Another for the 2018 Cat Lovers Blog Hop

I'm really enjoying all the the fabulous cat projects being linked up to the 2018 Cat Lovers Blog Hop at Her Peaceful Garden and crawling a bit out of my comfort zone and trying things I don't do often (enough) like real stamping.  Yesterday was my day to stamp but I'm just getting some of the projects finished and blogged today.  Here's a tag, or bookmark, using the beautiful Star Cat rubber stamp by Lost Coast Designs, a sponsor of the Hop.  I stamped on a small scrap of digital paper from another project.  The celestial background seemed purr-fect for this kitty.  I left off any sentiment because although he looks like he's on his way to kitty heaven, I'd prefer to think he's just star gazing.

I'm also entering this in the Lost Coast/Carmen's Veranda Cats and Dogs Challenge, SUYP Furrything Goes/Meowloween Challenge,  Crafty Animals #19 AG w/Animals, the DL.Art October Linky Challenge, the Outlawz Festive Friday AG...

Steampunk Bookmark

I love books.  REAL books.  There's nothing like the feel and smell of a book and they make such fabulous gifts.  For years at Christmas I received one of the "Oz" series and I couldn't wait to crack it open and dive in.  I still own them all and the memories of getting lost in that magical world still thrill me to this day. So despite technology, I plan to give real books this Christmas with a little something extra, like this homemade Steampunk bookmark.

Again I've used the new release Steampunk Hummingbird from SCACD (also available in rubber HERE) but this time colored him almost entirely with metallic gel pens to give it a more masculine feel.  (Scroll down to see my feminine version of this stamp).  He's fussy cut, but not popped as I think when it comes to bookmarks, the flatter the better.  The DP is Crafty Chaos (unfortunately no longer in business).

I've cut the gears from several different Memory Box dies for the top and bottom (The bottom ones looked like funky Steampunk glasses to me, don'tcha think?)  This gorgeous Alice's Clock die is an SCACD exclusive.  I was basically thinking "Time flies with a good book".  Ain't it the truth?

I'm entering this in the Simon Says Wednesday ATG Challenge.

The East Wind Love Challenge

Been spending the week practicing my coloring and found some fabulous new digis at The East Wind.  This amazing gal is 'Lucy Loo' Bookaholic and I've got to say I've never had so much fun coloring hair.  (Well, of COURSE it's red.  LOL)  The very first Challenge at The East Wind Blog is LOVE so I've decided to make a "Love to Read" bookmark.

Lucy Loo is colored with Copics and fussy cut.  I decided not to pop any of the elements so as not to interfere with closing the book.  I've used Spellbinders Labels Seven to cut out the 2 small books that back the sentiment. The punched letters spelling "Read" are from Graphic 45, the text DP is from Stampin'Up.  Thanks to Vicki from the DT for turning me on to these stamps and the Facebook Group where there is lots of fun stuff going on too.  Hope to see you there.

The Octopode Factory Witches Challenge

So happy to finally play along with The Octopode Factory Friday Challenge again.  Lily's images are some of the most whimsical stamps on the net and a definite FAVE of mine.  This fortnight's challenge is Witches and I've use the newest Gloomsville witch, available separately or with the Gloomsville set for my tag or bookmark.  Kinda went all Dr. Seuss for this.  When I was considering what to do, this came to me and STUCK!  Cropped the image in my Printmaster program and of course, the words are computer generated.  Colored with Copics, inked with Distress and stamped with Tim Holtz rubber.  The twine colors match the witches.  Hope you get a kick out of it.
 

Dilly Beans Bookmarks Challenge

TGIF, y'all!  Got anything good planned for the weekend?  It's my first in 2 where I'm not scrambling for a dinner party so I'm looking forward to kickin' back.  Hear we might even hit the 60's, weather wise.  WooHoo! Maybe I'll crack open a good book.  Kinda inspired by our Dilly Beans Bookmarks Challenge.  How cold I not use Alice?  She's the very first Dilly Beans I bought and I have to say she's still my fave.  I sort of stretched her out and printed her BIG.  The original plan was to use her without a backing, but her little legs were kinda delicate so...

