New Website & Blog Live!

The new Cat Scrap Fever website & blog have now moved to Cat Scrap Fever


Join us over there. :)

Design/Creative Team Call for Cat Scrap Fever

If you haven't checked out the new hang out for me over at my new site Cat Scrap Fever you are missing out on a great opportunity to be on my first ever design team.  You can check out the post that has all the details here on the new blog:  http://catscrapfever.ca/blog/

Check it out and let's see your application. :)

Freebies on the Shop Blog

So if you haven't checked it out already, you should head over to my shop blog to pick up the blog train freebies I have there. There's also a free Canada Day mini kit & 4th of July mini kit for you all.  Make sure you check out the Stuff to Scrap blog train freebie before the 15th.  After that it will be gone.  The rest of the freebies will be available until the end of the month.  And don't forget that I have a little gift for all my newsletter subscribers every month as well.  You can sign up for my newsletter here:  Newsletter Sign Up Form

Here are previews of what you can pick up off the store blog (the pictures are linked to the actual post):

Have fun with them.  I'd love to see what you do with them, so shoot me a link if you post anything on line. You can contact me through the contact me form in the sidebar.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Echanted...

That's the theme of this week's challenge over at the Drunken Stampers blog.

It was a hard choice this week as to which stamp to use.  I have (had) so many stamps that I could use that fit this theme in both digital and rubber/clear.  I decided to pull out a stamp I haven't used yet from my stash. This poor stamp has been sitting in a box in its wrapper for almost 2 years without being used.  So, I thought it was high time, and a very appropriate theme to use it on.  Its a La Blanche stamp and I really love the detail. I only have a couple La Blanche stamps and the detail on these stamps is amazing. One thing I find neat about these stamps is that they are made from silicone.  Most people associate silicone stamps with the cheap and poor quality clear stamps.  But, believe me, these are nice quality and the images are beautiful.

So anyway, here's a look at my card for this week:

Well, my stint as the guest designer is now over.  Its been a lot of fun playing along with you all and seeing all the talent each week.  I hope you had as much fun with the challenges as I did and pushed yourself. I'm sure I'll be popping by every now and then to say hey and to check out all the amazing projects you all post there.

Take care and we'll see you again...

Cat

Edward Scissorhands...

So, I'm not quite sure what happened...  I did this post last night and thought I had set it to post at something like 3am.  I get up this morning to check to make sure my living room isn't flooded (I'll get to that in a second), turn on the computer, take my first sip of my coffee, come here and nothing.  Where did my post go?  Well, its off in cyberland having a great laugh with all the missing emails and files that we all can't find.

Before I get started, I want to say my heart goes out to all my fellow Calgarians that are affected by the flooding.  I just couldn't imagine. My heart also goes out to the families of the people who lost their lives because of the flood.  I have never seen flooding of this magnitude.  Its unbelievable how much water there is around.

So, we're watching tv the other night and I kept hearing this clicking noise.  I said to my husband "why does that speaker keep making a clicking noise" and he's like "I can't hear it" (of course you can't).  So I wait a little while and hear it again.  I go over to the speaker - which goes over the back of the arm of the couch - and there's water dripping from the ceiling onto the speaker.  OMG, our roof is leaking from all the rain we've been having.  So we had to put a bowl on the couch so it wouldn't get wet.  Good thing the speaker didn't get any water in side of it.  So now when it rains, it leaks.  Greeaaattt.  Luckily it quit raining yesterday afternoon and didn't rain last night - or not that I heard it.  Its bad enough that the basement weeps everytime we get a lot of rain, now the roof leaks.  The landlord is going to have to do some major work to this house, that all I'm sayin'

OK, now on to our card.  As you can tell by my post title, this weeks' challenge is about Edward Scissorhands.  I enjoyed that movie.

I think Johnny Depp was great in it.  But, I had no idea what to do for a card.  Luckily, there was also a tie-in to sewing. Whew!  I knew I could work with that.  Well, here is my card.  Its simple, and country-ish.  I hope you like it.

