TCPTUES52

This week's TCPTUES challenge is hosted by Toni. It is an inspiration challenge, and we are to be inspired by this colorful picture of pencils.

I was first drawn to the hexagonal layout of the pencils and envisioned a card full of circles laid out honey-comb style. However, while flipping though my TCP stamps, my direction changed. The Western Star stamp is similar in shape the end of a pencil, so I decided to use it. Then, remembering that I still wanted to try this week's Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoaststampers, I decided to use the layout from the CAS08 challenge, and plunked Catch 'Em Kitty down into a row of stars.
I used craft paper, because it looks something like wood. I used colors inspired by the pencils in row 4. I used colored pencils, which I could say are also inspired by the inspiration piece, but that isn't really true, since colored pencils are my favorite way to color cards.

T0 complete the card, I pierced holes around the stars (there are dots on the stamped image) then I pierced holes between teh elements to tie them all together. When Ed saw the card, he said I "shot holes" in the card. He totally got the western theme. He deserves a star.



Stuff Used:
Stamps: Western Star, Catch 'Em Kitty, and Much Obliged all from The Cat's Pajamas "It's a Western Thing" clearly swanky set
Paper: craft ("Speckletone" from Paperzone)
Ink:Versafine Onxy Black, Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol

chalk lines card

Last week, Pauline, my Stampin' Up demonstrator (and friend!) showed us a technique called "Chalk Lines". She found the instructions on Dawn's Stamping Thoughts blog. Dawn has a video how to do the technique. We made our cards look like Dawn's card. We all liked it! We wondered how it would look to use different colors than the orange and pink that we used. Pauline challenged us to make "chalk lines" cards using a different color combination. This way, we can all try it and share our results next time. We won't meet again until May, but I was eager to try my own card right away. Here it is:



Totally different look!

Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up Wanted
Paper: SU Very Vanilla, Close to Cocoa, Really Rust
Ink: SU Basic Brown, chalks (brand unknown, I bought them before I started buying SU stuff)
Other: SU Word Window punch, Fiskars star punch, eraser

TCPTUES51

This week for The Cats Pajama's Tuesday challenge, Leigh provided a sketch for us to try.

Today was an odd day, weather-wise. I saw rain, snow, hail, sun, and gloom. It was a good day to stay indoors and stamp with pretty colors. So, I decided to use spring colored paper, and the Easter Penguins stamp. Penguins are perfectly happy when it snows, and since I am still seeing snow outside, I thought the stamp was appropriate for today's card.

I finally used Stampin' Up's Kiwi Kiss color. It is not a color I was liking. It looked more like pea soup green than kiwi green to me, and I have to resist the urge to call it Peewee Piss. I had not seen anything I liked with it, until I pulled out my Basicgrey LilyKate paper pad, and it was the green that matched LilyKate the best.

I was going to put Easter Eggs where there are flowers, but the flowers seemed to match the flowers in the patterned paper pretty well, so they got to be inked instead of the adorable Easter eggs in the stamp set. Here is my card:



Stuff used:
Stamps: Easter Penguins, Easter Greetings, and flowers from The Cat's Pajama's "Spring Fling" Clearly Swanky set
Paper: Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, Groovy Guava; Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, patterned paper from BasicGrey LilyKate 6x6 pad
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Prismacolor pencils, Prismacolor Cold Stone marker
Other: Petite scallop circle Nestabilities, Provocraft scallop scissors, dimensional foam dot

CAS07 two-fer

This week's Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoaststampers is to use punches to make a card. I didn't set out to make two cards, but it happened.

I recently broke down and bought some Martha Stewart butterfly punches. They seem to be all the rage. I took a quick peek at the CAS07 gallery before I started my card, and I saw quite a few butterflies, so I decided to use a different punch for my card instead.

I started out making the card with the row of flowers. Instead of using the punched-out shapes and attaching them to a card, I decided to remove the shapes from the paper. I punched a row of flowers from the strip of Pale Plum paper, then glued the strip to a wider piece of Perfect Plum paper. I punched out 5 small circles and glued them in the center of each flower. I was going to orient this card the 90 degrees, so that the flower row was on the bottom of the card, but I decided to flip it and put a vertical greeting down the side of the card. I find myself always using the same basic layout over and over, and I needed to break out of the rut!



