Wednesday Sketch Challenge

This week's Sketch Challenge at SplitCoastStampers was a lot of fun. I liked it a lot because it had a lot of pieces to it. Layering is one of my favorite things to do on a card. Notice I mentioned "a" card. If I am making a bunch for a swap I don't use as many layers!

I used the Stampin' Up! "Bella Bleu" decorative paper along with Not Quite Navy and Very Vanilla card stock. The image is from the "Thoughts & Prayers" stamp set and the words came from my computer. I print out a whole sheet of them in white and vanilla so I have them on hand when I need them. I didn't have any of these on hand so I had to print them out today. But now I have a bunch of them and hope not to need another one for the rest of the year.

I'll share a tip with you when I stamp images that have slid parts to them. I have found way too many times that the image didn't stamp as solidly as I had hoped it would. So now I huff on the stamp after I've inked it up and then immediately stamp it on the card stock. I stumbled on this by accident. I had inked up my image and got distracted by something and it had sat for a few minutes. Instead of re-inking I huffed on it and found that I got a very nice solid image. Then I thought it was because the ink had dried so I tried it again with fresh ink and I got the same fabulous results! So now I huff on my images when I want to make sure I will get a solid print. It's amazing that something as simple as that can make or bread an image.

Now I'm off to get my tax papers together. It's time to report sales tax to the state and I have entered nothing in all year last year. SO I will be chained to my computer in my spare time playing catch up and being grumpy because I had promised myself that I would tend to this stuff right away. *sighs*

Thank you SO much for visiting today,
Wanda

Cat Sympathy Card

If you follow Leslie's blog "Running With Scissors" you know that her post on February 7th let us all know that Marvin her cat had died. She would post little stores now and then about his adventures.

I made Leslie this card. I wanted to express my condolences. I had learned a lesson from Marvin that I think we all could take to heart. The photo you will see on the link is of Marvin with a skeleton leaf stuck on is nose I believe the original post was on January 14th titled "It Just Doesn't Matter." In her story Marvin had been outside on one of his cat adventures and came in the house with the leaf stuck to his nose. He didn't seem to care that it was there. As the title of her post stated, "it just doesn't matter." What is on the outside is and never will be as important as what is on the inside! It's a lesson we all can learn. When I read the post that Marvin had died I just cried. I don't really know Marvin, I've never seen him. I've just read a few posts about him from time to time. But being such a cat lover and having a cat that has a spirit much like Marvin it just hit me hard.

The cat image is from the "All in the Family" set by Stampin' Up! The words are from the Stampin' Up! set "Close as a Memory" and the paw print paper was designed by me!!

Good bye Marvin, you will be missed.


Thank you for visiting today,
Wanda

Here, Kitty Kitty

I LOVE cats and of course stamps of cats! I bought this set not only because of the cats on it but because one of the stamps reads "Happy Birthday from the cat." Well, I thought my son would get a BIG kick out of it if I made a card for him with this set!

Last week a friend of mine told me her cat she had for 20 years died. SO I thought I would make her a sympathy card with this set. Our pets become such a part of our family that we feel a great loss when they are gone. This was the card I made for her. I used one of my favorite card layouts. You can find the instructions for the card here. Click on January 2007 on the right side of her blog to find the tutorial. It's very easy to make. I did find a better way to do the second (larger) hole punch. You don't need to trace the circle. Just take a piece of copier paper and place it behind the smaller hole on your top piece of paper. You may want to add just a touch of tape to keep it from slipping but I don't always find that necessary. Line up your larger punch around the smaller circle, try to center it as much as possible and punch it out. A small ring of the top colored paper will pop out along with the copier paper. You are now ready to finish your card as directed in the tutorial. I find this method easier since trying to turn the paper over and line it up to trace the circle was more difficult for me.

I kept the colors a bit drab. I didn't want to dress it up too much. I used Basic Black, Sahara Sand and Whisper White card stock. It's a subtle sympathy card.

Thank you for stopping by,
Wanda