Well, I think you should head over to the Drunken Stampers Blog and check out this week's challenge. I know you'll have a great time and the people are always so friendly.

That's it for me for today.  I'll be back next week with another project.  I know they have something great planned for us for next week. :)

Take care and keep dry...

Cat

Monty Python & the Holy Grail

Hi again!  I'm back for another challenge at the Drunken Stampers challenge blog.  This week's theme is Monty Python & the Holy Grail (or rabbits).

I remember as a teenager I saw the Monty Python movie "The Meaning of Life".  I thought it was hilarious.  I did see The Holy Grail, but I'm somewhat embarrassed to say, I don't really remember it.  I was a bit of wild child in my mid teen years (well really, right up to my 40's) and may have been extremely inebriated when I saw it.  For some reason, I really never did get into the Monty Python show though.  Everyone else thought it was the funniest thing on tv.  So given my lack of knowledge about all things Monty Python, I decided to go with the rabbit theme.  More specifically, cute little bunnies. :)  Although, doing the kind of steampunk, head chopped off and full of a bunch of weird stuff, theme on a card would probably be fun.   Maybe next time I'll jump out of my comfort zone and do something wild and crazy.  For now, I have a card using some cute little bunnies by from House Mouse. They are so cute.  Here's the card:

I left it kind of generic so it could be used for a couple of different occasions.  I think it could be used for a baby shower, just to send a hug, easter...  Its really an all purpose card. 

Well, I hope you get over to the Drunken Stampers and check out the current challenge.  There's always a lot of fun happening over there and you'll see some wonderful creations. I hope you check it out this weekend.

Don't forget to pop over to my store blog to check out the blog train freebies I have up for grabs now until the end of the month. I'm pretty happy with how the kits & the doodle packs turned out, so I'm sure you'll find something you'll like and will be able to use.

So, thats it for me today.  Pop back in next week and I'll have another project to show you.

Take care...

Cat

I'm feeling BLUE!

Hey everyone!  I'm not depressed - really.  I'm feeling blue because its another Drunken Stampers Challenge - My Best Friend's Wedding or the colour blue. :)  That's why I'm feeling blue!

I want to show you the card I made this week for the challenge.  Since Father's day is just around the corner, I thought I would also use this challenge to try give you all a little inspiration.  Sadly, my dad passed away almost 12 years ago.  I miss him every day.  He was a wonderful person and his gentleness and generosity is something that I looked up to.

This challenge was really a challenge for me.  Blue is my favourite colour, but I have a hard time working with what I call masculine colours.  I left the card a little more plain, but I still had to put some bling in it with the glittered stars.  You may notice the two tone "twine" on there.  I used some #10 crochet cotton and coloured it with a blue & beige copic to match the colour scheme of the card.  That technique is a great way to get custom colours and custom matching to your projects.  I just happened to grab a couple copics, but you could use any type of marker you have handy.  I have done it with Marvy markers and Crayola as well and both worked great too.  So without much further a do, here's the card:

I hope you will stop by next week to see what I have in store for the next challenge.  Make sure you head over to the Drunken Stampers blog and put in your entry for the challenge.  I see from all the players of the last challenge that a lot of very talented people hang out there.  At least all the cool one's do. :)

See you next week...

Cat

Guest Designer - Drunken Stampers

Well!  I can finally let Cat out of the bag (yes, I intentionally left the word "the" out of the phrase).  I'm going to be a guest designer on the Drunken Stampers challenge blog for the month of June.  I'm really excited about it.  I've never been a "guest designer" before, so I'm going to try and wow you all with some great stamped projects.

