Hello friends!
The brand new Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is up, and running and this week our theme is all about FURRY FRIENDS and however you choose to show off your furry friends, we can't wait to see what you will be making when you join us for this week's fun challenge!
For my make, I chose to create a card using the Stampers Anonymous Halloween Snarky Cats set by Tim Holtz and nestled him on a branch covered in die cut leaves...but this little scaredy cat is slightly perplexed by something beside him and is wondering ~ if he plays dead, will his feathered friend decide to go away!?!?!
To begin with, and knowing that Tim was going to be launching some new alcohol inks, I felt inspired to get out some of the older colours, whilst I'm excitedly waiting for the new ones to arrive, and I would create a background for my card, using a panel of Yupo paper, measuring 10 x 13cm.
I then applied my alcohol inks to the paper, and used a combination of ~ Pitch Black, Gilded Alloy, Turquoise, Foundry Alloy, Monsoon and of course, Blending Solution to blend those colours together! I drop my inks onto the card, gradually building up the colour and this is how my finished panel looked.
I machine stitched a border around the edge of the panel and then layered it onto champagne metallic kraft stash, followed by a layer of slate card stock, which I then mounted with foam pads onto a black card blank.
I now have the base card ready to decorate and we'll start with the star of the show ~ scaredy cat!
SNARKY CAT
For this I stamped two images of my cat onto Mixed Media Heavystock card using Black Soot Archival Ink. I then coloured my cat by watercolouring with Distress ReInkers and adding highlights with Polychromos Pencils. I then fussy cut each of the images from the card. For the first image, I cut around the complete image, including the little lines around the edges of the outline. I then cut the second image but this time, I cut closed to the outline, cutting away the furry lines. I layered the second image over the top of the first with foam pads to complete scaredy cat.
BRANCH AND LEAVES
Moving onto the branch and for this I used the die from the Arthur Colorize Die Set and cut two separated layers of heavy stock mixed media card which I then sandwiched together to form one substantial, thick branch. For the final top layer, I used Woodgrain Watercolour card and after cutting this piece, I coloured the card with Gathered Twigs and then adhered it over the top of my chipboard branch. I inked the edges of the branch before attaching it to my background, placing it across the alcohol inked background using foam pads to add some height.
For the leaves, I inked some more of the mixed media heavystock card by spritzing Peeled Paint and Bundled Sage Distress Spray Stains. I used a couple of the leaf dies from the Funky Floral 3 Thinlits Die Set and cut a selection of foliage from the inked card.
After layering the pieces to form the textured leaves, I inked the edges with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and then arranged and attached them to my branch, attaching scaredy cat in the centre using foam pads.
WOODPECKER
Now comes the final little detail, hiding amongst the foliage is Woody! Yes, that gorgeous little woodpecker from the Cozy Winter Thinlits die set by Tim has made his return from hibernation and is trying to make friends with scaredy, but to no avail because this particular cat is slightly intimidated by his feathered friend.
The woodpecker is die cut, inked and coloured with Distress Inks and paints and then layered before I attached him amongst the leaves!
We're nearly there and all that's left is the finishing touches...
...underneath my cat, where he's sitting on the branch, I added some Translucent Grit Paste. This just nestles him into position and makes him grounded, so he's not floating on the branch. I then just painted over the paste, using Gathered Twigs Distress Paint, so it would be the same colour as the branch.
On the side of the card, I added two Mini Paper clips, a button which I threaded with cotton, and a red Stitched Scrap.
Finally, I stamped the sentiment, "if I play dead, will you go away?", which is from the same Snarky Cats stamp set. I stamped this onto a piece of card that I had in my stash, which was already inked and after cutting the sentiment down to size, I layered it onto a scrap of linen, frayed the edge of the linen and then stuck this to my card, placing it just underneath the branch.
So that's my card finished and I hope you love what I've made...
...as always, I hope you love what I've made, and enjoyed all the techniques I've used. If you make anything, or if you've been inspired by anything that you've seen here on my blog ~ then please, let me know by tagging me on social media or leaving a comment here and I will be right over to take a look!
Don't forget that every week, one lucky random participant has the chance to win a $25 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp and you can join in up to 5 times, which means you could have 5 chances to win. You have until next Monday at 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in and good luck....
Recipe for project:
Totally love your card and all the great techniques!
ReplyDeleteLove that Woody made a return, he is just the cutest little chirppy...and I like how you added the stitched scrap to replicate Woody's red color....awesome card!!!
ReplyDeleteSo many layers of fun! I love every detail, but especially that scaredy cat wants the woodpecker to leave him alone! Thanks so much for sharing!
ReplyDeletethat alcohol ink background is amazing and perfect for the big cat!! Great color too!
ReplyDelete