Kool Kitty Musings

2021 Card Challenge - December Prompt

Good evening all!

I'm posting this a little early, as I'll be starting a new series on my blog tomorrow as we count down to Christmas.

The last prompt for this year's card challenge embraces the festive season here in the Northern Hemisphere:

{Pinterest pin}

And of course the focus colour had to be festive too, because it's: Red

As always, I have a few ideas to get you started, but as you can see from the image, there are lots of everyday elements that can work for clean and simple designs or really glammed up creations, and not just Christmas cards:

• Stars - whether as an aperture opening, cookie, starry sky, dimensional ornament, or lots of stars in sequin/confetti format for a shaker card, stars are such a versatile design element this time of year.
• Baubles - you could cut several circles in the same size and score and crease them to make dimensional baubles similar to honeycomb paper, use ephemera or stickers to create "ornaments" that hang from a branch, add a button and twine to the top of a circle aperture to create the look of a bauble, or how about taking inspiration from the images/patterns on the baubles hanging on your tree and featuring them on your card?
• Pine boughs and pine cones - there are so many pretty papers, dies, stamps, embossing folders, and stencils that you can use to create a focal point, border, or background for your card with this staple winter foliage design element.
• Snowflakes/a dusting of snow - the snowflakes on the biscuits and that dusting of icing sugar could be easily interpreted with snowflake patterns, die-cuts, sequin mixes, glitter, even 3D puffy paint.
• Winter village/church scene - keep things super simple with white silhouette houses/buildings against a blended sky/contrasting paper, or do you have gingerbread houses and other wintry embellishments that would fit the bill?
• Lace/stitching/twine - feature a decorative lace edge, some hand stitching, anything with that embroidery look, twine on tags/buttons - so many possibilities to make your card look truly handmade or to bring some extra detail and dimension to your project.
• Coffee pot - a vintage coffee pot certainly is a great vessel for a festive floral/foliage display, but there's no reason you can't use a trough/window box, jar, watering can, vase, or bottle to hold winter foliage, branches, poinsettias, etc. You could even create a mini wreath to hang from a door or tree.
• Gift box - include some presents on your card, or perhaps create a dimensional card similar to an exploding box. With some nifty scoring, there are many types of pop-up cards that will fit in a standard envelope, ready for the recipient to pop them up on their mantelpiece.
• Sparkle, sparkle, sparkle - those fairy lights are a great reminder that festive crafting is the ideal time to get the sequins, glitter, and even tinsel twine out. Glam up a tag and use that as the topper on your card or go to town adding Stickles, Glossy Accents, and other media as the finishing touch to your creation.

Happy crafting!

DCM - Show us your stockings!

Good morning!

This week over on the Daring Cardmaker's Blog, it's all about stockings - including those of the Christmas variety. :)

Surprisingly, I didn't have as many Christmas Stocking items in my stash as I thought, but I did have three on a sticker sheet from Crate Paper's Merry Days collection that were just perfect for creating a festive little scene:

Paper: Honey Bee Stamps - Fresh Brewed, Crate Paper - Falala (r), Crate Paper - Merry Days (r)
Stickers and ephemera: Crate Paper - Merry Days (r)
Dies: Honey Bee Stamps - Wood Frame Builder, MFT - Tiny Houses

I created a little wooden shelf using woodgrain paper and a woodgrain die (for added texture) from Honey Bee Stamps.

Then I found some papers that would work as a good wallpaper background.

I hung the stockings from the shelf and added the sentiment to look like a hanging picture, plus little green trees as ornaments on the shelf.

Definitely a nice quick make which is very welcome this time of year, and it's always good to make a dent in the sticker and paper stash!

Make sure you check out the lovely projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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Honey Bee Stamps - Wood Frame Builder dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC	MFT - Tiny Houses dies Shop at: EH | SHC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Honey Bee Stamps - Fresh Brewed 6x6 paper pad Shop at: EH | MISC
Crate Paper - Falala - Very Merry paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Tinsel paper (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Ephemera (r) Shop at: MISC | SBC	Crate Paper - Merry Days - Cardstock stickers (r) Shop at: MISC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ | EH	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - Silver, Aqua, and a Dash...

Good morning!

For this week's Daring Cardmakers challenge, we are working with colour combos of silver, aqua, and a dash of something else...