The first challenge for June is Breakfast at Tiffany’s – Bling!   You can make something representative of the movie or the theme (and who doesn't love bling?)  I opted for da bling of course.  I made a sweet little thank you card for someone special.  I hope you like it.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a better picture of it. The picture really doesn't show off how sparkly it is. I added stickles to random dots on the patterned paper and then I made swirls and dots on the pink cardstock too.  The chipboard letter was already a glittered chipboard piece, but I wanted even MORE bling, so I loaded it up with rhinestones.  Even the ribbon has a little metallic thread running along the edges (that my photo didn't pick up).  With all that excitement going on on the card, I wanted the word "Thank" to stand out, so I use a plain font alpha stamp for the word.

I really hope you join in the Drunken Stampers challenges along with me this month.  Its going to be a fun time.  And, just a little teaser to leave off with you.  I've been on this blog for about 8 years I think and I don't often post pictures of myself.  Usually because I'm the one behind the camera.  I get a lot of people asking me what I look like. Well, they'll be posting a snapshot of me over on Drunken Stampers. So if you want to see the face behind that green cat all over the internet, you'll be able to see the real me.

So that's all for today. Stop back again next week for another fun challenge card.  Also, you can stop by my store blog to pick up some fun free digi scrapping kits for a couple of blog trains I'm participating in.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Happy Mothers' Day!

I hope everyone is enjoying the day with their mother!  I'm taking it easy at home, but unfortunately, can't spend the day with my mother since she lives in a different province.  I'll give her a call on skype in a little bit, so that will be nice.

Well, not much to say.  Just wanted to pop in and wish you all a great day!

Talk to you later...

Cat

Freebies Galore!

Hey everyone!  You should check out my new blog.  I have a ton of new freebies over there for 3 blog trains I'm participating in.  Also, I have a new Facebook Fan freebie up now, so check that out too.  There are links to the entire trains, so you can go crazy with freebies today.  Hope you have lots of room n your hard drive, because I know mine's going to get really full with all the great kits the other designers have made.

My new blog is here:  Cat Scrap Fever

My newsletter went out this morning, so if you didn't sign up for it, you missed a sweet little kit I gave out to my newsletter subscribers.  Here's what it looks like:

Here is the co-ordinating FB fan freebie (you can grab that one from my FB Page)

and here are the previews for the different blog trains (all the links to all the participants & the links to download are on my new blog):

Pixel Scrapper Birds & the Bees blog train:

Bits N Bob Angels and Demon Blog Train:

Stuff To Scrap April Showers Blog Train:

I hope you like the kits.  As always, I would love to see what you make when them, so drop me a line if you use them.

Talk to you later...

Cat

My New Newsletter...

Hi everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  I'll be sending out my first newsletter on (or as close to it as possible) April 1st.  I'll be including tips on different scrapbooking softwares, tutorials, and of course a freebie here and there.  Needless to say, my grand kick off of the new store newsletter will include an EXCLUSIVE Cat Scrap Fever freebie.  If you want in on the fun and what all else the newsletter will be delivering, you can sign up here.  I hope you will.

Also, just wanted your opinion on my new logo:

What do you think?  Too plain?  Too much wording?  I'd love to hear what you think.

That's everything for today.

Talk to you later...

Cat

New Layouts

Hi everyone!  So, do you have any green plans this weekend?  I'm going to make some corned beef sandwiches, maybe.  That's about as much St. Patrick's Day celebrating we do.  I don't go in for all the green beer and "kiss me, I'm Irish" stuff, but I love all the green (one of my favourite colours) and all the cute little leprechauns.  So, if you have plans and plan on taking a lot of pictures, I have the kit for you.  My new kit to open my new store with is the Lucky Charm kit.  Its full of lots of green (and a little pink and white thrown in) with lots of embellishments.  Here is a preview of what's in the kit:

Its a fairly big kit, and not everything is shown in the preview.  All together, there is over 50 pieces to the kit. You can purchase this kit here:  Lucky Charm Kit.

There are some non-themed elements to this kit that make it very versatile and can be used for any occasion. Here are a few layouts I made with this kit just to give you an idea of how nicely the elements come together.

My beautiful cousin Angela with her 3 children (the 4th hadn't been born yet - whew! 4 kids).

