Stamping With My Tribe

I'm spending a two week period with my tribe this month. I just got home from OnStage in Salt Lake, which was the best gathering we've had in 15 years. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g.

Here's a pic of our team dinner. Melanie Hopes, James (Lee's husband) and Diane Belcher joined us, and look who was sitting in the corner! :) We love the Red Iguana - it's a must-eat if you visit Salt Lake.

We had a great time, the spring weather and flowers in Utah were AMAZING, and we had a blast seeing all the new goodies you'll get to see soon.

Now I'm home for just a few days and then off to a crafty retreat so it's a busy spring!

Today, I'm hopping with friends from Concord & 9th, and My Sweet Petunia to celebrate the April release which is beautiful! I laughed so hard when I saw the You Crazy Cat set! I had done a guest spot on Brian King's team call a while back and when I gave him my bio with all the info about me, I also added "and I'm not a crazy cat lady - I only have two cats." It's like they read my mind with this set because look what it says.

HA! See - I'm one cat short of crazy.

So I wanted a collage of all these sentiments and the solid images but I just wanted to highlight "crazy cat lady."

To do that I arranged ALL the stamps on the Mini MISTI and got them all perfectly straight.

Then I stamped them all in Smoky Slate on a piece of watercolored paper. I overstamped the grey several times to get it dark and solid. I didn't want black here because I wanted the gold to be the star.

Then, because of the MISTI, all I had to do was peel off the words I didn't want embossed, and re-overstamp the "crazy cat lady" and the solid images in Versamark and then emboss them in gold. Neat trick, eh?

That's the first time I've done a spotlighted collage in the MISTI. I'm assuming I invented it - please don't burst my bubble if I didn't.

Then I just matted that on gold glimmer paper and put it on - SURPRISE - a white card base. :)

Now because I'm totally NOT a crazy cat lady, I have another cat project for you before I get to the giveaway.

I saw this ADORABLE cat coaster tutorial thanks to a friend on Facebook and I had to try it.

I loved it so much I went crazy and bought a bunch of felt, so I am selling little pre-cut cat coaster kits if you want to buy one. You just have to tell me what two colors you want the cats, and I'll send you all the pieces. This is beautiful wool felt from Italy.

These are for a friend I'll be seeing this week. You might even be able to guess who it is from the cats, but don't tell her - they are a surprise. Aren't they the CUTEST? I don't even know if I could put a drink down on them.

So now that I have THREE actual cats in this blog post, does THAT make me a crazy cat lady? You be the judge.

On to the hop! My sweet friends Greg & Angie will be giving away a Flourish stamp set from this release, which is spectacular - be sure and watch Angie's video on all the different ways this set can be used, and My Sweet Petunia is also giving away a Mini MISTI. All you have to do is leave a comment on all the blogs on the hop by Friday at noon Mountain time.

My Sweet Petunia

 >> Understand Blue <<

Inky Paws - Jeanne Streiff

Creativity Within - Ilina Crouse

My Case Studies - Maureen Wong

Concord & 9th

Have fun on these awesome hop stops and good luck in the drawing!

Loveyameanitbyefromthecrazycatlady.