On Thursday I created a sweet notebook with gold foil letters using the new Stampin’ Hot Foil System. As part of the design I stamped and coloured a line of cats from the Cutest Crew Stamp Set. However I only had room to use three of the cats on the notebook and snipped off the other two. Today as I prepared to create today’s project I looked at the leftover piece and realised I’d inadvertently immortalised the two stray kittens who’d adopted us in 2010, Rascal (ginger) and Houdini (black).

More about that later, but first to today’s project. I began by folding a Basic White Notecard along the pre-scored line. Then I sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder. Next, from the Cutest Crew Stamp Set I found the small paw prints image. I inked up the stamp with Basic Gray ink then stamped off onto some scrap paper before stamping across the bottom right corner of the notecard envelope. I repeated this process once more to complete the line of paw prints. Before putting away the stamp I stamped a line of paw prints inside the notecard across the bottom right corner using the same ‘stamping off’ technique.

CUTEST CREW

With that done I looked through my scraps of Basic White Card and found a piece 2-1/4″ x 2-1/2″. This was exactly what I needed. Using Basic Gray ink I stamped “Just a little hello” from the Cutest Crew Stamp Set towards the top of the piece. Then I cut a 2-1/2″ x 2-3/4″ piece of Basic Gray Card and glued the stamped layer on top. Using Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals I added the layered sentiment to the front of the notecard about an inch from the top.

To finish all I needed was my two little cats. The one one the left had been coloured with Pumpkin Pie Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. The one on the right was coloured with Gray Granite Stampin’ Blends, and the butterflies with Golden Glow. So all I did was add Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals to the back and attach the image to the sentiment layer and my notecard project was complete.

So now to my cat story… Rascal and Houdini came to us in December 2010 a few months after we moved here. On day we noticed a young very skinny calico (tortoiseshell) cat on our front deck and then realised she’d brought two kittens with her. At that time we simply decided to put out some food. All we had were cooked prawns and raw sausages but it was better than nothing. We gave them access to our mini barn (shed) so they had shelter and bought some cat food. This arrangement seemed to work for a while. But we’d planned to go away for Christmas, so we organised a neighbour to come over to change the water bowl and put down food. Unfortunately when we returned the neighbour hadn’t seen the mother cat in a few days but the kittens were still sheltering in the mini barn.

We hadn’t planned on getting a pet (let alone two) but the situation couldn’t continue. If we left the kittens outside they’d never survive the Canadian winter. So we brought them indoors. The orange (ginger) kitten was always up to some kind of mischief so we called him Rascal. The black one was less outgoing and magically disappeared somewhere in the house on a regular basis, so we named him Houdini. They’ve been indoor/outdoor cats ever since but sadly one day in 2017 Rascal went out and never came back. Houdini however is still with us and despite being almost 16 years old still enjoys exploring our little corner of rural Nova Scotia.

If you missed my cat themed notebook you’ll find it in my earlier blog post Hot Foil Heaven.

PRODUCT LIST

ONLINE EXCLUSIVE: The Cutest Crew Stamp Set & Dies are part of the Online Exclusives range and not found in any catalogue. Therefore these items may be discontinued at short notice and are only available while stocks last. I bought the stamp set and coordinating dies using the single ‘bundle’ item number. This meant I saved 10% off the cost of buying the same two items separately. I’ve included links for both options below so you can explore these further if you wish.