Kool Kitty Musings

2022 Card Challenge - December Prompt

Hello all!

I'm posting the final prompt of the year a little early.

As to be predicted, the December prompt is ripe for wintry and festive projects:

{Pinterest pin}

The focus colours for December are: Silver/Gold (even if it's just a smattering of paint or glitter)

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• All things pine - pine cones, boughs and branches, a single Christmas tree, a horizon of pine trees.
• DIY wreath - create a festive wreath which elements such as winter foliage, fruits, and nuts.
• Deck the Halls - feature candles, lights, baubles, and other festive decorations in some form, whether as a border, hanging from a branch, on top of a Christmas tree, around a fireplace or window, the choice is yours.
• Festive words - feature text from a festive poem, story, carol, or song.
• Festive tales - bring a festive tale or Pantomime fairytale to life on a card. The Nutcracker is always a favourite, or perhaps something more recent like Frozen will appeal to the little ones.
• Vintage glitz and glam - feature some vintage style glitter, retro tinsel, or colours reminiscent of 1960s mercury glass baubles.
• Little houses - you know how I love them! It wouldn't be winter without some little houses for a village scene.
• Minimalist chic - keep things simple and make the white space of your card do most of the work. A simple sentiment and a single focal point for your design will tick the box.

Happy crafting!

DCM - Shine

Good morning!

It's a brand new one-word-inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog today, and our focus word is "Shine".

Well, to make my card shine, I relied on metallic cardstock, glitter cardstock, and some gems - real Christmas staples:

Stamp: Lil' Inker Designs - All The Christmas You'll Ever Need (r)
Dies: The Greetery - Christmas Pudding
Stencils: Concord & 9th - Boughs & Holly

I started out by stencilling the holly wreath on a panel of white cardstock using various inks from the Concord & 9th mini ink cube set.

While my panel was drying, I cut the Christmas pudding elements from a mix of plain cardstock, glitter cardstock, and metallic cardstock in my Sidekick.

Before I assembled the pudding on the card front, I first stamped the sentiment to match the Figgy pudding theme in my Misti so that it would be close to straight(!).

Finally, with the pudding in place, I added some frosty crystal gems from my very large and almost antique selection of Prima pearls and gems.

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

Happy crafting!

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Lil' Inker Designs - All The Christmas You'll Ever Need stamps (r) Shop at: MISC	The Greetery - Christmas Pudding die Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	Concord & 9th - Boughs & Holly stencils Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Doe ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)
Lawn Fawn - Soot ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Walnut ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK)	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Concord & 9th - Ink cube set Shop at: EH | MISC | SHC (UK)
Concord & 9th - Assorted cardstock pack Shop at: EH | MISC | SHC (UK)	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC	Lawn Fawn - Gold metallic cardstock Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Memory Box - Festive glitter pad Shop at: EH | MISC
Ranger - Glossy Accents Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Marvy Jewel Picker Shop at: AZ (UK)	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Craft blending brushes Shop at: AZ (UK)	Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC	Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)
Yoseng 8 Finger Ink Blending Brushes Shop at: AZ (UK)	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC

DCM - White

Morning!

This week's one-word prompt over on the Daring Cardmakers blog is: WHITE

I went with using white for a silhouette technique to create a wintry scene:

Dies: Concord & 9th - Christmas Cottage (r), Simon Says Stamp - Season's Greetings
Other: Distress inks

I started out by using various shades of Distress Inks to create a blended wintry sky on Bristol cardstock. I splattered the background with pearlescent Gansai Tambi paint and white bleed-proof paint.

For extra sparkly details, I cut the moon, chimney smoke, snow on the roof, and window details from glitter cardstock in the Festive glitter pad from Memory Box.

I created two cuts of the sentiment, so I could layer it on the background for a little extra pop.

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

Happy crafting!

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Concord & 9th - Christmas Cottage dies (r) Shop at: SHC (UK)	Simon Says Stamp - Season's Greetings dies Shop at: MISC	Distress ink pad - Black Soot Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Mermaid Lagoon Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Distress ink pad - Picked Raspberry Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Distress ink pad - Wilted Violet Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC	Strathmore Bristol cardstock Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Memory Box - Festive glitter pad Shop at: EH | MISC	Dr. Pj. Martin's Bleed Proof White watercolour Shop at: AZ (UK)	Kuretake Gansai Tambi 36-pan watercolour set Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Craft blending brushes Shop at: AZ (UK)	Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC	Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK)
Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC
Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC

DCM - Holly

Morning!

Things are hopefully returning to normal here on my blog, and just in time!

We've got a fun new "Christmas countdown" running the rest of the year over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

The focus word this week is "Holly" and you can interpret it any which way you want, doesn't even need to be a Christmas card.

Well, I went diving into the annuls of time and scrapbook collections of Christmases past.

My card features some very vintage Crate Paper from the 2012 Sleigh Ride collection no less...

Paper: Crate Paper - Sleight Ride (r)
Tag: Crate Paper - Hey Santa (r)
Stamps: Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas, The Stamp Market - Eat Cake
Dies: The Stamp Market - Eat Cake, Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine, The Greetery - PreText Banners, The Stamp Market - Fringe Borders

It all started with the cheeky Santa tag in the Hey Santa paper pad from a few Christmases ago.

