Waffle Flower Flora Cat Clock Makeover

Welcome to day 2 of this year’s Cat Lovers Hop!

   

There will be a lot going on here on my blog today: a home decor makeover, some games, a giveaway, a guest designer, a sci-fi mash-up… Wait! Did I say games and a giveaway?!! Be sure to read all the way to to bottom to find out the details!

Lest’s start out with my first project for today –  a home decor makeover:

I’ve been wanting to update this clock for ages! It started out BLAH:

By embossing the fabulously sweet Flora Cats from hop sponsor Waffle Flower onto gray paper, it’s now a lovely and playful piece of art hanging on my wall. Meowza!

Materials used:

• Waffle Flower Flora Cat Play stamp set
• Tsukineko Versamark ink
• Inkadinkado embossing powder – linen white
• Core’dinations gray cardstock
  • BTW: have you ever wondered the difference between gray and grey? The easiest way to remember: grAy is the American way of spelling the color and grEy is the English way of spelling it. Now, if I could just keep my hair from learning that word no matter how it’s spelled….

I’m playing along with the Cat Lovers Hop – Hurry and click HERE for more information on how you can join the fun before it’s all over for another year!

I’m also joining Simon Says Stamp’s Monday Challenge: Monochrome. Click HERE for more information.

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And now, the part you’ve all been waiting for! I have a fun game for you to play… a cat themed word search! Now, you may not be into word searches, but this one may be worth your while… finding the answers will get you entries to the giveaway!

You may want to right click on the puzzle, copy it and print it out to better play with it. Here’s how to play:

1. Find all the words that contain the letters C-A-T in order. Draw a line through each word. Words can run up, down, across, backwards and vertically, but always in a straight line. Now, not including the words CAT or CATS, how many different words did you find that have ‘CAT’ in them? (With no exact duplicates.)
2. Next, take the leftover/unused letters and unscramble them to fill in the blanks:                                   __  __  __  __  __    the    __  __  __       __  __  __  __  __  __       __  __  __ !
3. Bonus: List the words (actual words, not acronyms or names) that have the letters C-A-T in reverse order in them. (Note: these words should NOT be in your list in #1 lest you lose some of the letters needed to finish #2!)
4. E-mail your answers to me at d.annscraftingwhims [at] gmail (dot) com. You will get one entry for the correct answer to #1, another for the correct answer to #2, and a bonus entry for each correct word listed in #3. You can get additional entries if you follow my blog (on a desktop computer, the follow button is on the right side-bar, on a smartphone, I think you have to scroll to the bottom), follow me on Instagram or follow me on Pinterest, just tell me in your e-mail which ones you follow, if any. Please let me know if you are USA or international as there will be a small prize for each. (Sorry international peeps, it has to be light to keep the postage down.)

You have until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time, Sunday, October 29, 2017 to submit your answers via e-mail. The winners chosen using Random. org from the correct comments and bonus entries. They will be announced on a blog post on Monday, October 30, 2017 – hopefully, before noon PACIFIC time. I will also post the solutions in case you didn’t get them. Please come back and check to see if you’re the winner. The winner will have 72 hours to contact me with their snail-mail address or another winner will be chosen.

Ok, off you go to hunt for those words!

Oh, I guess you’d like to know what you’re playing for, eh?

Continental USA peeps:

… a set of 6 Mary Engelbreit cards & envelopes; an unknown set of holographic kitty stickers (yes, the stickers are the same in both pics, just the way the light hits them changes their color – so cool!), 6  sheets of 6″x6″ paper from the My Minds Eye Meow collection, a yard of paw print ribbon and a cat shaped paperclip.

International peeps:

A sheet of Sandylion dimensional gem stickers, an unknown set of holographic kitty stickers (yes, the stickers are the same in both pics, just the way the light hits them changes their color – so cool!), and a yard of paw print ribbon.

