Cats and Christmas

Anyone who has ever lived with a cat knows that they can create havoc at Christmas.  Somehow, Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, etc. seem to bring out the worst in them!  This month one of the images on the Peace on Earth mood board depicts exactly that.  It inspired me to make this card.

I stamped the image, then painted the stars and the Santa hat with Twinkling H2Os, and grounded the cat with a bit of grey watercolour paint.  Trimmed the panel with a square die, bordered it with a starry dp background, and added Fun Flock to the brim and pompom of the hat.

Here's the Peace on Earth mood board:

There's lots more interpretations of it over at Peace on Earth from the rest of our Design Team.  We'd love to have you join us!

Supplies:
Stamps - Technique Junkies
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, off white cs, Bo Bunny dp
Size - 5.25" square
Accessories - red and gold Twinkling H2Os, grey watercolour paint, Fun Flock

Green Dotted Die Cut Trees and a Bah Humbug Cat

It's March so inevitably lots of challenges ask for green.  See end of post for the challenges.

I die cut the set of four Poppy Stamp trees out of a scrap of green dotted cs sitting on my desk, layered them on two more layers cut from scraps of white cs for dimensions and arranged them around a green stamped sentiment.  Then bordered with green and cut a few sparkly white snowflakes out of a snippet of glitter cs.

As a retired librarian who worked as a children's librarian for many years, I couldn't resist the Once Upon a Time challenge to be inspired by the book The Cat in the Hat:

I stamped it, coloured the hat with a red alcohol marker and the stars with a gold metallic pen, trimmed it with a deckle edge die, and bordered it with gold shimmer cs.

Challenges for the first card:

The Sisterhood of Crafters "Dots and/or Stripes"

Colorful Options "Green" 

Jingle Belles "Primarily Die Cuts" 

Christmas Kickstart "Get Your Grinch On (Green Takes Centre Stage)" 

Snippets

   

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Rosie's Roadshow sentiment
Ink - Distress Lucky Clover
Paper - white cs, green dotted cs, white shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Poppy Stamp set of four tree dies, tiny snowflake die

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - Technique Junkies
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - chalk cs, gold shimmer cs
Size - A2
Accessories - red alcohol marker, gold metallic pen, fun flock, Spellbinders deckle edge die

Alice the Dog and a Cake-inspired Christmas Tree

ABC Christmas Challenge has "D is for Dogs" this month.  I found a stamp that looks a lot like a friend's dog, Alice.

The dog is stamped and watercoloured, and a bit of green ink sponged around her. Then I created the Polaroid frame with a square die cut out of a rectangle of white cs. Added some fun flock to the dog's hat and a sentiment, and put it all on a red card base. 

Christmas Craft Creations wants stencils or embossing folders.  I went with a stencil.

The background was made on a gelli plate with green acrylic paint and a Christmas tree stencil.  The large tree on top is actually a gold cardboard holder for a slice of cake (from one of my favourite French bakeries - all their pastries sit on lovely gold cardboard shapes).  I decorated it with lots of clear and green gems and added a rub-on sentiment as I was worried about smudging if I tried to stamp on it.

 

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Technique Junkies dog, Mama Elephant sentiment
Ink - Archival Potting Soil, Distress Bundled Sage
Paper - white and red cs, watercolour paper
Size - A2
Accessories - watercolour paints, Mama Elephant die for the sentiment, Spellbinders square die, fun flock

Supplies for card 2:
Paper - white cs, gold cardboard cake slice holder
Size - 6x4.25"
Accessories - green acrylic paint, Stamplorations Christmas tree stencil, gelli plate, Tim Holtz rub on, green and clear gems

A Dog in a Santa Hat and a Starry Wreath

Christmas Craft Creations want us to "Add a Hat", Double D want "Christmas Animals", and Cardz 4 Guyz want "Festive Creatures".  I used a never-before-used stamp for the card so it's going off to NBUS as well.

I was inspired by the right hand images in the Double D mood board to use a new Colorado Craft Co.  I watercoloured the dog in the colours of my English cocker as the image made me think of her!  Then trimmed it with dotted pierced rectangle die, layered it over copper cs, and popped it up on fun foam on a red card base.  I added fun flock to the brim and pompom of the hat.

The ABC Christmas Challenge is "W for Wreath".  Instead of a traditional greenery wreath, I used a star wreath.  I used up several snippets of papers so I'm adding it to the Snippets Challenge.

On the left side of my card base, I added a strip of dp bordered by thin strips of gold shimmer cs and stamped a gold heat embossed sentiment to the right side.

I die cut the star wreath three times - twice out of of white cs and once out of Tim Holtz gold glitter peel-off paper. I stacked the three together and added it over the dp / card base / sentiment

  

 

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Supplies for card 1:
Stamps - Colorado Craft Co. dog, Penny Black sentiment
Ink - Versafine Onyx Black
Paper - watercolour paper, copper and red cs
Size - A2
Accessories - Sizzix dotted rectangle die, watercolour paints, fun flock, fun foam

Supplies for card 2:
Stamps - unknown sentiment
Ink - ColorBox Gold
Paper - gold shimmer and white cs, SEI dp, TH gold glitter peel-off paper
Size - A2
Accessories - gold embossing powder, unknown star wreath

Bird in a Santa Hat

Jingle Belles want to see a "Santa Hat" on a card and Cardz 4 Guyz want to see a "Masculine Christmas Card".  I have a friend whose kids call him "an old fart" when they're teasing him so I made this with him in mind!

I stamped and coloured the bird and Santa hat, and die cut them both.  I stuck them to a cream panel on which I'd stamped the sentiment, then rubbed some green ink around the edges of the panel to create a border.  I added it to a background of dp.

 

Supplies:
Stamps - Tim Holtz Crazy Birds and Santa Hat, Old Island Stamp Co. sentiment
Ink - Memento Tuxedo Black, Archival Library Green
Paper - cream cs, ColorBok dp
Size - 6.25x3.25" slimline
Accessories - Tim Holtz Crazy Birds and Santa Hat dies