Ike's World Challenge Christmas in July

Nothing like last minute!  Honestly, the Ike's World Christmas in July Challenge ends in just a few hours and although I've had this cute kitty from the Kitten Kristmas set of 6 at Ike's Art for more than a week, life got in the way (besides the fact I didn't know what I wanted to do with him).

Decided on a shaker just this morning using dies from Precious Marieke, Lawn Fawn, Spellbinders, and Gina Marie and packaging from a tape roll.

Here's a closeup.  He's colored with Copics with fur detail with Prismacolor pencils.  Sorry for the short post.  Hubby is waiting for me and I haven't even taken a shower yet.  Eiyiyi!

I'm also entering him the SUYP#32 challenge, Simon Says Wednesday AG,  Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #86 AG, Aud Sentiments Christmas in July+Sentiment, Jo's Scrap Shack FFC #244 AG, the Outlawz Saturday Paper ala Mode Animals Challenge, Crafty Gals Corner #170 Christmas in July.

I'm not Fat, I'm Fluffy!

Gotta say I broke out in a HOOT when I saw the hilarious Freebie from Ike's Art on the January Challenge post at SUYP (Show Us Your Pussies, ahem...CAT'S ONLY) Challenge Blog.  "I'm not fat, I'm FLUFFY!" immediately came to mind (Jezzie tells me that all the time, and how the heck would I know since as soon as my hand goes from her head to her body, she bolts.)  The theme this month is Furrything Goes/Meuw Year and me thinks someone is contemplating a Meuw Year's Resolution...Nah!  I had a riot cutting and pasting various strips of DP and adding a few stickers to the bottom of the card from the Meow pack from Echo Park  and did I ever have fun coloring "Fat Cat" up!

Here's a closeup.  I've been doing a lot of fur practice with my Copics and really, really, REALLY wanted to fluff her out, so I lightened the digi to a fairly light gray in my Printmaster Platinum program and went to town.  LITTLE ball of fur?  Hardly, but she's purrr-fect just the way she is.  Just ask Jezebel.  

I'm also entering this in the January Ike's World AG/New Beginnings challenge, the DL.Art January Linky Challenge, Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #73 AG, the Outlawz Monday Greetings The Time After Christmas, the Outlawz Twisted Thursday New Beginnings, Your Scrapbook Place January AG, Simon Says Wednesday Use Patterned Paper and Crafty Animals #10 AG.

Hey, Mew!

Rushed to finish this for the Outlawz Paper ala Mode CAS challenge using an adorable kitty stamp called High 4 from Ike's Art.  This cutie was a freebie from last month's SUYP (cat's only) challenge and if your really hurry, you may still find it HERE.  Ike is so generous with her fabulous images and provides a freebie for both her Ike's World challenges AND SUYP.  I already had this image printed on a very old freebie background from Tiddly Inks to enter in SUYP, but hadn't managed to color him up yet.  I quickly colored him with my Copics, hoping to get a reasonable amount of fur texture and then went hunting for a sentiment stamp since the card was already cut to size.  No luck so I resorted to hand lettering...shudder!  Not great, but not too bad and that made it one layer. Yay, me!  

Oh, and BTW. Just thought I'd mention that Ike's Art is having a 50% off sale for the whole month of July, so you might want to check out her newly revamped store, that now offers instant downloads.  WooHoo!  No waiting.

I'll be adding this to the SYUP (cats only) July Furrything Goes Challenge, the Ike's World AG challenge w/optional twist Relax, Your Scrapbook Place July AG using sponsor image, the DL.Art July Linky Challenge, Crafty Animals July #4 AG, 2 Crafty Critter Crazies #4 AG, Craft Rocket #39 AG, Animal Friends #52 One Layer and Tuesday Throwdown #351 One Layer.

Happy St.Cat-rick's Day

Really, really, REALLY busy day today.  This is my THIRD post.  (Yea, ME!) Please scroll down for the others.

You know I love playing in the (SUYP Cat's Only challenge) and the March theme is AG (with cats, of course) or St.Cat-rick's Day.  Of course I couldn't resist the latter, especially since Ike provided us with this fabulous fur-eebie, complete with sentiments.  WooHoo!  Kind of a simple design with shamrock digi paper from AMBillustrations and a striped piece that was laying on my desk. I added one of Ike's sentiments and some glitter shamrocks because he looks like he's feline lucky.  LOL

Here's a closeup of this handsome guy.  I've been practicing fur and tried to add texture with only my Copics this time.  (Okay, there's a teeny bit of pencil here and there, but the majority of him is marker's only.)  I have a bad habit of putting multiple images on my page before printing and when I went to cut him out with a die, there wasn't room.  GGGrrr!!!  Of course I could fussy cut, but I wasn't up for tackling the whiskers so I decided to color a rug under him.  At first I only had the 3 colors of green and it looked really sucky, but after pulling out the pencils and drawing in what is supposed to be a rag rug design, I thought it wasn't half bad.