As I was tidying up and putting the paper scraps away, I decided to save the punched-out flowers. They are perfectly good flowers! There is also no time like the present, so instead of storing them all, I used three of them to make another Clean and Simple card. I tried to use all 5 of them, but the card looked too cluttered with 5.



Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up: Thank You Blocks, vertical thank you from Rubbernecker
Paper: SU Naturals White, Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: SU Perfect Plum, Colorbox Frost White
Other: retired flower punch from Stampin' Up, 1/4 circle punch, SU Vanilla embossing powder

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The corned beef is in the crockpot, and it is starting to smell pretty good! I will add the cabbage soon and make soda bread later. I will probably end up eating this special dinner by myself tonight, since Ed has to work late, as usual, and he cannot slip out early since he had to leave early yesterday to see his dentist. His employer will probably provide dinner for him tonight. So, Ed will most likely eat at work, then come home and eat again. He always seems to find room in his tummy if I bake something from scratch.

Anyway, on to today's card. Karrie challenged us to use any Irish stamps from The Cat's Pajamas for this week's TCPTUES50 challenge. I don't have any Irish TCP stamps, but I do have the Cauldron from TCP, and with a little alchemy (colored pencils and glitter), a cauldron o' bubbles can become a pot o' gold!



I put Stickles (glitter glue) on the faux brads too. The sentiment and shamrock are the only St. Patrick's Day stamps I have!

The ribbon frame was a technique I learned over on Splitcoaststampers, and it is this week's TLC212 challenge. Woot! It has been ages since I have done a Technique Lover's Challenge!

Stuff used:
Stamps: Cauldron from The Cat's Pajamas, sentiment from SU More Great Greetings, Shamrock from SU Bitty Bolds
Paper: SU Certainly Celery, Garden Green, Handsome Hunter, Summer Sun
Ink: Palette Jardin Moss, Versamark, Prismacolor pencil and Gamsol
Other: satin ribbon from Jo Ann, Diamond Stickles, 3/16" circle punch

CAS06

The Clean and Simple challenge over at Splitcoatstampers this week is an inspiration challenge, based on anything we find to inspire us on the Robeez web site. Robeez are baby shoes. I chose these shoes. Kitties always inspire me.

I have too many cat stamps to count, but I didn't have any cartoonish ones which would work. So, I chose this little cat stamp. I had the layout of the card in mind, so I wanted to use a cat stamp that had a flat bottom so it could sit on the border.

I picked up on the colors of the shoes, and the pink cats being outlined with brown. The stitched ball of yarn on the shoes prompted me to use faux stitching on my card.



Stuff used:
Stamps: Cat from Purrs and Pants, Sentiment from Spring Fling set by The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Stampin' Up Pink Pirouette and Chocolate Chip
Ink: SU Chocolate Chip, pink colored pencil
Accessories: McGill flower punch (I bought the punch ages ago to make miniature flowers)

TCPTUES49

It is Jen's turn to host The Cat's Pajamas Tuesday Challenge this week, and this time it a color challenge to use light pink, light yellow, light blue, and optional brown.

Thank goodness brown was included, since I was really stuck with these colors. I just don't care for primary colors together , and that is what they are, even if they are tints. If I have to use them, I want to add green too. This week's challenge was a challenge for me!

I waited until the end of the week to make my card. I could not order Alma's new stamps on the release date due to budget issues. So, I had to order them a week later, and the stamps finally arrived today. This is the only stamp that was willing to let me use the challenge colors and no green!



After making 3 cards for men this week, I wanted to do something feminine. Scallops and ribbons are feminine! My ribbon stash is tiny, but I had satin ribbons in the right colors! I doodled around the oval, drawing dashes and jelly beans. It is off-center. Too bad. I have been off-center all week, due to my injured knee (which is feeling much better). I inked a portion of the sentiment stamp with marker, since I wanted the card to say "Happy Easter" and nothing else.

Stuff used:
Stamps: "Jelly Bunny" and "Where are your Peeps?" from the new "Beans & Bunnies & Peeps, Oh My!" set from The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Stampin' Up: Barely Banana, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, SU Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa markers, Prismacolor pencils and Prismacolor Cold Stone Marker
Other: Satin Ribbon probably from Jo Ann (I think it was with my sewing stash until I moved into my stamping stash), Petite Oval Nestablilities.

