Caturday: George says Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween and Happy Caturday from gorgeous George who proves here that, when high on catnip, you can balance on a pumpkin no problem. Azazel, left, is less impressed, but then he has been living at the cat shelter for nearly a year, and knows that pretty little George is more likely to get adopted than he is. More details about adopting a cat from Woodland Nook can be found here.

Mix It Up Monday: Festive Fireplace birthday card

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and today I have a birthday card for my friend and downline, Donna. Like me, Donna loves cats so when I was stamping with her recently, I sneakily stamped out a few of these cats for her birthday card. They were ably coloured by my daughter, who also added the bow; there’s no way I could have drawn that. 

The concept in my head was cats sitting on a brick wall but I hadn’t accounted for the scale issues; the bricks from the embossing folder are way too big for these little cats. So I tried rolling it through the Big Shot twice, offsetting the folder the second time to create the effect of smaller bricks/stones. This almost had the desired effect, but the first embossed lines were flattened by the second rolling. Nothing ventured…

The colour combination - which, of course, comes from my In Color charts - is a good one but I did bend the rules slightly with the cotton paper, which is actually Crushed Curry. Ah well, my blog: my rules to bend. I finished the flowers off with just a small scribbled of black marker in the centre.

Festive Fireplace Photopolymer Stamp Set [139754]	Tin Of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set [138946]	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Pool Party A4 Card Stock [124391]
So Saffron A4 Card Stock [108611]	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Project Life Journaling Pens [135304]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
Cherry On Top Cotton Paper Assortment [138308]	2015-2017 In Color Stampin' Write Markers [138333]	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers [131263]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Caturday: Fudge

Elderly lady Fudge was found wandering the streets in the Riddings area. Perhaps her owner died? Who knows, but she isn’t chipped and hasn’t been claimed from the cat shelter yet. Elderly cats are really hard to home but Fudge is very friendly (to people, not other cats) so fingers crossed.

Golden wedding anniversary card... and out of my comfort zone!

Ha! Bet you never thought you’d see a card like this at All Things Stampy, eh? Not my usual style at all, is it? And, I have to confess, it was really hard to do, even though I was practically CASEing this project by Heidi Weaver. 

I tried using the spiral flower die to create the flowers from vellum but, of course, the vellum was too stiff. So I dug out some filter paper and tried again… but got in a terrible mess and ended up burning my thumb with the hot glue gun (that hurts!) 

Eventually I settled on simply punching out the filter paper and scrunching it up to create flowers. Happily I had exactly three tiny brads left, and just one gold sequin from an old kit, so could hold the flowers together easily. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again in a hurry, but then 50th wedding anniversaries don’t come around that often, so I think I’m safe. The alphabet dies are retired, by the way; I don’t make a habit of using retired products but these are too useful to get rid of and too perfect not to use. 

Something To Say Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134180]	Ovals Collection Framelits Die [129381]	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133520]	1-1/4" Circle Punch [119861]
Pansy Punch [130698]	Builder Bird Punch [117191]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
White Filter Paper [129393]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490]	Tea Lace Paper Doilies [129399]	Silver Mini Brads [122941]
Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die [127553]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mix It Up Monday: Neutral Wonderland

Not the most exciting colour combo for a Christmas card, I think you’ll agree, but I don’t like to shy away from a challenge and I have pledged to use a combination from my In Color charts every week for Mix It Up Monday. 

So, armed with some very subtle ink pads and a couple of lovely festive stamp sets, I produced this. I nearly didn’t post it… but then I added the saving grace: some linen thread and a snowflake embellishment. Suddenly, it went from boring to quite classy. I think, anyway. 

Wonderland Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140365]	To You & Yours Too Photopolymer Stamp Set [139819]	Crumb Cake A4 Card Stock [121685]	Soft Suede A4 Card Stock [119982]	Very Vanilla A4 Card Stock [106550]
Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [126978]	Delightful Dijon Classic Stampin' Pad [138327]	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975]	Linen Thread [104199]	Snowflake Elements [139638]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Caturday goes large!

Here’s a treat for cat-lovers: no, the cat shelter hasn’t supersized its kitties. These pictures are from one of my customers, Tracey, who recently visited Big Cat Rescue in Tampa, Florida. 

Tracey says: “It’s an amazing place that’s a sanctuary for big cats who all have a story to tell of how they got there. There are no laws about keeping big cats as pets in (some parts of) the USA, so people buy them as cubs and then can't cope when they grow in to full size wild animals. All the cats that go there live their lives out at the sanctuary and are kept as wild as possible with no-contact policy for all the staff. They're in cages (for obvious reasons) but they have lots of toys to play with, and places to climb and hide in.They run daily tours, but only of small groups, but you could tell some of the cats knew it was visitor time and came out to watch us! There were lions, tigers, servals, bobcats, leopards, pumas and all were just doing typical cat things, just on a bigger scale.”