I mounted her an a couple of different whimsicle double sided Heidi Grace paper and used my Nesties Labels Seven to top it off with a book, complete with pages.  While walking yesterday the song "White Rabbit" popped into my head (I've got Alice on the brain at the mo) and the line "Feed your head." stuck in mine and it seemed so apropo in a reading context that I couldn't wait to include it.  (Oh crap!  Looking at this picture I realize I've forgotten to add the little white dots to her eyes to make 'em shine.  HHmmm.... Guess they're glazed over from feeding her head.)  Easy fix, but I'm not doing this over so just imagine they're there, okay?  It was a long day.

The sentiment was done with 2 styles of epoxy stickers from K&CO.  Way easier than gluing Alpha Beads and I wanted this to lay flat so as not to damage a book.

Of course you can use my bookmark the conventional way, but I thought it might be nice if she could just peek over the page so I used my craft knife with this result. Umm, maybe not.  Looks like the Queen of Hearts got to her.  Kudos to you if you made it through this really, really, really long post.  I'm feeling a bit chattier these days and somewhat closer to my former crafty self.  Gee, maybe one of these days I'll even fire up my Cricut.  In the meantime, thanks for dropping by and may I suggest popping over to Dilly Beans to feast your eyes on the fabulous inspiration there.  You'll be glad you did...promise!

I'm also entering this in the Whimsical Wednesdays Anything Goes Challenge.  So happy to see Stephanie and the crew back doing challenges and I thought this was a particularly fitting project because I met Stephanie doing an Alice project for her many moons ago.  Remember, Steph?

BBTB2 Back to School Challenge

Well, it's starting to feel like Fall around here and the kiddles are going back to school so that's the  BBTB2  theme chosen by our talented DT sister Brenda this week.  This theme isn't the easiest for me as I have no kids and it's been a bazillion years since I've been in school so I went the CAS route using Animal Kingdom and Car Decals to make a little bookmark.  I welded the shadow of the  reader to the bookmark base in DS and cut it 3 times for sturdiness.  Thought I'd add a little humor with the sentiment ( also from Car Decals) since the kids I do know stay up to all hours all summer long and sleep past noon.  First day of school is a pretty rude awakening.  LOL

Ok, so maybe it's the subject matter that makes him want to snooze.  The color scheme is one of my faves.

The style of the bookmark fits over the page like this, so I glued the sentiment on first and used a craft knife to carefully cut each letter along the slit.  I set it up in DS for the Cricut to do that for me, but I kept losing the little pieces so I decided to cut my losses and do it by hand.  The polka dot mat was done in DS by taking the original bookmark and hiding the outside contour, then pasting a resized one on top and hiding the inner contours so they would match up.  Got that?  I always wonder if I'm giving TMI.  In any case, there you have it.  My DT sisters came up with a wide variety of BTS projects so go have a look and leave them some love.  We'd also be thrilled to see your Cricut cut Back to School projects so please join us but remember to follow the rules and note that our challenges are only open for one week from now on.

I'm also adding this to the Back to School Challenge at Simon Says Stamp, Lollipop Crafts, Lexi's Creations, My Graphico and My Sheri Crafts.

The Altered Alice Week One, Chapter 16: Going Postal

The Fish-Footman began by producing from under his arm a great letter, nearly as large as himself, and this he handed over to the other, saying, in a solemn tone, `For the Duchess. An invitation from the Queen to play croquet.' The Frog-Footman repeated, in the same solemn tone, only changing the order of the words a little, `From the Queen. An invitation for the Duchess to play croquet.'

Then they both bowed low, and their curls got entangled together.


--Chapter 6, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

It's a brand new month and a brand new challenge for The Altered Alice and this month's theme is Going Postal in honor of the fab new release from Stamp Attack, our sponsor this month.  Just like the Queen's letter to the Duchess, our challenge this month is to create something with a postal theme - stamps, postcards, letters, envelopes; however you choose to interpret that.  I live near San Francisco, CA, a city known for it's tourism so I was inspired by the postcard booklets you find in shops all over the city.  Each of the cards showcases one of the new Wonderland faux postage stamps just released by Stamp Attack.