Skating Poochie

I returned to work today, and confirmed that Tim helped Randy cover for me. So, he deserves a card too. (Even if he did do a couple of odd things which puzzled me. His heart is in the right place, and that scores points with me!)



Since slipping on ice is what caused me to miss work, I thought that Skating Poochie was appropriate.

I used Stamp-a-ma-jig to align Poochie. The sweater was colored with a Prismacolor pencil and Gamsol. I scored two lines at the bottom of card to add some texture. This is a card for a man, so I saw no need for other embellishments. I guess I have been having fun with One Layer Cards.
This card took me less than 10 minutes to create, but that is because I had already created the card in my mind earlier in the day.

Stamps: Wonderful Words from Stampin' Up, Skating Poochie from The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Papertrey white
Ink: Palette Noir, Prismacolor pencil

SC219

I took another day off from work. Since stamping doesn't hurt my knee, I made a card. I chose to participate in this week's Sketch challenge over at Splitcoaststampers. I will hang onto this card until May, when I will mail it to my nephew for his birthday.



My nephew works and plays with computers. I wanted the card to have a masculine feel, so I used industrial-styled backgrounds. I used gold ink on the circuit board layer. The screws holding the cake layer in place are faux. I made them look like Robertson screws. **( see note below) Needing something else, I stamped a 25 (the age he will be on his next birthday) on a gold oval, and added faux rivets. It reminds me of a serial number plate.

The cake was colored with Prismacolor pencils, dipped in Odorless Mineral Spirits. The cake layer is popped up on dimensional foam dots.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Big Cake, 2, and 5 from You Say It's Your Birthday by The Cat's Pajamas; Circuit Board and Diamond Plate Backgrounders by Cornish Heritage Farms
Paper: Stampin' Up Bordering Blue, Garden Green, Not Quite Navy; Curious Metallics Ice Gold
Ink: Bordering Blue,Versafine Onyx Black, Jet Black Stazon, Encore metallic Gold, Prismacolor Pencils
Other: small square punch, 1/4 circle punch, 3/16 circle punch, oval punch, Dimensionals

** note regarding Robertson screws. If I had a way to make a hexagon, I would have made Allen screws. I have a star-shaped punch, but it is a 5-rayed star, not a 6-rayed star, so I could not make a Torx screw. Nerds, and those who love nerds, will understand all this. Oh, and I did have to use Google to figure out what the square-shaped tip is called. I had a different name for them when I saw they were used to hang some closet shelves that I was hoping to remove. I think we used pliers to remove those screws!

CAS05

Over at Splitcoaststampers, the new weekly Clean and Simple challenge has become an official challenge! Now that I can find these challenges, I think I will participate from time to time. The challenge posted this week is CAS05, and it is to use blue and green (and any neutral) to make a card. Here is mine:



I plan to give it to a co-worker who volunteered to fill in for me today. I slipped on ice at work yesterday so I decided to stay home with an injured knee today. My coworker likes Ginkgo trees, therefore he likes Ginkgo leaves. This Ginkgo Leaf stamp is one that I ordered and received a few days ago.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Ginkgo Leaf from Penny Black, sentiment from SU's Warmest Regards
Paper: Stampin' Up Naturals White
Ink: SU Garden Green and Bashful Blue
Techniques: One Layer Card, Masking, Sponging

Tree of Life

Yesterday, I finally framed a project that has been in the works for years.

This Tree of Life crewel embroidery was a Dimensions kit, dated 1981. Mom and I both liked it when we saw it, so Mom purchased it and we both worked on it. We lost momentum, and the thing sat incomplete and untouched for years. I saw it at my parents' house a number of years ago, so I took it and let it sit at my house for another decade. I finally got it out and finished it, perhaps a year or so ago.



Click the images to see them bigger.

