Road Trips and Mustaschio’d Men!

Hello! It’s Christine back today with more of the May Release from The Cat’s Pajamas, and today I’m bringing you a pair of masculine designs that are great for the Summer season from the May Release.

To start off today, I’m bringing an card that is a nod to the start of Summer for me! Each year when our kids were school-age we’d take off for our Summer Road Trip the day after school was done, usually a 16 h drive to my husband’s home town and visit family there. We’d leave before the crack of dawn and enjoy celebrated traditions each trip like banana bread for the breakfast to listening to Adventures in Odyssey to keep us all entertained. Still treasured memories for our family.

So, this TCP set is so nostalgic for me! I used the new Travelin’ Man digi set, printing it on Copic XPress It paper and colouring with Copics. Check out all his luggage!

I’ve trimmed the image out, placed it on a retired TCP frame, and then added the “road” with the new SVG Cutting File Summer Borders, and then the sentiment from the new Summer Sayings Digi. With a cute turn arrow from a retired TCP die set.

Now I Mustache you …..

To enjoy this new Hipster set! It is SO darn cute! Combining it with the new Aye, Eye, I set, I’ve created a fun CAS signboard card for the moustachiod man in your life! I cut out all the moustaches and popped some up on the main image to give it some fun dimension. A tiny bit of Copic colouring to add some red pop, and paired it all with the new Black and White Spring digital papers.

Here’s another peek at a bit of the dimension. It makes for an adorable clean and graphic card!

And here is a look at all the new May Release Items I used today…

Bringing the Summer Sun Poolside!

5 / 4 / 225 / 3 / 22

While we’re just getting excited about flowers popping up from the ground…dreaming of summery sunny days at the beach or by the pool, The Cat’s Pajamas is bringing it to us in all sorts of fun ways this May!

It’s Christine here today, and I’m excited to kick off today with two new designs from the May Release. I have to say, this release was such fun for me to play with. Fun themes, vibrant colours, colouring, cutting files, it’s really got it all, and it totally sparked my creativity.

My first design pulls you poolside with this adorable set called Fun in the Sun. I had a great time creating the water reflections of a pool with a stencil and Distress Oxide Ink, and then adding our favourite Kitty in her floaty on the surface of the water.

I’ve framed her up, and added the sentiment and wave to accent the design, including a few turquoise sequins.

For fun I took the bubbles from the set that I had printed and used them to create my own beach ball accent, all it took was a few lines from my micro-liner pen and a bubble is a beach ball!

Such a fun design to create with! I’m ready for the pool!

The next card is oceanside with our favourite bunny! This is Life’s A Beach.

He’s protecting his tender fur from those rays, soaking the shade and RnR under his beach umbrella. I think he’s so cute with his coconut drink! All of the colouring is done with Copics.

To customize my scene, I’ve added some stripes to the umbrella to make it really beachy, drew in some bunny board shorts for swimming, and added soft ocean waves in the background. I placed him on a background I created with one of our new cutting files called Make Waves.

Because I knew I wanted to make a multicoloured wave background, copied and pasted three of the cutting files for this set of waves onto the 12 x 12 section for my Silhouette.

Next I added 3 sets of beachy coloured cardstock for cutting.

Then trimmed it out (my blade was a little deep so you can see there’s a bit of fraying). But then all you need to do is piece by piece add the waves to the background so the pattern matches. I have extra waves left over to use for other projects if I want.

I think it makes a fun way to add texture and colour, with out taking away from the design. The sentiment is from the new Summer Sayings set, and I added pointillism dots to mimic the sand to tie in.

Here’s a peek at the newly released May items I used today! See you next week with two more fun designs!

Customizing Digital Paper and NEW TCP!

4 / 25 / 224 / 26 / 22

Hi Stampers! It’s Christine back today with a few more new designs using The Cat’s Pajamas April Release. As you might already know, Alma has moved into the digital realm with TCP and that means a lot of new and different opportunities with stamps, accessories, cut file, paper and embellishments. On this first design I did a little playing around with the new Black & White Spring Digi papers to coordinate it perfectly with this Birthday bear and the new set A Beary Good Year.

I began by printing out the plaid paper in black and white and coordinating it to my card by sponging onto the cardstock. It’s transformed from black and white to a ombre multi-colour design that matches perfectly with my Copic coloured bear.

This cutie is fun to work with too! The set has all sorts of add-ons for all occasions that when used as a digi are really easy to make work. So I gave him a party hat, added the cake plate in his hand and then heart birthday balloons and printed him out. It’s nice to be able to manipulate images like this before printing.

