Hosting My First Challenge at Craft-Room Challenges!

Hi all, this is Christi and I am thrilled to bring you my very first challenge for Craft-Room Challenges! Some of you may know I am crazy cat woman. I might not qualify just yet, but with five furry felines, I am definitely on my way. The last cat we acquired was brought home when my significant other went to Petco (a large pet store chain) to get some more cat litter and food.  Petco will often show some cats from our local shelter in order to help them get adopted, especially during the summer months when people want kittens and cats older than one year often get over looked.  Well, when I got the phone call the he was bringing home a surprise for "me & the cats" I figured it wasn't food or any crafty goodies - sure enough, it was Sylvester who was our surprise.  How could I stay mad? So, Sylvester joined our happy family of other felines, Monster, Mew, Bud and Junior.  Sorry for the ramble, but when I start talking about my children cats, I find it hard to stop!  Anyway, I decided to honor my growing brood , I choose CATS as my challenge theme for challenge #83 at Craft-Room Challenges.  I can't wait to see the projects you come up with, and keep in mind you can create anything as long as you follow the theme. 

Now, I present my project. I love making wall hangings and I love quotes, so I incorporated three of my favorite things and came up with this canvas.

What I Used to Make my Project:

11 x 14 canvas

Memory Makers Paper, Pets, 12 x 12 "Cat Words" and 2 strips of "Cat Paws" (discontinued)

Coordinating Piece of 12 x 12 Paper

12 x 12 White Cardstock

Various Cat Cut Files (free)

Lobster 2 Font (free)

Silhouette CAMEO

Washi or Removable Tape

Regular Tape

Crafters Pick The Ultimate Glue

Toothpicks

I have tons of cat and pet papers and embellishments that I have been saving for years.  My goal is to some day make a scrapbook of all my furbabies, both past & present.  My major problem is I am not a scrapbooker and I find it very difficult to make myself sit down and create a layout.  I am confident that someday I will do it - well, let's say it is on my list.  So first thing I did was go through my cat papers and I chose to use a paper from Pets by Memory Makers called "Cat Words" as my focal paper.  Since the 14" canvas is too wide for the 12 x 12 paper to fit, I cut off 2 strips from another paper in the same collection called "Cat Paws".  I attached the strips to the main page using tape on the backside.  

Paper with the added sides

Close Up

Next I set about finding a font I wanted to work with.  Since the quote is fairly long I wanted the words to weld together and be easier to work with.  I have hundreds of fonts I have collected and after trying a few out I settled on using Lobster 2 (which is a great font to use with any electronic cut machine - I have to thank Clever Someday for compiling list after list of good fonts as well as being an invaluable resource).  When my words were cut out, I used washi tape to keep the letters that were not welded with the words they belonged to.  I also use the tape to keep the letters and punctuation properly spaced so when I attach them to the canvas they are evenly spaced (mostly).

I found a plethora of cat cut files, as well as some I made into cut files and chose the ones I felt wouldn't be too complicated to scale down.  I am terrible at measuring and often just use my eye so I wasn't sure how big my vats were going to turn out - I figured the simpler the better.  After I had a page full of my cats all ready to be cut out, I decided to use white card for them.  I had originally had thoughts of making them all kinds of cat colors, but, knowing myself I would have taken that even further and had to make calico's, tabby's, etc., which would of caused me a whole 'nother level of stress over my inability to make them as good as I saw them in my minds eye.  Again, I am learning that, at least for now, simpler is better.  So we have white cats.

Fiddling with the Layout - placing words & cats

After putting on the lettering (with removable tape) I set about fiddling with the cats, after finally cutting out a size I felt fit the project.  I have enough white cat cut outs to serve my white cat cut out needs for quite a while.  Maybe I'll practice making them cat colors?  Anyway, with a little help from a good friend (who I can trust will put a bit more into her thoughts about a project than saying "Oh, yeah. That's cool.") I was able to finalize the design and glue it all down.  This is where the toothpicks become indispensable.  I use them for spreading glue, for getting glue on those teeny tiny areas and for getting glue out of those other teeny tiny areas.  I can't live without them!

So there you have it - "Cats are like potato chips, you can't have just one". A quote that I am living proof of.  I hope you enjoyed my tutorial and get inspired to join us at Craft-Room Challenges with your own cat inspired project! Remember, our challenge is on for two weeks - plenty of time to join. Thanks! Christi

Another look

I would like to enter my project in the following challenges:

Through the Craft Room Door - 8/19 to 8/25 - Anything Goes

{PIN}spirational - #121, see image

Crafty Calendar Challenge - August, Anything Goes

Amusing Challenges - Use Die Cuts

Inky Impressions - #172,  Animal Friends

Going Grey with Scrap Creations - Animals

Rhedd's Creative Spirit - Anything Goes (altered canvas)

Altered Eclectics - August Challenge, Anything Goes (altered canvas)

{PIN}spirational Challenge