My BFF's second grandson:

And, my cute little Mitzy.  The light was refracted as it shone through the living room window and Mitzy just happened to be sleeping on her (my) woobie on the couch and the little rainbow fell across her face.  It was so pretty and I'm glad she didn't hear the camera start up, otherwise she would have bolted.  She doesn't like having her picture taken anymore.

So that's it for today.  Come check out my new store.  I'll be adding a lot more things as time goes by.  I probably won't be posting as much on this blog since most of my stuff will be on the new store blog.  You can also come and see what's happening there.  My new blog has the same name, just a new place.  You can find the new hang out here:  Cat Scrap Fever Blog

Talk to you later...

Cat

Some really big news!!!!!!

Ok, so I hinted a couple times here and there about something (or a couple things) that I was working on over the last couple weeks.  Well..... its done.... and ready to reveal!  

MY NEW STORE!!!!

Its taken awhile for me to get the courage up to do this.  I know its a tough market, but really I'm not in it to make a fortune (because I know I won't).  I really like designing and rather than have this stuff just sitting on my hard drive not doing anything for me, I thought now is the time to get back into a store.  Then I thought, why not my own store.  So the journey began.  I really would love to see you all stop by and take a look. If you're intersted, you can even sign up for my newsletter.  I'm hoping to have the first issue ready for press for the first of April.  I have big plans for this new place. Another thing is I will be moving my blog to the one associated with the store and probably just keep this one for my personal stuff.  So I will still be around, but all my craft stuff will be on the store blog now.  I'll leave this blog up because there's a lot of stuff here that I people still access (like the Silhouette tutorials - those one's are my most popular posts). 

So that's it.  I'm wiped out.  It was a long, long day yesterday loading the few things into the store.  If you head over and take a look, there is also a freebie page.  I have some new stuff there for you. 

Hope to see you soon at the new place!

Cat

New Challenge Freebie

Hi everyone!  Some of you might remember me mentioning a site I've been hanging out at lately.  Its called Pixel Scrappers.  I found it a couple years ago, but never really looked around to see what was happening. Well, I happened upon the site again, and I decided to take a look around.  I'm glad I did.  Its a great community with lots of digi freebies (personal use & commercial use).  There are a lot of great tutorials and, what I've been involved in lately, are the challenges.  Specifically, the designer challenges.  I want to get back into designing again, and this has given me the little pick up I needed to get going.  I've been working on getting a store set up, so you all can check that out, but I'll let you know when its ready and open for business. :)  In the meantime, I played along with the latest designer challenge at Pixel Scrappers, which was to make an add-on element for the Spring Fields kit (I love the colours).  Here is my addition to the kit:

There are two files available (packed together).  The first one is a sequin and glitter spray, and the second one is sponged background spray.  The sponged spray is quite subtle and a little hard to see, so I suggest you click on the preview to make it bigger so you can see the detail. You can pick up this add-on here:  CSF Spring Fields Add-on Freebie

I hope you like it and if you do use it, I would love to see what you did with it, so let me know. :)

That's all for today...

Cat

A New Paper Pack Freebie

I'm taking part in a design challenge at Pixel Scrappers and this week's challenge is to create a repeating pattern that you can use to make digital papers.  I love making digital papers.  I find it the easiest part of designing.  I did these papers up last night for the challenge and I'm offering them up for you to download.  I'm also offering the templates I created so you can play around with your own colour combinations and textures to see what you can create. :)

You can download these papers from here:  Call Me Paper Pack.

Here are the templates:

I'm offering these as CU, so if you make something you like and you want to sell it, your free to do so (you just can't sell the template as is or just recolouring it and selling it).  You can download the Paper Makers from here:  Call Me Paper Maker Pack.

Well, that's it for this post.  I bet you're falling out of your chair to see that I've actually posted twice today eh?  I'm on a roll...

Oh yeah, if you download, please leave a comment.  I just like to know what you all think of my designs (your feedback will help me determine what kind of designs you all like) and I'd really, really love to see any projects you do using my designs - really...

