Snarky Cat Valentine Cards

There sure is a whole lot of dust on this blog. I have been busier than ever since Creativation in January...just swamped. I had to make time to get my Valentines finished though, or I would have been  in deep you know what with a lot of people, especially the Hubs who is a Valentine baby. Tim Holtz's Snarky Cats from Stamper's Anonymous, made a slew of these so easy to make, and SO SUPER FUN, especially with his Snarky Big Talk Stickers ! I am in love with these fat little critters, and each has a unique personality that just makes me chuckle! So here they are (pics are a little fuzzy, sorry), and in a very short post as per my usual. Enjoy!

Using the Stamp Platform, I stamped the cats in Jet Black Archival from Ranger, and heat embossed with Clear Embossing Powder. I stamped the sentiment in Picket Fence Distress Ink and heat embossed with white powder.

I used Wendy's Stay-tion to hold Tim's Heartstruck Layering Stencil in place while I inked over it using Aged Mahogany (My absolute favorite color!) Distress Ink. I trimmed these into two pieces and used them for a border on the cards.

I free hand cut hearts, and used a craft knife to cut slits around the paws of the cats and slipped the hearts in with a little Distress Collage Medium.

I added the stenciled paper and a strip of black cardstock to the cards and stitched around the other end. I colored in portions of the cats with Pitt Pens and a white gel pen, and then added the Snarky Big Talk Stickers, the sentiment, and another sentiment I made on the computer. Then I attached the card fronts to a layered card base. These were so so simple and easy to make.

Supplies: 

(Craft Sheet, Embossing Heat Tool, Paper Trimmer, Stamp Platform, Stay-tion, Scissors, Craft Knife, Self Healing Mat)

-Ranger Surfaces- Kraft Cardstock, Black Cardstock

-Burgundy Cardstock

-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Stamp Set: Snarky Cat, Crazy Talk

-Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Picket Fence, Aged Mahogany, Brushed Corduroy

-Ranger Embossing Powder: Clear, White

-Sakura Gelly Roll: White

-Stamper's Anonymous Tim Holtz Layering Stencil: Heartstruck

-Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Collage Medium: Matte

-Two-Sided Tape

-Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Big Talk Snarky

-Computer Generated Sentiment

-Faber-Castell Pitt Pens

Thanks for stopping by everyone, and I truly hope you have a loved filled day Friday! Until next time...
I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!

Velvet Poinsettia Pieces Christmas Cards

Happy Winter...and it's my Anniversary too, so I'm making this one short! Here is my last Christmas card for the year, and it was easy, yet hard...lol...to make.  I'll explain below. I love poinsettias though, and was so happy to have Tim's new Poinsettia Pieces from Sizzix. I was very happy with how this card turned out, and hope you like it as well.

I had one sheet of this velvet paper left in my stash, and I've looked for more for years to no avail, so I decided to finally use it up. I cut it in half to make two cards, and added Sizzix Adhesive Sheet to the back, and mounted them on Heavystock base cards. I also had some vintage gold looking paper that was super thin and perfect for Thinlits, even though it had this strange waxy coating. Because of the intricacies of the die and liquid adhesive hard to use...not to mention bad on velvet...I added adhesive on the back to make it easy to add to the velvet once die cut, and it really did not get thicker with the adhesive on. I laid out all three pieces of the poinsettia die as well as the smaller 'Merry Christmas' from the Christmas Ribbon Thinlit set, and since it all fit so well together, I thought it would be so easy to die cut in one pass. I also added a layer of wax paper between the dies and paper, again because of the intricacy and I didn't want any paper to stick in the die cuts. I really had my thinking cap on...I thought. So I ran it through, and just to be sure, ran it through three times. I figured the dies would just fall loose, but nope. I had to use a stylus and craft pick to loosen the pieces. I guess I did make it a little too thick, but I persevered. They came out after me being super gentle, but it just wasn't as easy as I was hoping for and took some time, but I loved the end result.

I also wanted another leaf, so I ran it through again. Then I thought it needed some berry action, so I used a few hole punches to add the circles around the flower parts. I  peeled off the adhesive protection sheet from the back and added the gold die cut paper to the velvet. It stuck okay, but had some gaps, and I felt like it would come off easily. I knew what it needed...heat. So I sandwiched it between some sheets of paper and gave the card a good ironing. The heat made the adhesive even stickier and perfect for the velvet. I learned this in high school making t-shirts with iron-ons. Now the cards were completely solid and perfect in my opinion. See what I mean now about easy yet hard?!!

And of course I thought it needed a little more. Why not? It's Christmas! So I added Tidings Stickles from Ranger around things. Finally finished!

 

 

Supplies: 

(Craft Sheet, Die Cut Machine, Kraft Pick, Stylus, Paper Trimmer, Wax Paper, Iron, Crop-o-dile, Hole Punch)

-Sizzix Adhesive Sheets

-Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Heavystock

-Velvet Paper, Gold Paper

-Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits: Poinsettia Pieces, Christmas Ribbon

-Ranger Stickles: Tidings

So I'm going to try and work on my big project this afternoon and hopefully blog it before Christmas, but in case I don't make it I wish each and every one of you a blessed Christmas or Hanukkah, and healthy and happy New Year! I hope your hands get creatively dirty soon!