Waffle Flower Wilderness on Father’s Day

 

This is the time of year when I always feel so grateful for my husband and the kind of Father he is to our kids.  And though our kids would all be considered young adults, he’s present, available, supportive, and a good leader that walks with them through this life, especially at this stage.  I love that we can honour him in this way.  

For his Father’s Day card, I pulled out the beautiful Forest Sunset Postal Collage Stamp, and the Postal Collage Die to create a rustic wilderness scene for him.  The sky has a bit of the look of an aurora borealis night that we often experience here in the North.  I’ve ink-blended the background and then splattered water, finishing with some detail “stars” with a white Sharpie.  All of the images are embossed in black to give some shine and lots of black contrast.  

I also incorporated the tiny postage from the Postage Collage Miniature Die and Stencil, using some of the small animal images from the stamp set to pull it together.  Those minis are especially darling.   

The background of the card uses the Sweet Plaid Texture Die from Waffle Flower, and the sentiment is an old one from Stampin’ Up!  The type and size is perfect.  

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Waffle Flower Wilderness on Father’s Day

Customizing Digital Paper and NEW TCP!

Hi Stampers!  I’m back today with a few more new designs using The Cat’s Pajamas April Release.  As you might already know, Alma has moved into the digital realm with TCP and that means a lot of new and  different opportunities with stamps, accessories, cut file, paper and embellishments.  On this first design I did a little playing around with the new Black & White Spring Digi papers to coordinate it perfectly with this Birthday bear and the new set A Beary Good Year.  

I  began by printing out the plaid paper in black and white and coordinating it to my card by sponging onto the cardstock.  It’s transformed from black and white to a ombre multi-colour design that matches perfectly with my Copic coloured bear.  

This cutie is fun to work with too!  The set has all sorts of add-ons for all occasions that when used as a digi are really easy to make work.  So I gave him a party hat, added the cake plate in his hand and then heart birthday balloons and printed him out.  It’s nice to be able to manipulate images like this before printing.  

Some fun framing and accents with die-cuts, and he’s ready to party!  

Next I have a mini-slimline scene that’s perfect for those breezy Spring days.  

This fanciful bunny is from the new set Field of Pinwheels.  After printing the image, I added in some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink clouds using a TCP Stencil for the sky and foreground grass, and then paired him with more of the Black & White Digi papers.  The bunting accents are created with the Summer Borders SVG’s and I’ve added some baker’s twine and enamel dots.  

To fill in the grass I’ve used some flick strokes with my Copics to colour in more blades.  The sentiment is  stamped with a retired TCP polymer set, as I thought it was a perfect pairing.  

Take a peek below and the New Release Items I’ve used today!  Be sure to pop over to the TCP Store to pick yours up!  

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Customizing Digital Paper and NEW TCP!

Spring into TCP this April!

Hello out there!  I’ve been a little absent from creating the last month because of work trips.  My first trips out of Canada in 3 years!  And then not just one trip but three trips in a row, so there’s not been much time for anything else.  But today I’m joining in with NEW Release items from The Cat’s Pajamas for April, and they’re so fun and uplifting!  

I’m bringing you two designs today, beginning with this dreamy one called Catch my Drift.  The balloons were such fun to colour in this vibrant colour palette.  All the colouring is done with Copics and I’ve trimmed the design out to pop up on this great stencil sponged sky and cloud background.  

I’ve accented the mini-slimline design with some of TCP’s new Black and White Spring Digi Papers, some twine and the fun patterned swirlys from the new Summer Borders Digi SVG’s.    I’ve also used the Summer Borders to create the sentiment clouds (just trimming out a portion of them to fit the card design.  A few iridescent holeless sequins accent and add some sparkle.  

Next up we have a sweet woodland design that was really fun to create.  

This showcases the new set called Into the Woods.  I created a little scene with some of the Copic coloured elements from the set, placing the woodland cuties on a woodgrain heart.  I was in need of some more Birthday designs so I used a sentiment from an older TCP set that had a nice curvy shape.  

I’ve accented the design with cut greenery using the new Button Flower Digi SVG. Tucked behind the main scene they add to that fun forest feel against the pretty woodland patterned paper (Melissa Lowry).  They’re such cuties!  

Here is a peek at the New Release Items I’ve used today....

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Spring into TCP this April!

Garden Gate with Natural Beauties

We’re so delighted to welcome you to the Spring Fling at Power Poppy!  The next five days the Bloom Brigade is going to wow you with 8 new release sets in polymer that we think are really going to knock your socks off!  Marcella has really stretched her already amazing talent into bringing you brand new stamp designs that are so beautiful, and very unique.  