Ok, talk to you later...

Cat

Another Layout with my new kit

I was playing around with my Heritage Lane kit last night and surfing the web for freebies (what else are you suppose to do at 2am?) and I found this pretty layout template by Zoe Pearn Designs.  I haven't used layerd templates until I used the one for the Persnicky Prints layout contest, and I tell ya, they are great.  I can put together a layout in about 15 minutes and I don't have to think about where to put everything.  My layout skills really leave something to be desired, so while I am using these tools as a quick and dirty way of getting out a layout, I consider them a learning tool as well.  They help me understand how to put together a great layout using their scale of elements, placement, and shadowing.  I know I'll be looking more into how to make these for myself in the near future. So here is the layout:

I think this better shows off the colours of the kit, plus I got to use that pretty doily.

So, that's all for today.  I'm amazed there's still sunlight and I've posted.  Usually, blogging is a late night activity for me.  I need to get my schedule straightened out.  I've been looking for work and I can't be up all night and expect to be engaged if I get called for an interview.  We'll get there...

Talk to you later...

Cat

IMPORTANT UPDATE...

I'm so embarrassed!!!  The buttons and bows files I uploaded the other night for you guys to download as part of my Heritage Lane kit were the wrong files.  I think that when I was doing the batch process to resize my previews, I may have had these files open but didn't notice them (I think they were minimized) and the script I made resizes all open windows.  Granted, I'm not very good with scripts in Photoshop, and in my own defense (copping out in other words) it was really late when I was doing all this.  So, I've fixed the files, and its all good now.  So if you were here yesterday (or earlier today) and downloaded the files, please delete it and download this new zip file:

*Sorry, this link has now expired*

I'm so sorry for the inconvenience to you all.  I assure you this won't happen again!  The link is also fixed on the previous post.

Cat

I am so bad at blogging!! (Freebie to make up for it).

I really do have good intentions to keep this blog updated, but then I get side tracked or I'm just too lazy to post, and then a week goes by, 10 days, 2 weeks, with no post.  I'm working on something pretty big (a couple of things actually) and its been taking up huge amounts of my time.  Plus, I have to look for work on top of that, sooooo needless to say, this poor little blog gets neglected.

To make up for it, I have a huge digi scrapping kit for you all.  Its over 70 pieces (over 80 if you grab my exclusive Facebook fan freebie).  I wanted to participate in the February blog train with Pixel Scrappers, but didn't feel I had the time to do a mini kit justice when they were going live with it February 1st.  So, I worked on this kit using the same colour scheme and theme on my own a little bit here and there and I think I've come up with something that's pretty cute.  I hope you all like it.  I did up a layout using the kit, just to give a quick example.

I've broken the kit up into 4 parts.  Each part is linked to the preview image for that part.

*Sorry, these links have now expired*

As a special bonus, I have an exclusive fan freebie on my Facebook page.  Here's a preview of it (preview is linked):

Just click on the big red heart to get into the download area.

If you download the kit, I would really love to hear what you think of it.  I appreciate any and all feedback and constructive criticism you can offer on this project.  I would also love to see what you create with it.  Its always a thrill for a designer to see their goods in action.

Well, that's all for tonight.  I will try to get back here sooner this time. I've been meaning to post some pictures I have of some cards I made.  I just don't seem to get around to it.  I think I need someone to give me a good boot in the butt to get me going again. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Just a quickie...

I guess I've been MIA for a little while.  I've been working on something and just haven't been able to get here.  I have a little gift for you all today (or tonight as I'm writing this).  I've been brushing up on some of my designing skills lately and have a paper sample pack for you.  Just in time for Valentines day for those last minute layouts or cards.  They are 12x12 papers at 300dpi so they are perfect for printing.  Here's a preview:

I tried to include something that wasn't so girly for those guy cards you still have to make. :)  For all you Silhouette Studio Designer Edition users out there, you can also import these to your library to use as fill patterns for your print & cuts. Hopefully, you can use them.  If you do download them, please let me know what you think and also, I would love to see what you do with them. *sorry this link has now expired* Click here to download them.

