Santa Cat!

Hello, Crafters.

Yesterday
morning I spent two delightful hours in a coffee shop with my daughter
just chatting, and chatting, and chatting! We will definitely be doing
this again!

I
have no idea how I finished up making a Santa Cat Card for today! 

On my
blog yesterday, I explained that I have six of the Stampin’ Up!
background stamps, three of which I’ve bought recently. 

 I was
disappointed when Stampin’ Up! retired the Designer Series Paper (DSP)
Stacks that used to be available in all the different family groups of
colours. 
 
My plan now is to create my own DSP in any colour I’m working with by
using the background stamps. 

Geraldine left a comment on my blog
yesterday and reminded me I can also use the Decorative Masks to create my own DSP. 

This
reminded me I’d also bought a pot of the Embossing Paste when I’d bought the masks, but hadn’t used I
yet!

I
collected all these products together, plus the Cat Punch, and started
playing with the Embossing Paste first.
 
Photographs 1 – 5:
To make my card, I die cut the cat from photograph 8,
using a round Stitched Shape Framelit.

I layered it onto a Soft Suede
Cardstock (CS) scalloped circle die cut with the Layering Circle Framelits. 

I
had a sheet of Whisper White CS left over from Wednesday, that I’d
stamped using the Marbled Background Stamp. 
 
I chose the sentiment from
the Snowflake Sentiments Stamp Set, inked it in Versamark, and then Real
Red Ink.

I stamped it near the bottom of the sheet, dipped it in Clear
Embossing Powder, and heat set it.

Then I adhered it to a layer of Real
Red CS, and then onto a Whisper White CS card base. 

The cat looked very
bland, so I decided to give him a Santa hat, and a boot (I should have
used two, one on top of each other, slightly overlapped!) – both from
Santa’s Suit Stamp Set, and then a bow, which is from Santa’s Sleigh
Stamp Set.

Photograph 6:
I took two pieces of acetate and punched out a cat from each of them.
 
I
turned one over so they were facing each other, and then wrote front on both of them. 
 
Obviously,
I
didn’t need two – I could use one side and flip it over and use the
other side – but having two allows me to create two cats using Embossing
Paste without having to stop, wash and dry the acetate mask before
doing the
next one.

I also found it helpful when I was looking at various layouts
with two cats, because I could sit the cats next to each other, or above, or slightly behind each other, and as close
as I wanted them, and still see them both.

Photograph 7 – 8: I created the brown cat by adding one drop of Soft Suede re-inker to some Embossing
Paste and spread paste over the acetate mask. 

I did the same with the
white cat but using white Embossing paste. I used Sahara Sand
Cardstock for both cards.

Photograph 9: I enjoyed using the Embossing Paste on the cats so I tried it on one of the Decorative Masks. 

I chose the brick design as I have an idea to sit the two cats on a brick wall! 

Note the mark a little way above the brick wall towards the left hand side! I need to cover that when I ise this piece!

Photographs 10: I took two pieces of Whisper White Cardstock, as well as one of the cat acetate masks, and on one piece, I sponged the cat using one of our Daubers and Crumb Cake Ink.

I used a very fine journalling pen to draw the cat’s face.

Photograph 11: I used the actual acetate cat I’d punched out of one of the acetate sheets, and used it as a reverse mask. 

I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with him yet.

I feel my blog doesn’t run very smoothly this morning; I feel I’ve been jumping all over the place. 

I hope you’ve been able to follow me, and rest assured, I’lll try not to play with so many different techniques at the same time again!

Until tomorrow, happy crafting.

JanB.