Kool Kitty Musings

DCM - Special thoughts

Morning everyone.

It's been another whirlwind of a week and I have been burning the not-quite midnight oil to carve out some crafting time amongst it all.

This week's dare has been set by Dawn and is a beautiful tribute to her very special dad. It's all about remembrance for those who are no longer with us, but also an opportunity to let those who are near and dear to us know they are in our thoughts and in our hearts.

My inspiration for my card project came from a beautiful card that Aga shared back when Altenew released their amazing Polish papercut dies last month. I just love her cards, but this one really spoke to me - the white papercuts reminded me of some extremely old papercuts my Lwów-born paternal grandfather (who died before I was born) had created for a London exhibition back in the 1950s. I wish I could have seen them in all their glory, but the delicate white paper and all that handcutting just set me off wanting to try the same with dies. Aga's project nudged my memory and I borrowed a good few ideas from her original project, which is quintessentially Polish in every regard. Thanks again for the inspiration Aga!

Dies: Altenew - Polish Papercuts 3D, Neat & Tangled - Skinny Strips
Stamps: Memory Box - Big and Little Words

I wanted to keep things clean and simple and have been on a grey background kick of late. Simon Says Stamp Fog cardstock does the job really well, and I had some Bazzill Taffy cardstock already precut with my Skinny Strips dies from Neat & Tangled that were perfect for my sentiment.

I cut all the papercut elements from Bazzill Marshmallow and used some diluted Lawn Fawn ink in Deep Sea to apply colour to some of the layers with a paintbrush.

3D foam tape can really make things pop and teasing up the ends of the papercuts also adds extra dimension and texture.

I hope you can visit the blog and see the lovely projects from the design team, and join in with the challenge.

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Memory Box - Big and Little Words stamps Shop at: SSS	Altenew - Polish Papercuts 3D dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC	Neat & Tangled - Skinny Strips dies Shop at: SHC	Lawn Fawn - Deep Sea ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Marshmallow Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Taffy Shop at: AZ | EH | SSS	Simon Says Stamp - Fog cardstock Shop at: SSS
Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - September elemental inspiration

The first Friday of the month means a brand new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Here's the image we're working with for September:

 

Lots of possibilities there!

And here's my take on the inspiration image:

Paper, frame, ephemera: Crate Paper - Willow Lane (r)
Stamps: PTI - Tiny Tags
Dies: PTI - Tiny Tags, Lawn Fawn - Put a Bow on It, Sizzix - Funky Floral #1

So the elements I went with were: a bird, pink, shimmer (in the form of Nuvo gold mousse), an initial, and flowers (resin flower and the paper pattern)

The Willow Lane collection is one I really liked and did think of my niece a bit when buying the items I did, but goodness me did that ephemera pack come in handy with its majestic swan. Perfect for this soon-to-be three year-old who loves her "Wan" watering can...

I must confess the 1970s typewriter purchased from a friend also came into its own again this year for the custom sentiment. I seem to use the typewriter mainly for cards and gifts for this particular recipient. But it's just so handy to type exactly what you need and cut a sentiment strip.

I do fear I'll be needing new ribbon for it soon and really it could do with a proper service, but it's hanging in there!

I wanted to create a storybook style cover for this card, so the touch of Nuvo gold mousse was perfect down that edge. It's been a while since I opened the mousse and it has really shrunk and dried badly. It's now the consistency of drying boot polish, but at least I was able to pry some out to rub down the edge with my finger.

I've heard it can be revived with distilled water, but it's definitely not up to being used on stencils.

Just glad I didn't decide to buy more colours! Hey ho...

Anyway, all's well that ends well in the case of this project! I hope the birthday girl likes it and here rather artistically hand-picked birthday presents, that Auntie Taya (aka me) will be looking forward to trying too! ;)

Make sure you check out the fab projects from the rest of the design team here.

Happy crafting!

 

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PTI - Tiny Tags stamps Shop at: MISC	PTI - Tiny Tags dies Shop at: MISC	Lawn Fawn - Put a Bow on It dies Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Sizzix - Funky Floral #1 dies Shop at: AZ | SBC
Hero Arts - Charcoal ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Ballet Slippers ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Minty Fresh ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Willow Lane - Darling paper (r) Shop at: SBC
Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Willow Lane - Meadow paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Willow Lane - Spread Love paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Willow Lane - Sweet Rose paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Maggie Holmes - Willow Lane - Ephemera (r) Shop at: SBC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Fiskars 12" reinforced paper trimmer Shop at: AZ | EH
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

Wycinanki-inspired thank you card

I cannot tell you how happy I am to now have a way to make my own Polish papercut or Wycinanki designs for card projects.