Talk to later...

Cat

Digital & Paper Layouts...

UPDATE:  The contest officials opened up viewing and voting early!!  You can vote for my layout here:  Vote for Cat's Layout - Inspiration

Thanks!   I need those votes!

Hi everyone!  Well, I've recovered from the blow to my ego from the MFT contest. ha ha.  I found another contest on Persnickety Prints to make a layout using a free digital scrap kit from Scrap Orchard.  The kit is really beautiful and I've been wanting to do another layout for a long time.  They are going to have open voting for the winner of the contest, so please go and vote for me.  They are keeping the layouts a secret until voting starts on Monday, so I will post a link then.  But in the meantime, I wanted to show you the digital layout I made for the contest:

The theme of the contest was to create a layout about what inspired you in 2012.  Well, of course, it had to be my little Mitzy.  We just love our little dog and dote on her.  Rob and I were in our mid forties when we married, so it was too late for us to have children, which was ok.  But, without having kids to focus on, its easy to become somewhat self-centred and only pay attention to what affects your own life on a day-to-day basis.  She's made us look at life outside our own self and see there are people and creatures that need our care and attention.  She has taught us to be more compassionate and patient.  So, in essence, she has inspired us to be better people.

So, I loved this layout so much that I wanted to see if I could re-create it in paper.  So I printed out all the papers I used on the layout and fired up my CraftRobo.  Here is the paper version of the layout:

I was having problems with the print & cut (of course - stupid Silhouette software screwed that up), so I had to make my own embellishments for the layout.  I was, luckily, able to still cut shapes, so I found some files that I liked and cut and glued and glittered.  As luck would have it, I even had some bottle caps in my stash, so I printed out the bottle cap from the digital kit and glued it to the top of my bottle cap and then put Dimensional Magic on top to give it a glassy finish.

I think the layouts look very similar.  And as I look at it them right now, I just realized I forgot to put the little heart with the mini clothes peg on the paper layout.  Darn!  I even have the mini clothes pegs too.  Oh well.

Well, that's it for today.  Come back on Monday and I will have the link posted so you can see the other layouts for the contest, and of course vote for me. :)

Talk to you later...

Cat

Christmas 2012 Cards

Hey everyone!  Before I show you the cards I made for the Christmas card swap over at Scraptures, I wanted to let you know how the MFT contest went. Well, I wasn't chosen. :(  I really didn't have my hopes up, but I do admit that I would have really liked to be on that DT just for the experience of being on a highly visible DT like that one.  Oh well, I'll keep trying. They have a contest every month, so I'll keep at it. :)  I've never been called a quitter.


So I found Sassy Cheryl's digi stamps a couple years ago, and I always thought they were really cute, but I just had so many digi stamps that I never got around to buying any of them. Then she had a sale on her stuff and I couldn't pass it up.  The couple I bought were an absolute steal for 50¢ each.  Her stuff is so cute and whimsical and I love the snowman images. I only used one of the stamps (saving the other one for next Christmas) and I used a free colouring page for the digi stamp on the other card. Here are the two cards I made:

Supplies Used:
Stamps:  Play it Again Sam - Sassy Cheryl's digital stamp
Paper:  Recollections cardstock, Recollection Christmas stack, watercolour paper
Tools:  Watercolour pencils, Snowflake embossing folder, SU scallop border punch

I hadn't used my watercolour pencils in a really long time, so I thought it was time to put them to use.  It took a bit of practice to get the shading the way I wanted it, but it worked out. I discovered that there was enough pigment in my rinse water that I could actually use it to paint the shadow around my image.