Stamps: PTI - Brushed Birds, The Greetery - Put a Bow on It
Dies: PTI - Brushed Birds, The Greetery - Put a Bow on It, Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine, Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles, Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens
Stencils: The Greetery - Frosty Flakes
Other: Distress Oxides

Sadly, the return of photographing in winter daylight yields rather disappointing results! This card is much more sparkly and vibrant in real life.

I started out by using watercolour paint over the Frosty Flakes stencils from The Greetery. How I wish we could get Pixie stencil spray in the UK to hold detailed stencils in place, but for this look the blue wash through the more detailed elements create a nicely frosty look.

After some more paint and ink splatters were applied, I set the background aside to dry and got down to stamping the sparrows with Distress Oxide ink with ink daubers. I also inked the Holiday Greens branch in various shades of green and brown before leaving them to dry ready for some glittering.

The bow was stamped several times with Lawn Fawn Kiddie Pool and Sage Leaf, I also gave it a good splattering of aqua toned paint before leaving it to dry.

Then followed my glittering session with Rock Candy glitter, and while those elements were drying, I cut some lovely pine boughs from Memory Box silver glitter cardstock to arrange behind the bow when finally assembling the card.

Make sure you check out the lovely projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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PTI - Brushed Birds stamps Shop at: MISC | SSS	The Greetery - Put a Bow on It stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	PTI - Brushed Birds dies Shop at: MISC | SSS	The Greetery - Put a Bow on It die Shop at: MISC | SHC
Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine dies Shop at: MISC	Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC	Sizzix - Tim Holtz - Holiday Greens dies Shop at: AZ | SBC	The Greetery - Frosty Flakes stencils Shop at: MISC | SHC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Antique Linen Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Frayed Burlap Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Ground Espresso Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Iced Spruce Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Pine Needles Shop at: EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Rustic Wilderness Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Walnut Stain Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Weathered Wood Shop at: EH | SBC
Lawn Fawn - Kiddie Pool ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Lawn Fawn - Sage Leaf ink pad Shop at: 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 | MISC	Tim Holtz - 4.25 x 5.5 Distress Watercolor Cardstock Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Memory Box - Festive glitter pad Shop at: EH | MISC	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Clear Rock Candy Shop at: AZ | SBC
Dr. Pj. Martin's Bleed Proof White watercolour Shop at: AZ	Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36-pan watercolour set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Ranger - Glossy Accents Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Sponge daubers Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ | SBC | SHC	Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC
Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - Jolly Holly-days

My word, the week has flown by!

Friday is here again, and it's time for a new challenge in this year's Daring Cardmaker's Christmas crafty series.

This week, the theme is Holly and other winter foliage.

Well, there might not be any holly on my card, but words count, right?

Stamp: The Stamp Market - Merry & Bright (r)
Dies: Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles, The Stamp Market - Holly Jolly

I used plenty of scraps of cardstock from The Stamp Market to cut the letters out.

The white outline is also mounted slightly offset on the same outline die-cut from white glitter paper, for a little festive sparkle.

I temporarily stuck the greeting in place on a white cardstock panel, and then mounted various pine boughs from the Merry & Bright stamp set from The Stamp Market on acrylic blocks and randomly stamped them around the sentiment in Greenery ink.

I must say, it's nice to get clean stamping results with ink first go for images like these. No need to deploy the MISTI in case repeat stamping is needed.

Finally, once everything was assembled, I added white Nuvo drops here, there, and everywhere for some extra pop.

I almost added a sprig of holly, but actually thought it looked nice without.

Make sure you check out the lovely projects from the rest of the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

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The Stamp Market - Merry & Bright stamps (r) Shop at: MISC	Pinkfresh Studio - Diagonal Stitched Rectangles dies Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC	The Stamp Market - Holly Jolly dies Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Greenery ink pad Shop at: MISC
Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	PTI - Sweet Blush cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Bubblegum cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Cheeky cardstock Shop at: MISC
The Stamp Market - Curry cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Emerald Isle cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Forest cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Greenery cardstock Shop at: MISC
The Stamp Market - Jade cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Lipstick Red cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Peony cardstock Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Raspberry cardstock Shop at: MISC
Tonic Studios Nuvo Crystal Drops - Simply White Shop at: AZ | EH	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tombow - Mono-Multi liquid glue Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

DCM - November Elemental Inspiration

Good morning!

