Monday, May 29, 2017

Scuba - Dooby - Do!




Welcome to May’s TCP Release and Blog Hop!  We’re so glad you’re here to celebrate the fun new stamps, CutUps Dies and CutAble Files from The Cat’s Pajamas!  All the fun ocean-themed goodies we’ve shown you all week are now available in the store, so we wanted to dive-deep one more time and present them to you with our Blog Hop.  You should have just come from the lovely Brenda’s Blog,  but if you get lost along the way, just head to the TCP Blog HERE.  



Let’s get started with our favourite bunny and his Scuba Adventure!  I stamped our scuba bunny from the brand new Bunnies at Sea stamp set, as well as all those cute little fishies, coloured them up with Copics and then trimmed it all out.  I created the background with a watercolour wash on watercolour paper, adding some bubbles with a white sharpie.  Then I used the new Waves CutUps Die to form seaweed for everybody to swim through.  




A few sequins and a rectangle frame in a pop of colour to match his flippers finish it off.  I love these fun vibrant colours together for summer.  




Here’s the Copics I used, and below I’ve added the new May goodies I used on this card.  Pop on over to The Cat’s Pajamas Store and grab them while you can!  





This also kicks off our newest TCP Tuesday Challenge!  
It’s themed:  Sand, Sea & Sky 


  • Here are the deets for The TCP Tuesday and Blog Hop Challenge
    1. Every Release Tuesday a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog and our Facebook page.
    2. If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button by, 11:55 EDT the day before the next challenge.
    3. You are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas stamp or die but if you have them we would love to see them.
    4. On the day after the challenge ends, the winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $50



So, now you can head on over to visit my fellow Cat-Packer Deborah and see what fun she has in store!  Thanks so much for stopping by! 

Sunday, May 28, 2017

The Cat’s Pajamas May Release!



Hello and welcome to May’s Sneaky Peek Week at The Cat’s Pajamas!  This month has a fun ocean theme that I know you’ll enjoy.   I have four fun projects to show you today.  

We’ll kick it all off with our favourite bunny in the world, and this time he’s a Pirate Bunny!  Arg Matey!  Here’s Bunnies at Sea!


He’s off in search of treasure in his pirate boat!  I coloured him up with Copics and added some fun designer paper and waves to give it some great pops of colour.  






The outside sentiment is from another TCP set called Simple Blooms, because it just seemed to suit the card.  



Inside is one of the sentiments from the Bunnies at Sea.  





Next up is the lovely Shells CutUps dies and pretty stamp set called Doodled Shells.  I wanted to create the feeling of the place where the sea meets the sand with this design.


I’ve combined the Doodled Shells stamp set with our new Shells CutUps and a soft sandy colour scheme for this one.  I used the Beaches Cut Ups die to give the water a stitched edge, and then used it for the strip of vellum that mimics the foam of the wave coming in.  I sponged and stippled the sand, added some stamping to the water to give it some texture and added the sentiment.   I also added a border on top to make it look like waves along the top too.  



A few charm shells and some twine finish it off.  



On this next card I showcased the same Doodled Shells but used them in a watercolor style with a bold colour combination.  


I started by washing the watercolour paper with a few swipes of water,  stamping the shells using my Misti so that I could let the shells bleed out a bit and then re-stamp to get more details.  I combined this with our Watercolor Basics set which I used to get the water look in the background.  A few sequins finish it off.  


And, on this last design I showcased our brand new CutAble File the Z-Fold Box.  It makes creating a Z fold box so easy!  I went for some really bold colours for an underwater scene also using one of our older TCP sets, Seas the Birthday.  


After putting the box together I created sand out of our new Beaches CutUps Die.  I used the same die to create the seaweed in the scene.  It’s a really versatile die!  







Here’s some more views of the Z-fold.  I coloured up the shells and sea creatures with Copics, then cut them out and placed them all over the scene.  The dots in the sand are also created using the Watercolor Basics Stamp set.  





A really fun way to create a show-stopper scene! And, it all folds up flat like shown above, or into a regular A2 envelope.  

Here’s a peek at all the sweet things we’ll be releasing tomorrow!  








Are you In It To Win It?  Today is your last chance to comment on my blog and be entered to win a TCP Gift Certificate to the store!  Tomorrow we wrap it all up with a Blog Hop and all these amazing ocean themed goodies will be available for purchase.  Thanks for dropping by!  





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Friday, May 26, 2017

Better Because of You




It’s Good Vibe 5 on a Friday at Power Poppy.  Be sure to stop by the Power Poppy blog to be inspired by Marcy’s latest 5 topics.   