I really wanted to pair it with some "naughty or nice list" reference, and spotted the ledger paper in my bag of Sleigh Ride left-overs.

I added some contrasting minty teal paper to the bottom half of the card, then die-cut a frosty white fringe border from glitter paper and some pine boughs from the Holly and Pine die set by Hello Bluebird.

I glammed up the Santa with twine and a button, and stamped out the Holly Jolly sentiment from the Typed Christmas set on a sentiment strip from The Greetery.

Once everything was assembled, I added a festive sequin and a little bow (stamped with Matcha ink) that had been sitting on my desk as it didn't get used in the original project I'd intended it for. It worked with these colours, so on it went!

I suppose I really should have added a sprig of holly somewhere, but I'm sure more holly is on the horizon... ;)

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

Happy crafting!

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Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Eat Cake stamps Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Eat Cake dies Shop at: MISC	Hello Bluebird - Holly and Pine dies Shop at: MISC
The Greetery - PreText Banners dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	The Stamp Market - Fringe Borders dies Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Matcha ink pad Shop at: MISC	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Concord & 9th - Assorted cardstock pack Shop at: EH | MISC | SHC (UK)	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC	Crate Paper - Hey Santa - 6x8 paper pad Shop at: MISC | SBC	Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC
Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC

Jar of birthday wishes

Morning,

Amazingly, this card was made back in early October and has languished on my list of "Projects to photograph when the light is better".

Well, I managed to get it photographed and then my blog broke!

So now that I am able to insert images in my blog posts again (albeit not with the usual settings) I can finally share this project before my posts switch to festive mode!

Paper: Honey Bee Stamps - Grain and Grunge
Stamps: Mama Elephant - Mini Everyday Messages, The Greetery - Container Garden
Dies: The Greetery - Container Garden, Mama Elephant - Oval Deco Frame, The Greetery - Jumbo Jar, The Stamp Market - Tiny Tags

I started out with the Container Garden stamping inside the Jumbo Jar die, also from The Greetery.

The ink shades are mainly from The Stamp Market's summer Color Crush update. Still loving those subtle greens, and Rosy is a firm favourite in my selection of pink inks.

I added a little light blue ink to the edges of the jar to make it look more like glass.

The lid is cut from gold mirror cardstock, and the tiny tag with the sentiment from Mama Elephant is tied on with a sliver of cardstock that was on my desk after cutting some card bases from old sheets of Bazzill KI cardstock.

To showcase the jar, I cut the main die from Mama Elephant's Oval Deco Frame set from grey cardstock and used woodgrain paper from the new Grain and Grunge paper pad from Honey Bee Stamps as the backdrop.

Until next time, happy crafting!

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Mama Elephant - Mini Everyday Messages stamps Shop at: SHC (UK)	The Greetery - Container Garden stamps Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	The Greetery - Container Garden dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	Mama Elephant - Oval Deco Frame dies Shop at: EH | SHC (UK)
The Greetery - Jumbo Jar dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	The Stamp Market - Tiny Tags dies Shop at: MISC	Lawn Fawn - Soot ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	The Stamp Market - Coastal ink pad Shop at: MISC
The Stamp Market - Forest ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Golden ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Pacific ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Peony ink pad Shop at: MISC
The Stamp Market - Rosy ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Sage ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Sea Glass ink pad Shop at: MISC	The Stamp Market - Sunshine ink pad Shop at: MISC
Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC	Neenah Classic Crest 80 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | MISC | SBC	Simon Says Stamp - Fog cardstock Shop at: MISC
Honey Bee Stamps - Grain and Grunge - 6x8.5 paper pad Shop at: EH | MISC | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Gold metallic cardstock Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Tonic Studios Nuvo Deluxe Adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Stamp shammy cleaner Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC

DCM - November Elemental Inspiration

Morning!

It's the first Friday of a new month, so we have a brand-new elemental inspiration challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog.

And as you can see, Christmas is in full swing...

The elements I went with were trees, creatures, and a lyric as the sentiment:

Stencils: The Greetery - Stencil Scapes: Winter
Stamp: Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas
Dies: Pinkfresh Studio - Essentials: Ornate Banner, The Greetery - Frosty Pines, The Greetery - PreText Banners
Other: Distress Oxides

When I saw this image, I immediately knew I'd be reaching for the Winter Stencil Scapes set from The Greetery, plus the accompanying Frosty Pines dies.

I used various dye inks to blend the backgrounds, with some selective masking to add even more colours into the mix.

I added Rock Candy glitter as highlights to the snowy scene and set the background aside to dry.

I cut the Frosty Pines dies from white cardstock and used Distress Oxides and daubers to bring them to life. A splattering of water added that snowy look, then I added the additional "snow" by cutting the trees from white glitter paper and adding these details.

When the background panel was dry, I used the Ornate Banner set from Pinkfresh Studio to create a window and pop up the frame for added dimension.

I added the die cuts of the bunnies and layered over the pine trees to frame the scene.

