Two Many Cats? Never! Introducing TWOFERS!!

Yes, today is the beginning of a brand new challenge blog - TWOFERS! As the name suggests, you will be required to make TWO of whatever project you desire (within the rules) and then simply link them up!

Since I got to chose our first theme, I chose cats (which, if you read my blog shouldn't come as a surprise) and I had a blast digging out some very old stamps to play with; since I have so many cats stamps, it was difficult to decide which ones to use.  Both the stamps I used have been in my possession for years, but I haven't had the occasion to use the cat in the basket, so this is it's first time on a card (and, of course, when I went to go search for the stamps so I could link to them, almost all of them have disappeared.)   In order to differentiate which card I am talking about I am going to give them separate names.

Here are both my cards

How I Made my Women and Cats card:
Cream Card Base
The Kitty Art Rubber Stamp by The Stampsmith
Sentiment Stamp (company unknown)
White Glossy Card
Document Stamping Ink (like Staz-On ink)
Die-Namics Stitched Oval Stax
Spellbinders Labels Fourteen S4-290
Colorbox Metalextra Gold Rush Ink
Clear Embossing Powder
Background Paper (company unknown)
Small Gold Metallic Bow

If you are a regular blog reader you have seen me work with these fantastic photo stamps made by The Stampsmith before, but for those of you who are new to photostamps The Stampsmith has an awesome FAQ page for them and you can find that here.  Anyhow, I stamped my Kitty Art stamp on glossy paper, using the Document Ink, and set it aside to dry.  I can never get a good picture of these stamps, but trust me, they truly look like photos in person.  While kitty was drying, I set about figuring the background, how I was going to present the sentiment and other design details.

So I decided to cut the picture and some embossed foil paper using the Stitched Oval Stax. I then stamped the sentiment with gold ink on glossy paper and embossed it with clear embossing powder. I then used the Labels Fourteen to die cut the sentiment. Set those three things aside and sized my gold polka dot background paper, then attached that to the cream card base.  Played with the placement of the ovals and sentiment for a bit, then settled on the final design. Topped the card off with the cute little bow.

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How I Made my Your Every Thought card:
White Card Base
Cat in Basket Rubber Stamp (made by Cat Dancing Designs, out of business)
Sentiment Stamp (Limited Edition, bought by Hampton Art, couldn't find stamp)
Tim Holtz Sizzix Labels, #660060
Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black
Background Paper
2 Black Brads

I've had this stamp for SO long - I purchased it at a stamp convention in NY.  I love how the cat is slightly menacing peeking over the basket - one of my current kitties, Bud,  is a Box Cat.  He will literally try to fit in ANY box, no matter how small. And if the box is too small, he will scratch it to pieces trying to make it bigger! OK, I could go on about my cats for hours, so lets move on.

As usual, the first step is to stamp everything - in this case on white card using the Ranger Archival Ink in Jet Black. I had found the background paper in my bin that holds all my kitty stuff but there was no manufacturer information.  I liked the little hints of paws.  After I cut the paper, I attached it to the card base and then went through my scraps to find a piece of red that matched so I could mount my sentiment on it.  I sized my sentiment and adhered that to the red paper, put the brads in and set it aside.

I took the Tim Holtz Labels die cuts and used one to cut out the cat. I centered the image, attached that and attached the sentiment.  Easy peasy!

A lot of my friends are cat lovers and now I have 2 cute cards to send out when need be.  You have two whole weeks to get your stamping on with your cat stamps, so please consider joining! Thanks, Christi

I would also like to enter my cat cards into the following challenges:
Brown Sugar Challenges - #157, Animals
Sister Act - #117, Anything Goes
Card & Scrap - M #101, Anything Goes
Creative Ladybirds Creations - M #6, Anything Goes
Use Your Stuff - #200, Anything Goes (runs until 9/7/15)
Artistic Inspirations - #136, Anything Goes