I've loved this style of folk art since I was a child and we luckily picked up some beautiful paper cut art works in Poland in the 80s and also have some before. Those pictures hang in the hall at my mum and dad's - protected from sunlight and at eye level perfect for appreciating all the details.

When Cepelia was still open near my relatives in Poland I used to be able to pick up the odd hand-cut item (greeting cards and a few wall hangings), but the wall hangings in particular weren't a patch on the earlier art work. The materials weren't as high quality and they were covered in plastic laminate so you couldn't appreciate all the paper layers.

The vintage paper cuts are seriously something to behold.

I'm just very happy to see Polish paper cuts being appreciated by a wider audience and that there are now dies and stamp sets that I can use to try my hand at it. I really appreciate all the hard work and skill that goes into creating the original Wycinanki!

Anyway, here's my first creation after sitting at my desk sifting through the cardstock sheets in my AC Tropical and Brights collection packs for suitable colours to cut.

Dies: Altenew - Polish Paper Cuts 3D, MFT - First Place Award Ribbon (r)
Stamp: Memory Box - Springtime Typewriter Sentiments

Let me just say, the Sidekick is a great thing to have for dies such as these. I listened to my favourite Saturday morning radio show (Alan and Mel), chortling away and singing along, as I cranked the dies back and forth through the machine and then finally piecing everything together and working out the layout.

I also needed to make those colours pop even more, so chose a dark grey background for the florals and used Azalea cardstock from Hero Arts for the stamped greeting.

I'm so happy with how this turned out. I just need to give the coordinating stamp and die set a go next, but I think I'm going to use these 3D dies the most.

Here's hoping Altenew expands on this line and releases more 3D papercut dies. ;)

 

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Memory Box - Springtime Typewriter Sentiments stamps Shop at: EH | SSS	Altenew - Polish Papercuts 3D dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC	MFT - First Place Award Ribbon dies (r) Shop at: MISC	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC
Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

2019 card challenge - September card

This must be a record, creating a card for the challenge so early in the month. :)

But I had good reason to make a Thank You card and use some new product while I was at it.

For the elements from the challenge prompt I went with a geometric print inspired by stripes, touches of yellow, and the grey background.

Stamps: The Stamp Market - Diamond Tile Background
Dies: Sizzix - Funky Floral #1, PTI - Tiny Envelope, Simon Says Stamp - Thank You Script
Other: Distress Inks

I tried a technique using scrap pieces of white cardstock I'd seen online: watercolouring die-cuts with Distress Inks.

Well this works a lot better on some cardstocks than others. I hadn't realised until attempting to paint the various florals and leaves that I had Neenah mixed in with my scraps, so the ink doesn't actually blend into the cardstock properly, where you put it is where it stays!

Thankfully the other pieces of white card were Bazzill Marshmallow, so the inky watercolouring was much more fluid, creating even coverage.

I went with some end-of-summer shades and tried to incorporate warm yellow tones and a hit of blue!

I also found the perfect paper in my stash to get that mustard yellow look when creating the tiny envelope. It's hard to tell but I also made a grey liner for the envelope as the white looked quite stark in contrast.

The sentiment was cut from a piece of Hero Arts cardstock from the sampler pack I picked up (finding that sampler quite useful for sentiment strips and indeed full sentiments). The colour is Adriatic and is a lovely peacock blue in real life. It's a bit hard to tell in today's lighting conditions.

Oh and the tone-on-tone background stamp is simply Pumice Stone Distress Ink on Taffy cardstock. Really liked the combo and the ink took very well to the cardstock and stamp after conditioning with a microfibre cloth.

So there we go! First card of autumn made. ;)

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The Stamp Market - Diamond Tile Background stamp Shop at: EH | SBC	PTI - Tiny Envelope die Shop at: MISC	Simon Says Stamp - Thank You Script dies Shop at: SSS	Sizzix - Funky Floral #1 dies Shop at: AZ | SBC
Distress ink pad - Chipped Sapphire Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Crushed Olive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Forest Moss Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Mermaid Lagoon Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress ink pad - Mustard Seed Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Peeled Paint Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Pumice Stone Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Stormy Sky Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress ink pad - Wilted Violet Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Marshmallow Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Bazzill Cardshoppe - Taffy Shop at: AZ | EH | SSS	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SSS
Marvy Jewel Picker Shop at: AZ	Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive 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 stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sticky Grid sheets Shop at: AZ | SBC | SHC
Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

2019 card challenge - September prompt

Morning all!

Welcome to a new month!

Summer is thankfully still here (hanging on in there!) but the mornings are starting a little chillier and the evenings are drawing in.

