Cat Cards

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.” Leonardo da Vinci  

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” Charles Dickens

“There are two means of refuge from the misery of life — music and cats.” 

Albert Schweitzer

“No matter how much the cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens. ” 

Abraham Lincoln

The stamp and paper are from Washi Accents in Atlanta.

 

I could not resist the background paper to finish this simple card.

The cat is from Magenta Style stamps.  

I do not own a cat, but I enjoy making cards for the several cat lovers I know. Because I do not have my own words to describe life with cats, I chose to share words from great minds. For this blog, I guess you could say "the cat's got my tongue". 

Process of a Card

Inspiration or intention. It's what drives the creative process. Sometimes I need to make a birthday card, and sometimes I want to try a new technique. Today's post is all about inspiration. On Sunday one of my cards was featured on Kathy Racoosin's blog The Daily Marker. Thank you, Kathy! She highlighted so many beautiful cards from her fourth 30 Day Coloring Challenge, that I am inspired to keep coloring every day, try a few more new techniques, and when I can, put some extra time into making special cards.  

I colored these leaves with the intention of them being the background for the flowers –
like greenery in a floral arrangement. I added other leaves, too, but ended up not liking the background, so I cut out the blue and green ones. 

I heat embossed the flowers with clear powder on watercolor paper,
and I used a water brush with my watercolor pencils to color them.
I added the blue background to make the outline easier to see when I cut them out.
Plus I was just having fun with the water brush! 

Because I saw several pretty cards with details and layers on The Daily Marker blog,
I was inspired to spend some time getting this one to look just right.

Stamp Credits: leaves by Impression Obsession; flowers by Stamp It!; flower pot by Stampin' Up. 

Gyotaku Card Almost

Gyotaku is the Japanese name for "fish rubbing" or the art of fish printing. The surface of the fish is covered with ink or paint. A piece of paper is then placed over this inked surface and gently rubbed, thus transferring the ink from the raised surfaces of the scales and fins. The earliest known example dates from 1862 when a Japanese lord had prints made to preserve the image of several prize catches. This stamp image by Fred B. Mullett is what a Gyotaku print would look like.

When I met my husband he had a full size Gyotaku of a red drum fish framed and hanging in his living room. It's hanging in our living room now. Why am I telling you this? Today is his birthday and this card touches on just about all his "favorites": It's (sort of) a Gyotaku; it's a rockfish (which he used to fish for in Virginia every December); it's on paper I bought at the Japanese festival in St. Louis (his home town); and I made it. 

Happy Birthday, dear Robert, happy birthday to you!

Local King Turtle Card

 Three more days. That's all. This weekend I will be at the Heirlooms Production craft show in Lawrenceville, Georgia working with Local King Rubber Stamps. For two days I will be telling and showing people how much fun it is to create cards with their unique stamp sets, dies, and backgrounds. The images are crisp with a single color ink, but they transform when colors are blended. No two stamped images look the same. Love it! 

Watch Local King Rubber Stamp's Youtube video on coloring with markers. 

The matte coated paper from Marco's Paper takes color well
and gives the images a nice finish. 

  

The matching die set is in my future.  I just know it.