Yesterday evening hubby and I witnessed the strangest conversation taking place on our front deck.  We were listening to one of our resident song sparrows and watched as it hopped from deck post to deckpost and then onto the steps of our deck, chirping away quite happily.  It was then that we noticed our cat Houdini lying not 6 feet away, sunning himself on the stone slabs responding to the bird!

We must have watched this ‘conversation’ for a good 10 minutes, the bird chirping and then Houdini answering, both looking right at each other, Houdini making no attempt to get up or threaten the bird, and the bird making no attempt to fly away.  It was like two friends simply passing the time of day.  If they do it again I’ll be sure to get it on video.

Well as you can imagine that inspired me to pull out my Pretty Kitty Stamp Set this morning and while there’s no bird image, there is one with a butterfly that made me smile just as much.

All the stamping was done using Memento Tuxedo Black ink.  On the front of the Whisper White Envelope and on a layer of Whisper White Card I stamped the standing cat in the bottom right corner.  In the centre of another piece of Whisper White Card I stamped the cat with the butterfly, and on a narrow strip of Whisper White Card I stamped the ‘You make me happy’ sentiment.

TIP – When using Stampin’ Blends remember that alcohol markers are designed to saturate the card and that means the the ink can often bleed through to the other side.  For this reason I always place a piece of scrap paper under the image I’m colouring, and if it’s on an envelope I place scrap paper inside it.  That way any excess ink goes onto the scrap paper and doesn’t affect my project.

With everything prepared, I set to work colouring the images using Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers.  For the cat I used light and dark Smoky Slate with light and dark Bermuda Bay on the bow.  The butterfly is light and dark Daffodil Delight with a touch of light Pumpkin Pie. The flowers are light and dark Rich Razzleberry, light and dark Pool Party and dark Old Olive.

Once the colouring was complete I took the image with the butterfly over to my Big Shot and Magnetic Platform to cut it out with the largest die from the Stitched Labels Framelits.

It was at this point I realised that the piece of card I’d stamped the image onto wasn’t quite big enough to fit the die.  No problem, I simply placed the die so that the top was where I wanted it to be and the bottom, well that was incomplete, but I had a plan.

I really like the faux stitching effect and decided to add a stitched line to my sentiment too.  This was a simple process using one of the long dies from the Stitched Labels Framelits.  I placed the straight-stitch die along the bottom edge of the sentiment and ran it through my Big Shot, then I placed the die along the top of the sentiment and ran it through again.  Perfect.

My card base is a piece of Thick Whisper White Card cut and scored on my Stampin’ Trimmer.  I folded the card along the scored line and sharpened the crease with a Bone Folder before using Multipurpose Liquid Glue (Tombow) to fix the Whisper White layer with the standing cat on the inside.

Using more liquid glue I attached a piece from the Tranquil Textures 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack to a layer of Basic Gray Card and then fixed the die-cut image on top.  This was then added to the front of my card base with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  I tied a teeny tiny bow using the Coastal Cabana and copper 1/8″ ribbon from the Tea Room Ribbon Combo Pack and fixed that onto the cat image with a Mini Glue Dot.

With a few more Stampin’ Dimensionals used to fix the sentiment strip across the incomplete bottom edge of the die-cut image I was done.

I have to say that I’m really enjoying the new Stitched Labels Framelits.  As well as the straight stitched die there’s also a die with a line of cross stitches, plus one to create a background effect and some great label shapes too.  The dies actually coordinate with the Stitched All Around Stamp Set (not used today) and if you buy the dies and stamp set together using the special bundle code you’ll save 10%.

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