The Other Cat's Out Of The Bag

     Another cat card, again safely delivered and free to be blogged. I made this one at the same time as the Happy Birthday one but this does differ slightly.

      I started by placing the media plate on the stamp press and inking it up with Izink dye inks, three colours all blended with the brayer.
     I stamped the white card, used the brayer again, no more ink, and stamped again just to get a good covering. 
     With just a little more ink dabbed on around the edge of the media plate, using a blending egg, inking the oval was finished. The media plate was cleaned off gently with a soft cloth to remove excess ink.
 

      For this next technique the image panel must be completely dry. Using a different stencil I used Versamark to make the pattern on the media plate  and stamped this sticky pattern on to the inked oval.
     The next step was to cover the Versamark with pearl mica powder to create a pattern that will change depending on the angle of the light hitting the card.
     Using the same cat but a different greeting I stamped them onto the image panel as before and again added a purple layer between the black and white layers. Just to fix the mica I gave it a light spray of inexpensive hairspray, which doesn't seem to affect the ink or stamping.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:
Crazy 4 Challenges - Ombre   (W)

My Time To Craft - Stamped Background   (F)

Seize The Birthday - Birthday   (F)

Show Us Your Pussies - Cats Only   (M)

The Cat's Out Of The Bag

    This card has been delivered so now I can blog it. It was made using John Nextdoor's media plates which I absolutely love playing with.

     I started by placing the media plate on the stamp press and inking it up with Izink dye inks, three colours all blended with the brayer.
     I stamped the white card, used the brayer again, no more ink, and stamped again just to get a good covering.   
     With just a little more ink dabbed on around the edge of the media plate, using a blending egg, inking the oval was finished. The media plate was cleaned off gently with a soft cloth to remove excess ink.

      Then using a stencil over the media plate I used a blending egg to add colour to it.
     The stencil was removed and the pattern on the plate was then stamped onto the previously inked oval.
     Once dry I used a cat silhouette stamp by Lavinia Stamps  and a greeting from Woodware to finish off the image panel. A stamp press is a must for silhouettes, it rarely works well the first time so being able to stamp more than once in exactly the same spot is fantastic.
     Once the image panel was dry I matted and layered it with a hint of purple between the black and white before mounting it on a white card blank.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crazy 4 Challenges - Ombre   (W)

My Time To Craft - Stamped Background   (F)

Seize The Birthday - Birthday   (F)

Show Us Your Pussies - Cats Only   (M)

Jake and Elwood Play The Male Room

     The new theme at The Male Room is 'Inspired by a film title'. This was made with a friend in mind, his birthday isn't until October but there's nothing wrong with getting ahead, or two.
     I had a stamp for the glasses, although I did have to colour in the lenses to make them sunglasses, but I had no stamp for the hat. A quick look in the stash and I found some thin foam sheet, I drew a hat and cut it out. With a glue stick and my stamp press I put the cut foam on the lid and stamped my card, the best thing I have found with a stamp press is I can go over the image again in exactly the same place, perfect for silhouettes as they don't always come out first time.
     After stamping the hats and glasses I changed over to using a media plate to get the rectangle. Using red, yellow and blue inks I brayered the media plate and stamped on my card, twice to get the best coverage. To add a little interest to the edges I stamped a few music notes around in black.
     I wanted to mount this image panel on a black card, so I used a white one and covered it with thin black card, wrapping the black over the folded edge by about half an inch to give a better finish.
     Before sticking the panel down I stamped over the black with a music stamp and white ink, just to lift the colour and draw attention to the plain black of the hats. A little touch to the glasses with a white pen and a small die cut greeting in black and white finished it off. Now all I have to do is put it somewhere safe until October when The Blues Brothers will play again.
     Please come and join us at The Male Room, any masculine project that follows our theme of film title inspiration.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Everybody Art Challenge - Birthdays   (M)
Try It On Tuesday - For The Boys   (F)
Unicorn Challenges - Masculine   (M)

The Male Room Toddlers

     This fortnight at The Male Room we would like to see projects for little boys, it doesn't have to be a card, it could be a gift box or maybe a scrapbook layout.
     I chose to keep my card quite simple, with a stamped design. The balloons were stamped twice so I could cut out the two closest ones and mount them on foam pads. The parcel is paper pieced, with the side coloured grey to make t darker.
    The tag is stamped and die cut with a mini tag die I got in a free magazine gift set, coloured with a little Distress Ink before being taken out of the die, this is also mounted on foam pads.
     The card isn't completely flat but it's still thin enough to qualify as standard post. The marker pens came through on the inside so I have added an insert to mask this.
     Please come and join us at The Male Room with your 'little boy' projects, we also have a design team call running so if you would like to join our team just put DT after your name when you link up.

I would like to enter this card in the following challenges:

Crafty Cardmakers - For A Man or Boy   (F)
Dream Valley - For A Man or Boy   (F)
Stamps and Fun - Balloons   (F)
Papercraft Challenges - Children   (F)

House Of Cards End Of Term Blog Hop

     Welcome to our End Of Term Blog Hop at House Of Cards, full hop details are a little lower down the page.
     We have two lovely sponsors for our hop this time so I have used a flower corner from DigiStamps 4 Joy and a butterfly with sentiment from MHK Designs. Using my photo software I arranged all the digi's to fit on a tag, as we are a card blog I have turned that tag into a card.
     The image panel has been coloured with a mixture of alcohol markers, Distress Inks and foils with a little crackle effect added with a rubber stamp. I printed two panels so I was able to cut the butterfly out of the second one and stick it over the flat one, gluing the body only so the wings lift up.
     Alcohol markers soak into the card and show on the reverse so the 'tag' was stuck on to some heavy card folded in half to make a traditional card blank, trimmed to shape the base card now resembles a tag. The hole was punched in just the front of the card with a mixture of twines added.
     Please come and join our hop, there are prizes to be won, the only difference is this hop runs for two weeks, not the usual month. We also have a Design Team call as some of our lovely ladies are moving on to pastures new, we wish them luck and thank them for all their hard work.

Flower Corner

Butterfly Wisdom

I would like to add this card to the following challenges:

Crafty Creations - Anything Goes   (F)

The Paper Shelter - Flower Power   (W)

Pause, Dream, Enjoy - Flowers   (W)

     You should have arrived here from  Michele's Blog. 

 This hop will run FROM JUNE 1ST AT 6:00 AM CST THROUGH JUNE 15TH AT NOON CST,  ANY CARD STYLE is welcome and we've got a gorgeous photo inspiration for your crafting enjoyment!

Here are all of our fabulous sponsors.

Our team will be using a variety of products

from these amazing companies!

MHKDesigns

Prize: Any three products of your choice!

2 Prizes - 2 Digis Each

Your next stop will be  Rosi's Blog

Make sure you leave a comment at each person's blog along the way because the prizes are hidden and we'll be doing random drawings from the blogs where they are hiding! :)  After you're done, make a creation to share with us at House Of Cards for another chance to win!

Powertex Dark Materials

     A local friend has just become a Powertex tutor and I was one of the lucky few to be invited to play with this amazing product. There aren't any run through pictures for two reasons, one is I was so engrossed in playing I totally forgot and the other? even if I had remembered, my hands were so mucky I couldn't have held a camera anyway. Don't worry it's all water soluble, I went home nice and clean.......ish!
     We started with a canvas board and some natural fibre fabrics, the Powertex soaks into natural fibres but it's not so happy with synthetics. Each piece of fabric was massaged with the product, then we painted the boards and began to assemble the fabric. It's hard to believe that this fabric will dry as hard as rock.
     With the addition of a few buttons, beads and MDF shapes the project took shape, quite literally. All the odds and sods can be stuck on with the Powertex, no need for extra glue. With a little gentle heat from a hairdryer, a heat gun is too hot, it was ready for me to add colour.
      We used some mica powders mixed into a tiny bit of varnish and then applied it by the dry brush method, this is something I need to practice I think.
     My head is spinning with ideas for Christmas, I can't wait to start playing with fabric for ornaments. We started on board just to get the feel of the product but there are so many other possibilities.
     Please come and join us at Altered Eclectics with your mixed media projects, anything but cards and ATC's. You have a whole month to create something to show us.

I would like to enter this project in the following challenges:

Crafty Gals Corner - Anything Goes   (F)
A Bit More Time To Craft - Anything Goes   (M)