This next card was one that I had pictured in my head, and I even had printed the image out last Christmas, but I didn't end up using it. I really wanted to put this card together, so I thought it would be a nice one to use for the swap.  Here it is:

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Free downloaded colouring page, Michaels stamps - sentiment
Paper:  Recollections cardstock, Daisy Dee 6x6 Christmas stack, Wausau Exact Index 110#
Tools:  Colored pencils - Crayola/Prismacolor, oms, CraftRobo, Frosted Lace stickles, EK Success Morrocco Lace edge punch, EZ Cutter oval templates, EZ Cutter swivel knife, Versamark ink, gold embossing powder - Stampendous.


I love Christmas images. I don't know why, but I especially like snowman images. I just think they are so cute. This card is made with an older Stamps Happen stamp that I bought on clearance at Michaels a few years ago and this year was the first time it saw ink. I made it for the November One on One swap at Scraptures. Here's the card.

Supplies used:
Stamps:  Festive Snowmen - Stamps Happen
Paper:  Recollections cardstock, Recollections Christmas paper stack
Tools & Embellishments:  Copic markers, Stampology Onyx black ink, Stardust stickles, ribbon - Michaels, Fiskars large and small scallop decorative scissors.

So that's everything for today. I've been working on a layout, but its just not gelling. I think I'm going to work on a digital one to see how that goes. I was playing around with some templates the other day, and boy, I can see that they would sure help a layout come together quickly. I've never used templates before (although I use to make them when I was designing) to put together layouts, but I may just start.  They're even better than sketches - at least for digital scrapbooking they are.

I'll be back soon.

Talk to you later...

Cat

MFT DT Contest & My Entries...

Hi all! My Favorite Things is have a contest for a guest design team spot.  I'm so excited by the chance to win a spot as a guest designer for MFT.  I love their products, although I don't have very many of the dies.  I do have quite a few of their stamps though.  I debated whether  I was going to submit anything for this contest because, lets face it, the girls on their design are like crafting geniuses.  I love looking at all the things they create.  I have made cards for their monthly contests, but never have time to finish them before they're due or chicken out and don't submit them.  Well, damn it!  This time I'm not going to chicken out.  I think that if I were to win a spot on the DT, it would really push my creativity.  And lets face it, I have been in a really big slump the last year or so.  So I put together 3 cards to enter.  My dear, sweet husband says they're really nice (and that I should put them up for sale).  He always says that.

Here is the first card I made.  I cut the label shapes with my CraftRobo and then stamped the image on the one label and coloured it with Copic markers.  I also cut the tag with my CraftRobo and then stamped the sentiment onto it.  It doesn't show up well in the picture, but the tag is quite a bit wider than the label, so I adhered the ends of the tag to the sides of the label so it would bow out from the image.  It looks pretty cute in real life. :)

I also decorated the inside of the card.  I've been trying to do this with all my cards now.  I think it just makes it so much nicer and gives it a more professional finish. It also uses up my little scraps so I'm not wasting or storing a whack of tiny pieces of paper (I know I have a problem! I'm a pack rat.) Here's the inside:

Supplies used:

Stamps:  MFT Key to my Heart set
Papers:   Shery K Designs - Penguins in Love (Digital Papers), Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110#
Inks:  Stampology - Onyx
Embellishments:  Rhinestones (Michaels)
Tools:  Copics - RV000,RV02, RV04, RV29, R29, C0, C3, C7, 100, 0, E00, E02, E33, E35, E37, Primsmacolor - Cool Grey 10%, Sharpie - Dark Grey, Magenta, Rose Red, Bic Mark Its - Rambunctious Red, Craft Robo, pop up squares (Michaels), ribbon (unknown - from my stash), Martha Stewart Lace Heart edge punch

I had to fiddle with the settings on my printer to get the papers to print the colours properly since I was using plain white cardstock.  Once I got the intensity and the contrast set to where I liked how it was printing, I went to town and printed a whole bunch.  I also used digi papers on this next card:

I used 3 different colours of copic markers to create the dotted background on the label that the main image sits on. I stamped one image on scrap and cut around that to use as a mask so I knew where to put the dots. Then, I cut out the image and popped it up over the dots.  I stuck together the sentiments from two sets to get the sentiment I wanted - "Feel Better Soon" - for the panel running across the top of the card. I inked the edges of the cardstock and patterned papers as well as embossed the upper panel on the card. Again, I finished the inside of the card:

