Happiness is a Purring Cat and a Good Book

 

The current prompt at Time Out Challenges is "Happiness is a warm puppy."  When I was growing up you saw this Peanuts meme on everything from tee shirts to coffee mugs.

I'm sorry Lucy, in my world happiness is a purring cat (or two). 

While I proudly claim the title of Crazy Cat Lady, happiness is also a good book!  I had to smile when I saw the Fusion Challenge photo prompt because there is no room in our bookcases for pretty things.  Fortunately ebooks and audiobooks have cut down on the need for more bookcases. 

To start, I blended Worn Lipstick, Wild Honey, and Salty Ocean Distress oxide inks onto a card front, stamped over it with the Bookshelves rubber cling stamp from Impression Obsession, and ran the edges along a black inkpad to ground the image.  I used a CZ Design die set to cut the sentiment and shadow from Champagne foil and vellum paper.  The shadow die has openings for the p's, b, and d which I sometimes find distracting on a busy background, so I saved the negative spaces and glued them in.  The mama cat was cut with a die from Spellbinders and the kittens from a set by Obsession Impression.

This card is for my sister, a kindergarten teacher who is owned by a ginger cat.  I plan to also enter this card the Die Cut Divas Birthday challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Moongazing Love Cats

 

This card was inspired the photo prompt below for the Through the Purple Haze "Anything Goes With Optional Color Palette" challenge using a love theme for the My Time to Craft "All You Need is Love" and Cut It Up "Love or Valentine's Day" challenges.

 I started by blending Ripe Persimmon, Peacock Feathers, Broken China and Chipped Sapphire Distress inks onto white cardstock.  I cut the cats using a punch from Stampin' Up, flipped one and intertwined their tails.  After making note of where they would be on the card I carefully masked off parts of the Wildflowers stamp by Simon Says Stamp so the flowers would frame the cats without creating busyness behind them.  I cut the heart out of Grapefruit Grove holographic paper from Stampin' Up using one of their dies and used another Stampin' Up die to cut the word love three times and stacked them.  Once assembled, I matted the panel with more of the Grapefruit Grove holographic paper and black cardstock.  Lastly I embellished the card with Iridescent Crystals from Studio Katia.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

For an Artist Turning 80

 

Although I shouldn't after all these years, I still get a little nervous making cards for my brother-in-law, an artist who taught printmaking at the local university for 51 years.  I brayered Medium Magenta and Bright Aqua Green Liquitex acrylic paints onto my gel press and pulled a print for the background.  The interesting thing is when you mix red and green you get mud, but for some reason when you mix a turquoise green and pink you get mauve and violet.  I cut out a piece to use on an A2 sized card, and then used Birch Press Design's String Frame die to cut a cover plate from silver foil.  I cut the numbers three times from white cardstock and once from the darkest sheet in Stampin' Up's silver specialty paper pack.  I love the purple cast and lined texture of it.

Here is the inside.

The sentiments was cut from the same paper and print using a Simon Says Stamp die by CZ Design.  My brother-in-law and sister have a spoiled rotten ginger cat, so I used a die from Spellbinders to cut a cat from a scrap from another gel press print.

I plan to enter this in the Mix It Up Anything Goes Plus Optional Foiling, Seize the Birthday Sparkle and Shine, and Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies challenges.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A is For Anything Christmas, S is for Snowflake, Sparkle, and Spray

 

I have some cardmaking goals for this year:

1. Use more of my stash and old supplies rather than just "collect" them.

2. Make at least four Christmas cards a month to avoid the December crush.

3. Learn how to use and experiment with my gel press.

This card furthers two out of three.  The current theme for Shopping Our Stash is Something That Starts with S and the theme for the ABC Christmas Challenge is A is for Anything Christmas and B is for Baubles, hence the title of this post.  

I have a never ending stash of backgrounds because I can never make just one when I get going.  This background is part of a play session with sprays in which I used mostly 9x12 sheets of bristol paper and watercolor paper.  For this particular one I sprayed water and then Bubble Gum Pink Shimmer, Periwinkle Blue, and Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions inks on bristol paper and then smooshed a second sheet flat on it.  When I picked up the top sheet there was still a lot of ink pooling on the bottom sheet, so rather then blot it up with a paper towel I grabbed the first sheet of cardstock I could lay my hands on, Sea Glass from Close to my Heart, and smooshed it on in different spots until I had blotted up the pools of ink.

I used an old Hero Arts Cut Out Christmas Fancy die to cut the top of 4.25 x 4.50 piece which left me with a beautiful, blue and turquoise script Christmas die cut that I could use somewhere else.  Once I attached the panel to a white card base I didn't really like the look of the white showing through the opening so I used the same die to cut the top of a white panel the same size as the first to have a white Christmas die cut to inlay in the opening to give the card a more finished look.   I finished the card off with a silver foil snowflake cut using an old Close to My Heart die, a sparkle, and a strip of silver foil.

If you are keeping track, I had a white twin of the blue and turquoise panel and that blue/turquoise Christmas die cut which I couldn't let go to waste, so I made a second card:

I just love a two for one, don't you?  I also plan to enter this card in the Holly and Ivy Christmas Anything Christmas Goes challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

 

More Fun With My New Toy

 

The Jingle Belles want to see what goodies either Santa brought, or we treated ourselves to in the pre or post holiday sales.  I happily obliged while having fun playing with my new 8x10 Gel Press, experimenting and getting a feel for applying acrylic paint to it.   The colors I used for this background are actually pretty bright, not pastels.  After rolling out the paint, I continued to brayer off paint until I had a thin coat, let it dry, and then rolled on a thin coat of white to pull it.  I used part of the print to back a die cut made using the Hero Arts Snowflake Pattern Cover Plate die.  I used a die set from Pink and Main to cut the sentiment from the darkest sheet from Stampin' Up's Silver Foil Specialty pack.  I love the purple cast and lined texture of it.  Although it showed against the background, the snowflakes were a little distracting, so I cut the shadow from some vellum which muted the snowflakes just enough to lift the sentiment from the background.  I finished my card with some light purple sparkles.

I also plan to enter this in the {PIN}spirational Winter Challenge and Happy Little Stampers Anything Goes With Dies challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

New Year, New Toys, New Techniques

 

I bought a gel press last fall and never had time to play with it, so you could say it is new to me and using it with acrylic paint is a whole new experience.  Acrylics don't behave like ink and have a bit of a learning curve, but you can get effects you can't get with ink.  It is definitely a lesson in letting go because despite your planning, you can never be sure exactly what you are going to end up with.  That's part of what makes it so fun!  Right now I am practicing putting down a layer using different colors of paint and picking it back up on paper, otherwise known as pulling the print.  

I needed a birthday card for my husband, had a bunch of prints, and saw this Freshly Made Sketch:

I could see little cats sitting/standing in squares cut from my prints just like they were in windows.  Did I mention he is the world's best catdad?  I cut pieces out of several prints, sponged Archival ink along the edges and set about to arranging them, deciding on the more muted colors for the front and using the leftover bolder pieces for the inside below:

I used a die from Obsession Impression that doesn't seem to have a name other than Cat Set (DIE083-K) to cut the cats on the front from glossy black cardstock  and the ones on the inside from regular black cardstock.  I used a Simon Says Stamp die to cut the Happy Birthday from glossy black cardstock, the Kat Scrappiness die set, Pet Sentiments Brush Script Word and Sentiments, to cut the word love, and an old Stampin' Up die to cut the word you.  The card base was cut from Hero Arts Hero Hues Premium Pitch Black 111 lb. cardstock. 

I am also entering this card in the Cut It Up Birthday Card and Time Out New challenges.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi