I Appreciate You!

It's Tuesday, which means it's time to share a project created for Topflight Stamps! This week my teammates and I are creating Thank You cards, but somehow I can't quite let go of Halloween season yet. My solution? My focal panel features AALL and Create's fabulous Moody Kittens Clear Set (#171), which features costumed and/or adventurous cats and sentiments, including a thank you!

Here's my card:

Topflight Stamps Products Used:
Moody Kittens Clear Set (#171) by AALL and Create

Grid Background Red Rubber Cling Stamp by Darkroom Door

Yellow Submarine, Autumn Fire, Sage, and Guacamole Fresco Chalk Paints by PaperArtsy

2" Speedball Brayer

Sanding Block

Onyx Black VersaFine™ Ink by Tsukineko®

Diamond Sparkles Gemstones Festive Selection by Hunkydory Crafts

PSA: There are lots of fantastic new products at Topflight Stamps, so you should definitely click on over there after reading my instructions! BTW, if you'd like to get 12% off your order at Topflight Stamps use THIS LINK!

Other Products Used:

Solar White Classic Crest® Cardstock by Neenah Papers

140 lb. Mixed Media Paper by Strathmore®

Grey Cardstock by Bazzill Basics Paper®

Tuxedo Black Memento™ Ink by Tsukineko®

Shadow Grey Archival™ Ink by Ranger Industries

Cheesecake Fresco Chalk Paint by PaperArtsy

Copic Markers: N2, N3, N4, N6, B60, BV20, C00, C0, YR02, YR04,  YR07, YR18, YR21, Y35, B21, G21, G24, R22, R24, R37

White Gelly Roll® Gel Pen By Sakura

Big and Little Chain Square Die Set by Gina Marie Designs

Small Rectangle and Label Dies by Spellbinders®

Instructions:

1. Cut a piece of grey cardstock to 8.5" x 5.5". Score and fold to form an A2 card. Set aside.
2. Put a small drop of Autumn Fire Fresco Chalk paint onto the craft mat. 
3. Use the 2" Speedball Brayer to spread the paint, then randomly brayer the paint onto a piece of mixed media cardstock until that drop of paint was gone from both the brayer and the craft mat.
4.  Repeat Steps #2 and 3 with each color of paint until the cardstock is filled and you're happy with the coverage. You will note in Exhibit A below that the paint colors were overlapped. Some colors blended, others not as much.
5.  There were some blobby bits of dried paint, so those were sanded off with a sanding block. 
6. Cut the painted 9" x 12" mixed media paper in half. Reserve one piece for a later use.
7. Secure the painted piece of cardstock to the base of a stamping platform with magnets.
8. Place the Grid Background Red Rubber Cling Stamp atop the painted cardstock and press the platform's lid into the back of the cling stamp,, then lift.
9. Ink the stamp with grey Archival ink and close the lid to stamp.
10. Repeat Step #9 if necessary to insure a good impression.
11. Trim the stamped painted background to 4" x 5.25".
12. Distress  the edges and set the background panel aside.
13. Use Tuxedo Black Memento ink to stamp the  grumpy-looking clown cat from the Moody Kittens Clear Set onto white cardstock
14. Color with Copic markers to match your background.
15. Use one of the dies from the Big and Little Chain Square Die Set to cut the image panel.
16. Stamp the sentiment onto a scrap of the painted cardstock using Onyx Black VersaFine ink. Heat set. 
17. Cut the sentiment with a tiny rectangle die
18. Cut grey cardstock with an ornamental sentiment die. 
19. Adhere the die-cut sentiment onto the ornamental die-cut.
20. Adhere the image panel and the sentiment onto the stamped and painted background panel
21. Adhere the card front to the reserved grey card.
22. Add red gemstones from the Diamond Sparkles Gemstones Festive Selection to the top left card and to the sentiment die-cut to finish the card.

Exhibit A: The brayered and sanded background.

Now that I've told you all about this card, I'll also mention that I'm playing along with the 2020 Cat Lovers Blog Hop and will be entering this card in in it. If you love cats and if you don't, you should, check out the entries on the link above. Additionally, there are great prizes to be had from some wonderful sponsors (Darkroom Door, whose Grid Background Stamp was used for my card, is one of them.).