Kool Kitty Musings

DCM - Alphabet Soup

Morning!

This week over on the Daring Cardmakers blog the focus is firmly on alphabets, numbers, and words.

I decided to make an alphabet background for my card project, I was toying with creating a sort of blackboard look, but realised I'd need to do some straight perfectly aligned stamping for that, so instead I went for a more jumbled look using a very old alphabet stamp set from October Afternoon. It's so old the label has faded on the packaging. But they are really nicely made stamps and I was glad to find they were in good condition despite their age. :)

Stamps: October Afternoon alphabet stamps (r), Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments
Dies: Lil' Inker Designs - Instant Camera, Lil' Inker Designs - Silly Stitched, PTI - Tag Sale #10
Ephemera: Crate Paper - Little You: Girl (r)

I used various neutral pastel inks from Altenew and MFT - the quilt grid sheet I use as a guide in my Misti for aligning stamps was very handy as it enabled me to align all my stamps before pressing down on the Misti lid to transfer them there ready for inking. I masked off the stamps I didn't want inked with post-it notes and removed a row of letters at a time. It made for a much quicker process and no messing up in the final step!

I didn't want to hide the stamped background too much, so kept the rest of the card clean and simple, using a little baby's bottle from Crate Paper's Little You collection combined with one of my favourite frame dies from Lil' Inker Designs and a small greeting. The neutral grey wood paper is from an old MME collection and was a perfect colour match for the Oyster Grey Nuvo Drops from Tonic.

Make sure you check out the lovely card projects from the rest of the team and join in if you can. :D

Happy crafting!

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Avery Elle - Simple Sentiments stamps Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lil' Inker Designs - Instant Camera die Shop at: MISC | SHC	Lil' Inker Designs - Silly Stitched dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	PTI - Tag Sale #10 dies Shop at: MISC
Altenew - Buttercream dye ink Shop at: SSS	Altenew - Frosty Pink dye ink Shop at: EH | SSS	Altenew - Mountain Mist dye ink Shop at: EH | SSS	Altenew - Sea Glass dye ink Shop at: EH | SSS
Lawn Fawn - Black Licorice ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	MFT - Grapesicle ink pad Shop at: SHC	Altenew - Cool Summer Night ink cube set Shop at: EH | SHC	Altenew - Red Cosmos ink cube set Shop at: EH | SHC
Altenew - Sea Shore ink cube set Shop at: EH | SHC	Altenew - Summer Afternoon ink cube set Shop at: EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Crate Paper - Little You - Ephemera - Girl (r) Shop at: AZ | SBC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops - Oyster Grey Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Sakura - Quickie Glue pen Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC
MISTI creative corners Shop at: EH | SBC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - Candles

I'm a little late to the party this week as I was out of action Wednesday and Thursday with a tension headache, so no crafting for me!

But I'm now caught up and have made my card for this week's Daring Cardmakers candle challenge. :)

I used some 6x6 papers and a journal card from My Mind's Eye's Hooray collection along with a die set from Mama Elephant:

Paper and journaling card: MME - Hooray
Dies: Mama Elephant - Park Avenue

As always I started off making my card base from Neenah 110 lb cardstock. This one is a top folding card for a change. :)

The red dotty paper is mounted on 3D foam as is the journaling card so it nests inside the aperture of the frame.

I added wink of stella and nuvo drops to the journaling card to give it a bit of pop.

Then I finished the card off with a bright contrasting button and twine.

I hope you check out the lovely cards from the rest of the design team over on the blog and join in!

Happy crafting. :D

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Mama Elephant - Framed Tags - Park Avenue dies Shop at: EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	My Mind's Eye - Hooray - 6x6 paper pad (r) Shop at: SBC	My Mind's Eye - Hooray - Journal Cards (r) Shop at: SBC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops - Simply White Shop at: AZ | EH	Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

Where did the weekend go?

