Summer Spectacular at The Cat’s Pajamas

It’s Sneaky Peek Week at The Cat’s Pajamas!  Hold onto your sun-hats friends!  I’ve got a ton of inspiration to beat the heat with this this month’s new releases at TCP!  It’s all about summer sun and fun, and every element is just so darn cute!  And, you could WIN just by commenting on today’s post, more on that at the end...

We’ll kick it all off with the adorable Penguin Summer set.  This one is a FUN one with all the cool things the penguins are up to!  I began with this dude chillin’ out on his floaty with some fun tropical swim trunks.  

I started with 3 different shades of teal blue and the TCP Beaches Cut Ups Die from the store.  This way I could make layers of water with the rippled edge of waves for our penguin to lounge on.  I stamped some of the starfish into the layers and the sentiment.  He’s coloured up with Copics and popped up on the layers.  

Just a couple of sequins finish the card.  Do you notice I gave him a little sunburn on his tummy?  Not enough sunscreen!  

Next up another sassy card with images from Penguin Summer.  

One of the images in the set is this cute penguin with his flappers raised, as well as a beach umbrella.  I thought it would be fun for our penguin to do some dancing with the beach umbrella, which I coloured in secondary colours.  So I tucked him behind the umbrella, trimmed his flippers to be able to have him hold the umbrella in front of him while peeking out, and then had him holding the umbrella above his head.  He’s having a good time!

The perfect sentiment for my little scene “Done Adulting”, is included in the set and I embossed it over some rows of designer paper, adding in an wood veneer arrow that I coloured black to point to the sentiment and give the card some movement.  

Next up is a beauty of a alphabet die new to the store!  It’s called Big Little Alphabet and it’s a steal at $19 for the whole set A - Z.  

I mentioned the other day that I’ve been taking watercolour course.  One of our assignements was to work on repeated images to practise our washes and water to pigment ratio.  I freehanded a pear shape and made a quick template to trace on the watercolour paper and then watercoloured my pears.  

Next, I watercolour washed another stretch of watercolour paper and let that dry before using the die-cut letters for the sentiment.  I stamped the words “A Great” from TCP’s set Aye, Eye, I to make it all work.  

I think it would make a nice anniversary or wedding card, or even a friendship card.  

Next, I got a little creative with the alpha dies and another of our dies being released this month, the Sweets Cut Ups Die and the Magarita CutUps Die.  

Hopefully you see Minnie the Mouse!  When I was playing around with the Ice Cream/Cupcake Top of the die set, I looked at it upside-down and saw Mickey or Minnie Mouse.  So I cut the shape in black, then I took the lime half-circle shape from the Margarita die, cut that from polka-dot paper, then cut it in half to form two triangle pie shapes, and added the cherry die shape as the center of the hair-bow.  Super clean and simple too with the red background and the letters.  

Card number 5 of 6 showcases some cool summer drinks, and it’s called Liquid Therapy.  

This card is another one of my watercolouring practise pieces, where we were working on brush techniques.  I created the background with a flat brush and varied the colours and strength of the colour wash in each section.  It makes a fun background for that tropical drink!  I stamped the swirly center of the glass in two different Distress Oxide Inks and embossed in clear ink, I think it makes it look like a slushy.  Then I stamped the outside of the glass and added the beach umbrella (using the stamps and dies) and the lime.  A vellum circle panel seperates the layers so you see the glass and sentiment better.  

I also embossed the sentiment using Distress Oxide and clear EP.  Very refreshing for summer!  

Alright, as you can see I couldn’t help myself this release is so fun, I have a 6th card using Penguin Summer!  

How can you not love a penguin in a flamingo floaty?  This is a interactive card because I made use of another new die set in the TCP store called Going Round and Round.  It’s great because it comes with severals circle dies/frames and two different inner tracks so you can let your image roll.  My penguin is floating back and forth in the track and it’s so cute!

I added the sentiment from the set embossed on black, some scalloped black borders, and a bit of twine for accent.  

Here are all the awesome NEW TCP items I used on my cards today, and they’re all being released tomorrow!  Three great stamps sets, four fun dies and one of the sets Need Glasses is free with a qualifying purchase. 

  

Now, here’s the fun news....  You could win a $10 gift voucher just by leaving a comment on my blog! Alma will pick a winner each day and post on the TCP Blog and on our TCP Facebook page. 

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for our Blog Hop to kick off the release!