Modern Cats

Happy weekend everyone!  I am continuing my way through the level 2 classes for the Altenew Educator Certification program.  I have been learning so many new things.  It's awesome!

The class I just completed is called Color With a Twist.  It is taught by the fabulous Therese Calvird.  I love watching her videos!  I decided to base my card on two of the lessons I liked the most.  Die cutting in an unusual way and using an unusual color combination.  I thought both of these would be perfect for getting me outside my usual comfort zone.  Let's start with a picture of my finished card and then I'll take you through my process.

As you can see from the picture, I chose to use a shade of orange and blue together.  I think the only other time I have used these two colors together is for a sports themed card!  The two specific colors I used are Autumn Blaze and Starlight.

I started off with a vertical, top fold A2 sized card base made out of 110lb Neenah Solar white cardstock.  I laid the sitting cat stamp from Modern Cats onto the card base where I wanted it.  Then I played around with square dies until I found the right size.  I used a 2 3/4" sqaure die in this picture but I think the 2 1/2" sqaure from the Halftone Squares die set is a better fit in the end.  I laid the square die over the edge and taped it in place.  I also used the coordinating yarn ball die from the Modern Cats die set but I forgot to snap the picture with it in place.  I ran it through my die cut machine.

Next I brought in the Sqaure Weave Pattern stencil.  I opened up the card base, masked off the card above the fold and taped it down to my work surface.  I then went over the stencil with a blending brush and Starlight ink.  You'll see in the picture that I have areas with lighter and darker ink blending.  This was intentional to add more interest to the background.

I removed the stencil and went to give it a quick wash in the sink.  Next I picked up the cat stamp and inked it with Silver Lake gray ink.  I stamped it right through the die cut opening!  I then stamped the tail/feet detail with Gray Denim and the eyes/whiskers with Charcoal Suit.

I also stamped the yarn ball through the die cut opening with Autumn Blaze ink.  Stamping through the die cut opening insures that they will line up perfectly.

I stamped the cat body again onto a piece of masking paper and cut it out.  I then laid it on top of the stamped cat image.  I took a blending brush and applied Autumn Blaze ink over the cat mask.  I concentrated the color in the center and let it fade out around the edges.

I knew where I planned to put my sentiment but I felt like it still was going to leave too much open space.  I cut three strips of paper in coordinating colors of cardstock.  One orange was cut to 1/4" wide and the second one was cut to 3/8" wide.  The blue strip is cut at 1/2" wide.  Before I added them to the card, I embossed them with a linen like texture die.  Again, I wanted to add more interest.  I will say that it made the strips look a little wavy but I'm totally ok with that!  I adhered them to the card and cut off the excess.

I stamped the "cat people" sentiment with the Starlight ink onto a white rectangle 2" wide by 1" tall.  I then took the ink pad directly to the paper to add color and interest to the edges.  I mounted this onto an orange piece of cardstock just a 1/16th of inch bigger.  I added foam tape and adhered it to the card.

For the final bit of interest I added glitter dots from my stash in orange in blue.  These particular ones are from Echo Park but I don't think they are available anymore.  However, the tangerine and blue jean glitter dots from Doodlebug will work perfectly as well!

This card is definitely outside of my normal wheelhouse but I love the challenge!  I hope you like the results.

Until next time!
~Kristina

Supplies used:

Neenah Solar White Shop at: SBC	Therm O Web Foam Tape Shop at: SBC	Altenew Warm & Cozy mini ink cube set Shop at: Altenew	Altenew Deep Blue Seas mini ink cube set Shop at: Altenew
Altenew Modern Cats stamp & die set Shop at: Altenew	Therm O Web Masking Magic Sheets Shop at: SBC	Altenew Gentleman's Gray mini ink cube set Shop at: Altenew	Altenew Halftone Squares die set Shop at: Altenew
Doodlebug Design Tangerine Glitter dots Shop at: SBC	Doodlebug Design Blue Jean Glitter dots Shop at: SBC	Square Weave Pattern stencil Shop at: Altenew