Well, some of it was spent doing a little behind the scenes creativity.

Namely getting prepped for week 2 of Kristina's Distress Oxide combos:

Then getting the swatches made:

Note to self, order more blending foams and tape for the label machine!

My Distress Oxide ziplock bag of bagged individual blending foams is filling up fast! I really don't have a better way to store them. Was toying with the coin storage sheets that I have as recommended by Jennifer McGuire for ink swatches, but them foams are a bit of a lumpy fit in there and I think it would be a hassle getting them in and out once they've been loaded up with ink. Being able to store them in order and at a glance would be nice. I like the little baggies for keeping them  stored transparently and cleanly. I can't store them with the inks as they prevent me easily stacking the ink pads and also space in the Alex unit drawer where they reside is limited since I have the whole oxide collection.

But not to worry, this is working for now.

I may see about eventually storing them on a big book ring, but they take up little space in the zip lock bag they're in and I can keep track of which foam pads are already inked and which aren't yet using my ink swatch sheet.

I just need to rummage around a little to locate them once tipped out of the bag. :D

I'm still intending to use my make-up brushes for blending, but like to use the foam blending tool when putting down a lot of colour for blending. :D

Otherwise Saturday night ma and I were at a wonderful concert hosted by a friend with proceeds to a local charity - music was provided by The Rivelin Duo who are based in Sheffield but travelled up this way to perform and hopefully will be back for a summer concert if we can persuade them. ;)

And finally today, I finished the last three quarters of this month's book group book in time for our get together this week:

A solid 3.5 or 4 rounded up stars out of 5 go to Three Things About Elsie. I am a rather suspicious reader by nature so it's rare a book truly surprises me with its twists and turns, but I'm glad this book had several twists and a couple really were surprises for me despite my spidey sense tingling very early on. :) So all in all, a satisfying read for a wintry Sunday.

DCM - February elemental inspiration

How on earth have we reached that time again? The first Friday of a new month and it's a new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Here's the image we're working with this month:

As always you need to pick three elements as inspiration to showcase on your card, colours count for one element collectively.

I was inspired by the pocket, grey stripes, the three shades of blue (perfect ink blending opportunity), the heart shape of the buttons, and the buttons themselves (aka sequins in my case!).

Stamps: WPlus9 - Holly Jolly Christmas, Winnie & Walter - Wishing You, Winnie & Walter - Sentimental Birthday
Die: Avery Elle - Custom Panels
Other: Distress Oxides

To replicate those blue tones I used Distress Oxides to blend my background in Tumbled Glass, Broken China, and Salty Ocean. I also had some enamel heart stickers in my stash that nicely mirrored those shades (more or less).

A few spritzes of water and my ink background was ready to be paired with the main design.

I used the stripe stamp from one of WPlus9's recent holiday releases to create the soft grey background in my Misti. Thankful to have the video that Dawn at WPlus9 shared for reference on how many grid squares to move your cardstock up in your Misti to get those evenly spaced lines. Answer = 4. :)

I could never achieve uniform and straight stamping without a stamp positioner!

The greetings are from two sets by Winnie & Walter and just worked really well together in the space available on that background.

I hope you enjoy this week's challenge - remember to check out the lovely projects from the design team on the blog and play along if you can.

Happy crafting!

 

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Winnie & Walter - Sentimental Birthday stamps Shop at: EH | SHC | SSS	Winnie & Walter - Wishing You stamps Shop at: SHC | SSS	WPlus9 - Holly Jolly Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	Avery Elle - Custom Panels dies Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC
Altenew - Limestone dye ink Shop at: EH | MISC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Broken China Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Salty Ocean Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Tumbled Glass Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH	Altenew - Rock Collection ink cube set Shop at: EH | MISC | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Pretty Pink Posh - Sparkling Clear Confetti Mix sequins Shop at: EH | SSS
Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI precision stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Ranger - Mini round ink blending tools Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC