Stick It Down DT Layout for December

Hi Lovelies!

 

I did an oopsie and just discovered this post didn't autopublish! 🤦🏼‍♀

Anyways it's the final sketch challenge over at Stick It Down for 2020!  How did we end up in December?  For some reason this year has flown by so quickly!  

I know it sounds nuts, but it's just the way it is for me!

For this sketch, I flipped it over on its side once I picked three photos.  I had a set of four of Fitzy grabbing a pawful of diecuts, shove them in his mouth and start to eat them! I literally had to fish them out of his mouth!

I LOVE colour and the grey cat on a brown sofa in the pics was just meh so a riot of colour was the very thing!

I think I was still on a craft cat vibe so I was thrilled to be able to use this amazing paper from Paige Evans' Whimsical collection.  I have previously fussy cut an entire sheet, but I wanted to be able to use it on a layout too and show off all those little crafty images.

I added a large vertical strip in a contrasting colour (a navy from Page's newest collection (Go the Scenic Rout).  The colours of the two go really well together. 

I decided to stick with Paige's papers since I was already there and used the paper pads (they seem to be easier to come by than individual sheets here) to layer up a paper stack under each photo and a few under the title, journaling and embellie box.

A couple of round die cuts from Go the Scenic Route was a nod to the sketch's original circles and I used paper strips in two places.

 

 

I dripped some of Dina Wakely's Gloss Spray, but only some of them looked glossy.  Still, I felt the messy look added to the feel of the page

 

I found some word strips from sticker sheets, cut from paper and die cuts which related to crafting (or eating as the top right goes) since I kind of imagine Mr Fitz doing his own version of crafting.  

The coppery text of the small sticker on eating made me grabbed copper hearts and some old candy dots to finish

To make a third circle, I cur one out of patterned paper and pulled alphas from Shimelle and Amy Tangerine to squeeze the title in such a small space

Gobble Gobble Gobble

Love, and Stick It Down!

The Paper Girls Challenge #213 Snowflakes

It's been a little while since my last Paper Girls Challenge DT project, and what better theme than snowflakes.  In Australia.  In Summer.  Natch! 😂. Be sure to head on over and enter your own project!

I bought the Forever Fall collection by Simple Stories mainly for the unique colours for an Autumnal collection.  Eventually I decided the colours were perfect for TallCraftyDude's Ski Camp photos.

I'm definitely planning to try introducing some other colours in future layouts about snow camp than orange and blue, but it's a good place to start.  I stuck only with the one paper collection, which rarely happens for me!

Since there's not a lot of call for snowflake motifs in my crafting, I used a cut file.  We do get snow in our mountains and the suburb I live in is pretty inland and we get some light snow once a year or so.  It doesn't form a covering on the ground usually, but it happens.  

I backed it with vellum which was a bit of a random choice but turned out ok.  It turns out I don't have plain 12x12 vellum. Huh!  Who knew?

The year 8s at Max's school go to Snow camp and this is one of several layouts documenting this. 

Title

Not a particularly creative title, but I wanted to use the word "ski" since he chose that over snowboarding.
 

Journaling

 Yeah I smudged the ink once some gold mist fell on it! 🤦🏼‍♀️

 

Embellies

I used some stickers from Shimelle's Go Now Go Sticker book and a few chipboard and flat stickers from Amy Tangerine's Cut and Paste collection in addition to the stickers from Forever Fall...oh and a few tiny stickers from Simple Stories' current Fall collection.

Also, trying to stick anything to stitching (which is only partially finished (long and painful story!)) is a bit trial and error.  Permanent Glue Dots make it work every time! (Thanks Columbus Trading!❤️)

 

What do you do with the eleventy billion "fall" words and expressions when you say AUTUMN? I made it work here!  The arrows even look like skis!

 Carta Bella's Snow Much Fun had a cut apart sheet with some relevant words too!

 

Ski You Later

  Love, and play with The Paper Girls!

 

Cat Lovers Hop Winners are...

 

Thank you so very much to everyone.  I appreciate all your comments and will get to replying soon!

Here's the video announcing the winners (and mask info as well) 

Lots of love and way to go, winners!

