Elaine's Kitty

As promised in the Creative Blogger's Hop where I gave a sneaky peak of this creation, I'm back with the write up and full reveal of this card.

I made this card for a lovely blog buddy of mine, who was having a very special birthday this year. To say she has a thing for cats is probably somewhat of an understatement for those who know her. So I just HAD to try and work in a kitty into the card design somewhere! Back in March, when I first started thinking about putting this card together. I came across a fabulous UK based craft store MaddyLisa Crafts, that was having a special on their Sarah Kay stamps. I love Sarah Kay, her imagery and wistful hat tip to a yesteryear. So when I saw this image, called Josephine cuddling her pet cat Kiki, I knew this was the one for Elaine's card. Funny that a couple of extra Sarah Kay stamps just happened to find their way into my basket too! How does that happen?! MaddyLisa Crafts is having a big sale right now, so do pop on over and have a looksy. If you want to see what's left of their Sarah Kay collection, you need to put that into the search box.

Here's a close up of the little details. The lovely chocolate coloured seam binding ribbon is from Wild Orchid Crafts along with the natural cotton lace. The border edge I made with a Martha Stewart edge punch and the eggshell blue ribbon was from a stash of ribbons I won in a challenge last year. The flower is a Prima fabric flower, which I had no foliage for, so I cut up one of my Wild Orchid Crafts white poinsettia flowers to create the foliage and inked it with one of my Promarkers to create the eggshell blue leaves. It came out a little darker than I'd have liked, but it still works. The chocolate coloured flat back pearls are from Flourish with a Bling. The paper with the pretty kitties is from Raspberry Road. I had initially intended to use a Maja Design paper for Elaine's card, as like me, she's a big fan of their papers. But I came across this paper when I was making another card and knew instantly I wanted to use it for the sweet little kitties on it. Some of the colours were a little 'louder' than I'd have chosen ordinarily, but the eggshell blue was there, in the design, so I think it worked really well. I purposefully kept the bottom right corner bare to allow those sweet little kitties to feature in the design.

I have a fondness for 'close colouring'. Using colours that match, merge and compliment each other. My shading is always subtle, but it's there! I kept the colour palette in the image very close as there was so much colour in the paper. Elaine has just had her craft room redone in this gorgeous eggshell blue, so I wanted to feature that in the card. So I picked out the eggshell blue in her sweater. All the rest was done in tones of brown and earthy shades. I even inked the image up in brown rather than black as I wanted softer lines. I wanted the shadows to be subtle too, so I only shaded certain areas rather than the strong shadow I put around the whole image at times. I really liked this subtle effect.

Finally all that remains to say about this card, is that for once, I've also embellished the inside of the card! I don't do this often as I'm never keen to use too much of my pretty papers, but this needed the right finish. So there it is just visible inside and the following pic is the full inside page. Forgive my wonky picture taking skills!

If you've never been over for a visit to my crafty bud's place, please go check her blog out. Her inky skills are nothing short of magic and you'll be so pleased you stopped in for a visit, I know it. You can find her here at A Technophobes Blog.

Thanks for popping in on my wee corner of the blogosphere today. So love it when you pop in. Hang about, grab a cuppa, check the back catalogue and hang out a bit. Hugs, Wends x

Challenge Entries:
Divas by Design: Pretty Pearls
Crafty Little Fairies: Cute & Cuddly
Creative Inspirations: #277 ~ Anything Goes
Sister Act Card Challenge: #71 ~ Anything Goes
I <3 Promarkers: Photo Inspiration (colours in my papers)
Moving Along With The Times: Feeling A Little Vintage: (Vintage = Sarah Kay)
As You Like It: Favourite Two Embellishments & Why ~ I love flat back pearls! I use them loads in both fussy and CAS designs. One of my absolute fav' embellies. I also love lace and ribbon. I use them together usually, though sometimes ribbon on it's own. Technically that's three, but there you have it! :)