It's the first Friday of a new month, and so it's time for a new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

Here's the image we're working with:

And the elements I've interpreted are a pine bough complete with pine cones, blanket stitch, snow(flakes), frosty details, and grey and brown as my colour combo:

Stamp: The Greetery - Pine Blossom
Dies: The Greetery - BotaniCuts Pine Bough, The Greetery - Crimped Frame, The Greetery - Wood Slices
Stencils: The Greetery - Frosty Flakes
Other: Distress Oxides

I started out by creating the snowflake background panel. It's simply white cardstock, but before applying the stencil overlay, I inked the outside of the panel with Altenew Limestone dye ink. It's a very subtle grey, but has created more contrast between the whiter central part of the panel and then the snowflake patterns that have been applied with the same ink using the stencils.

Once the panel was dry, I ran it through the Big Shot with the largest of the Crimped Frame dies that sort of mimics a blanket stitch look.

I then added a splatter of brown, gold, and white paint to the background and set it aside to dry.

The next task was inking up and assembling the wood slice and pine bough die cuts.

I used regular Distress Inks for the wood slice (cut from cream and brown card), and followed The Greetery's tutorial for adding colour to the BotaniCuts Pine Bough elements. So the same Distress Oxides as featured in the video, and some shading with pencils on the pine cones before giving my Distress Rock Candy and Vintage Platinum glitter an outing for the first time in aaaages.

Once they were dry I gave them a splattering of white ink as well. Can't have enough snowy details!

Finally, I added a sentiment to the background panel and assembled the card. The subtle glittery effect catches the light beautifully in real life. I may need to get the glitter out again!

Make sure you check out the lovely cards from the design team here, and play along if you can!

Happy crafting!

P.S. I'm also claiming this as my November card for the 2021 card challenge as it features a lovely subtle grey snowflake background, pine cones, snowy boughs...

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The Greetery - Pine Blossom stamps Shop at: MISC | SHC	The Greetery - BotaniCuts Pine Bough dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	The Greetery - Crimped Frame dies Shop at: MISC | SHC	The Greetery - Wood Slices dies Shop at: MISC | SHC
The Greetery - Frosty Flakes stencils Shop at: MISC | SHC	Altenew - Limestone dye ink Shop at: EH | MISC	Distress ink pad - Antique Linen Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Frayed Burlap Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Distress ink pad - Gathered Twigs Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Bundled Sage Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Iced Spruce Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Vintage Photo Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | SSS	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Clear Rock Candy Shop at: AZ | SBC	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Vintage Platinum Shop at: AZ | SBC
Dr. Pj. Martin's Bleed Proof White watercolour Shop at: AZ	Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36-pan watercolour set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Brutfuner 120 Colouring Pencils Set Shop at: AZ	Stampers Anonymous - Glitter Duster Shop at: SSS
Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	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: EH | SBC | SHC
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Craft blending brushes Shop at: AZ	Sponge daubers Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC
Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ | SBC | SHC	Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC	Yoseng 8 Finger Ink Blending Brushes Shop at: AZ
Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ | EH | SBC

2021 Card Challenge - November Prompt

Good morning,

Well here it is, the penultimate prompt for 2021!

And with Halloween behind us, it's full on winter crafting from here on out for me. ;)

Here's this month's prompt:

{Pinterest pin}

The focus colour for November is: Grey/Silver

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Christmas/winter - the obvious theme for your card, but many of the elements would also work for other themes.
• Sources of light - candles (including birthday candles), a lantern, fairy lights, the moon, sparkling stars, etc.
• Texture - heat/dry embossing, embossing paste, puffy paint, crackle glazes, glitter - plenty of scope to add frosty details.
• Shaker window - the Let It Snow window reminds me of a shaker window technique using acetate to hold sequins/"snow". You could even create a snowglobe shaker card?
• Nature - woodland creatures, pine cones, pine boughs, berries, snowy and wintry landscapes.
• Christmas tree - I love the image of a Christmas tree strapped to the roof of a car, it's been a popular one in several scrapbooking lines and would look great on a Christmas card. Otherwise, any (Christmas) tree would do, and it doesn't need to be green either!
• Stars and sparkle - time to get glittering, foiling, Nuvo dotting, sequening, and all sorts.
• Neutral palette - try to go minimalist with grey/silver and white as your main colours.
• Jingle bells - feature a bell image or if you have them, why not include actual mini jingle bells tied onto your card with twine?
• White text - an easy way to add pop and contrast to your card is to heat emboss the sentiment in white on a darker background colour.
• Baubles - either actual bauble images, or why not go for a circular card base or simply a circle aperture?
• Decorative frame - the frame behind the bell reminds me of some decorative frame dies in my collection. Perhaps a good excuse to get them out?

I hope those ideas are helpful.

Happy crafting!