Moody Cat Concert

Moody Cat Concert

Hello, friends! Today I'm here to share a card that I struggled with and ended up loving. Don't you love it when that happens? I used five stamp companies to finish this card but the animals and the sentiment are Mama Elephant.

Here is the card:

To start, I began with the cats on stage. The stamp set is Little Cat Agenda from Mama Elephant. First, I die cut the stage out of Neenah Solar White 80 lb with the larger die from the Pretty Pink Posh die set, Window Frames.

After stamping the cats with Simon Says Stamp (SSS), Intense Black ink, I put a piece of printer paper over the cats and drew a homemade spotlight stencil.

After masking the kitties, I taped the stencil onto the stage and began lightly blending Distress Inks over the cats. I used the colors Wilted Violet, Salty Ocean and Cracked Pistachio.

What happened next is why I was sure my little scene I created was done for. I was going for smokey, it ended up looking dirty and dark.

Instead of giving up on it, I took the advice of a friend and colored in the cats and under their feet. She said that once I finished the coloring it might make more sense to me. I'm glad that for once I didn't pitch a failed idea in the garbage. 

To achieve the spotlight of color around their little bodies, I tried to use Copics but it wasn't working. Instead, I fashioned another stencil out of printer paper and lightly blended the same Distress inks on the floor.

  

As you can see, the background isn't perfect but much improved. I decided after getting to this point that it worked for a moody atmosphere.

Next, I used the straight stitched die from the die set, Stitched Borders 2 from Pretty Pink Posh to add another layer of stitching below the stage with some spare cardstock scraps. I rubbed Nuvo Embellishment Mousse in the color Peony Pink over the cardstock and adhered it to the stage.

After that, I used the stitched rectangle die from the Mama Elephant dies, Femme Frames, to die cut a piece of Dark Chocolate cardstock from SSS. 

The fireworks are from the die set, Fireworks Bursts, from SSS, which I can no longer find on the website. I did some quick and simple coloring with my Prismacolor colored pencils. I also used one small stamp from the stamp set, Birthday Bits, from SSS, to add white and gold dots of color below the fireworks.

While I had my colored pencils out, I also added a bit more color to the instruments and I moved on.

I ended up taking the easier route for this card and went with die cut grass. There is the tall grass die from Lawn Fawn, Grassy Border, and the shorter grass die cut from My Favorite Things, Grassy Hills. All I did was lightly blend some of the stage colors onto the cardstock with the addition of Black Soot on the scalloped border of the MFT die cut. Incidentally, that scallop border is another PPP die from the die set, Stitched Borders 2.

The sentiment and the animals are from the stamp sets, Woodland Gifts and Blogging Buddies from Mama Elephant. 

For the sentiment, all I did was stamp the sentiment inside the laptop screen and fussy cut the screen to make it look like a fan sign. All that was left was to put the card together, brush on a lot of Wink of Stella over the fireworks and I was done!

Here are some more photos of the finished card:

My cat, being the extra helpful cat photographer.

Thank you for stopping by and have a beautiful day!