Digging Into My Stash to Make a Birthday Card

I need a birthday card for someone who loves cats and gardening.  The Shopping Our Stash theme is "The Cat is in the Bag" which means use a cat (no problem for this proud, crazy cat lady) or a purse, bag, backpack, etc.  I decided to challenge myself to use mostly old, as in retired, products.  When I saw this Freshly Made Sketch my concept began to form in my head.

I do not have arch dies, but I do have a retired die, Kitty Window, from Tutti Designs featuring cats looking on a garden through a cathedral shaped window.  I cut two from 110 lb white cardstock and stacked them.  Now for a background to go behind the window.  I looked though my stash of backgrounds and found one with appropriate colors made using Lindy's Magicals.  Because the current theme at Seize the Birthday is embossing, I put the background upside down in a retired 3D Fern embossing folder from Stampin' Up so that the design would be debossed, that is pressed down into the paper.  Then I rubbed a Stampin' Up ink pad in Wild Wasabi, a retired color, over it, so you could see the ferns.

Please forgive my stained craft mat and the quality of photos taken with my phone as I worked.  After selecting the part I wanted to use I traced around the window portion and cut it out.

Because the background was done on thick watercolor paper, the window portion of the die cut would be thicker than the window sill and cats' tails, so I needed make another die cut from watercolor paper, trim off the part I needed and glue it on the back to level up the die cut.

Now that my focal point was done I could work on the rest of my card.  I cut a 4 x 5.25 inch panel and embossed it with a retired Stampin Up embossing folder which I think was called Subtle.  I gilded the edges by holding the panel vertically and pressing each edge into Versamark ink, then Ranger Princess Gold embossing power, and melting the powder with my heat tool. 

I used the the retired Perfect Sentiments stamp and die from Pink Fresh Studio for the sentiment.  It is a single stamp and die which makes eleven  assorted sentiments at a time.  Because part of the sentiment over laps the cat die cut I ran into the same issue of having the prop up the part that was hanging off.  I put two small pieces of card stack and one of watercolor paper under the Happy Birthday sentiment in the die to make shadow pieces pieces that I could stack so they were the same height as the cat die and then snipped off part of it to glue onto the back of the sentiment to make it level.

Now all I had to do was put everything together on a card base and I had a birthday card.  Except for the paper, Magicals, and embossing powder, everything used in this card is not only older, but no longer available.  I also plan enter this card in the Sisterhood of Crafters Birthdays challenge.  

This is what it looks like when you tilt it to light.  I love Lindy's Magicals.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

A Crazy Cat Lady Can Use Any Cat Die or Stamp on a Christmas Card

 

Every January I promise myself I will play the Christmas challenge blogs and make at least one  Christmas card a week to avoid the December card making blitz, so that maybe, just maybe, I can actually get them sent out before Christmas.  Alas, I always get distracted with making birthday, sympathy, encouragement, thank you, friendship, and you name it cards.  Seeing the Christmas in July theme on the Cut It Up and CAS on Friday challenges gave me the kick I needed to get started.  I checked the ABC Christmas challenge for this month and saw one of the letters is "N" for "non-Christmas stash."  As a proud crazy cat lady I can work a cat into any kind of card.  I still had the Cat Collage die from Poppy Stamps out after making this birthday card for my brother, so why not use it for a Christmas card?  The Peace on Earth Christmas challenge has a lovely mood board, so I went through my background stash and found one to pick up the blues.

When I am playing with ink or a technique, I will make lots of backgrounds and figure out what to do with them later.   This means I don't always remember exactly what I did on a particular one when I get around to using it.   On this one I ink smooshed with, I think, Dylusions Balmy Night shimmer and Tim Holtz Winter Frost mica sprays.  It is bluer than it looks in the photo.  I cut a piece of it slightly larger than the square I cut the cat from and, to pick up the silver in the above photo, swiped the edges with silver metallic ink from Color Box.  I cut the star from gold foil using a die from Memory Box.  I used gold embossing powder and a sentiment from the Stampin' Up set, Star of Light, on the front and a sentiment from Close to My Heart inside.  It says "A silent night, a star above, a blessed gift of hope and love."  Now I have one Christmas card for 2025!

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Birthday Glimmer Kitty

 

"Tis the season for birthdays!  Between family and friends I need quite a few this month.  I made this one for my brother, a crazy cat dad who likes to garden, following this sketch from Just Add Ink.

When I sit down to play with inks I will make a mess of backgrounds and figure out what to do with them later.  Sometimes I only use part of one and keep the leftover scrap for something else.  The background behind the cat was from a leftover bit made by smooshing Hero Arts Glimmer Inks in red, copper, and bronze on watercolor paper.  As you can see by the second image they really do shine when you tip them to the light!  The cat was cut using the Cat Collage die from Poppy Stamps and the vegetation with a die from Altenew's Leaf Mix die set.  I gilded the edges by holding the paper vertically and pressing the edges into a versamark pad and then gold embossing powder.  I stamped the sentiment with one from the So Many Sentiments set by Gina K Designs and embossed it as well.

I am also entering this in the Critter Crazy Special Birthday Bash Milestone challenge celebrating their 100th challenge and the Show Us Your Pussycats anything goes challenge.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi and 

Using My Green Scraps

 

I love to experiment with different techniques to make backgrounds which means I often have small pieces and trimmings left after cutting them down to card size or to fit behind a die cut window.   My bin was overflowing, so I pulled out the strips and sorted them by color family with the goal of using them on cards.  The Colorful Options Challenge color of the month is green so those are the ones I used to make this card following the current sketch from the CAS Colours and Sketches Challenge blog.

I glued the strips at an angle on a piece of printer paper and trimmed off the edges.  I used the last larger piece of the background I used for yesterday's card to back a window cut using Poppy Stamps' Cat Collage die and gilded the edges with gold embossing powder.  Because the strips were mostly watercolor paper which is pretty thick, I glued a bit of watercolor paper behind the upper half of the window panel to bring it up to the same level as the bottom.   The sentiment is from the So Many Sentiments set by Gina K Designs. 

I also plan to enter this in the Cut It Up CAS and Show Us Your Pussy Cats Furry Thing Goes challenges.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Happy Birthday in Green and Gold

 

I made this card for the Colors Hues "Green and Gold," AAA Cards "Circles," Seize the Birthday "Anything Goes," Happy Little Stampers "Anything Goes Watercolor," and Die Cut Divas "Anything Goes," challenges.   For the background I sprinkled Lindy's Magicals on a craft sheet, sprayed them with water, and then ink smooshed on watercolor paper.  Once the paper was covered, I sprinkled a little more powder on and misted again.  One of the cool things about Magicals is that the shimmer is not always the same color as the pigment.   The cover die is Circle of Leaves by Simon Says Stamp.  I heat embossed a sentiment from an old Close to My Heart set, Just to Say, and popped it up with foam tape. 

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Enjoying Snow From the Warm Side of the Window

 

The Inspiration Station Challenge prompt for January is this photo:

The cat, of course, caught my eye as did the fact he is on the warm side of the window which is the only way my pointy eared darlings experience snow.  The other element that attracted me was that this is not a photo, but a piece of art with texture from brush strokes and layers of color.  I knew at once that I would use my Prismacolor pencils, my Poppy Stamps window die, a cat die (I have a few), and the Pine Trees 3D Shading stamp from Spellbinders that I think I bought right before the Pandemic.  

I stamped the trees with light gray ink and colored over them with my pencils.  I applied a little Stickles on the tops of the branches which shows up yellow in this picture. I used an Impression Obsession die to cut the cats three times each, stacked them, used dark gray and black pencils to create contours, and then applied a layer of Glossy Accents over them.  I cut three windows and stacked them with a piece of acetate between the bottom and middle layers.  The background panel was cut using a stitched nesting frame from Penny Black.  I cut the stamped trees down to fit behind the window and attached the cats to the front.  I tucked a piece of thin foam tape between the upper part of each cat and the acetate to level it up to the lower portion that was attached to the window sill.  The sentiment comes from Gina K Designs' Sparkling Snowflakes set.

In addition to the Inspiration Station challenge, I plan to enter this card in the Retro Rubber "Winter Scenes", Cut It Up "Anything Goes", and Crazy for Cats "Anything CAT Goes" challenges.  Thank you for stopping by,  Hansi

Kraft and Red Christmas Card

 

The C.R.A.F.T. challenge theme is Christmas Non Traditional Christmas Colors.  The current Color Hues challenge is to use red and kraft which are not traditional Christmas colors, so now that I had my color scheme it was time to get creating!  I started with a piece of kraft cardstock cut the tree using the Penny Black Christmas Elegance die which cuts openings in the paper so that the design is created by the negative space.  Next I heat embossed a sentiment from Close to My Heart's Holiday wishes set and a star from Stampin' Up's Star of Light set using Ranger's Princess Gold powder.  I pressed the edges of the panel perpendicularly into Versamark ink and then into Red Tinsel embossing powder from Range and heat embossed them for a sparkly, fine, red edge.  I backed the tree with white glitter paper and then stacked the panel on three red panels of the same size before attaching it to a slightly larger piece of kraft paper as a mat.  This provided dimension and interest because if you look at the card from an angle you see the red stacked red paper.  I finished the card by embellishing the tree with red and white glitter paper circles cut using a 1/8 inch hole punch. 

This reminds me of a vintage 1960's white artificial tree which back then were often decorated with round ornaments of one color.  I also plan to enter this in the Divas That Cut Paper October Anything Goes challenge.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

The Season to Sparkle

 

The sketch below from Freshly Made Sketches was the perfect one on which to test drive my new Penny Black die, Christmas Elegance.  It which cuts openings in the paper, so the design is formed by negative space.

I planned to use the technique I used on this card where you put wadded up plastic wrap on thickly applied watercolor, press it down and let it dry for a while.  I must not have applied enough watercolor because it did not end up with the cool texture I was looking for, so I went on to plan B.  I used the Crafters Workshop Lush Petals stencil with Rustic Wilderness and Pine Needles Distress Oxide Inks to put a pattern on the top half of the page, turned the stencil around, and repeated the process on the bottom half , so the petals would fan out towards both ends.  I repeated the process using ColorBox Gold Metallic ink after moving the stencil a little up and over to get a shadow effect.  I then masked off the ends that would show and applied some more Pine Needles in the middle and rubbed the excess gold ink off in spots so the color would show better through the tree openings cut into heavy white cardstock.  I gold embossed a sentiment from an old Close to My Heart set, Holiday Wishes.  I then pressed the edges of the inked, die cut, and sentiment pieces perpendicularly into a Versamark pad and then into gold embossing powder and melted it to gild all the edges.  I attached everything to a white card base and popped up the sentiment with foam tape.  I finished it off with bitty sparkles that  I had colored with an alcohol marker.

Here is the inside:

The sentiment is part of the same stamp set and the stars part of Stampin' Up's Star of Light set.  The gold embossing does not show up well in the photo.  I also plan on entering this card in a brand new challenge, the Peace on Earth Christmas Challenge.  It is an anything Christmas goes challenge with a mood board for inspiration if you would like some. 

This is an unusual card for me becuase I don't often used traditional Christmas colors.  Thank you for stopping by, Until next time, Hansi