Tuxedo Cats

Probably the easiest ones to color were the black and white "tuxedo" cats.  For all of the cats, I mostly used my pastel chalks.  The ones I have are a set of 48 from "The Stencil Collection".  I love that they are erasable when you first apply them, but set within 10 minutes or so.  And I like the ease of use.

For this black and white cat, I started by stamping a black image on white card stock.  Using the chalks, I started by coloring the nose & inside of the ears with pink.  Then I added a dark grey - almost black color around the face and body, leaving plenty of white showing as you can see.  I then added black chalk where the lines were on the cat and other places I wanted to be a bit darker (like where one part of the cat would create shadow on another part).

For the eyes, I combined 2 Smooch inks (Green Apple, & Gold Lame') by putting a few dots of the green and then blending with the gold.  I used a bit of pink Smooch ink for the nose. 

I found it looked best if I then went over the lines with a fine-line black felt-tip marker.  (Sharpie's works fine for this.)  The head, body & bow are just sitting loosely at the moment, but I had to see what they looked like.  Won't this make a fine addition to a card?

Here are a couple more black & white cats.

"Peeking" Kittie

Left-facing Kittie

Lots of Cats

This week I've been making cats - lots and lots of cats!  I love this stamp & die set I got from Stampendous (Pop-up Kitties).  The picture above shows a few of the cats that I made - as well as a couple that aren't yet colored to give you an idea of what a difference coloring makes!!!  This set of stamps (& coordinating die set) have the head separate from the body so you can make it a "bobble head" on a spring if you like.  As you can see in the picture above, there are two cat bodies - one facing left and one facing right.

 

There are also a couple of cat paws that you can use to make "peeking" cats as you can see at the bottom of this 2nd photo.  This photo also shows the bow that comes with the sets.   It can be used to dress up the cats as I've shown here, or for other decorations - like on this basket (that also comes with the set):

I haven't yet shaded the basket, and the pieces are just set in place at this point, but I couldn't wait to see how it looked.  Isn't she cute?  The basket "liner" is cut with a die in the set & then stamped with the upper part of the basket stamp.   In the next few posts, I'll talk about how I colored the cats, but for now, I'll finish with a quick description of how I prepared them for coloring.

The Stampendous video says to stamp and color them and then cut them out - carefully lining up the dies so you see equal amounts of the stamped edges all around first.  However, they don't actually cut them in the video - which made me wonder how well that actually worked. :) (Especially since they make a point of saying to color outside the lines so if it isn't lined up perfectly it will still look fine.)

So, I did my die cutting FIRST.  I started with a variety of papers and cardstock that I thought would be nice for each of the pieces - and die cut the pieces I wanted from them.  THEN I stamped them.  To ensure I got the stamp lined up correctly (since they are rubber stamps and I couldn't see through them for placement) I placed the stamp on my acrylic block and inked it.  Then I left it sitting face up on my table and carefully placed my die cut on top, lining it up and the smoothing with my fingers to ensure a good "stamp".  It worked beautifully!  And I've been having loads of fun with these!

Magical Christmas

I DID manage to make some Christmas cards with more traditional focals, but they still were mostly quick and easy with purchased elements for the card focals.  This first one has Dazzles stickers for the focal.  I put them on a turquoise mat I had cut from glimmer paper with a Spellbinders Labels Eight die.  This was centered on a sliver glitter card base that I embossed with a Darice embossing folder ("Photo Frame").

This next card was made using a partial kit I got from a "Girlfirends Getaway" weekend sponsored by Hot Off the Press.  The papers were really pretty and the tag worked well with the outline sticker greeting.  Border stickers from my stash (purchased at a dollar store) and HOTP Jewel Dazzles finished it off.

So there you have it - a few of the over 100 Christmas cards that I made last year.  Naturally the best ones went to special people and I regret that I have no pictures.  I told myself that I'd start earlier this year and get Christmas cards made every month (and posted here) so I wouldn't have that happen again.  Well - obviously the posting has happened this month, but no Christmas cards made yet.  Maybe next month.  In the meantime, my next posts will show you what I HAVE been up to so far as papercrafting is concerned this month.

Christmas Cards

Obviously, I didn't get Christmas cards posted last year.  This was not because I didn't make any, but because I was in such a time crunch that I had no time to take pictures of them before sending them on their way.  I always hate it when that happens because I like to remember what I've done. :(  I DID however, have a few left over and will post those.  

Many of my cards this year were "cannibalized" cards.  (Okay let's call them "recycled" - or perhaps "upcycled" - that sounds better! :) )  I just didn't have the time to create as many focals as I needed for my cards this year, so I used images saved from cards I had received  in years past to create quick and easy focals - and often insides as well.  The 3 cards in this post were all done this way.  For the first card, at the top of this post, I: cut the picture, adhered it to a pastel blue card base, and used silver peel-off stickers to outline it.  I did a similar thing on the inside of the card and added Dazzles greeting stickers to complete it.

Next up is a card made from a lovely card that had sparkle and foil on it - but it was very large and I don't like making my cards so big.  So, I cut off some of the reindeer and used them for the inside of the card.  Dazzles border stickers and greeting finished the card nicely.

Finally was this very simple card front.  I really liked the sentiment and the red foil on it.  You can't see it very well in the picture, but I embossed the front of a plain white card base before adding the red card front.  Very simple, but looked quite elegant.