Project 3 for Cat Lovers Hop using Oct CKC kit

Hi Lovelies!

Bringing you Project #3 for the Cat Lovers Hop. (Links to the first two are at the bottom of the page)

This one is a scrapbook layout as promised.  It has a bit of a back story, so bear with me!

The story begins in the Spread the Sparkle Facebook Group which is the group started by SpiegelMomScraps.  There is a challenge there at the moment to scraplift the winner of the Scrapbook Spotlight the month before.  With me so far?  OK, so for the month of October, Katie Scott is the winner with a layout featuring a large heart cut file.

Sara Scraps did what she does so well and interpreted it as a layout featuring a quilted heart.  See her process video here.  Upon seeing this, Moira O'Reilly scraplifted Sara's quilted heart.  Katie loved the quilted version so much that she went and scraplifted Moira (scraplifting her! 😂) although I can't find Katie's quilted version anywhere. 🤷

Now I had every intention of entering the scraplift challenge since I have a partial page which could work.  HOWEVER, seeing all these quilted layouts one after another was more than I could take so I had to do this version as well.  Thanks for the inspo, Sara!  You've spawned a monster I think!


Do click on the links to all three ladies' YouTube channels and watch the process videos I'm talking about. 

Now on to my version - October is a month of all sorts of anniversaries and one of which is the passing of our beloved Fossett 3 years ago.  National Black Cat Day is on 27 October (it's not Aussie, but it should be!) and sometimes falls during the hop.

I've never scrapbooked anything about the deaths of any of our cats until now.  While it's something I want in my albums, I also want scrapbooking to be a happy experience.  I'm conscious of not wanting my albums to be overly censored or sanitised either, so it;s a delicate balance.



As far as supplies go, I decided to try using my slightly enormous Counterfeit Kit Challenge Kit for the month of October. If you are not familiar with this challenge, read about it here.

The vintage vibe of the kit would work with a nostalgic story and to take things one step further, I wanted to see if I could take out one of the two monthly challenges thrown down by CKC to help use those kits.

Challenge 1 is called "Back to the Good Old Days" and is about scrapbooking how we used to.  The thing is that I don't LIKE the way I used to scrap.  I wasn't even scrapbooking that long before sort of falling out of love with it, but I didn't understand why or what was missing for me...until about 2012 when a Glitter Girl video showed up in my YouTube feed and it changed everything!!

It was the STORY and journaling which was missing.  I've not looked back since!  So how do I translate the prompt to work for me?  I thought back to when I first started scrapbooking in 2004 or 2005 and what reminded me of that time.  Supplies have come a very long way since then.  That probably also contributed to my frustration.  Even fewer supplies made their way to a country like Australia where scrapbooking just wasn't as common as in the US.  Basic Grey was one of the main brands available.

My October kit is full of Basic Grey and the majority of the papers I picked were BG (with some October Afternoon and the background is Studio Calico).  The other thing is that embellishments (and layouts themselves really) were heavily themed and very literally interpreted.  I would definitely have to pull some cat themed stuff if I wanted to reflect this since I didn't add any in the kit.  I don't always theme (mostly I don't) but sometimes it;s fun.

Both Moira and Sara used a stencil and ink (in slightly different places) so using the Dyan Reaveley stencil I'm giving away would be rather apt!  Th top two corners are a Newton's Nook paw print since the space is smaller.  I wanted my stencilling to look as though it was coming out from under the heart like Moira did.

The next important detail was that it was essential for me to stitch the squares together.  I used a zig zag which was mostly OK except when my machine had a conniption due to the unseasonably warm day yesterday when I was making this.  The white cotton isn't all that visit anyway.

The colours of the heart were based on the light blue floral October Afternoon paper.  Pink was a bit of an afterthought.  When I saw that the roses I cut from an OA paper were the best match, I added a pink mat (the reverse of the red circle Basic Grey paper) and a different shade of aqua.

I knew from the start that I wanted to use black.  Partially to offset all the colour since it's not intended to be a super cheerful story and partly because Fossy was, after all, a mini house panther!

Sara placed her photo on the right and I decided to follow her lead on this one mainly because of the direction of the photo.  I printed it with the text as is.  The picture was he one I posted on FB to announce Fossy's passing so I left it.

Most of the pages I chose were various shades of cream as was the background.  It's a patterned paper with concentric circles.  I added white cardstock, but I didn't want stark white.  The white border on the photo somehow looks OK.  It draws attention to it and the different shades of cream help it blend right in.

The extra photo mats made this layout more like my style, although I'd probably consider three as holding back!!  The busyness of the heart make a lot of embellishment rather unnecessary and even a distraction.  I added the Crate Paper cat die cut and some various word stickers from outside the kit, but I needed them to pull the layout together.  If I'm totally honest the paper I fussy cut the flowers from was also outside the kit.  The large camera sticker in the top right is from a large 5 & Dime sticker sheet that ended up in the kit by mistake.  Oh well 🤷!  The brads were from he kit (yay!) and so were those bright white enamel hearts, which I coloured black with Copic markers.

The black Thickers were from the kit and I'm always glad to get chipboard Thickers on paper.  Even new ones don't stick well so I needed Glue Dots in Mini and Micro to get them all stuck down.  I sometimes machine stitch them, but I didn't want the distraction of white thread on them.

I should have used cream alphas for the second part of the title but was almost done when I thought of it.  Nevermind!  The wording of the title itself comes from vocab used in the Chonky Cats Facebook Group, although ironically Fossy was the least chonky of all our cats.  Black cats there are known as Voids.  Cool, huh?  I like to use phrases or puns which I rearrange as needed for my titles and this one comes from the expression "a void in your heart" which is apt for this situation.


I'm actually not displeased with this layout despite the few embellishments.  I don;t actually think it needs MOAR.  I even toyed with the idea of ink/mist splatters and held back.  Whoever is holding the Mama hostage, please give her back!

Our Void - Always In Our Hearts

That's all for now!  It's a long post, so congrats on making it this far!  All I have to do is come up with my next project!  Thanks for all your comments  I always read them all and I'm working through commenting on them.

OK now to the giveaway part:

Giveaway CLOSED!

📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away (pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes.
📌For the  fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered.  You can wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.)
📌 The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice and so on.  Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project!
📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.  I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway.  This year I picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit!  In the even the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for understanding!

The prizes you get to pick from are:
This hysterical Art Impressions stamp set called "Catastrophy".  Perfect for the Spoonie stamper (or if you know one!)

There is a Dyan Reaveley stencil called "It's Raining Cats" (this one is mine, but yours will be brand new, obvs! 😉)

An American Crafts "Coloring Notebook"

Lastly, the bonus prize will be an electronic gift card to the online crafty store of your choice to the value of $20 AUD (approx $13 USD, £10 GBP, €12 Eur etc.  May vary depending on exchange rate)

You will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following.  You absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like.

If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you!  (unfollowers will not be counted)
📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Monday 28 Oct (a whole week from today).  Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Weds 30 Oct so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Weds 6 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together.
❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave comments, I have no other place to search for you.

So...what do you have to do to get entries?
🐈 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar)
🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries
🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry
🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post

I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but it will be at least three.  The more love from you guys the better the chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.

Click here for Project 1
Click here for Project 2
Click here for Project 4 

So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me whether your cats like to eat strange things (like vegies etc)... (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com


* ⬅⬅⬅ Acronyms and strange terms in left sidebar! 

Love and cuddle your kitty!