Thanks to Ike for her generous gifts of fabulous freebies (you can find more on her Ike's World Challenge, and also on the Ike's Art Fan Page.)  Love, love, LOVE them, especially her KITTIES!

I'm also entering this in the Ike's World AG /optional Over the Rainbow challenge, the Outlawz Festive Fridays St. Patrick's Day theme (close enough, LOL), Lil Patch of Crafty Friends #53 AG, Glitter and Sparkle Use Some Green and Simon Says Wednesday A Bit O'Green. 

Season's Eatings

Okay, I'm not even going to tell you what it took to upload these pix to my computer from my phone because my camera wouldn't load into my dropbox, but it suffices to say that I got NOTHING done today except for this card.  I'm new to smart phones and the actual phone service is hit or miss in my home because we're in some sort of dead zone, so you can imagine I don't use it much, but seriously?  Am I just too old to figure this stuff out in a timely manner? (End of rant, now on to my card)

Speaking of timely, my plan was to use this adorable image, Turkey Dinner, a freebie from Ike on the Ike's World challenge blog, as a Thanksgiving card but it got a bit lost in the queue so I added a wreath made from some of that Tim Holtz wired greenery, added perfect pearls gold berries and a ribbon and VOILA!, a Christmas card.  As a kid, we always had turkey for both Thanksgiving AND Christmas, so it works for me.  I still managed to keep the color scheme as orange green and brown to just slip this in the DL.Art Thankful Thursday color challenge as well, so all was not lost.  Okay, so there's not a lot of orange, but I think the carrots will do here, as had I finished it before Thanksgiving, I would have added DP with a bit more of it.

Turkey Dinner cames as a no background png so I was able to use digital paper from Gecko Galz that reminded me of fancy dining room wallpaper.  I've colored the image with Copics, and added quite a bit of shading and fur detail with Prismacolor pencils and some silver gel pen on the fork.  He looks like my Goliath, don'tcha think?

Of course I'm adding this to the new SUYP (Cats only) Krimbo Kitties Challenge, and also the Outlawz Twisted Thursday Christmas Card Challenge too.

Cat Lover's Blog Hop Day 4

Okay, this is getting serious!  I'm behind in my DT work but all I can think about are KITTIES!  So here's a quickie post and a fast tag.  Thanks, KT for reminding me that I have Halloween Bingo cards. The hilarious image is #627 Franken Kitty by Sandra Caldwell.  I've added 2 sticker borders and a little sentiment from Authentique, and some ribbon from stash that I seemed to mostly cut off in my pic 'cause I'm in a hurry. 

Here's a closeup of #627 Franken Kitty, just one of the adorable kitty digis Sandra has in her Etsy Shop for every occasion.  He's colored with Copics and cut with Spellbinders Deckle Rectangles and inked with Black Soot before removing from the die.

Having way too much fun at the Cat Lover's Hop at Her Peaceful Garden.  Hope to finish many more projects when I'm done with my DT stuff that's due TODAY (and I haven't even finished coloring)  YIKES!  I'm also entering this in the SUYP Meowloween Challenge and Simon Says Wednesday ATG.

Cat Lover's Blog Hop Day 2

It's day 2 of the Cat Lover's Blog Hop and I gotta say I was totally unprepared for this. I blew off the weekend as far as crafting went and now I'm in a bit of a crunch, but I'm having SO MUCH FUN seeing all the fab kitty creations and bonding with my kitty loving friends.  Don't know if I'll be able to create every day, but I will still be around visiting those who do.  Thanks again to Janis at Her Peaceful Garden and her wonderful array of sponsors for this event.

Today we're celebrating Meowloween with the fab fur-eebie from Ike (also a CLBH sponsor) at SUYP  where, of course I'm entering the current challenge as well as Spooky Love at Ike's World Challenges.  I thought this kitty needed a little friend so I added Zombie Rat, part of the Zombie Pet Shop collection from Ike's Art (although I don't see it in the shop at the mo).  The digi paper behind is called Pumpkin Patch from Gecko Galz (I used it before and couldn't remember the name) and the sentiment is also digitally added.   I've colored mainly with Copics but a good deal of shading and fur detail was done with Prismacolor pencils and followed the Tuesday Color Challenge Tic Tac Toe with Twist (add a pumpkin) diagonal from top left.

Princess Judy, I think Goliath liked the kitty mummy on your first card today so he went about creating his own costume.  He might need some help trying it on, though.

#623 Miss Strange Kitty

Told ya I'd be back.  Here's the second new release I'm showcasing today for the fabulous Sandra Caldwell.  Meet #623 Miss Strange Kitty.  EEEK!  Halloween AND kitties!  Be still my heart.  She does look a bit disturbed.  I think her friends are driving her batty.  I rarely color animals in colors that don't occur in nature but she sort of begged for it, don'tcha think?  Had a ball creating a night sky and found the purrfect star and moon DP that brought out her complexion.  The cool sentiment is a sticker from JoLee's and I've added one rogue epoxy bat to the corner.

Here's #623 Miss Strange Kitty's Glamour Shot.  LOL  Gotta say I was thrilled that the purple photographed well.  I did add quite the combo of V and RV Copics (too many to list, and I never keep track anyway, sorry) to keep her from just looking blue to the camera.  The majority of the brights are from the fluorescent range of Copics (including the darkest purple) and are fun to work with, especially for Halloween.  Bwa hahaha!

Check out Sandra's Etsy Shop (babycakednd) to see all the new stamps (it's a double release) or get a sneak peek on the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans FB page to see some cool projects with what's coming up today.  Be sure to scroll down to see the other kitty I'm showcasing today, too.

I'm entering SUYP #10 (Cat's only Challenge)  Furrything Goes, DL.Art September Linky party, Your Scrapbook Place ATG and The Outlawz Monday Greetings ATG Challenge.

Doin' the "Happy Dance"!

Remind me next time I do a card specifically with a number of challenges in mind how long it takes.  I'm a slow crafter anyway, and fitting in two themes AND a sketch about did me in.  But YEA me!  I (HOPE!) I managed to sneak this in the Outlawz Festive Fridays for International Dance Day using the sketch from the Outlawz Wednesday Sketch challenge and used a KITTY with a friend (oh, crap, he's not furry, he's feathery, but it's Ike's Birthday so I'm sure she'll let it slide.) for the SUYP (cat's only) May Furry Friends Challenge.  Phew!

Here's the sketch.  Normally I get all caught up with following it EXACTLY which is why I usually avoid them.  Actually, I almost gave up on it because the circle was pretty darn big, but I summoned up the cajones to turn the whole thing counter clockwise a notch, so there ya go.

The Kitty is a new image from BlooFOU which is the even quirkier (is that even possible?..YUP!) new range by BloobelStamps.  Right now he's in a 3 stamp group called Cat Pack 1 on Etsy.  He's colored with Copics and Prismacolor pencils.

His birdie friend is actually a rubber stamp (don't faint, I actually used one of my rubber stamps instead of just sniffing it) by Bloobel sold exclusively through Joggles.  These are equally hilarious and I was thrilled I managed to stamp it (with Memento Ink) cleanly on the very first try.  WooHoo!  He's also colored with Copics with a bit of shading from pencils, as well.

So here's the card in action.  Too bad I can't figure out how to upload a video with my camera, and no, I still don't have a "smart phone" so this is the best I could do.  The critters are mounted on an Action Wobble so they really do the "Happy Dance".  Now I'm doin' the "Happy Dance" 'cause I'm finally done and it's Wine o'clock.  Ta!

I'm also adding this to the DL.Art May Linky Challenge, Inspiration Destination ATG, AI Creative Critters and the Aud Sentiments Animals + a Sentiment.

Rainy Day and Mondays Always Get Me Down

I don't get to play in Ike's World Challenges nearly as much as I'd like, but when I saw the theme, Rainy Days, and the fabulous Freebie, Tatty, Wetty Kitty, that Ike so generously supplied for this challenge I KNEW I'd be coloring him up.  

I laughed out loud when I saw him because he reminded me of my Goliath and his reaction to rainy days.  We've managed a few late rains in our drought stricken CA, and the kitties have been less than amused.  Goliath tears out the back door and stops dead in his tracks when he realizes what's going on.  Then he begs to come in and runs to the front door.  You see, he figures that the weather out there is somehow different.  UUUhhh...NOT!  He peers out and looks at me like, "WTF?" and in he comes again.  One more door to try.  He's sure it's not raining out the garage.  Out he runs, but I leave the garage door open a tad, and the door out to the garage slightly ajar, because I'm tired of this game. Sure enough, in minutes he's back in looking totally annoyed and confused.  So you can see why I go such a kick out of this poor bedraggled cat with his umbrella head gear.  Wonder where I can get one, by Friday, in fact.

I made the card CAS because the image deserved top billing. The digi paper is from AMBillustrations. 

Here's a closeup of the fab image.  He's colored with Copics with fur detail from Prismacolor pencils.  I hope I captured the "tatty, wetty" look.  LOL  The sentiment was purrfect and comes with the image.  Ike's SUYP (cat's only) challenge this month is Furrything Goes, so of course I'm entering there, as well.  Ike is so generous with her freebies and offers one for each challenge so if you've not visited them, you surely must.  You can check out more of Ike's fabulous designs HERE.

I'm also entering this in the Outlawz Monday Greetings Cards Furry and Funny Challenge, Incy Wincy Designs Inspired by a Book, Song, Movie (the song Rainy Days and Mondays), Creative Moments ATG/Make it Funny, The Mod Squad Water, Water Everywhere, the DL.Art Thankful Thursday Water Challenge, TTRCD April 19th-25th ATG, Quirky Crafts It's Raining Cats and Dogs and the DL.Art April Linky Challenge.