The project sat again, until I found a frame in a style I liked that would fit it. I decided it needed to be matted, so I could put it behind glass, but I could not find a mat the right size. I could have had a framer do it for me, but I have too much frugal German blood in me. So, I cut a 14 x 18 inch hole in 16 x 20 inch a mat that was sized for an 11 x 14 photo. The edges of the mat are not beveled, but I don't think anyone is going to walk up to it and say, "Hey doofus, the edges of this mat are perpendicular, not beveled!" Actually, Ed examined the edges closely, and gave his seal of approval. He knows how hard it is to cut mat board, and he understood when I told him I had used 4 new razor blades to do it.

Here are two close-ups:



I love that there is a kitty in the tree.



The critters are not in scale with each other. This should bother me, but it doesn't.

After a quarter of a century, I still like this Tree of Life!

TCPTUES48

This week's The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Toni. It is an inspiration challenge, based on this picture of some bedding found at the Pottery Barn Teen website.

For my card, first I was inspired by the colors. Then I looked closer and saw how the pillow made of of panels of fabric, which were quilted. The whole thing was a bed, so I used a stamp of a bed. The only thing the Pottery Barn picture is missing is a cat on the bed.

No patterned paper was used to make this card. All of the stamps I used on my card are from The Cat's Pajamas. I masked, stamped and sponged each of the 5 areas of the background piece. Then I scored lines between each of the 5 patterns, and scored 2 more quilting lines on each column. I edged the layers in blue, to pick up on the blue binding on the pillow. I cut the focal layer by hand. Needing something else, I added brads. I didn't have blue ones of the right color, and I really wanted to use flower-shaped brads, so I put blue circles behind them to bring the card into balance.



Stuff used:
Stamps: All by the Cat's Pajamas: Sick Sprinkle, Dogtor's Orders (selectively inked for the seniment), Solid Quasar (column 4), Round Vase (selectively inked for column 2), swirly border (column 1) and spiral (columns 2 and 5) from "Smells Like Cake" set, and sparkles (column 3) from "You Say It's Your Birthday" set
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, Stampin' Up: Certainly Celery and Brilliant Blue
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Stampin' Up: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Tempting Turquoise, Brilliant Blue; SU markers in the same 4 colors, Prismacolor pencils
Other: flower brads from Making Memories, 1/2 circle punch, 1/16 hole punch, Scor-Pal, sticky notes for masking, sponge for sponging

Sunbathing

Sometimes it is nice to make a card just for fun.



I have had my eye on this cat stamp from Viva Las VegaStamps for ages. I finally ordered it, and a few other fun stamps.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Sunbathing Cat from Viva Las VegaStamps, sentimetent by Studio G
Paper: Stampin' Up Naturals Ivory, Baja Breeze, Pactific Point, Only Orange, Pixie Pink
Ink: Versavine Onxy Black, Prismacolor Pencils
Other: 3/16" circle punch and Crystal Effects for faux brads, foam dots to raise sentiment layer

Goodbye, Hooch

I heard from my sister today that her dog, Hooch, left them on Friday. He would have turned 15 on Easter. He was happy and active up until the end. He died in the backyard when he was making his rounds. My sister says her house seems empty without him.

I made a card for her and her husband, and one for my niece who is away at college. My niece fell in love with Hooch at the shelter, and they adopted him the day before the shelter was scheduled to put him down. Hooch had issues, due to abuse from a previous owner, but my brother-in-law worked with him, and the dog became an important part of the family. He was a funny dog, and he was very much loved.



The images for these cards are from Purrs and Pants, who make the best rubber stamps for pet sympathy. I have a couple of their cat and angel stamps, but I don't have the dog ones. So, I chose to combine some of my other stamps for this card. The cat snuggled up to the dog is one image, and the cat lying down is another. I masked the cat and dog image so that the reclining cat could be stamped as part of the group. I colored the cats black to represent my Tigger and Pooh, and I colored the dog yellow, to represent Hooch. Hooch was a yellow lab and pit bull mix. He was a neat mix of goofy and serious. Tigger and Pooh never met Hooch, but they exchanged Christmas gifts with him for years.

Inside the card, it says, "No time on earth is long enough to share with those we love or to prepare our hearts for that last good-bye. --Alarie Tennelle" It is a sentiment meant for humans, but it fits for pet loss too.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Purrs and Pants, sentiments from Rubberstamp Ave
Paper: Stampin' Up Naturals White
Ink: Palette Noir, Prismacolor pencils