Stay tuned…. I have a guest blogger coming up later today with a very special kitty project!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

FabScraps Tea Card and Teapot Shaped Gift Set

I’m glad you could stop by to see this sweet little gift set for the Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop!  We’re already zooming up toward 200 entries – and it’s still day one!

I was so pleased that my order of the FabScraps For the Love of Tea paper pack arrived in time for this hop! The lovely flowers remind me of my Aunt’s garden in summertime!!

The sentiments on the paper are so FUN! Add some pearls and lace and you’ve got a sweet shabby chic gift set in minutes.

The pack comes with two teapot gift ‘boxes’ ready to fold… I think I’m going to save the other one to use as a template to make my own from other papers.

The inside box easily holds 6 individually wrapped tea bags or a few chocolates…

Materials used:

• FabScraps For the Love of Tea paper pack
• Ranger Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Pumice Stone
• Core’dinations Parisian Nights A2 pink card
• Hobby Lobby Decorative Trim – pink
• Celebrate It Basic Basic string of pearls
• Simply Defined “Stay Put” All Purposed Liquid Adhesive
• This & That foam dots
• Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L adhesive strips runner

I am playing along with the following challenges… click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun…

• Summer 2017 Coffee Lovers Blog Hop
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: Use Patterned Paper

Thank you so much for stopping by, and for the lovely comments you’ve been leaving! Happy hopping!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

PTI 10th Anniversary Challenge: Stitching – Little Lady’s Felt Tic-Tac-Toe aka Foxes & Dames

Hello and welcome back! I’m finally up to posting some of the projects I’ve done for Papertrey Ink’s 10th Anniversary Challenges, and just in the nick of time as they end tomorrow morning… so brace yourselves for a rash of posts. : )

 

The first Challenge this month was a Stitching Challenge. Lizzy Jones started off Papertrey Ink’s new stitching series with a cute little felt travel Tic-Tac-Toe set:

Not having Xs and Os, I took her color scheme and made a little girl’s game of ‘Foxes & Dames’:

It rolls up easily. Just tie a ribbon around it for a portable game.

Supplies used:

• Papertrey Ink Love You To Pieces: Fox die
• Papertrey Ink: Simply Jane die collection
• Kunin Felt Eco-fi Classicfelt -Black, Red, White
  • Interesting fact: This felt is made with a polyester fiber made from recycled plastic bottles.
• Prism Craft Thread – gray

I’m playing along with the following challenges… click on any one of them for more information on how you can join the fun:

• Papertrey Ink’s 10th Anniversary Challenge: Stitching
• Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge: For a Special Lady/Girl

I’ll be right back with a couple more projects.

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

2016 – The Year In Review

Well, for better or for worse, another year has gone. Here’s a quick review of the highlights:

This year I was able to make 108 posts in spite of all that went on. There were 2712 of you visitors from 64 countries who left 1173 oh-so-kind comments. I greatly appreciate the 56 of you who follow this blog… most of you make it a point to regularly leave comments, too. Thanks!

This year’s most visited posts?

  

  

     

If you missed any of them, just click on the picture to go get the details.

The most commented on posts this year were:

  

   

 

Over on Instagram it’s a tradition to show one’s top nine… the ones that got the most ‘likes’

    

    

    

Some of them were surprising to me. Thanks to the 151 followers for the 2808 hearts and for your kind comments on my 154 pics!

Another surprise comes from Pinterest. Although I rarely pass 50 likes on Instagram and a dozen or so repins on Pinterest, Of the 227 cards and tags I have posted, I am flabergasted to see these four get hundreds, even thousands of repins!

     

 

Click on any one of them to go check them out and repin them if you haven’t already.

I was thrilled to receive three special honors this year:

• 1

• These cards were chosen on December 6, 2016 Die Cuts and More DCAM November Challenge international winner.

 

• 2

• This card was a Newton’s Nook Fan Feature on August 9, 2016.

