Happy Purr-thday

 

I needed a birthday card, so I checked the Seize the Birthday Challenge.  The topping theme is Funny/Pun-ny, or if you that is not your style, Anything Birthday Goes.  I don't typically buy stamps with puns, but as a proud crazy cat lady, I do have a considerable inventory of cat stamps and some of them have puns like "pawsome" or "purrfect."  That automatically meant I would be making a cat card (surprise!) and entering it in the Show Us Your Pussycats Challenge.  I selected a sentiment from the Black Cat Love set from Impression Obsession.  I have a number of cat dies, so I checked the Die Cut Divas and they are looking for white on white with a splash of color which is one of my favorite styles.  I have several dies that cut windows which either include a cat or can have a cat added to them.  I could cut one out in white and back it with a color to show through.  That would make the card CAS which I could enter in the Simply Clean and Simple challenge.  So which die should I use?  I checked Time Out Challenges which is currently a pick two.  The choices are monochrome, geometric, stitching (real or faux), birthday, and CAS.  I had birthday and CAS covered, but what if I used squares in my layout and put little cats cut using one of my favorite cat dies simply called Cat Set from Impression Obsession?  That would add a geometric element to my card.  Okay, cats in boxes it would be!  I had my concept, time to go to work.

I cut nine squares from 110 lb white card stock using Essential Squares from Ellen Hutson to get frames which I stacked to make three "boxes."  I used the same die to cut three from a background from my stash which I had painted with Lindy's Magicals using a mixture of Hydrangea Blue and a touch of Sweet Velvet Purple from the Victorian Bouquet set.  That gave me three blue frames to use on another project and three blue squares that fit perfectly in the white frames.  I arranged the frames, placing shims under the outer corners of the middle square to keep it level.  I had stacked three die cuts for each frame to provide ledges for cats to sit or stand on, so I picked three of the six that the die cuts and settled them in their boxes.  I stamped the word "Meow" for a greeting on the front.  Inside I stamped a birthday pun and framed it with two cats cut from the blue background.  I now have a birthday card ready for one of the many feline aficionados in my life.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi