TCPTUES64

This week's The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Toni, who provided this picture of beverages for inspiration.

When I first saw it, I was first inspired to go to the fridge and pour a glass of iced tea. :-) Then I thought about drink stamps. I have some cocktail glass stamps, but they are not by The Cat's Pajamas rubber stamps. The only drink stamp I have by The Cat's Pajamas is "Relaxing", which is the stamp of Sprinkle in her inner tube. I used that stamp last week, and I didn't want to use it two weeks in a row. So, I dug though my TCP drawer and thought, "Pink and Green", and came across this little Frog Princess.



This is a small card, measuring 3.5 x 2.5 inches, and is meant to be a note card, which can be used as a gift enclosure, or a 'lunch note' to slip into someone's lunch bag or briefcase. The circle is embossed, so although this is a one-layer card, it does have some texture.

I kept the card Clean and Simple this week because I would hate to miss one of the inspiration challenges, (since they are my favorite challenges) but I am short on time this week. We are heading out mid-day tomorrow to leave town to attend a funeral, and we won't be back until the weekend.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Frog Princess by The Cat's Pajamas, sentiment from Studio G
Paper: Papertrey Stampers select
Ink: Versafine Onxy black, Prismacolor pencils
Other: chipboard circle to emboss circle

TCPTUES63

This week's The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Jen, who is covering for Carole, who is suffering from technical difficulties. The challenge is a sketch challenge.

At first, I was going to use my newest stamps from The Cat's Pajamas, but decided to grab one of my favorite TCP stamps instead. Sprinkle in her innertube sits out on display all the time, instead of being stored in a drawer. She reminds me to chill out and have fun when I am in my room.

I may give this card to Tim, who keeps covering for me at work. Not only does he step in to help when I take a day off, but he steps in and helps when I get tied up in meetings. We are short-handed at work, and I am on two hiring committees. Interviews take time, which is something I don't have much of. I was chosen to be on the hiring committees because I bring diversity. Being the only woman in a group of men makes me diverse! Anyway, the sentiment, "So much to do, so few to do them for me" seems appropriate when I am asking for help at work.



Stuff used:
Stamps: "Relaxing" and "So much to do" and "You're Hot!" (selectively inked) all by The Cat's Pajamas
Paper: Stampin' Up Barely Banana, Pixie Pink, Summer Sun, Whisper White' patterned paper unknown brand found at Michaels
Ink: Palette Noir, Stampin' Up Pixie Pink, Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol
Ohter: Pinking circles Nestabilities die, 1" circle punch

Let's do lunch card

I made this card mostly just for fun today, but I may give it to my coworker Randy, to share with his wife, Cynthia. Their cat is a picky eater, and sometimes Randy gives me canned cat food that his cat decided was not fit to eat. My cats have become less picky lately, probably because they are happy that I am even feeding them. (Can you say "Diet"?) Last week, Randy brought in some fancy schmancy food made by Sheba. It contained tuna and mussels in a sauce. His cat thought the sauce was okay when it was room temperature, but he left the rest of the food uneaten. I was not sure if Tigger would like it, but both of my boys thought it was a very good treat. They even liked the second half of the can that I gave them the next day. I told Randy the cats rated it "4 paws up". On Monday, Randy handed me another can of the same food. He had told Cynthia that my boys really liked it, so when she saw it in the store when they were shopping, she had to buy it for my cats! She is so funny. She does love animals. She is a vet, but mostly works with farm animals. Many of their pets at home are special needs animals.

Anyway, if I do give it to Randy and Cynthia, I will have the cats "sign" the inside (I have two different cat-sized paw print rubber stamps) and thank them for their snack.



The layout of this card was inspired by the Clean & Simple Stamping blog's "Fall To" Layout #46. Look here and here and here to see samples of the layout. I didn't triple an element in the rectangle, but you can see that I was inspired by how the sentiment was positioned.

I think this sentiment is perfect for this image. The only problem is that it is misspelled! (Let's do lunch. It needs that apostrophe!) 'Tis fine to use with cat images, though, since most cats cannot spell.

Stuff used:
Stamps: "Two cats with fishbowl" and "Lets do lunch" both by Purrs & Pants
Paper: Stampin' Up Naturals Ivory
Ink: Stampin' Up Basic Brown, SU Chocolate Chip marker, Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol
Other: Long rectangle Nestabilities die, to serve as guide for drawing rectangle

Fathers' Day card

I made this card for my dad for Father's Day. Every time I make him a card, I pray that it isn't the last one I make for him. He has not been doing well since December.



I stamped the diamonds in red 4 times, cut them out, and used a Xyron sticker machine so I could stick 2 of the diamonds on the "King for a Day" card over the stamped black diamonds, and use 2 of them as embellishments.

I sponged around the edges of the saffron "card backs" to give them some definition.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up "Card Games", sentiment from long retired "More Great Greetings"
Paper: Stampin' Up Bashful Blue, Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White, So Saffron Palette o' Prints (retired)
Ink: Palette Noir, SU So Saffron, Real Red and So Saffron Markers, Prismacolor pencils
Other: Xyron, sponge dauber, corner rounder punch

TCPTUES62

This week's The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Susan, who challenged us to use any of the TCP penguin stamps. Alma has penguins in many of her sets. I chose to use one I had not inked yet, the Celebrating Penguin from the "You Say It's Your Birthday" clearly swanky set.



I was not in a creative mood most of the week, so I did not get this card done until the last day of the challenge week. I put myself outside my comfort zone and used patterned paper. 5 patterned papers. The penguin, his hat, horn, and balloons are all paper-pieced. Paper-piecing the balloons was fun. Normally, I find paper-piecing too fiddly and time-consuming to mess with.

Stuff used:
Stamps: TCP: Celebrating Penguin and little happy birthday sentiment from the "You Say It's Your Birthday" set, Birthday Scrawl sentiment from "Smells Like Cake" set
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Zig Millennium marker for doodling balloon strings, Cold stone Prismacolor marker, Prismacolor pencils to color the penguin's beak and feet and the polka dots on the party hat
Paper: Stampin Up Pacific point for card base and mats, white printer paper for penguin, patterned paper all from DCVW 4.5 x 6.5 inch the spring matstack
Other: Circle nestablilies dies, Xyron to adhere the paper-pieced parts

Chair repair

A few months ago, I found a piece of bluish-gray plastic in my craft room. I knew I should know what it belonged to, but I just couldn't figure it out.



Weeks later, I figured it out what it was! It was part of the folding chair I sit on when I work on miniatures. It was part of a bumper that fits between the legs when the chair is in the opened position. The bumper, or whatever it is called, had cracked and part had broken off. I checked the chair, and saw that there were problems with both sides. I looked at the chair's mate in the basement, and it was having the same problem.



I showed the problem to Ed, and he said he would fix it.

He bought a dowel. The project sat until the weekend. He had to clean up the workshop area of the garage before he could do any work, since he needed my sander. (I needed my sander too, so I am glad he cleaned up the garage.) Then he bought a tool he didn't have--a drum sander.

He thought he needed to make 8 new bumper thingies, because he thought we had 4 folding chairs. He thought we had to buy another dowel after he messed up one of the thingies. I told him that we have 2 folding chairs, so he needed to make 4 thingies.

He pointed out that they are imperfect. I like that they are imperfect. If he had been meticulous as usual, I would still be waiting for the chair to be fixed.



I painted the thingies with some craft paint that I had on hand. The color is not a super-close match, but it looks okay.





One chair has been moved back into my craft room again. I missed it while it was gone. I was using my stamping chair, which is a spare kitchen chair. I like the folding chair for miniatures because it makes me sit lower, which in turn keeps me from hunching over my work so much. For stamping, I need to sit higher, since I am pressing down on stamps when I stamp.

I like that we were able to make repairs. There is no sense in throwing out something that can be fixed in a couple of hours.

Mam's birthday card

Ed's mother's birthday is next week. We call her "Mam" which is the Dutch word for mom. I can't call her "Mom", since I already have a mom I call "Mom"! Does it matter that "Mam" is pronounced the same as "mom"? Nope, since I know the name is different!



I thought I had used this set for a birthday card for her a couple of years ago, but when I checked my records, I realized I thought wrong. The set has a windmill stamp too, so I can use it for a birthday card for her next year, and it can have a totally different look.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Stampin' Up Netherlands, Sincere Salutations, Birthday Greetings (inside sentiment)
Paper: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, So Saffron
Ink: Palette Noir, Prismacolor pencils

TCPTUES61

This weeks The Cat's Pajamas challenge is hosted by Jen, who challenged us to use the colors brown, yellow, and aqua, and we could use red too, if we liked.

I held off making my card until today, since I ordered Alma's new sets, and knew that Happy Camper would work great for the challenge. My stamps finally arrived today. (Why does priority mail from Sacramento seem to take longer than from anywhere else?) I ended up using the adorable squirrel stamp, like Jen did.



I like trying to make little scenes out of stamps, and this set worked pretty well for that! If green was one of the challenge colors, I could have added trees too. This is almost a one-layer card, but the squirrel is cut out and I put a yellow circle behind him. This card is very mail-able.

Stuff used:
Stamps: squirrel, stump, nut, sentiments, clouds, and grass all from The Cat's Pajamas new "Happy Camper" set
Paper: Papertrey Stamper's Select white for base; Stampin' Up Whisper White for squirrel and So Saffron for circle
Ink: Versafine Onxy Black, Stampin Up: Close to Cocoa, So Saffron, Cool Caribbean; Prismacolor pencils
Other: 1.5 inch circle punch, sponge to apply background, post-it notes for masking