Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Poinsettia

Hello gang!  Last day of double posts!  For The Cat’s Pajamas Blog Hop Post Click HERE!



We’ve reached Day Four of the gorgeous new Happiest Holiday Releases at Power Poppy!  Today’s set is a stunner and I know you’ll love the inspiration from the Bloom Brigade!  



Sigh....wasn’t I right?  Isn’t it gorgeous?  This beautiful poinsettia and pomegrante arrangement will be a wonderful addition to your Christmas stamps.  I stamped the image onto XPress It Blending cardstock with Memento Grey Flannel ink to soften the effect, and then coloured it all up with Copics to match this pretty paper from Bo Bunny - Candy Cane Lane.  I’ve also added some vellum over the deep pink layer to also give it that muted effect.  


The sentiment is embossed in silver on to cool gray cardstock and then I added some pretty silver sequins, clear rhinestones and some satin ribbon.  



And here’s the lovely inside with the image stamped in Memento Lilac Posies ink and the sentiment in Gray Flannel.  Finished card is 5 x 5 inches.  



Here’s the Copics I used - you can click on it if you’d like to make it larger.  



Now prepare to be wowwed by the Bloom Brigade!  :)


Allison Cope
Christine Okken (
you are here)
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber

Kathy Jones
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

and finally our beloved Marcella!  

Tomorrow is our Happiest Holiday Release Blog Hop and all of these beauties will be available!  Hope to see you back then.

Monday, September 29, 2014

TCP September Blog Hop!


Well gang it’s been so fun hanging with you all week for the September Release at The Cat’s Pajamas!  All the fabulous sets and dies are now available in the store and we’re going to show you one more round of inspiration with this month’s great products... 

You should have come from the amazing Nancy’s Blog on the Hop....



Today also kicks off another TCP Challenge.  This one is from Julie and it’s a great blend of colours to play with.    We hope you’ll join us!  

I have a friend who was just diagnosed with skin cancer.  I’m grateful that the treatment seems straightforward and everything looks very promising.  But I know from experience, those words when you’re diagnosed never feel good.  So, I’ve pulled together this little card for her as a little note of encouragement.  



The fabulous thing about this set - Survivor - is that you can customize the ribbons for any situation.  The colour for skin cancer is black...so I’m stretching it a wee bit with the gray tones - but regardless, I know she’ll get the message.  I’ve designed this awesome Twisted Easel card with the new CutAble file from Alma.  That lady is so ingenious with her designs and it was a snap to make.  I found this great paper in my stash,  MME's - Come Away with Me, that worked great with the rust tones and deep blue.  


Here’s a closeup of the colouring.  I also used the Fancy Flip Die and Fancy Flip Frames with the card, a few faceted gems, and some copper cording.  



Isn’t that a powerful message?  I love it.  It’s a wonderful stamp set!  





Here’s the Copics I used for colouring.  



Now you can head on over to one of our fabulous Swanky Stampers of the month to see what she has in store for the hop!


Thanks for the TCP fun this week!

Frosted Gingerbread

Hello - double post today - if you’re looking for my The Cat’s Pajamas New Release Post click HERE



I think there’s something so wonderful about the smells of Christmas baking.  My kids just love it.  And we often decorate at least one gingerbread house each Christmas season.  Sometimes we’ll have another family over and just go to town on the decorating.  I’ve seen the guys try and get the “construction” all right and then let the ladies decorate :)  And everyone looks forward to the candy we’ve purchased to make it look snazzy.  The wonderful set from Power Poppy called Frosted Gingerbread is all about the warm memories of baking and decorating for the season.  

I found some pretty fabulous Pinterest inspiration on gingerbread houses, so there’s probably more gingerbread cards in the future....but today I’ll show you a very traditional one that was fun to make.  



When I was thinking about making gingerbread houses - really it’s all about that white royal icing that holds it all together right?  So I decided to stamp the gingerbread house in White Craft ink and emboss in white on Kraft Cardstock.  That way all the basic “icing” was done for me :).  Then I filled in all the colour with Prismacolor Pencils in traditional colours.  It’s so sweet isn’t it?   The sentiment is also done this way then punched with an oval punch.  


I’ve paired the design with MME’s Sleigh Bells Ring paper and some of the enamel accents from the collection (see that cute Christmas Tree in the lower right?). With a little cotton striped ribbon it’s all complete.  

There are so many wonderful elements in this super set so I know you’ll want to check out what else the Bloom Brigade has to show off.



Allison Cope
Christine Okken (you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Julie Koerber
Katie Sims
Leslie Miller
Tosha Leyendekker

and Marcy has a wonderful post on the Power Poppy Blog about her Gingerbread memories that you won’t want to miss!

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Joy to the World


Today is the day!  We’re giving you the last of the Sneak Peeks at The Cat’s Pajamas, tonight is the Pajama Party, the sets go live tonight and tomorrow we celebrate with a Blog Hop!  So much TCP goodness in 24 hours!  

Today’s sweet set celebrates this adorable penguin trio singing Christmas Carols for you.  It’s called Joy to the World.  


The guys are all ready to go door to door and sing their little hearts out.  I stamped them on Neenah White cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black ink and trimmed them out.  I found a fun new paper pack, MME Joyous that I paired them with and gave them colour with Copics.  They’re so cute aren’t they?

The sweet treble cleff and music notes are found in the set as well and I stamped them on the green card stock.  


A few buttons, twine and velvet finish it all off.  


And here’s the inside of the design using our new Fancy Flip Frames die for the sentiment.  




Here’s the Copics I used.  And below is the preview of the die I used and this adorable set.  



I’ll have another sample to show you from this set at the Pajama Party at SplitcoastStampers  that my son says is his favourite, I hope you can come!  Here’s your invite:


And don’t forget that you can get chatty about this set or anything else at the SCS Forum and Alma chooses chatty people to win each day!  It’s our In it to Win It thread and it’s fun!  


Here’s the other members of the Cat Pack showing off Joy to the World Samples today:  

Christine (you are here), Lori, Nancy, Noelle, Wendy

Hope you can come back tomorrow I have another great TCP design that has a really cool fold to show off in the Hop.  Thanks for dropping by!  

Joyful Arrangements


If you’re looking for my The Cat’s Pajamas New Release Click HERE



It’s day 2 of fabulous new Christmas goodies from Power Poppy!  One thing that I really love about Marcy is her talent for hand letter something to make it so very special.  This set really showcases her amazing lettering abilities where the words take center stage!  It’s called Joyful Arrangements and I completely love it!  


I knew I had to play with this stamp first.  I love how the letters are ecclecticly formed into something beautiful.  For a change, I stamped the image with VersaFine ink onto watercolour paper and took out my Derwent Watercolour pencils to play.  I seem to be in this soft blue/green/pink color palette lately, and I found these great papers to match at the store from Bo Bunny - Candy Cane Lane.  

I die cut out the image with Spellbinders Labels die, framing it in pink.  



One of my favourite parts of the card was a last minute addition, that little vellum banner with the grapevine star embossed in white.  That top corner had looked a little naked but I didn’t want to add anything that would take away from the beauty of the sentiment...so I think this fit the bill nicely.  There’s some pretty thin velvet ribbons, iridescent twine, and rhinestones to finish it off.  




Now you will find some more amazing beauty and creative skill in the Bloom Brigade’s cards today;  head on over and visit!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken
 (you are here)
Danielle Kennedy
Julie Koerber
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker


and last but not least, Marcy will have the inside story on this gorgeous set on the Power Poppy Blog!


Saturday, September 27, 2014

Big Fat Holiday Greetings


Greetings TCP Fans!  Are you having fun this week with all these fabulous new goodies from The Cat’s Pajamas?   Alma has so many creative things to offer this month.  I know there’s something for everyone!

Today’s set is a great one for the Christmas and Holiday Season.  It’s called Big Fat Holiday Greetings and there’s some fantastic sentiments and elements included to make some great graphic designs.  



I’ve gone the Clean and Simple way with this design - when I saw this sheet of paper in the MME - Sleigh Bells Ring pack I knew it would work perfectly for one of the new dies Alma is releasing, The Birds.  First I positioned the die where I wanted the birds to be in the sheet of paper, die cutting them out leaving me with 2 pieces.  I discarded the actual birds cut out of the patterned paper.  But then I cut out the row of bird from red cardstock, squished them in VersaMark Ink and embossed them with Iridescent Embossing Powder, making them sparkly.  Then I fit the birds into the two pieces of designer paper matching everything up and it’s a row of pretty winter birds in the woods.  

The sentiment is stamped in Memento Rhubarb Stalk, on Kraft paper, cut out with the new Fancy Flip Frames die and mounted on some more red cardstock that I had sparklified with VersaMark and Iridescent Embossing Powder.  

It’s just a wee bit of crochet lace and twine to finish it off.  


Here’s more of the sparkly birds.  


Heres a Sneak Peek of the set and dies I used from this release.  




Head on over to visit these Cat Packers to see what great stuff they’ve cooked up with this set....

 Christine (you are here)


Don’t forget that there’s a really easy way to win these sets....drop on over to the Splitcoaststampers TCP Forum and chat....Alma picks from the comments to win the set of the day!



And just one more day till the Pajama Party!   Here’s your invite, we hope you’ll join us!



And I’ll be back in a few hours with my next Power Poppy New Release.  Thanks for stopping by!  

Bottlebrush Holiday

Double posts today....if you’re looking for The Cat’s Pajamas New Release Click HERE



We’re so excited to bring you our very first Christmas Holiday Stamp sets at Power Poppy!  I know you will be WOWWED this week with beautiful sets that will inspire you as you get ready to celebrate this special season!  Marcella has really put her signature touches on this release.  Today’s set is called Bottlebrush Holiday it is the sweetest little seasonal celebration of those pretty miniature trees.  It will totally win you over!  


All you have to do is search for bottlebrush trees on Pinterest and you’ll be amazed by the sweetness of beautiful inspiration you’ll find.  Marcy really captured that miniaturized elegance of the trees.  I just loved this combination in the set of the bottlebrush tree and oranments.  The banner can be changed up to have other sentiments also included in the set.  It’s very adorable!  

I stamped the image on XPress It Blending cardstock with Memento Tuxedo Black and then coloured it up with some soft pastel marker colours in Copics.  


You might be able to tell that after colouring with Copics I added some shimmery elements with a glitter pen onto the ornament, tree and background.  I’ve also added glitter strips with Scor Tape and glitter and then some pretty curved felt, cut with a Spellbinders A2 Curved Border die for some warmth.  The papers are MME Cambridge Court.  Finally,  I added a seambinding bow and some sparklets and it’s all ready for Christmas!  



Here’s the Copics I used - you can click on it to make it larger if you need to.  




Now these amazing women have some more inspiration for you with Bottlebrush Holiday...go on over and visit!  

Allison Cope
Christine Okken 
(you are here)
Cindy Lawrence
Danielle Kennedy
Dawn Burnworth
Leslie Miller
Stacy Morgan
Tosha Leyendekker

and Marcy at the Power Poppy Blog  - where she’ll give you behind the scenes inspiration about this lovely set!

Friday, September 26, 2014

Mummy!


Double post today - for my Power Poppy New Release click HERE


Welcome to some more fabulous sneak peeks from The Cat’s Pajamas!  It’s Day 5 and there’s still lots more great stuff in store!  

Today’s set appeals to the Canadian in me :)  Here in Canada a good bunch of us say “Mum” rather than Mom when addressing our beloved Mother figures - so I thought this would be a funny one that can do double duty as a card.  My boys can “surprise” me by digging it out of my stash to give to me, or I can give it to my mom for fun.  It’s called Brains and it’s really cute.  


I coloured up this little person in all his (or her) wrappings with warm grey Copics on Neenah White cardstock.    Then I trimmed it out with a little border.  I used some of the fabulous new Chevron Cutable file.  What’s so cool about this file is that there are a number of different styles of Chevron that you can play with.  The standard style is in the background window and the arrow style is on the borders of the card.  

The window is cut with our new Fancy Flip Frames die,  and I added the sentiment from our Talk To Me CutUps.  



Then it’s some faceted hearts and twine for fun.  Totally makes me smile!  

Here’s the adorable set and the new dies I used.  





Now...be sure to head on over to the TCP Splitcoaststampers Forum.  It’s a great way to chat about the New Release or anything else....AND be entered to win the set of the day.  Yippee! 



And then, marke you calendars!  We’re inviting you to our Pajama Party, the night before the release goes live...



We’ll show you never before seen samples from this release AND there’s games and prizes too!  

Here’s some more inspiration from The Cat Pack...

Julie,    Lisa,  Christine (you are here),  Wendy,  Kelli,   Nancy