Cloisonne Cat 1

I first saw Michael Strong on the Carol Duvall show, many years ago.  He was showing off his Mosaid Frame stamp, and I fell in love with it right there, but had no idea where to buy one (this should give you an indication of how long ago this was!).  Anyway, some years later I discovered shopping on the internet, and did eventually remember to look for Michael's stamps online.  I found the mosaic frame, but forgot why I wanted it, and also an adorable cloisonne cat.  I was about to purchase the cat, when I saw that the shipping on the cat was as much as the stamp itself! (not that the shipping is unreasonable, but that Michael Strong stamps are very affordable).  Being a cheap person, I put off buying the stamp.

I will tell you that every December, Michael Strong has a free shipping special.  I thought about getting the cat then, but you know how it is during the holidays - you buy for other people, not yourself.  I still did not have any Michael strong stamps.

Then, at the recommendation of a friend, I bought this book Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists, and one of the first exercises is to draw lots and lots of cats.  After you do a bunch, you can select your favorite and use it as a digi; I did, and offered the image as a freebie to my readers.  The more I worked with the image, the more I liked it, and toyed with the thought of making it into a rubber stamp, which is not a cheap process.  However, there was a feeling in the back of my head that I had seen this image before.  It would be months before I thought about the cloisonne cat again, but you guessed it - they were (to me) very similar.  Frankly, even with shipping, buying the cloisonne cat was a lot cheaper than having mine custom made, so I now own the Michael Strong Cloisonne Cat.  I will be featuring cards made with this stamp this week.

Even though the stamp is a very clean graphic style, I couldn't resist combining it with Tim Holtz papers and techniques.  Burnishing the image really makes the white embossing pop.  I have to say that it has probably been years since I used any of my little vellum tags, but I always like the look when I do.  The ruffle is something I pleated myself from a scrap of gift tissue - I thought the card needed a pop of color.

Challenges:


Juliet Arrighi



7 comments:

Myrna said...

Juliet
I love your card and the cat is gorgeous.
I prefer to call you frugal.
Your story sounds so much like mine; wanting something but putting it off for a long time but in the end I get it. lol
Myrna

Chris said...

Ah...love it! Great combination of everything - it works so well together. PS. Glad you got your cat!

Shelly Schmidt said...

Fabulous card- I love all of the fun elements here- love the ruffled tissue- love the flower and the cat stamped on DP! Thanks for always being an inspiration!!! And, Thanks for the card- I love it!!!

Lau W said...

Very nice pink card, and the cat is superb !
Thanks fro joining us at the Paper Creator challenge !
xx

Darlene said...

Beautiful creation! Thanks so much for sharing your creativity with us at A.R.T. and joining in on our COLOR CHALLENGE this week! Hope you'll join us again next week!
Darlene
A.R.T. DT
DAR'S CRAFTY CREATIONS

Marcia Dehn-Nix said...

Fabulous card! I love the cat and how you finished the background so it really pops. so glad you joined us at Quick Quotes for our latest challenge.

wendyp said...

I used to love watching him on the Carol Duvall show! Glad you finally have your MS cat! :) Beautiful job! Thanks for playing along with this month's Quick Quotes Challenge!