Finally, I stamped the lyric from White Christmas on a banner die-cut and nestled it behind the tree trunk of one of the pines.

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

Happy crafting!

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Hello Bluebird - Typed Christmas stamps Shop at: MISC	Pinkfresh Studio - Essentials: Ornate Banner dies Shop at: MISC | SBC	The Greetery - Frosty Pines dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	The Greetery - PreText Banners dies Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG
The Greetery - Stencil Scapes: Winter stencils Shop at: SHC (UK) | TG	Distress Oxide ink pad - Ground Espresso Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Hickory Smoke Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Distress Oxide ink pad - Pine Needles Shop at: EH | SBC
Distress Oxide ink pad - Rustic Wilderness Shop at: EH | SBC	Lawn Fawn - Ballet Slippers ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Blue Jay ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Chili Pepper ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK)
Lawn Fawn - Cranberry ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Hippo ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Jalapeño ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Kiddie Pool ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)
Lawn Fawn - Manatee ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Narwhal ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Noble Fir ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Sage Leaf ink pad Shop at: SHC (UK)
Lawn Fawn - Soot ink pad Shop at: SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Storm Cloud ink pad Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Lawn Fawn - Walnut ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK)	Versafine - Onyx Black ink pad Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC
Neenah Classic Crest 110 lb smooth Solar White cardstock Shop at: EH | MISC	Tim Holtz - Distress Glitter - Clear Rock Candy Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Ranger - Multi-Medium Matte adhesive Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	3M Scotch double-sided foam tape Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH
MISTI stamping tool Shop at: EH | SBC	Craft blending brushes Shop at: AZ (UK)	Sponge daubers Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Taylored Expressions - Blender Brushes Shop at: MISC
Tim Holtz - Distress Sprayer Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Stampers Anonymous Splat Box Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC | SHC (UK)	Waffle Flower - Mini Media Mat Shop at: EH | SBC | SHC (UK)	Yoseng 8 Finger Ink Blending Brushes Shop at: AZ (UK)
Ranger - Artist brush set Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Sizzix - Big Shot machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Sizzix - Sidekick machine Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC	Thermoweb iCraft - Purple tape for die-cutting - 1 1/2" Shop at: AZ (UK) | SBC
Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (maxi) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC	Tim Holtz - Tonic guillotine trimmer (small) Shop at: AZ (UK) | EH | SBC

What's going on with my blog...

You may have noticed recently that my blog, and those of other bloggers hosted on Typepad, has been pretty much non-functional for days and days.

Unfortunately, Typepad initiated a data migration in the run-up to the Halloween weekend that was not at all successful. They have tried to roll back "improvements" made, but bloggers are essentially back at square one, unable to properly post content as images cannot be added to posts and are also displaying incorrectly or not at all in past blog posts.

And what is a blog without visual content?

This means that I'm unable to post existing and new projects to my blog at this time.

It also means that a lot of the content on my blog is currently messed up, and I am unable to do anything about it.

At the time of writing this, it is almost a week since I was last able to draft and publish a blog post.

I started this blog back in 2005, so most of my creative life is housed here.

I really don't want to lose it.

But I also want to get back to blogging my projects as and when they're ready to share.

In the meantime, I will still be sharing projects over on my Instagram account.

Here's hoping all these issues will soon be resolved, and I can get back to sharing my card projects here on my blog.

Update 2022-11-04: The main issue with images not loading appears to have been resolved, but there are still a few gremlins at work.

2022 Card Challenge - November Prompt

Well, here's hoping this works.

Things are still very buggy on my blogging platform, and I'm not sure whether this blog post will go through.

But here's the prompt for November card challenge:

{Pinterest pin}

The focus colour for November is Wood tones

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Wood texture - Let's start with the obvious one! Such a versatile design element, whether with patterned papers, embossing folders/texture plates, or dies such as wood slices. They all provide a great backdrop to a card, embellishment, or sentiment, especially when spruced up with other winter foliage.
• Hygge - Think all things cosy: mittens, scarves, woolly jumpers, knit textures, Nordic patterns, candles, lanterns, etc.
• A cup of cheer - Cocoa complete with marshmallows, a candy cane, and cream, and even a gingerbread man on the side...
• Winter greenery - Pine boughs, pine cones, branches with berries, winter florals, including a wreath.
• Little houses - A wintry village created with little house dies against a stencilled or ink blended background, or perhaps a cabin in the woods or on a mountainside. You could also experiment with "silhouette" techniques, using masking paper to create a street or city skyline on white or black cardstock by blending ink over the masking paper and then removing the masking paper to reveal the silhouette.
• Oh Christmas tree - Why not try some dimensional tree techniques? If you have a symmetrical tree die, cut the die three times and score down the middle from the point of the tree to the base of each die-cut. Then glue the halves of one tree to one half of the another tree and attach to your card. Hey presto, a 3D tree!
• Oh deer - Feature reindeer on your card, whether antlers and other rustic elements or a cute little Rudolph pulling Santa's sleigh.
• Let it snow - Use this or another song lyric as the sentiment for your card, or create a snowy scene.

Happy crafting!