 

• 3

• On February 22, 2016, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Designer Spotlight was granted this card.

To see other cards that have received honors, click HERE.

Which are my personal favorites from this year? Pfft! That’s like asking a mother which kid is her favorite. No way to choose! There are, however a couple I would like to mention that didn’t make the top picks…

The transforming window card:

View this post on Instagram

Amazing transforming card! Love the instructions for this in the Online Card Classes Clear & Sheer Day 3… Details will soon be up on blog. Link in profile. 5/5/16 post. Love those #powerpoppy #orchid stamps! Silly me made this for the challenge that just ended. #brainfog lol! #OCCClearShear #magicwindowcard #handmadecards #papercrafting

A post shared by @ d.ann.c on May 5, 2016 at 8:02pm PDT

You can see the post by clicking HERE.

The kiddie games:

View this post on Instagram

DIY kitty kiddy games coming up on the blog a later today! Stay tuned! (Details will be on the first post of 10/26/16. (link in profile.) Made with upcycled lids from take-out dressing pots. #newtonsnook #sssmchallenge #ssswchallenge #copicmarkers #copiccoloring #diykidsgame #diykidsgames #diygame #diygames #kidstoys #diytoys #papercrafting #upcycle

A post shared by @ d.ann.c on Oct 26, 2016 at 9:43am PDT

You can see that post by clicking HERE.

 The SMILE Roller Coaster Card. And

  The lace anniversary card.

And, in other crafting whims:

 This necklace with duct tape feathers.

 And this felt kitty coaster.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the year’s projects and this little trip down memory lane!! Thank you all so very much for your support over this past year. I look forward to reaching some new crafting goals in the upcoming months… I’ll tell you about them soon.

For right now, though, I’ve had it. I quit. I’m not posting anything more this year!! : )

See you all next year!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

Felt Kitty Coaster

Good afternoon! The whim has finally taken me away from cards to post this nifty little kitty coaster I made back in February. (Yes, there are several things nearly a year old that have yet to be posted. At the speed at which I move, if I were on a turtle’s back I’d probably be shouting ‘Wheee!!’ lol!) My idea was to make a whole set, but life ended up getting in the way and now the rest are on the back burner. So, for now, I’ll share the only one I made… purrfect for that cuppa…

I first saw the post about these on Kunin Group felt products Facebook page HERE and followed the link back to Laura’s Made Peachy blog… you can read her guest post by Katie Norris of Baker Ross and get the template download to make these for free HERE. There are several different decorating ideas and patterns on the two links. I will say that the eyes and nose pieces are so tiny.. even the ears and paws might be a lot easier glued on rather than stitched.

  

What is it about cat’s paws that just make you want to play with them?!! Speaking of which… try typing “cat’s paw bear” into your Google search bar and check out the images. Some are photoshopped, but they’re pretty stinkin’ cute!

This was my first try at stitching like that… I think it turned out ok. You could probably stuff these and make little toys out of them, too.

Materials used

• Kunin Group felts
• DMC embroidery thread

I’m entering this project in the Cat Lovers Hop. Click on it for more information as to how you can join the fun… there are many prizes up for grabs! : )

I have a special interview planned for tomorrow and there will be blog candy, so be sure to check back in. Thank you all so much for your kind comments!!

~D.Ann

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p.s. any ads on this page are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed by me.

pps…. One last bit of fun for the day… those of you who have been subscribers for a while know my fascination with pareidolia – the human ability to see shapes or make pictures out of randomness. Here are a couple of heavenly examples that fit out Cat Lovers Hop….

The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543)

The Cat’s Paw Nebula (NGC 6334)

Well, there you have it. You now know the depth of my cat loving geekiness! Now, if you want to know some REALLY interesting trivia… Did you know that the center of the Milky Way tastes like raspberries and smells like rum? True story! You can read about it HERE.

Can’t wait to get out there and see if it’s true! : )

G’nite all!!