Kitty Bookmark

Today’s card post is a bit different. Because… it’s not actually a card! When I first saw that the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge was to make anything but a card I figured I would skip it. But then husband suggested I make a bookmark, and the idea grew on me. I ended up adding in three other challenges (I did check all their rules, and I think it is okay to enter not-cards to them. Hopefully I’ll be told if I am wrong!) City Crafter (Edit – where it won!) requested the use of pencils, Allsorts asked for black, white and one other colour, and Pixie’s Snippets Playground requires the use of snippets!

I started by cutting a snippet of white card to make the base for my bookmark. I then stamped the cat from Paper Smooches’ Chubby Chums along the strip. I varied the direction of the cats, but made sure I had one that was sitting level. I used MFT Black Licorice hybrid ink to stamp them.

There was more white space than I wanted and it looked a bit bare so I went back in and added little paw prints from the same stamp set and using the same ink.

I started by colouring my orange cat, having decided that my extra colour would be orange. I used my watercolour pencils to shade the cat and then drew the colour out with some water. As this isn’t a scene I wasn’t too bothered about light source, so long as it was reasonably consistent.

I debated leaving the other cats just as outlines but it didn’t look right. Instead I took my grey and black watercolour pencils and shaded each of the other cats, before applying water to blend the colour out.

I set the strip aside to dry. I was very happy with it but it felt like something was missing. I decided to back it onto some black card and see if that helped. I cut down a snippet of black to be slightly wider than the white strip and a bit longer. I then rounded the top corners of the black strip with my We R Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper. I applied Tombow Multi Mono Liquid glue to the back of the white strip and adhered it to the black backing.

I’m really happy with how this turned out! I think it is really cute. Colouring the other cats was definitely the right decision. The only change I would perhaps make is to add a tassel. I don’t have any of my strings or ribbons with me, but if I had I would have made a tassel of black and white string or perhaps used some white ribbon and put it through a hole on that top “tab” of the bookmark.

Love,

Lady Joyful