How about something summery today?  I’ve had this pretty image from Power Poppy’s set, In Praise of Sunflowers coloured up for a while and finally put it together for a card design.  I love this sunny display of sunflowers in an earthenware vase.  For fun, and to give the yellows some good contrast, I added a deep blue background.   



Here you can see more of the colouring and how I separated out the sentiment and continued it on the inside.  I found some fun paint crackled paper, but it was the wrong tone of blue, so I ran one of the blue markers from the background colouring over the paper to change the tone and match much better.  



Here’s the inside sentiment to go with the outside.  




You have just a few days left to enter our May Power & Spark Challenge for your chance to win a $50 Gift Certificate to the Power Poppy store.  Be sure to get your entry in!  

Here’s the gang playing along today...


Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


Monday, May 22, 2017

Super 15 with TCP




This week we have family visiting from the States, and the cousins are celebrating a lot of special occasions together.  The two oldest boys have birthdays at the end of May, so I thought I’d create this card for my 15 year old nephew.  It showcases The Cat’s Pajamas fun combination of Boom! CutUps, Comic Balloon CutUps and TCP’s stamp set My Hero.  My nephew loves green so this is a bit of a “Green Lantern” superhero card.  

Our bunny is coloured with Copics, trimmed out and placed on TCP’s Framed Up 2 CutUps.   I added a notebook edge with TCP’s Toppers CutUps.  




A few black enamel dots finish it off.  You don’t need a lot of embellishing with the pop of the comic book style colours and words.  The inside of the card reads “Dare to Be Who You Are” from the stamp set.  A good encouragment for a 15 year old.  




Here’s the Copics I used above.  

Did you new Sneaky Peek Week starts today??  All the TCP items are being previewed each day on the TCP Blog.  I’ll be up with all my new goodies next week!  Thanks for stopping by!  



Sunday, May 21, 2017

Simple Cards with Kids


This Spring, our daughter had her first student-teacher placement in a first grade classroom, she had an amazing experience.  Her mentor-teacher found out that I am a card maker and as a result they asked me to be Artist in Residence for the classroom three times over a month.  I was so delighted not only show first graders how to make cards, but also to see my daughter in action with her classroom.  It was such a fun month!  It cracked me up to see them try and figure out who was Mrs. Okken and who was Miss Okken, and at first they couldn’t wrap their heads around their student-teacher actually having a mom just like them!

I thought I’d show you three of the cards I did with the kids.  All of them are very simple because I was teaching 5 and 6 year olds how to stamp, and we had a limited time period to work with each day.  The feeling of awe children get when they create is sheer wonder to watch.  It’s like the first time you or I stamped all over again, just in a little person with such great enthusiasm. I love seeing kids succeed and they’re so easy to love.  



First up is a Spring card they created.  Inspiration for this one came from Nichole Heady’s card HERE (scroll to the bottom it’s a long post). I used Stampin’ Up  and Power Poppy stamps I had on hand to give it the same style.  It included some geometry with the card as everything is stamped in a triangle behind the sentiment circle.  




This next design was an idea I found on Pinterest.  It was used as a cute Spring Art frame with fabric, but I  revamped it to be a card with designer paper strips.  The kids could choose what paper, colours and patterns they used, and the silhouette cut out of the bunny is done with TCP’s Easter Bunny CutUps die.  The sentiment is a cute one from an older Stampin’ Up set as well.  




The last card was what the kids used for their moms on Mother’s Day.  I found a couple of similar ideas on Pinterest and adapted them into a design to work for kids.  The jar is from PTI’s set Friendship Jar.  The hearts inside the jar are stamped from various sets I had on hand that had hearts in them, then all the hearts bursting out the top are cut from patterned paper.  The sentiment is from The Cat’s Pajamas.  


Thanks for popping by today!  Be back tomorrow with something fun from The Cat’s Pajamas!



Friday, May 19, 2017

Power Poppy Flower Bomb



Hello Friends!  How is your May going?  We’re in the midst of graduation season for our middle son, birthday celebrations, family coming from the States, and our youngest son’s baptism, all in the matter of a 2 week period.  Life is so full right now!  But, I wanted to sneak in with a little design I made with Power Poppy’s set called Flower Bomb.  Its a newer addition to Marcy’s growing Instant Garden digital images and it’s another beauty!  

I’ve put a pretty periwinkle and red combination together for the colouring, pairing it will a little designer paper, some embossed paper and a pretty vellum bow. 


Here’s a closer look at the colouring, you can see I’ve used the B63 to add depth into the rose petals and leaves, and it ties the colouring together better as well.  







