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!