Some fun framing and accents with die-cuts, and he’s ready to party!

Next I have a mini-slimline scene that’s perfect for those breezy Spring days.

This fanciful bunny is from the new set Field of Pinwheels. After printing the image, I added in some Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink clouds using a TCP Stencil for the sky and foreground grass, and then paired him with more of the Black & White Digi papers. The bunting accents are created with the Summer Borders SVG’s and I’ve added some baker’s twine and enamel dots.

To fill in the grass I’ve used some flick strokes with my Copics to colour in more blades. The sentiment is stamped with a retired TCP polymer set, as I thought it was a perfect pairing.

Take a peek below and the New Release Items I’ve used today! Be sure to pop over to the TCP Store to pick yours up! Thanks for joining me today!

Beary good Year — A Beary Good Year Digistamp

BW Spring Papers — Black & White Spring Digi Papers

Spring into the Great Outdoors with NEW TCP!

4 / 20 / 224 / 26 / 22

Spring is here! Hi TCP Fans! It’s Christine greeting you today with my tulips peeking out of the ground and warmer temperatures in my neck of the woods. Shaking off Winter always makes me hungry to spend time outdoors enjoying the sunshine and all that’s coming to life.

This month’s New Release goodies at The Cat’s Pajamas are all about those warmer days, and soaking in the fun of Spring. Today I have two projects to show you. This first design is a pair of woodland cuties from the new digiset, Into the Woods. This little skunk and squirrel were sized smaller, and trimmed out to create a little scene on the woodgrain die cut heart and coloured with Copics to match the beautiful woodland themed patterned paper (Melissa Lowry).

Touches of greenery were added behind the make image with the new Button Flowers Digi SVG file using my Silhouette, and then also added the swirly border from the new SVG cutting file Summer Borders, to tie in that pop of red. The sentiment comes from a retired TCP polymer set because I’m in need of more Birthday cards for my stash.

Next up, we’ve got a floating bear delivering Birthday balloons!

The new Catch My Drift is another adorable image, and so fun to colour up the transluscent balloons he’s being carried away by. After colouring with Copics, I trimmed him out and placed him on a sponged background of spring clouds using a retired TCP stencil and Tumbled China Distress Oxide ink, in a mini-slimline size. To accent I added a sliver of our new Black and White Spring Digi Papers, a patterned paper swirly border from the new Summer Borders , Baker’s Twine, Iridescent sequins and the sentiment stamped on another one of the summer borders, just trimmed smaller to fit the size of the card.

Once I had him placed on the cloudy sky, I added in a little Copic colouring between teh balloons to get the popped up design to match the cloud line from the background. The mini-slimline size really gives you that feeling of him floating up, up and away!

Here’s a peek at the New Release Items from April that I used today….

Button Flower Digistamp/SVGs — Button Flower Digis/SVGs

I hope you enjoyed the inspiration today! More inspiration will be coming all month long!

Small Sugarcoated Packages and the March Release!

3 / 15 / 223 / 15 / 22

Greetings friends! It’s Christine and I’m back with NEW March inspiration from The Cat’s Pajamas! Part one of my designs this month is located HERE. Today its all about Easter! One of the most beautiful times of the year for my faith, and also a beautiful time to celebrate life, growth and hope. I have two cards to show you today, one more playful and one more elegant. This card uses the new Sugar, Sugar Digi.

Just today my husband bought a huge bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs. Oh my heart. He needs to hide them because I LOVE that candy coated chocolate! So, this card speaks my language about Easter chocolate. Our favourite bunny is lounging in the Easter basket after a sugar coma of chocolate coated fun.

Colouring is with Copics, with detail added in with Prismacolor Pencils, like the blades of grass, the texture of the basket and the sky on the tag. The main image is printed on Copic XPress it Blending and cut with a retired tag die from TCP. The background is sponged with Tumbled Glass Distress Oxide Ink.

Other cool things on the design are new from TCP including the Grassy Patches Cutables and the Happy Spring digital patterned paper, it makes for such a fun spring card!

Next up is a lovely Easter card with the new FREE Digital Download called Fancy Happy Easter. The script and designs in the set are lovely! I coloured the image with Copics and added in backgrounds and detailing with Prismacolor Pencils. The mini-slimline design also uses our new Happy Spring Digi Papers, tiny flowers cut to accent and holeless sequin accents.

