Another crazy cat ....

.... Hello! I told you that I'd be back with more of those funky Laurel Burch cats. I had so much fun making this card - I got really inky. Here's my card:

Stamps: Stampendous - Laurel Burch Indigo Cats; Altenew - Enchanted Iris
Inks: Distress Oxides - Worn Lipstick, Spiced Marmalade, Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Wilted Violet, Fossilized Amber; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Lil Inkers - Wonky Rectangles #4
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Bombay Sunset; Vellum; Wink of Stella - Clear; Clear Embossing Powder; Shimmer Spritz

I got a wonderful set of Kaisercraft papers recently - you've seen some of the papers already - in the pack there was a white page with a tiny green element repeated all over it. It was nice, but nothing special. So I decided to alter it a bit! I got out my Distress Oxide inks and set to work.

I started by smooshing pink, yellow and orange inks on my craft mat and spritzing with water. Then I swiped the design paper through the inks. I dried the paper between each colour which allows them to layer, rather than make mud. Next I put down some blue, green and violet inks and repeated the process. Once I was happy with the colours I used a light spray of Shimmer Spritz. Sadly you can't see the shimmer in the photo, but in real-life, it's fabulous. I stamped the cat on watercolour card and used the same technique to add colour. Once dry I used an aquabrush to add colour to his eyes and to colour some of the squares.

I have used the sketch from the current FUSION challenge - FUSION#76 for the layout. I covered the card with the altered design paper. I die cut a panel of white card and created the vellum mat by drawing around the outside of the die and cutting it out. I stamped the butterfly in black and used a Wink of Stella brush and distress oxide inks to add colour and shimmer. I finished the white panel with a simple sentiment and dotted flight for the butterfly. I adhered the completed panel flat to the card. I used dimensional tape to adhere the cat.

On the inside I used the left over strip of altered design paper down the middle of the card. On the white panel I stamped a butterfly, finished the greeting and added a beautiful iris. You can see some tiny spatter drops on the white panel. This was, of course, entirely deliberate :) Actually, I forgot and as I spritzed some water on the distress ink it landed on the paper - but I like it!! I used a clear Wink of Stella brush to add ink to the iris and it's gorgeous .

I'm submitting this to Love to Craft Challenge Blog - LTCCB#11 where the challenge is Anything Goes.

I really like Tim's distress oxide inks - they're such fun to use. If you're not sure how to use them, I've included a video by Jennifer McGuire, and a link to her blog, showing various techniques. That's all from me today.

Dreams ....

.... Hello! I do hope everyone is having a good day. We've got really mixed weather here today - storms first thing this morning, and now the sun is out and it's nice and warm. I spent this morning in my craft room doing making cards. I have a really fun one to share with you this morning:

Stamps: Stampendous - Laurel Burch Indigo Cats; Altenew - Thoughts & Reminders
Inks: Distress Oxide - Worn Lipstick, Cracked Pistachio, Broken China, Spiced Marmalade, Wilted Violet, Fossilized Amber; Versafine - Onyx Black
Dies: Stampendous - Laurel Birch Indigo Cats Dies; Spellbinders - Grand Circles #4 (LF-114)
Accessories: White Lustre Card; Kaisercraft DP - Bombay Sunset; Tim Holtz Watercolour Card; Clear Embossing Powder; Stampendous stencil - Indigo Cats

I used the sketch from this week's Freshly Made Sketches challenge - FMS#293 for the layout and I'm also submitting to Addicted to Stamps and More! - ATSM#247 for their Make Your Mark challenge.

I got these wonderful cat stamps from my local craft shop - Stampedler Plus Memories - a couple of weeks ago, but have only just got around to playing with them. I'm a huge fan of Laurel Burch's art and I really like the way she used bold colours and blended them. So I decided to use my distress oxide inks to colour the cats. I stamped them on watercolour card, embossed with clear powder and cut them out with the matching dies. I smooshed some of the inks on my craft mat spritzed them with water and then put the image into the ink. The great thing about the distress oxide inks is that provided you dry them between application, the colours layer and don't make mud!! I used a mixture of violet, green and blue on the large cat, and pink, yellow and orange on the smaller one. Once they'd completely dried, I used an aquabrush to paint in the eyes. I used a very large circle die to cut out the design paper and adhered it flat to the card. I used the stencil that comes with the cat stamps to stencil some colour to the top of the card. I adhered the large cat flat to the card, and used dimensional tape to attach the smaller one in front. I finished the front with a bold, inspirational sentiment in black. On the inside I cut some coordinating design paper for the mat layer and on the white panel stamped on a couple of butterflies which I coloured with the distress oxide inks and an aquabrush. The sentiment is a pre-printed one from the Kaisercraft DP stack, Bombay Sunset.

You're going to see a lot more of these fun and funky cats!! That's all for now.