Giveaway Closed and Info...

 

Thank you so much to everyone who visited my blog and played along in the giveaway!

I meant to have the results all sorted by today (Monday my time), but I'll do the prize draw on video as usual and I definitely need tomorrow (but hopefully not as long as my Wednesday) for that and to pin down TallCraftyDude to pick his favourite.

I do apologise, but I think I overdid things yesterday and am paying the price somewhat today,  I never was good at things in moderation.  Ohs well! 🤷🏼‍♀️

As I mentioned before he takes his role very seriously and will continue taking graphic design through his final two years of high school!

Don't worry, I'll spam all my socials when the winners have been drawn!

Until then,

 

Love, and Kitty Kisses!

Cat Lovers Hop Project #7 Costumes for the Unsuspecting Cat

 Hello Lovelies

I kind of fell off the wagon a bit with projects. Yet another weather change had my at the mercy of my defective body!  The giveaway doesn't close for another 36 hours, so I will take you back to the Cat Catwalk for one last project.

The others I might have to do (just for fun) over the coming weeks.  Buoyed by the success of the neckwear, this is how I imagined things would turn out:

What I actually got (Fitz then Pheephs):

 

I failed to appreciate my secret weapon - one TallCraftyDude waving Da Bird (Mr Fitz's second favourite toy) which got distraction from what he was wearing and great poses.

Being home alone meant the photos were not going to be as good anyway for this reason alone.  The other is that Fitz's costume (while lots of fun when I saw it online (and pattern followed more or less closely)) was  sewn in a rather mad hurry since I wasn't feeling well.  I definitely know what I'd do to improve it next time (if there is one) at least.

The Great White

See how his colouring morphs from a dapper morning suit to a perfect great white shark?!  I thought for sure it would appeal to his rugged masculinity!

I tried spraying the whole elastic a dark grey, but it dried lighter so another lesson learned there.

Little Flower

I thought this was an apt choice for Miss Ophelia (aka Pheephs or PhiPha).   She didn't exactly agree.  And she was a little less polite in saying so.

Well I'll be sleeping with one eye open tonight, that's for sure!

Giveaway Prizes

🐱 Update! Since my first project (the cat masks) caused so much excitement, the three winners of the physical prizes can pick a cat fabric and I will make a mask to go with their prize (if they would like one).

Please understand that I can't do it for the electronic gift card prize, since it would mean shipping costs and the value of the gift card takes into account that I don't have to spend money on shipping.  Thanks so much!

MFT "Purr-Fect Friends" Stamp Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Davenport "Purr-fect Cat" Stamp Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat Embellie pack 

with stickers, clips and half of the Echo Park "I Love My Cat" paper pad 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Max's Choice" Bonus Prize

A gift card to the crafty store of your choice to the value of $20USD (or equivalent in your currency) to the closest denomination of card available.

Giveaway Rules

📌 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 (but before the close of the giveaway) to do this since the order changes 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

What Do You Have to Do?

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 Friday 6 November.   Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Monday 9 November so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Monday 16 November, 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)

🐈 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel - 3 entries

🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries

🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry

🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a project post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post.  Index page with links to all my projects. 

Please don't hesitate to  email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com

If you're entering the giveaway, comment below and tell me...Which style of neckwear would suit your cat's purrsonality (or a cat you know if you don't have one) Or anything else if this doesn't grab you.

 

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

 

Love and stay safe,

Cat Lovers Hop Project #6 and Stick It Down November DT Layout

Hello Lovelies

 I know some of you are here from the

Cat Lovers Hop and others from Stick It Down so bear with me!

November was my turn to be a "featured" designer on the SID sketch reveal, so mine is ready before the single page team reveals their work (typically the second week of the month).

 

I'll get onto the sketch and all that in a minute.  Before I do I want to say that while the official Cat Lover Hop is finished,  I'm still making projects since I'm not closing my giveaway until Friday, so please keep following me on m socials to get a heads up for new projects and chances to win.

