Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Day 3 - Cat Lovers Hop

 

     Day 3 of the Cat Lovers Hop 2021 (where I'm a Guest Designer on two different days this year) and the Daily Prizes are sponsored by Ike's World.   She's offering a complete set of Kristmas Kitties as an overall prize in addition to the prize for each daily challenge.  

     I've done a card which has a much more autumn (translate to "Halloween") theme.  In fact, the cat is named "Autumn" according to the notation written by my friend on the back of this image.  lol  I received this image from a dear friend after losing all my digi images in a flash drive crash last year.  She had printed it in grayscale and mailed it to me in one of the seven different packs of stamped/printed images she sent.  

     She was so afraid I'd quit making cards after losing more than 10,000 digis that she spent what must have been hours and hours stamping or printing onto white CS, cutting them into 1/4 or 1/2 sheet pieces, and mailing them in padded envelopes so they wouldn't arrive bent or wrinkled.
  
     It was from her efforts in printing grayscale images that I learned so much about coloring them.  I love that when you print a pre-colored image in grayscale, you get all the wonderful shading and highlights of the colored image but you get to choose your own color combos and do additional highlighting (or shading) as desired.

     I used my ProMarkers and polychromos pencils to color the image, blending with gamsol.  I chalked two sides of the image after I had cut it with a QuicKutz octagon die.  I cut the frame from a scrap of  burgundy CS using another octagon die 1 size larger.  

     The background piece was made from a leftover watercolor scrap to which I added two corners of scrap dp (Doodlebug) to cover holes in the watercolor scrap.  I had used tiny dies to cut some things for a previous project but the remaining paper was so pretty I couldn't toss it out.  Can't tell you how happy I am about that decision now.  :-D

     I printed and fussy cut the sentiment (another scrap), then tied a bow using shiny satin ribbon (also a scrap) and my bow maker.


I chose lemonade/mulberry/& sangria + gold
from color board #466 at CMH Color Dare.

     Challenges:
As You Like It  (Although I always prefer using 
                           animal images over people because I like
                           coloring fur better than skin, since
                           this card is for the Cat Lovers Hop, 
                           it had to be a cat!  :-D ) 

     Come play in the Cat Lovers Hop this year.  Or at least visit us.  You'll find lot of fun games each day and if you want to enter, just make something featuring cats!  Happy Crafting.  NanaConnie

35 comments:

Angela said...

Very nice card.

mandysea said...

Oh boy, that is so disappointing youve lost so much with your images (((hugs)))
However, it certainly hasnt held you back, your card is amazing and I love the hexagon shape to frame the kitty! Gorgeous! Hop hop hop, visiting from Cat Lovers!!

Elaine Stark said...

This is so cute. Thanks for joining AYLI challenge. Elaine

Twórcze pasje Danki said...

Cute card and cat. Hello from Cat Lovers blog hop!

Crafts-by-Alison.blogspot.com said...

Beautiful card love the image and colour palette love Alison x

valscraftings said...

A beautiful card, love the cute kitty!

Val S - LeighSBDesigns DT
https://LeighSBDesigns.blogspot.com
www.Etsy.com/shop/LeighSBDesigns

*Vicki* said...

That image is really stunning Connie! I absolutely love that cool purple hue background! Sometimes something bad can turn into something good and you were able to learn more about digitals! That's awesome and good for you!

Ellibelle said...

What a fun Halloween card with this cute kitty and fabulous design!
Ellie
Ellibelle's Corner

Gina's Cards said...

Simply beautiful! The background looks amazing and the image is so cute. Thank you for playing along at Creative Inspirations, good luck.
Hugs
Gina xx

Michelle said...

What a neat look you created with your card! Great use o four colors. Thanks for sharing at Color Dare.

Bunny said...

Great card. Love the colors.

I too have lost digital images. It's enough to make you just sit down and cry. There's no way to know what is missing. At least some places you can still download them under your account. Other places that have gone out of business,well, that's terrible. I don't know if it's considered theft if someone can prove that they've made a card with the image and if you have it you can send it to them. Anybody know the answer to that? I have so many Bugaboo images that if I lost all those I would not be happy. My first card yesterday is one I've lost and so far no one knows who made it. I think it was Kenny K but I don't know. So, I feel for you when you lost yours. [Bunny]

Fikreta said...

very beautiful!
Hello from Cat Lovers Blog Hop

Francesca said...

Very beautiful card! Thanks for playing at Through The Craftroom

Carole J said...

Wow, Nana Connie - your colouring of this kitty is simply amazing! Such beautiful colours and a fab card design.
Your story of loosing your digi stamps is a good reminder to us all to make backups - I am the world's worst at doing this, but would be devastated if I lost mine. Glad something good cam from it - such a special friend you have there. x

Suzanne H said...