This month's prompt hopes to continue that summer sunshine feeling as we move into autumn:

As you can see there is a focal colour, but don't be put off if yellow isn't your thing. I happen to really like it at the moment, as well as mustard tones combined with neutrals.

As always here are some initial ideas to get you started:

• If you happened to splash out on a "lemon" stamp set this summer, now is the time to use it. So many brands seemed to have made it a design trend. :D
• The nest reminds me of birds, but also of wreaths created from twigs. Just adding a few flowers and details into the mix would make a lovely card.
• That beautiful side view of the butterfly also reminds me of how you can incorporate butterflies into a wreath design around an aperture. But feel free to just go with butterflies, multi-step stamped ones would be perfect for this challenge.
• Marbled surfaces - lots of paper designs have featured marbling of late. Otherwise try your hand at it with inks like Distress Oxides on glossy paper or Alcohol inks on yupo.
• Folk paper cuts and lace effect dies - I love that yellow on kraft design with all those cut-out details. You could achieve something similar using border punches and dies arranged in lines across your card.
• The lemon curd in the image reminds me of that old favourite, the ink smooshing technique - try it with paint, diluted ink, any colour of your choice.
• Stripes and dipped edges - the yellow manicure immediately made me think of treating the edges of your card or a panel with something like Tonic mouse or simply dragging an embossing ink pad along the edge to then heat emboss in gold, for example. There's certainly also scope to dip die-cuts into ink or watercolour paint - And the stripes, well who doesn't love stripes?
• Finally that image with the egg - when was the last time you used an oval aperture or oval die on a project? And what about that lovely stitch line on the box? Hand-stitching or a stitched effect would be lovely.

I'm sure you'll come up with some lovely ideas for your cards! :)

Happy crafting!

DCM - Resist!

Guess who got to set the challenge for this week?

That's right!

Me. :D

You've probably seen on here and Instagram that my projects these days have tended to use a lot more heat embossing than before and even some watercolour/inking techniques.

Well this one is a favourite: the resist technique.

For my take I went with an oldie but goody, heat embossing in white and then creating a watercolour background brushed over the stamped image:

Stamps: WPlus9 - Coming Up Roses (r), Concord & 9th - Herringbone Background, Memory Box - Big and Little Words
Dies: WPlus9 - Coming Up Roses (r), Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels
Other: Distress Oxides

 

And yep, the ink daubers had their first outing for this project.

I started off by stamping the Herringbone Background in versamark onto ivory card. I used a Sticky Grid to hold my cardstock panel in place when I stamped it (I'm still using the first Sticky Grid sheet from the pack and just store it with its backing sheets in place under the foam pad of my Misti).

Once embossed in white I diluted some Lawn Fawn Minty Fresh and Merman ink on a mat with a few spritzes of water and took a number 6 round brush to go over the tiles. I repeated this a few times as the layers dried to get a subtle ombré effect.

I left the panel to dry properly in the sunshine and it crinkled up a bit at the edges, but I really don't mind that look for this particular card. :)

While all that was happening it was time to select some colours and stamps to try out layered ink blending with my daubers and Distress Oxides.

I wanted some autumnal but still August-friendly colours to go with that blue, so I layered up Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed and Wild Honey for the floral spray, Peeled Paint for the branches, and two tones of blue to stamp the vase: Tumbled Glass and a bit of depth from Broken China.

These Coming Up Roses stamps from WPlus9 are sadly retired now, but they've been a great purchase and well worth picking up if you see them for sale somewhere still. I love the multi-step stamping designs that Dawn creates for her florals. You can get so much detail from them in dye ink, but I love how this layering with Oxides allows you to take that a step further.

I finished off the card with some twine on the vase and a simple greeting in Wild Honey original Distress Ink to bring everything together.

Make sure you check out the fab creations from the Design Team and play along if you can! :) Click on the image below to find out more. :D

Resistance is futile... ;)

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Memory Box - Big and Little Words stamps Shop at: SSS	WPlus9 - Comping Up Roses stamps (r) Shop at: MISC	Concord & 9th - Herringbone Background stamp Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC	WPlus9 - Comping Up Roses dies (r) Shop at: MISC
Simon Says Stamp - Sentiment Labels dies Shop at: SSS	Distress ink pad - Wild Honey Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Wilted Violet Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Broken China Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Mustard Seed Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Peeled Paint Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Squeezed Lemonade Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Tumbled Glass Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Wild Honey Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Merman ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Minty Fresh ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Versamark ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SHC
Hero Arts - White embossing powder Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	EK Success powder tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sponge daubers Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sticky Grid sheets Shop at: AZ | SBC | SHC
Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC