I’ve gotten quite a few requests to do a how-to on my Slimline Concertina card that I made for the January Blog Hop.

So, I thought that I’d tell you how I did it and I created a little video to make things easier. This card is really easy to make and slimline cards are so easy to make.

Base

1. Start with a cardstock base of 10.5” x 8″
2. Along the 10.5” side score at 3.5” x 7″
3. At the bottom right of the card, measure up 3.5” and mark with a tic
4. Cut from the upper left of the card base to the right tic.
5. Accordion fold along the scoreline with the short side to the right side.

Mats

1. Cut 1 piece each @ 3.25” x 7 5/8”, 3.25” x 6 1/8” and 3.25” x 4 5/8″
2. On the 3.25” x 6 1/8”, on the long side measure down on the left side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper right corner.
3. On the remaining pieces, on the long side measure down on the right side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper left corner.

Patterned Paper

1. Cuts 1 piece each @ 3” x 7 3/8”, 3” x 6 7/8” and 3” x 4 3/8″
2. On the 3” x 6 7/8” on the long side measure down on the left side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper right corner.
3. On the remaining pieces, on the long side measure down on the right side 1 3/8” and make a tic. Cut from the tic to the upper left corner.

Adhere the mats onto the folded base. And repeat with the patterned paper on top of the mats.

Now the fun part. Stamp, color and cut out the gnomes and mushrooms using our Welcome Gnome Stamp Set. From green cardstock use the Grassy Patches CutUps to cut various sizes of grass.

Embellish along the top edge of the Concertina card.

Stamp the sentiment “Don’t stop Believing” from the Live Love Bark Stamp Set on the inside of the card

From green cardstock, cut the scalloped diamond from the Fancy Flip Frames CutUps and stamp the sentiment “Have a little Faith” on the it. Use a white pen to doodle on the type and on the panel. Adhere with foam tape.

Now that you have the measurements it’s easy to make it. If your eyes started to glaze over when you got halfway through the instructions, like mine did. I’ve created a video, to make things easier. 😉

This card is perfect for Spring and perfect for our Think Spring TCP Tuesday Challenge. (See how I did that? Good lead in to the challenge, eh?)

Whelp! There is still time to enter our TCP Tuesday Challenge and you could win a $50 gift voucher for our website. Just make a card, (maybe a Concertina Card, now that you know how to make one) and enter it by adding it to the InLinkz at the bottom of this page.

Good Luck!

Happy January Blog Hop Day! I hope that you’ve been enjoying our week long mini-hops and that they’ve given you a little inspiration as to what our January Collection might do in your own inky fingers.  I’m the last person on the hop, so if you’ve come from Kerry Urbatch’s blog you are in the right place. If you didn’t click on over to Julee Tilman’s blog to start off at the beginning.

For my hop offering, there were so many cute stamps I couldn’t do just one card, so I decided to do two. First off is this cutey patootie stamp from the Sun, Please Stamp Set. I LOVE the size of these little mice, they are easy to color and the FREE Cutting file makes them easy to cut around.

Once I colored in the little mouse I added dots of white to add more texture to the umbrella and handle. I stamped the sentiment in tangerine versa fine ink and used the white pen to add more depth to the sentiment.

The stitched clouds were a last minute addition. I thought needed something in that area because of the flowered gems I added to bottom corner. I used foam tape to give everything a little depth and finished it off by adding shadows with my grey marker.

For my second card I did a slimline concertina card using the sentiment from the Live, Love, Bark Stamp Set, the NEW Welcome Gnome Stamp Set and the NEW Grassy Patches CutUps.

I üsed one of the dies from the Fancy Flip  CutUps  for the sentiment and added more white pen to the letters and to doodle on the edge. I also stamped a sentiment on the inside

Was it simple? You bet. Will I show you how? Of course. In the meantime, check out the card in action by clicking the picture above.

Want to see more? Check the links below to see if you’ve missed anyone.

Julee Tilman
Christine Okken
Brenda Nakandakari
Leigh O’Brien
Melissa Chipperfield
Wendy McGaffey
Kerry Urbatch
Alma de la Rosa

We picked the last winner of the In it To win it contest from Leigh O’Brien’s blog!

And the winner is:
Annette! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

Ready for another Sneaky Peek? Today we’ve got two! First up is the Flower Wagon

Nothing says Spring like flowers. What’s better than a bunch of flowers? Why a whole cart full, of course. This Flower Wagon Die actually features 2 dies. One that has the cart, flowers, and wheel, to create a wheel barrow. Create the cart with spindles by placing the included insert. Two different looks from the same die

Look how cute this card is from Christine Okken. She cuts the flowers in the cart from patterned paper to made this card extra cheery. Check out her blog for more info.

What’s nice about this die is that it’s just the right size to be the focal point. You can dress it up or down. It’s up to you

The cart isn’t just for flowers. Fill it with anything you like. Kerry Urbatch filled her cart with colorful hearts just in time for Valentine’s Day. Adorable.

The second Sneaky Peek is this super cute Stitched Easter Basket. It comes with three eggs, a  bow, and even an Easter Bunny.

This card from  Brenda Nakandakari shows off the Easter basket to perfection. She uses the flowers from the Flower Wagon CutUps and the NEW Grassy Patches die at the bottom of the Scalloped Square. The sentiment is from the NEW Live Love Bark Stamp Set.

Lastly, Nancy Thomas creates this uber sweet Spring card using patterned paper for a happy and bright card. The little chick and egg is from our NEW Lamb/Bunny/Chick CutUps. It’s adorable standing next to the stitched basket.

Check out The Cat Pack’s blogs for a closer look. Comment on each of them and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Nancy Thomas
Brenda Nakandakari
Kerry Urbatch
Christine Okken
Wendy McGaffey

We picked the first winner of the week from Nancy Thomas’ blog!

And the winner is:
Cindy Christoffel! Congrats on WINNING! Please contact me here to claim your prize!

After a December off The Cat Pack is back with a new challenge for the new year. Since January is such a dreary month in the northern hemisphere we want you to Think Spring.  Spring colors, theme or holiday. TCP products are not required but encouraged. You have until the end of the month to submit a project and there is a $50 gift voucher up for grabs.

The Cat Pack Think Spring Projects:

Brenda  (Big Blooms, Big, Little Alphabet)

Melissa (Folk Art Flowers Bundle, Rectangular Stamp CutUps)

Nancy ( Spring Wreath, Flutter By CutUps)

Julee (Woof, Slimline Basics CutUps, Great Outdoors Stencil)

Christine (Splish Splash, Slimline Basics CutUps)

Here are the details for the TCP Challenge:

• Each month a new challenge will be posted on The Cat’s Pajamas blog and our Facebook page.
• If you want to play along you just upload your design to The Cat’s Pajamas blog page using the InLinkz button provided.
• You are not required to use a Cat’s Pajamas stamp or die but if you have them we would love to see them.
• On the day of the next challenge the winner will be chosen from the previous challenge and will receive a Cat Cash Voucher for $50.

We had manyamazing tag entries for the November Challenge and the randomly selected winner  was Becca. Please contact admin (admin at  thecatspajamasrs dot com) to claim your $50 gift voucher. Congratulations!

Hello everyone. I hope you are enjoying the last bit of holiday prep. Sure, it may look a bit  different this year, but it’s still a time of celebration and worship.

Does it make you happy to discover how you can use your stamps in a different way then originally intended? That’s what today’s topic is about. The Cat Pack have some examples for you to think “outside the box”.

Cristena used the helicopter image from the Sending You (a thinking of you set) and converted the hat from the Snapes Alive (a Harry Potter like set for Halloween) to a Christmas hat to create a Christmas card.  I wish I had thought of this!

Here is another one when I say, why didn’t I think of that?! Kerry used the drink me bottles from the  Alice Bundle on her super fun Halloween card.

By simply using Christmas colors and patterns, Cristena converted the Alpaca Bundle (a generic set) to a Christmas card.

Nancy (that’s me) used the Oh Christmas Tree Bundle to create serene sympathy card.

The Gnome Peeking set was conceived as a Christmas set but Christine so very cleverly used it for a birthday card. Don’t you just love those colors?

Brenda used the sweet Penguin Joy on her planner rather than on a card.  Can you visualize years later Brenda’s family looking at her planner and realizing  a) how busy she was and b) how very creative she was and c) how much she loved life?!

Julee combined an image from the Grab the Unicorn set (an encouragement set)  with Christmas icons to create a Christmas card. Such striking colors!

Kerry created  a generic themed slimline card using a Christmas image from the Beary Christmas set by simply clipping away the tree and lights part of the image. Very clever!

Nancy (me again) used  the Alpaca Bundle (a generic set) to create a Christmas card.

Always take a critical look at your stamps as you may find a different reason for using them.

It’s Day #5 of Sneaky Peek Week today we are celebrating the doggos in our lives. It’s only fair since we did the Kittehs, earlier this week. Illustrated by the same artist, she caught the puppers doing what they do best, being puppies. And, that’s why we adore them. We call this set “Woof”.

This stamp set features 5 pups ready to be colored or paper pieced, along with 4 different sentiments

Leigh O’Brien creates a scene on her slimline card with help from our Cloud Border and Great Outdoors Stencilz.

To make it easier, she used the Dies for this set. If you order the Woof Bundle (both the stamp set and die) you get an additional 10% discount.

Christine Okken creates this fantastic little card using the Woof Bundle and the banners from the County Fair CutUps. Her pup is beautifully colored.

Cristena Bagne’s card is based on one of the sentiments in the stamp set. Who knew that about dog hair?

Wendy McGaffey uses the same sentiment, but a whole different puppy. One can only hope that those flecks spark, right?

Finally, Kerry Urbatch creates this fun, fun card. This little puppy has so much confidence and  joy, you’ve got to believe. ;).

Here is something else to believe in. An EARLY Black Friday Sale.

We are starting our Black Friday Sale EARLY! AND, it’s our biggest one yet. We are discontinuing a lot of our stamps and dies, so get them while you can.

And there is more from The Cat Pack. Head on over and comment on each of the following blogs and you could win a $10 gift voucher. We’ll pick a winner each day this week from the comments on the blogs and post the winners here and on our Facebook page.

Nancy Thomas
Wendy McGaffey
Kerry Urbatch
Cristena Bagne
Christine Okken
Brenda Nakandakari
Leigh O’Brien

Melissa Chipperfield‘s card Scattered so much joy that I picked the WINNER of Day #4’s voucher from the comments on her blog.

Mary Holshouser! Congrats Mary. Please email me at admin@thecatspajamasrs.com to claim your prize