Have you seen Marcy’s new theme for Fridays?  It’s called Good Vibe 5 Friday, and it’s full of fun and inspiration! I hope you can check it out.  


Don’t forget to join us for our May Power & Spark Challenge Frame It Up!  You could win a $50 gift certificate to the Power Poppy store!  Woo Hoo!

Here’s my Power Poppy sisterhood joining us today with more inspiration.  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence

Julie Koerber
Stacy Morgan



Monday, May 8, 2017

Up! With ‘da Bunny



I’m sure there are a lot of you out there that enjoyed the Pixar movie Up.  I thought it was so sweet, so when I saw this image from The Cat’s Pajamas sweet new set Bunnies in Flight, I had that Up theme in my mind.  As I perusing some inspiration I also found this adorable card by Barbara Anders, with the sweetest colour palette and layout and I CASED quite a bit of her design for this one, flipping it around and changing some of the elements using what I had on hand.  

After colouring our Carl inspired bunny with Copics, I popped a couple of the balloons up, trimmed him out and placed him on a watercolour paper scalloped circle that I had smooshed with some reinker and an acrylic block.  I added some Stitched Clouds CutUps, the sentiment from TCP’s set Small Sayings, and then accented with enamel dots.  




I think he looks pretty adorable!  I love his chubby little belly and that cute belly button!


Have you heart about our May Blog Hop at TCP?  You can enter to win a $50 prize from The Cat’s Pajamas just by creating something with your TCP goodies!  There’s just so much good stuff in store!  



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Friday, May 5, 2017

Mom’s Peony


Today we’re bringing you a brand new challenge for the lovely month of May from Power Poppy!  Our equally lovely hostess Kathy has challenged us to Frame It Up!  You can create a frame on your card, frame a creation or decorate a frame.  

Have you seen Marcy’s new digi?  It’s called Tree Peony, and it’s such a beaut!  Later today she’ll be releasing another new digital image that I think you’ll love too.  

I was really looking forward to printing this image up nice and big to get a lot of colouring in there.  It did not disappoint.  Though....it did take me about 2 hours to colour :) I’m not speedy at colouring.  



Last weekend my husband and I made a quick trip to Vancouver, BC.  He had some meetings there for work and I was able to take off from Thursday to Saturday, so we zipped over there.  I love the west coast!  Vancouver is at least a month ahead of us in growing season, so everything is blooming beautifully.  They have such a different climate from the prairies and can grow very different trees and plants and it was glorious!  We even got a couple of days of sun to soak it all in, and just one day of rain.  

One evening we went to Granville Island to walk around the shops and market.  A little flower stand had some gorgeous blooms, including some really pretty peonies. I thought for sure they must be tree peonies because they were so large and full, but apparently they were simply regular peonies - just Vancouver sized :)  I loved the colour of them because they went from a peachy pink outside to a really light inside (below), so that was the inspiration for the colouring. 

I created a frame by using some dies to cut into the big image.  I often do this with larger images because I love how the inset design pairs with the outer frame, having the coloured image on both parts.  



Gorgeous aren’t they?  



This one was fun to colour and good brain work too.  My natural inclination would be to colour the deeper tones of the flower in the centers or inner petals.  This flower however has the darker colour on the outer parts of the petals, and lighter insides, so its opposite of what I’d normally do.   The challenge was how to still create depth in the deeper petals while still staying true to the color of the blooms.  I used a BV00 marker to create shadow in the areas that would be shadowed and I’m happy with the result.  A few clear sequins add some sparkle and the sentiment from our Sweet Memories set makes it perfect for Mother’s Day.  Both of our mom’s love peonies.  



Here’s the Copics I used.  Below I included a few more pictures from the trip.  I thought you might enjoy some of the things that were in bloom.  



Magnolias galore!  That is one tree we would not be able to grow here, so it’s always so delightful to see them there.  Cherry trees were in bloom too, and they’re so spectacular as they cover the street boulevards.  



Some Rhododendrons were starting to bloom, this one was quite stunning as it covered a whole sidewalk near Granville Island.  



Some pretty tulips in Stanley Park were loving the sunshine.  The colouring on these blooms reminds me a lot of the peonies above too, I love that peach to pink tone.  

So, join us in the Frame it Up Challenge!   The big, big BIG news is that this time, instead of being entered to win a Power Poppy set....you’ll be entered to win a $50 Gift Certificate!  Wowee Shopping fun!  

Here’s my creative Bloom Brigade Sisters playing along today....

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker