A Cat Themed Anniversary Card

 

The festivity being celebrated at Festive Friday is National Cat Day which is confusing to Luna and Calli because, as any cat will tell you, EVERY day is National Cat Day, International Cat Day, AND World Cat Day.

To enter the challenge you do not have to make a card featuring a cat.  You just have to select three items from the inspiration list below:

I used a cat (two actually), heart, and love sentiment to make an anniversary card for my husband or, as Luna and Calli like to call him, Soft Touch.

I started by taping a piece of 4.25 x 5.50 inch watercolor paper to my glass mat to keep it from curling, taped a deckled edge rectangle stencil from A Colorful Life Designs over it, and placed a circle mask cut from Gina K Design Masking Magic where I wanted the moon to be.  I used blending brushes to apply various shades of pink, blue, and violet Distress inks, spattered it with water using a fan brush, and once dry, re-applied the inks lightly and not necessarily in the same places to tone down the splatters and allow layers of colors to show through.  Without using a block, I inked a small acrylic text stamp with Basic Gray ink from Stampin' Up, stamped some of the ink off onto scratch paper, and stamped different parts of it along the left side and in the lower right corner.  I used the flower bouquet stamp from Stampin' Up's Very Vintage set to stamp the flowers around the cats and the Grass and Borders stamp from Nellie's Choice to stamp along the bottom.  The thickness of the stencil kept the "meadow" from reaching the edges, so I used a small brush to apply some ink along those edges.  I also brushed a bit of Hero Arts' Unicorn pigment ink outward around the moon.  Now it was finally time to remove the stencil and mask.  I used a small brush to apply Colonial White pigment ink from Close to My Heart and Silver pigment ink from ColorBox to the moon to give it some texture and dimension.  I also outlined the moon with a Gelly Roll Stardust pen.  

With inking done it was time for die cutting.  I used Penny Black's Kitty Love die to cut the cats from black and silver foil cardstock.  This gave me a silver heart to use where the cats' tails meet and silver cats for my stash to use on another project.  The sentiment was cut from silver foil using a die from Gina K Design and embellished with clear bitty sparkles.  I attached the panel to a card base made from Stampin' Up Purple Posy cardstock.  Here is the inside:

The sentiment from Close to My Heart's The Happy Couple set is embossed in silver.  The cats were cut using a die from Impression Obsession.  

I am also entering this card in the Happy Little Stampers' October Anything Goes With Dies challenge and the Critter Crazies' Anything Goes With a Critter challenge.  Luna and Calli are not sure how they feel about being referred to as "critters" but, as well brought up Southern Ladycats, are too polite to say anything.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi 

An Anniversary Card for the Color Hues Challenge

 

I am not usually a fan of color challenges.  They often ask you to combine three or four colors and specify the shade of the color which is just too confining for me.  The new Color Hues Challenge picks two colors, and you are free to use different shades of that color plus neutrals.  This week's challenge was to use Cream and Gold.  I can finally post my entry.  You see, this is an anniversary card for my husband, who sometimes looks at my blog, so I had to wait until I gave it to him to post.  Yes, we did get married on a Friday the thirteenth.  

I do not remember who made the heart with the leaves.  A few years ago a friend came over to do some crafting and bought the die with her.  I cut one to keep in my stash.  The second heart came with my Gemini Jounior and the love sentiment is an old Stampin' Up die.  I heat embossed each die cut with three layers Ranger Princess Gold and set them aside.  For the front panel I used Ranger Vintage Pearl to heat emboss the Rebecca Lace Background stamp from Simon Says Stamp on Colonial White cardstock from Close to My Heart.  To get the gilded edge, I held the paper perpendicular to a Versamark stamp pad and pressed the edge into it and then heat embossed the edge with more Ranger Princess Gold embossing powder.  I wanted the plain heart to have some leaves to compliment the large heart, but of course, I didn't have the die, so I cut a few leaves from the Simon Says Stamp Circle of Leaves die and heat embossed them with three layers of the Vinatage Pearl powder.  I put everything together, popping uo the panel with craft foam.   I embellished the large heart with a few small pearls.  Here is the inside:

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Anniversary Card for the Card Concept

My husband and I celebrated our 40th anniversary last week.  (I was a child bride...)  Such an occasion calls for a romantic, non-masculine card which I made using this photo from The Card Concept as inspiration:

I am not sure how he would have felt about a pumpkin, so I went with the pink, ivory, and gold color scheme and flowers.  First I inked up the "valley" side of my new Tim Holtz Alterations Botanical 3D Texture Fades embossing folder with Aged Mahogany Distress Oxide ink, spritzed some Colonial White cardstock with water, and carefully placed it in the folder to run through my Big Shot.  Afterwards I spritzed it with a mixture of Perfect Pearls and water.  When it was dry I used a sponge dauber to dab on some gold pigment ink from ColorBox and added a little Princess Gold embossing powder by Ranger.  Lastly I diecut a heart and kept the rest for a future project. 

Next I used the Hero Arts Love stamp and die set to cut three "Love" sentiments and stacked them.  I smooshed it in Versamark and then embossed it with Vintage Pearl embossing powder by Ranger three times.  

For the background panel I cut a rectangle using a die set I got from a friend who was decluttering.  It looks like a Nestabilities set from Spellbinder's.   I cut the ends off, sponged the edges with Versamark, and embossed with more gold embossing powder.  While I was at it I gold embossed the word "always"  from the Simon Says stamp set Thoughtful Messages beside where I planned to place the heart. Finally I gave it a spritz with my homemade pearl spray.

Finally I put everything together and attached it with foam tape to a Colonial White card base.   I wish the photograph captured the pearly shine and gold sparkle of the card.  It is sort of clean and layered meets classy and elegant.  Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi

Eclipse of the Heart

Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, and yes, we got married on a Friday.  I have been wanting to try an Eclipse card.  If you are not familiar with the technique, the idea is you die cut letters, or in my case shapes, out of your image and then put them back in place popped up.  Right now I am seeing a lot of cards using letters, but I like to put hearts and flowers on my romantic cards for my husband, so I went with hearts instead spelling out the word love.  He knows I love him, right?

First I want to talk about challenges.  I started this blog five years ago this month, so I could participate in the Mojo Monday challenge because I wanted to give myself "homework assignments" and grow as a cardmarker.  My cards have definitely evolved as the number of challenges I follow has grown.  I have just started following two new for me ones:  The As You Like It Challenge asks you to make a choice between two items, themes, etc. or maybe pick a favorite something such as paper and then explain why you made that choice.  This week the challenge is ribbon or flowers.  For an anniversary card that is easy.  My husband has always given me roses for no reason except that they are pretty and he thinks I will enjoy them.  Even in our starving student days he would sometimes stop by a florist and buy a single rose.  It should come as no surprise that most of the anniversary and I love you cards I make for him include roses.

The second challenge I have begun following, Happy Little Stampers, has several challenges each month that run for the entire month so you have plenty of time to work on your entry(ies).  They are designed to "inspire you to create using techniques or products that may be new to you or just a refresher on using them."  Each month there is a Watercolor (or any medium using water), CAS, Christmas, Mixed Media, Anything Goes With a Die Cut, and ATC challenge.  This card is for the Die Cut challenge.

If you like pink, with October being Breast Cancer Awareness month, a number of challenges including The Sisterhood of Crafters, Craft Rocket Challenges, Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge want to see projects featuring it.  I am also entering this in the Stamps & Fun = Creativity challenge to make something "non cute."

Now back to the card:

I started with a stamp from the Lady Rose set by Tom Holtz whose designs are often messy with a lot of texture and a vintage feel.  This is what it looks like stamped with black ink on white and dark brown on ivory paper:

When colored with your favorite medium, the color of the ink will dominate when using a dark ink to stamp.  I chose to stamp it in Close to My Heart's Champagne ink which is a light beige.  This allowed me to use my Prismacolor pencils to color over the stamping.  Any beige showing through just added to the muted, vintage feel I was aiming for.  While I had the Champagne ink out I sponged in circles around the edges of my paper to "age" it.  

Once I was satisfied with my image it was time to cut the hearts.   This is easiest using dies which  you can position on the image however looks best to you before cutting.  I imagine you could use a Cricut type machine to cut the word on plain paper, leave the cut and background together and then create your image so the raised sections will coordinate nicely with die cut.  I cut the smallest heart first and then the larger one.  Some people pop up their die cuts with foam tape.  I prefer to stack multiple dies cuts to get more of a chip board effect.  Again, this is where dies shine.  Each one will be exactly the same.  The one complication for this design was the carved out part in the large heart.  After each was cut I used the original heart to trace the carved out spot so it would be in the same place, allowing the smaller heart to fit in perfectly.  I used five layers of pink cardstock to pop up the large heart and seven for the small one.

Lastly I embossed the sentiment in gold, added a few clear Nuvo Crystal Drops for balance and mounted the panel onto a piece of pink cardstock.

Thank you for stopping by!  Until next time, Hansi