The pops of colour add such Spring freshness to the design.

Here is a peek at the NEW items I used from TCP today….go check them out!

The February Release Goes Postal!

2 / 13 / 222 / 14 / 22

Hi TCP friends, and Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s Christine back for another round of our February Release at The Cat’s Pajamas! Today I’ve created three projects around the postal theme you’ll find in this release.

I’m kicking it off with these adorable Conversation Hearts set that will really get you in the Valentine spirit. I looked up some fun details about the history of these sweet chalky candies and they’ve been around in this heart shape since 1902, but much earlier than that in a disc shape. Can’t you remember sharing them with friends at school? I sure remember searching those messages for just the right saying!

This sweet design makes the most of the Small Envie Cutable file to showcase each of the hearts and messages popping out of the little white envelopes. I’ve accented with a pretty mini-plaid paper to coordinate and added some twine and die cut arrows for accent.

This next design makes use of the same mini envelope, but insead using vellum.

I began by watercolouring the background and splatter with some Daniel Smith Watercolours and some metallic watercolours from Zig Kuretake Gansai Tambi. It adds such nice shimmer. Next I used a star stencil and embossing paste to add a bit of texture to the design.

I made use of the Small Envie Cutable for the heart, vellum envelope, and the then beautiful “Always” sentiment cut from glitter paper. It adds just the right touch of sparkle.

Next up….our final postal themed card with an adorable mailbox!

Here in Canada our mailboxes are primarily red, so I had to create one just like it! I love this adorable Mailbox Cutable. Those tiny little envelopes are so cute! I placed the mailbox on a layer of vellum cut with the postage themed file in the set.

The background is created with a new fun and funky alphabet called Babydoll Alphabet tipped in different directions and in different shades of grey and black. I think it makes a great background. I added some pops of red using the Conversation Hearts from the set.

Makes a sweet note for friends and loved ones!

Here’s a peek at all the new goodies I used today:

The February Release is Sending Love!

1 / 31 / 221 / 31 / 22

Popping in today to welcome in the month of February with The Cat’s Pajamas New Release! We’ve got themes of love, winter, friendship, and postal ephemera. It’s my kind of vibe! I have 3 designs to show you today beginning with this cutie called Miss Ewe. He’s got a fabulous flowing scarf and GASP Sheep POCKETS! So cute! He’s coloured up with Copics and sewn onto this mini-slimline design. I love mini-slimline sizes….just the right amount of real estate to create.

I’ve zig zagged between the layers then added the heart die from the new Conversations Hearts Cutable, and a sweet snowflake so it doesn’t just have to be for Valentine’s day.

Next up is this adorable helicopter bunny from the Sending You Digi. He’s coloured up with Copics to match this great flight themed paper I found in my stash. He’d dropping by to bring LOVE with cute little die cut hearts, and I’ve popped him up on a layer of the new Square Stamps Cutable file.

Isn’t the paper great?

And last, but not least, this postage themed design…

It’s also using the Sending You digi set and it is framed up using the little circular post-mark in the set, enlarged enough to become the frame. I trimmed out the inside of the circle frame and popped it up on the bunny image. Some pretty brocade paper ties the pink and red together.

You can see I’ve added some extra envelopes onto the main image and as fillers in the spaces of the text frame. The finished card is just less than 5 x 5″.

Here’s a peek below and the New Release goodies I used.

Love, Hugs and Kisses

1 / 17 / 221 / 18 / 22

Hi TCP friends! It’s Christine and I’m back with round two of all new goodies from The Cat’s Pajamas for January. There’s lots of love and nostalgia in this month’s New Release and I know you’ll enjoy it! I’ve got 3 cards to show you today.

I’m kicking it off with this cutie using TCP’s set Bear Hugs. Doesn’t he look soft and squishable? I sized the sentiment for this digi into the heart he’s carrying for a perfect fit.

Colouring is done with Copics (see below) and I’ve added some candy heart themed designer paper to coordinate.

Just a couple of accents including the paper buttons and the baker’s twine to keep it more flat and mailable.

Next up, it’s Sprinkles the Cat!

This dapper dude is dressed up for his favourite kitty in It Had to Be Mew. He’s got his heart on his sleeve so to speak. I’ve used all kinds of hearts from this release’s Nested Hearts cutting files

Just a couple of holeless sequins to jazz it up and go with Sprinkles’ dapper dressed theme.

And lastly, we’ve got a postal theme!

