Hey kitty, kitty !

Good morning friends and hope you are well.

Can you believe that it's the 1st of September today - only 4 months of 2016 left!!!!!!! It's the last few days of summer freedom here at Casa Mia too as I start back at school on Monday with youngest Bambino returning the next day, and eldest Bambino returns to college on Friday.

Today sees the start of our new challenge over at Feeling Sketchy. Our sponsor for this challenge is the wonderful Jodie from Bugaboo Digi Stamps, who is offering the lucky winner from this challenge a prize pack. Don't forget though that everyone is a winner with Jodie's Friday Freebies and also her new releases are usually 50% off during launch week!

Onto the sketch, and this is what Michelle (our talented sketch designer) has given us to work to for this challenge:

And this is my card using the sketch as inspiration for a card featuring some of Jodie's fun images:

Now I have to confess that I really, really, really don't like cats. This stems back to my student days when I used to babysit for a couple once a month, looking after their two children, oh and the 4 (yes, FOUR) cats! Now 3 of the cats were fine, but one cat sure had the devil in him. He used to sit on my lap and make out that he was being friendly, and then dig all 4 sets of claws into my thighs. If I stood up, he wouldn't let go and I ended up with wounds on my legs where he'd drawn blood! And the worst thing was that the youngest child's bedroom was just off the lounge, so I couldn't even shout or swear at the thing!!!!!!! I resorted to wearing my jodhpurs under my jeans, with Nora Batty tights under them - yup 3 layers! Nora Batty was a character from a BBC show called "Last of the Summer Wine" played (I think) by Kathy Staff who used to wear really thick denier tights, and they were always falling down! And, whenever the cat came near me, I used to stand up so if it wanted to get me, it had to launch itself at me!

One of my neighbour's cats is doing his best to wheedle his way into my affections - we were next door recently and he came onto the back of the sofa where I was sitting, and rubbed his head against mine purring all the time. There may be hope for me yet, but deep down I am really a large dog girl ;o) !

Anyway, back to this card and my recipe is as follows:

• Card base - is Ivory Centura Pearl which has been cut, scored and folded to make a 15cm square card
• Design Papers - are from a Mini Kit called Kitty Kat by Marisa Lerin at Pixel Scrapper. I've inked the edges of both papers with Vintage Photo Distress Ink, just to give a bit of definition without the bulk of matting and layering
  
• Images - are from the Mini Set - Cat Blocks by Jodie at Bugaboo Digi Stamps. I've used 4 of 7 images and, as these are already framed, they are perfect for this project. I've brought this slightly shy feline to life using my Spectrum Noir Pens in the listed colours before cutting each frame out and adding it to my card.
• Face - GB8, GB9, GB10
• Ears - CR3, GB8, GB9, GB10
• Nose - CR5
• Body and Tail - GB8, GB9, GB10 and TN2, TN3, TN4, EB3
• Background - TB2, Colourless Blender
• Frames - I used a Black Gel Pen to "block in" the corners
• Sentiment - is by Paulette at Create with TLC and this was a freebie on her blog some time ago. I've had a quick peek in her store, but sadly can't find this sentiment in there. I've layered this onto another piece of the "Meow" paper which has been gently distressed with Vintage Photo Distress Ink.
• Ball of Wool Elements - are also from the Kitty Kat set. I've superimposed these onto my sentiment (had to flip one of them first!) and then cut round both the sentiment and fussy cut round the wool before fixing it to my card.

I hope that you'll have a go at this sketch, but if you need any more inspiration just head over to the Feeling Sketchy blog where my very talented teamies  have great versions of it! Then come back and link up your creations. We'll be back with our next challenge on 15th September 2016.

I would like to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Favourite Shaped Card Base and Why at As You Like It - 6"/15cm square card bases feature heavily on my blog because I think they're a great sized base to show off both papers and images without the card looking cluttered. Oh, and they go in the post easily too ;o) !!!!!!!!
• Challenge #9 - Furrything Goes at Show us your Pussies Cats Only Challenge
• Hip to be Square at Cards in Envy - Second Entry
• Cookie Challenge #51 (Photo Inspiration) at If you Give a Crafter a Cookie
• Neutrals at Double "D" Challenges
• Use Two Patterned Papers at The Crafter's Cafe Challenge
• September Challenge - Animals at Sasayaki Glitter Challenge

That's all from me for now. Hope you have a great day!

Hugs, Helen x