Supplies used:

Stamps:  MFT Pure Innocence World's Best Doctor set. MFT Pure Innocence Girl Doctor set
Papers:   Aprilisa Designs - Funky Mama (Digital Papers), Recollections cardstock, Wausau Exact Index 110#
Ink:  Stampology - Onyx, Cats Eye - Blue Lagoon
Embellishments:  Dew Drops (Michaels)
Tools:  Copics - E00, E02, E04, E33, C3, C7, 0, BG05, BG10, BG15, Primsmacolor - Cool Grey 10%, Sharpie - Dark Grey, Tan, Bic Mark Its - Cloud 9 Grey, MFT Designer Label 1 dies, pop up squares (Michaels),  EK Success ZigZag Stitch edge punch, Martha Stewart Scallop with 2 dots edge punch,  Stampin' Up Scallop edge punch, Stampin' Up Square Lattice embossing folder

 This next card is a bit different for me.  I almost never make square cards.  I would have to say that 95% of my cards are A2 size and 4% are 5x7, just because the envelopes are readily available and I don't have to pay extra postage if I make them flat enough.  This card is definitely a "hand deliver" card.

The card is pretty straight forward.  I inked and distressed the edges of all the papers.  I was going to use all three sizes of the flowers, but they were a little too big, so I just went with the two smaller layers.  I think they have a good balance with the rest of the card.  I left the inside fairly simple since there was so much going on on the front of the card:

Supplies used:

Stamps:  MFT Vertical Greetings set
Papers:   Stampin' Up (Riding Hood Red, & White)
Ink:  Stampin' Up - Riding Hood Red
Embellishments:  Rhinestones (Michaels)
Tools:  MFT Botanical Beauty dies, MFT Vertical Greetings die, pop up squares (Michaels), Fiskars Large Scallop decorative edge scissors, Heidi Swapp distresser tool

I know I'm going to be checking out what the other entries look like once I get these uploaded to the SCS gallery.  I try not to look at the other submissions just so I don't get influenced by the other designs and can have something to enter that I created totally on my own.  I'll be on pins and needles as well until they announce the winner.

That's all I have for now.  I'm working on a couple layouts and I'm hoping I'll have those done by the middle of the week. So, check back then to see what I've been up to.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Another Video Tutorial!!

Hey everyone!  I have another video tutorial for you.  I'm having fun making these.  Its like I get to actually talk to you.  Its also so much easier for me to just show you how to do something than taking a bunch of screen shots and trying to get all the images uploaded.

Kathy from Magnolia Designs blog stopped by and was checking out my How to "Export" Silhouette Studio Files to SVG files tutorial and asked how to do this using Illustrator instead of Inkscape.  I'm not all that familiar with Illustrator, but I do know how to get svg files from an image file, so I thought I would just do a little video.  For those of you who don't already have Illustrator, don't go out and get it.  Illustrator is really expensive to buy and Inkscape is free and does just as good a job as Illustrator in my opinion.  I'm lucky that I happen to have Illustrator from when I was designing.

Well, without further ado, her is my second video tutorial:



If you have any questions, you can always contact me using the contact form to the right, or by leaving a comment.  If you leave a comment, though, I'll need your email address if you don't have a google/blogger profile with an email address attached to it.

That's it for today.  I'm cleaning up some pictures of a couple cards that I'll show you tomorrow, so pop back over to check that out.

Talk to you later...

Cat

Fiskars' Fuse Giveaway from Spoonflower

Spoonflower is giving away a Fuse! I've read the rules and guess what! This contest is open to everyone! Yay! Most of the time these contest are limited to US citizens only which really sucks. But this one is open to everyone! So if you want to enter to win one of these babies, use this link:  Spoonflower's Fiskar Fuse Giveaway

Good luck!

Cat