I didn't know this about printing color images in grayscale. Great tip since I'm not the best at coloring. Good reminder to back up my digis too. Wonderful card.

Becca Yahrling said...

That BG piece really is beautiful! And what paw-some coloring of your kitty. The gray scale printing sounds wonderful for shading. I love your pretty card!

Leslie said...

Waving Hi from the Cat Lovers Hop! Absolutely gorgeous background! I love the Halloween cat and the shape die cut you used! Beautiful card!

Karenladd said...

What a shame that you lost so many digi images, but you have a wonderful friend who helped you along and this is gorgeous!

ike said...

Such a sweet kitty and a gorgeous background. :-)
Thank you for purring along to play at SUYP Cats Challenges.
Hugz
IKE =^..^=

My Challenge Blog
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Cat Lovers Challenge Blog

Di said...

Gorgeous card Connie! I could have cried for you about the lost images. But, do you know there is a FREE software download - that's perfectly safe as as neither Len nor I would touch anything 'unknown', It's called Recuva (as in recover) and is brilliant. Len recovered a friends umpteen (hundreds)photos from a Kenya safari with it and we've both used it to sort out other friends' computers, thumb drives, discs, SD cards etc. It's also VERY easy to use - perhaps you might want to let other commenters on here who mentioned problems know about it - and also try it for yourself. The way 'computers' still work is that the 'File access tables - aka FAT) will still point to what you think you've lost in many cases and Recuva works on that to restore files for you. It does depend on how much time has passed since the loss though. Good luck!

Hugs

Di xx

Sarn said...

Very cute Hallowe'en card.
Terrible loss of all your digi's but maybe Di's info will help?

You can always come up to the Playground Treehouse for a "tonic"!!!

Hugs, Sarn xxx

Crafting With Jack said...

Lovely colouring. How awful to lose so many images. I had a similar experience 2 years ago.

Debi said...

Love the 3 colors you chose and how you incorporated them. The sangria/mulberry background is perfect for a cute Halloween kitty.

Vandra said...

A cute kitten card. Thanks for joining us at Colour Dare, I hope you can join us again soon.

Catnip and Kitty Whiskers said...

What a gorgeous card! Beautiful coloring and background! What a spectacular friend to do all that for you, so you'd have some beloved images to color! So touching! I'm so glad you shared your story!

Suzanne Reynolds said...

Love your background and your adorable kitten is colored beautifully... thanks for sharing with us at Color Dare.

Susan Renshaw said...

Super kitty card!

Thank you for sharing with Color My Heart Color Dare!
Susan
Color Dare Challenges
Calling All Crafters! – My Blog!

Vivian Foo said...

Fab background and love that image too. Thank you so much for leaving your comments on my Cats pages.

Sall said...

Aww that cat is adorable. Thanks for joining us at Ikes World Challenges

Leigh S-B - The Sharpie Domino Queen said...

Such a lovely kitty and prettily coloured!
Thank you for hopping to LeighSBDesigns Inspiration Blog for the Cat Lovers Hop, your comments are most appreciated!
Leigh
https://LeighSBDesigns.blogspot.com
https://www.Etsy.com/shop/LeighSBDesigns
https://www.LeighSBDesigns.com

Anonymous said...

Love this pretty kitty!
Denise Bryant

My Side of Oz said...

I am so sorry you lost your images! The same thing happened to me this summer! I miss my digis so much! Your card is lovely! The kitty is just perfect!

Christi Conley said...

Ha!! I never realized about the grayscale!! I remember when you lost your images - it was dreadful!! But, thankfully, you stayed on stamping with all of us and now look at this fantastic card!! Beautiful!! Purrs from the Cat Lovers Blog Hop ~ Christi

Janis said...

Oh, Connie...I can't imagine how devastating that must have been to lose all those digital images! How beautiful of your friend to put those hours into the loving gift she sent you. The papercrafting community is truly special in so very many ways!!
Your card is fabulous. So glad you saved that watercolor scrap...perfect, absolutely perfect for this spooky sky! Your coloring on the wonderful image is awesome.
Many thanks for joining in the 2021 Cat Lovers Hop.
Also....THANK YOU for your lovely comment on my quilt. You made my day!!
<3 J

jwoolbright at gmail dot com
HerPeacefulGarden.blogspot.com

Rae Ann said...

I am so afraid the same think will happen to me. I have back ups on several drives and am hoping they will not all crash at the same time.

The background for this image is awesome and I love how soft the image looks.

Thank you for joining us at Crafty Gals Corner for our Halloween Colors challenge.