I had a great time making a random layout of elements in the Love Letters Set. I layered different elements of the set in different shades of grey and black and then printed extra elements so that I could pop some of them up.

A little Copic colouring, some baker’s twine and sparkly paper really make the fun colour palette work as well.

Hope you’ll check out all these great sets HERE at TCP.

Would you like to work with cute images like this all the time? How about applying to be on the Design Team! Alma’s looking to fill a few spots!

January at TCP Brings Love!

1 / 1 / 223 / 2 / 22

Happy 2022 Creators! It’s Christine here kicking off the New Year with some brand new The Cat’s Pajamas fun! This month its all about love, and there’s no better occasion for card making than telling someone you love them.

I created two designs to show you today and am starting with a SWEET one that has a retro feel. It’s using the new TCP digi called Bee My Honey. Isn’t he adorable?? I’ve combined a number of the images included in this set into one design by adding the honey pot tucked behind our sweet bear, shrinking the little bee and his heart-wings to fit the size of the honey pot and tucking in the sentiment along the bottom of the image.

All the colouring is done with Copics (shown below). Seriously, look at that cute little BEE!

To make the honey theme sing, I used some shimmering molding paste in a honeycomb stencil, and then once it was fully dry, I sponged Peanut Brittle Distress ink overtop to really give it the feeling of honey in a comb. And the glimmer is really a nice effect.

Here’s a peek at the colours I used above.

Card Number Two!

Next up its a mini-slimline design with these loveable sheep in the set Ewe Complete Me . I just adore these CUTE lambs holding hand/hooves! I wanted to make them black and fluffy so I let my Copics make lots of swirly lines to mimic thick wool.

To accent the design I added some of our new Hearts Cutables in a great peachy tone, accented with a black pearl. The designer paper mimics the swirly notes in the sheep wool and also the little flower.

Here’s a peek at the Copics I used for colouring.

Stay tuned to the TCP Website all month long to see all of the cute new Digi Stamp Sets and Cutables in action!

Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas – Everyday Tag Set

12 / 5 / 2112 / 22 / 21

There’s no time for crafting like the Holidays. This season The Cat Pack are crafting up a storm and we are challenging you to join us. Starting the day after Thanksgiving, The Cat Pack will present to you the 12 Days of Crafting Challenge. Each day we’ll present a different challenge and challenging you to play along by adding your projects to the inlinkz button at the bottom of the challenge. You’ll have until December 26 to play along.

It’s Christine here bringing you a fun set of Everyday Tags! They’re the sweetest little thing to add to all your gift packaging, and having a fun set on hand makes gift giving easy!

I made my set of 8 to work with as much versatility as possible. I began with a bunch of TCP’s digital stamps printed onto a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of XPress It Blending cardstock. The TCP digis I used are: Enjoy Every Cuddle, Hang Loose Gnomie, No Peeking, Gnoel,Bounce Back, Chicken Soup, No Peeking, and Penguin Sleigh.

To keep the designs cohesive, I tried to stick to a similar colour palette so that all the tags would work together. I used a coral red, warm brown, a bit of lime green, and then decided to add teal for all the tags. This way, all you would need to buy would be some plain brown or white gift bags, and all the tags would match the bags for every occasion.

Next, I die cut 8 tags from heavy white cardstock, coloured the images with Copic markers and cut out all the images I eventually chose. Then with two colours of Distress Oxide Ink Tumbled Glass, and Peacock Feathers, I sponging on each tag. I gathered a few of my stencils that would work on the different tags so that each would feel unique, but would all tie together.

Here’s what the complete set looks like. You can see that along with the colour palette that ties it all together, I’ve used some similar accents, designer paper in strips, die cut circles, and bows, as well as baker’s twine in 2 colours. Having these little details consistent really ties them together.

Here’s a peek at what the tags would look like using a brown paper gift bag.

Here’s a pair of tags that would work for a teacher or student for back to school.

A pair of Christmas tags are always practical and cute!

Next up…… for a coffee date or a get well present these tags are warm and cozy.

And finally, a cutie crab for any occasion – think Birthday, summer fun or even a sweet baby design.

So, now that you’ve seen my inspiration, please join me by creating your own set of Everyday Tags for the Challenge!

To help you play along, get 25% off all our Digis Stamps and Cutable SVGS from November 26 thru December 25. And, our Digis Stamps and Cutable SVGS are immediately downloadable in your TCP account once you purchase them. Now, that’s instant gratification! So, play along with us during the 12 Days of Crafting Challenge.