identical moles, located in the same places on our legs.
    
11. Since I work in IT, some email friends expect me to "know computers". Much of the time I haven't a clue.
    
12. My favorite veggie is broccoli.
    
13. I love socks. Especially fun ones with cute patterns knit into them. I don't know how many pair I have, but they fill more than 2 drawers.
    
14. I go to the mall only when I absolutely have to.
    
15. Since I make cards, I have not set foot in a Hallmark store in close to 10 years.
    
16. I like fiber arts. Quilting is my favorite, and have done sewing, knitting, crochet, embroidery (crewel and cross stitch), weaving (took a class in college) and I tried bobbin lace, but I couldn't get the hang of tatting.
    
17. I quilt to collect fabric.
    
18. My dad was born and raised in Pekin, Illinois, and his family moved to Washington state so that his dad could work on the Manhattan Project.
    
19. My 6th grade reading teacher took the joy out of reading for me, and I didn't enjoy it again until I was in my mid 20's.
    
20. I think it is so cool that President Obama has two girls. I am one of two girls, so the Obamas seem like a real family to me.
    
21. I believe that evolution is a fact, not just a theory. How we were created and why were created are two separate discussions.
    
22. My oldest rubber stamp is one my Dad used in the army to mark his belongings. It says, "B-5880".
    
23. One of my miniatures was shown on the front cover of the Miniature Digest, which is NAME's newsletter. I was surprised about it, since a club member had sent in the picture. (My local club no longer exists.)
    
24. Home is my favorite place to be.
    
25. We got a Wii for Christmas. I never thought we would get a game system, nor that I would get addicted to a game. Below is my Mii, in her sexy racing jumpsuit, after winning medals in all the cups in Mario Kart.
    

TCPTUES44

This week's The Cats Pajamas' Tuesday challenge is hosted by Toni, and it is an inspiration challenge based on this picture of yummy Red Velvet Sweetheart Cakes, which can be found on Better Homes and Garden's website.

When I saw the inspiration, the first thing I noticed was the powdered sugar tops, and how the heart pattern was made by placing a heart shaped cookie on top of the cupcakes as a mask. I was inspired to do the same by sponging white ink over a heart mask. All the hearts on my card were cut free-hand, since the only heart punches I have are tiny ones. The hearts are raised up on dimensional foam dots, but the two smaller ones were placed on the card before gluing, and I sponged over them. So, they have not only a real shadow under them, but heart-shaped areas that were not sponged with white ink.




I was also inspired by the corrugated paper baking cups. When I saw them, I thought of using my crimper, and using brayer and white ink to highlight the raised areas.

I had some stitched ribbon similar to the ribbon in the picture, but mine was brown stitched with blue, so I didn't use it. I don't really have a lot of ribbon, so I chose the closest best match.

Stuff used:
Stamps: The Cat's Pajamas "Cupcake" from "Loving Mew" set, and "Sweetie Pie" (omitting 'pie', since these are cakes, not pies) from "Puppy Love" set
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Stampin' Up Rose Red and Chocolate Chip
Ink: Stazon Timber Brown, Colorbox Frost White, Stampin' Up Rose Red, Prismacolor Pencils
Other: Ribbon from Oriental Trading C0mpany, crimper, brayer