Today we bring you Natural Beauties!

I always think its fun for you to hear what Marcy says about the set, so here’s how she introduced it to us:  

"I envisioned this one as two spring borders, one a more traditional garden border (featuring Primroses (this particular species is known as Cowslips; then Daffodils, more Cowslips, and Tulips), and then another more of a woodland spring border. Well, I couldn't fit both of them on the same stamp canvas! So we have the bulb border is set up as a strip, and then the other one has been chopped into three images, but if you piece them together, they actually fit all nestled in next to one another. (Order is: Lily of the valley, then Starflower, then the Trillium with mushrooms!). Of course, you can use these however you'd like!! Use the images separately or together. Fun for little notes just to say hello! Featuring several of my favorite spring flowers.”

Now doesn’t that sound lovely?  

When I saw all the pretty stamps together I thought how much it looked like a little spring garden, and then I got thinking about how cute it would look with a little white picket fence....and then the idea of a little garden gate came to me, so that’s what I was trying to create with this design.  Come on throught the sweet little gate into my little spring garden!  

I stamped the larger single strip of the daffodils, primroses and tulips onto Copic XPress it Blending Cardstock, cut it into a card sized panel with a stitched die, and then coloured it all up with a soft blue sky with Copics.  Then I also stamped two of the smaller parts of the set separately, coloured them up and trimmed them out with a wee border.  

I found a cute little picket fence file for my Silhouette Cameo and cut the little fences out with the machine.    Next, I took a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of blue cardstock scored it at 2 3/4 from each long end to form a gate fold.  I placed my picket fences on the right and left front of the cardstock, adding my little flowers overtop and then carefully trimmed out around the image and fence on each side.  So above is the left side, and below is the right side pictured.  

Now what’s really cool is that VERY soon you won’t even have to make little cut outs around your images for a number of these sets because......<SURPRISE ALERT HERE!>  This month, Marcy is introducing some of our brand new sets with dies!!!

These will be our die offerings this release:  

Natural Beauties

Succulent Singles

Loving Tulips

Peony Muse

So, die sets will be available for pre-order when we have our Power Poppy Hop on Release Day March 14. So, stay tuned for news on special pricing if you buy the stamp set and the coordinating die as a bundle!   It’s SO EXCITING!

I also added some picket fence inside the card as you can see in these pictures above and below.  

I think it’s really sweet how it almost invites you in :)  

And here’s a bit of a closer look at the inside of the spring garden.  A sweet little friendship sentiment finishes it off.  I used a LOT of Copics for this one, too many to take a good picture, so I’ll list them for you.  

Sky:  B0000, B000, B32

Ground:  E43, E44, E47, E49

Daffodils:  Y11, Y21, Y23, Y35, YR23, YR15, YR18

Primroses:  B60, B63, B66

Tulips:  BV02, B04, BV08

Greenery:  YG21, YG23, YG25, G20, G21, G24, G28, YG61, YG63, YG67

And there you have it!  You’ll want to take a look at what the rest of the Bloom Brigade has to show off for you today with this set.  It will totally get you in ready mode for spring!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Julie Koerber
Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

Back with you tomorrow for a sneak peek at TWO more fabulous new sets!

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Garden Gate with Natural Beauties

Hop for Popcorn Love

Hi Everyone!  We’re kicking off a new challenge this week and the celebration of our Sneaky Peeks with a Blog Hop today!   It’s been a fabulous week of sneak peeks at The Cat’s Pajamas and now all of the sets and dies are available for purchase!  

You should have come from Brenda’s blog along the hop, or you can start right at the beginning at Deborah’s blog.  Either way there’s great stuff in store for you to see!

Today I’ve got a fun design to show you today that makes a really cute treat for someone special.  Perfect for Valentine’s or any day you want to show some love.  

GAH!  Who doesn’t love popcorn in a popcorn box!  Once I saw this awesome image in the Just Let it Happen Set, I knew I wanted to make a treat bag from a popcorn box.  

For the tag, I stamped the image from the set onto Neenah white cardstock and then added a wee bit of colour with my Copics.  Aren’t their 3D glasses adorable???.  I cut out the tag using the Toppers CutUps die and rounded the corners along the bottom.  

Then I used a popcorn box file from the Silhouette store, (I was so giddy when I found it!), and then stamped the sentiment on the label and added some hearts from the Small Envie CutUps die.  This die has a little different shape for the heart than the Nested Hearts CutUps.  

Some simple twine ties the tag onto the treat bag.  