Our sponsor is Stamp Attack, a British company that is well known (among other things) for their fantastic Alice stamp plates which have sold to customers all over the world. In fact, Helena Bonham Carter, the actress who played the Red Queen in the Tim Burton Alice movie, purchased sets of Alice stamps from Stamp Attack, which were then delivered to the studio! Enabler alert: Stamp Attack offers speedy worldwide shipping for only £1 on unmounted stamp orders, so go on and check out their beautiful stamps!The winner will receive a Stamp Attack gift certificate for £13.50, which is equivalent to one of the Alice stamp plates!

   The Design Team will be showcasing the two new offerings from Stamp Attack, this lovely set of Alice faux postage and The Mouse's Tail.

Here are close ups of the postage stamped on the Tim Holtz Ideaology Vintage Shabby paper Stack and stamped with Distress Inks in Vintage Velvet, Broken China and Pumice Stone.

 

The front of the folder which holds the cards is a mixture of Stampin'Up and an unknown alphabet trimmed with scalloped scissors, and the Cuttlebug Emboss Plus Postage Stamp alphabet.

The closure is also from the Faux Postage set mounted atop a Spellbinders Fancy Label.  Tired of pix yet?  Well, hold on, I've got some more!

Here I've used the new Mouse's Tail and made a corner bookmark.  The mouse itself is a Martha Stewart punch that I doodled a bit to look more like a stamp and shaded with Copics. Alice is from the Stamp Attack Alice in Wonderland stamp plate.

It fits quite handily on the corner of your book.  No more dog eared pages, eh?  I've modified the instructions from Splitcoast Stampers HERE.  The papers are from Prima Marketing Nursery Tales.  The Nesie is Labels Twenty.

The edge is a MS punch and I've decorated the back as well.   As always, all entries that meet the challenge theme are accepted but Wonderland entries are encouraged (they get two chances instead of one in the prize drawing). Friday, June 22 is the last day to enter this month's challenge.

SOG Digi Day Early Bird Challenge

Well, now for sure there's no question how I spent my Saturday. LOL Besides the fun Some Odd Girl Digi Day event (which happens the 2nd Saturday of very month, now at the NEW SNR site) I managed to do BOTH of the challenges. WooHoo! Scroll down for the coloring on kraft challenge. WAY cool! And this is the Early Bird (announced the day before digi day) Challenge from the fabulously talented DT member Zarah, which is make a bookmark. The base of my book mark was cut on my Cricut from the Animal Kingdom cartridge. I just used the plain one and cut it twice and glued it together for strength. Then I cut a scalloped and regular circle with my Nesties and attached on either side. I colored up Sigh Mae, one of the New Releases at the Some Odd Girl Shop, fussy cut her out and popped her on the bookmark.

Here's how she looks in a book. The tiny epoxy letters (spelling "read") are from K&Co and the flower is Prima. This was so much fun to do, I'll be making more for sure. But not today, gotta get my rear in gear on DT stuff. Sure was fun to do some "just 'cause I want to" projects, though.

BBTB AK Bookmark challenge

Happy Memorial Day to you all! Hope you've got your flags flying and the weather is perfect for the kick-off to barbeque season. This week at Bitten By The Bug Regina asked us to use the Bookmark from the Animal Kingdom cartridge. We could use this cut any way we wanted so instead of choosing one of the animals I decided to use the book stack with the apple on Hello Kitty Greetings which I welded in Design Studio to the plain bookmark. I used bright primary colors and my favorite BoBunny double dot paper for the base.

My book worm is actually the caterpillar from Stretch Your Imagination with his legs cut off. I also cut off his head to reattach it at a different angle. (No I didn't torture bugs as a child, this is in the name of art. LOL) I inked and accordion folded the body and added some small pompoms, then reattached his head with some button glasses and google eyes so he'd look studious.

Naturally all of the cuts were pop dotted for dimension and I did a bit of doodling with a white gel pen. For some reason I couldn't get the flap that fits over the page to cut although it showed at least little score marks for placement (but it didn't cut those either, GRRRRRR!) The 2 small starting holes did cut however, so I ended up cutting the flap by hand with an Exacto knife. You'll be amazed at all of the adorable bookmarks my DT sisters made for this challenge so pop on over HERE to see them in all of their glory. Maybe we can inspire you to play along, or at least pull out a good book! Hugs!