OK so this month's sketch for Stick It Down's single page design team looked like this:

I never need an invitation to scrapbook cats and this one touches a little on our 'Rona experience and the story is short so I may end up writing a much longer one as an insert, but basically we didn't stockpile anything.  We just don't have that "me first" mentality. 

 Nobody was sure what would happen in the early days so I can understand to an extent.  Friends with a large family gave us some stuff "just in case".  We were able to return the favour when some of NotPinkCraftyHubster's restaurant social media clients offered to include us in their commercial orders of flour and yeast so we bought a 12.5kg (almost 28lb?) bag of flour and 500g/1lb bag of dry yeast for ourselves and the family who insisted Andrew take some stuff that they probably couldn't spare but wouldn't take no for an answer.  We knew it would be ok and it was.

Ophelia aka Pheeps aka PhiPha has mixed feelings about the relatively empty shelves and our pitiful stockpiling efforts.  No cat treats and just small quantities of staples that we have on hand anyway!  OTOH she does like hanging out on shelves so there's that!

The first thing I realised was that in order to accommodate the image with Pheephs facing to the right, I'd have to mirror the sketch.  Not a problem!  It was a pretty easy change to make.

Since I wasn't feeling 100% so I kept things simple.  I started by looking at the two covid themed/inspired collections by Photoplay.  I decided early on to fussy cut some of the rainbows to use in place of the stars since rainbows are a sort of lockdown symbol during the 'Rona (think Rainbow Trail).  I also wanted to incorporate some of the toilet paper images party because that's what everyone was hoarding and partly because I'm really an 11 year old boy trapped in a middle age woman's body and I fund stuff like that much funnier than it should be!

Next I needed paper layers.  I wanted something other than white for the background and since y Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon paper pad was nearby I grabbed one from there.  

The colours in the photo are dark and brooding, aren't they?  I wanted something bright to set them off, yet at the same time keeping that feel.  Late Afternoon was doing that for me, but I needed something to bridge the gape between it and the very cartoony any lighthearted Photoplay.  Shimelle's woodgrain from Never Grow Up was perfect.  I wanted a woodgran anyway as a nod to the wooden shelves.

In the end, other than the rainbows and some fussy cut TP and word motifs, I didn't end up using the Photoplay,  It's OK cos it was part of the overall process.

The rainbow paper in the background and the actual rainbows made me want to make a stack of photo mats in the rainbow colours!  And a fat stack it was too, but I love love love layering up paper!

I added an extra cluster of embellies above the pic and jornaling across the top.  I threw on a few non paper embellied and goldmist sprinkles as an afterthough.  

In the quest to find a substitute for my rapidly dwindling bottle of "Heidi Shine", I tried the Kaisercraft gold mist and so far it's the closest in colour, opacity and viscosity so I think we have a winner!

Journaling

Embellies

 

Title

 

This is How We Stockpile

 Giveaway Prizes 

🐱 Update! Since my first project (the cat masks) caused so much excitement, the three winners of the physical prizes can pick a cat fabric and I will make a mask to go with their prize (if they would like one).

Please understand that I can't do it for the electronic gift card prize, since it would mean shipping costs and the value of the gift card takes into account that I don't have to spend money on shipping.  Thanks so much!

 MFT "Purr-Fect Friends" Stamp Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Davenport "Purr-fect Cat" Stamp Set

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cat Embellie Pack 

with stickers, clips and half of the Echo Park "I Love My Cat" paper pad 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Max's Choice" Bonus Prize

A gift card to the crafty store of your choice to the value of $20USD (or equivalent in your currency) to the closest denomination of card available.

Giveaway Rules

📌 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 (but before the close of the giveaway) to do this since the order changes 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

 

What Do You Have to Do?

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 Friday 6 November.   Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone
📌 The winner will be drawn on Monday 9 November so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE
❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Monday 16 November, 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)

🐈 Subscribe to my YouTube Channel - 3 entries

🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries

🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry

🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a project post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post.  Index page with links to all my projects. 

Please don't hesitate to email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com

If you're entering the giveaway, comment below and tell me...If your cat was in charge of stockpiling for lockdown, what would s/he buy? Doesn't have to be just food!  Or anything else if this doesn't grab you.

 

Love and stay safe,