Inside is white chocolate and M&M popcorn I made, which was yummy.  

I love how eye-catching the colours are, and it’s such a sweet gift! 

Now you can head on over to Nancy’s Blog to continue the hippity-hop fun!  And be sure to join in with us on the Anything Goes Challenge!  

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Hop for Popcorn Love

Sparkling Trees

Hello friends and greetings on this lovely Friday!  I have another pretty Christmas design to show off to you that’s a snap to create.  I started with the lovely Bottlebrush Holiday from Power Poppy.  I stamped it in white craft ink and embossed it in white embossing powder.  Then I took some ink and lightly watercolored the trees keeping that mono-chromatic feel to them.  Then I took my cues from the baubles on the trees and added sparkly rhinestones in the spots that Marcy drew them.  Isn’t the font for the sentiment great?  So vintage feeling.  

The papers are Bo Bunny Candy Cane Lane.  I love the bokeh effect of the background paper.  Did you know that it’s actually said “bo-kay”?  I learned that in my photography class this fall.  I mistakenly thought it was bo-kuh but I was wrong.  There’s your interesting tidbit for the day.  

For accent I wanted something really streamlined so I cut a paper bow with my Silhouette Cameo and added that to the front of the design as well as some pretty teal velvet ribbon.  

Here’s the inside with a little tree and the sentiments.  

Now some of the other fabulous girls from the Bloom Brigade are going to show off their creativity to you.  And then please jump on in and play along with us in our Power Poppy Peep of the week challenge!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Tosha Leyendekker

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Sparkling Trees

Seize the Day!

Hello Tuesday Peeps!  I’m back with another round of TCP Fun!  We’re in week two of our Sketch Challenge and I thought I’d cook another card up with this great sketch.  

If you can believe it - it was snowing here Monday.  It would all melt as soon as it hit the ground - but that’s a little nutty.  It in NOT normal for us to have temps this cold in September, in fact just two days before we had a gorgeous sunny day in the high 70’s .  So, I decided I really wanted to make a more sunny design with this card.  I began with the lovely Simple Blooms set.  

I wanted to give the silhouette images something “extra” so I after stamping the original bloom in Memento Ink (Pear Tart and Lady Bug), I added some Copic accents to deepen some of the colour, as well as some pointillism in the background to tie the blue into the design.  I also stamped 2 extra flowers to add to the design to fill in the flowers more, and those 2 extra flowers are popped up.  

I’m really sorry for the dark feeling photo - that snow today made it really gloomy here!  

I’ve put some pretty seam binding, rhinestones and then some Pool Party Bakers Twine as accent, I die cut out the sentiment with TCP’s Framed Up Die, adding some stamped leaves from the set in SU Pool Party ink.  The papers are an older pack - Basic Grey Picadilly.  

And here’s the inside of the design as well, lovely font on these sentiments too!  

Here’s what the sketch looks like to remind you.  You have one more week that you can play in the Sketch Challenge and you don’t want to miss out on the chance to win Cat’s Cash!  

Here’s the Copics I used to give it a little something more in the colouring.  

Check out the TCP Blog today to see more inspiration from the Cat Pack Kitties!  

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Seize the Day!

Gracias: Uno, Dos, Tres

On Sunday I sent a team of 22 high school students and leaders to Mexico City to work with our friends and fellow Pastor there at two Churches doing VBS.  The people there are so special to us and they really live out sacrificial love to our team when we are there, so I made a bunch of simple thank you cards to send along with the team that they can use.  I think I made 22 cards - so I chose to go with designs that were easy to replicate in multiples, and relatively flat designs that could be packed in suitcases for transport.  

This first set is done with Power Poppy’s beautiful Sassy Succulents set.  There are so many beautiful types of cactus in Mexico that I thought it would be perfect.   

I also decided to give them all a watercoloury feel stamping them on damp watercolour paper and moving the colour around with a waterbrush.  Very impressionistic :)  The sentiment is computer generated with some simple pleated ribbon accenting and tiny rhinestones.  

These next two designs were created with The Cat’s Pajamas new set Simple Blooms.  On this first geranium card I added colour to the stamp with markers and did some repeated stamping, giving interest to the design through texture and some pretty banners, pearls and lace.  

This design was also coloured with markers and then stamped, and then I added some detailing with the fine point of the markers after it had been stamped.  

Again, computer generated sentiments to match the designs and some cream lace as accent.  

All simple - but all conveying that gratitude we have for their kindness to our team.   

Here’s some fun SALE news from The Cat’s Pajamas that starts Friday... :)  

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Gracias: Uno, Dos, Tres