Category Archives: Pets and Critters

All You Need is Love and a Cat Mini Album

Petaloo Pets Week: All You Need is Love and a Cat Mini Album

Hello, Friends! Are you enjoying Petaloo Pets week? Yesterday I celebrated dogs with a sweet little shabby chic folio. Today, it’s all about CATS! This All You Need is Love and a Cat Mini Album is purr-fectly shabby chic, filled with fun interactive elements and loaded with simple techniques you can use in any crafty endeavor. Let’s take a look,. shall we?

While straightening up the Closet of Shame, I ran across this nifty mini album base. Made with heavy book board, the album had plain kraft covers and a handy ring binder mechanism. I dressed it up with papers from Authentique’s Devoted collection, a canvas spine and lots of shabby chic details.

The focal image is this pretty kitty in an altered Prima frame. Paints and seed beads add whimsy and texture to the formerly white frame. The frame is surrounded by gorgeous Petaloo flowers, custom dyed seam binding ribbon, novelty buttons and a second, smaller vintage framed image.

The frame was painted with a cream chalk paint followed by a light coat of Tattered Rose Distress Paint. Finally, I tapped the raised edges with Vintage Photo Distress paint to make them pop.

Every shabby chic project needs flowers! For this album, I’ve added Teal Mini Wild Roses, Blue Mini Wild Roses, Teal Forget me Nots, Antique Beige Wild Roses and Ivory Burlap Textured Blossoms from Petaloo, of course!

I didn’t like the plain kraft spine, so I dressed it up with a strip of canvas that I attached with Scor-Tape. The nubby texture and ivory fabric add to the shabby chic vibe. This little antique bronze lion charm added just the right touch of whimsy to the spine.

Thinking outside the button box

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know I have a “thing” for buttons. This love for buttons started when I was a child and my mom let me string buttons from my grandmother’s button box while I was sick in bed. In later years, I inherited that button box along with all the beautiful vintage buttons inside it. Like most collections, it grew…and grew…and grew! Thankfully, I love to use buttons to embellish my projects.

For this fun button feature, I encircled a “framed” image with pretty buttons. But do you want to guess how that frame was made? Yep. It’s a big button! I used a paper punch to cut out the sweet vintage image of the girl and her kitty, glued it into the center of the button and then filled the button with Glossy Accents. That’s how you think outside the button box!

It’s OK to Stagger!

When cutting the pages for this mini album, I decided it would be fun to create pages that were sized and shaped differently.

These staggered edges lend a playful, whimsical feel to the album and invite you to turn pages, open folders and peek inside pockets.

All You Need is Love and a Cat Mini Album YouTube Video

Because I find it hard to really get a feel for the flow of a mini album with still photos, I created this YouTube video tour. In the tour, I share tips for using scraps, creating custom embellishments and making interactive elements. I hope you enjoy!

Thank you so much for joining me here today! If you have any questions about this project, feel free to ask in the comment section below.

Cheerio,

kathy

All You Need is Love and a Dog Folio

Petaloo Pets Week: All You Need is Love and a Dog Folio

Hello, Friends! Do you have a furry friend that adds sunshine and joy to your life? This week at Petaloo we’re celebrating Petaloo Pets with loads of great pet themed projects. I’ve prepared a couple fun little albums with that in mind. Today’s All You Need is Love and a Dog folio has a great shabby chic/vintage vibe. Don’t you just love that adorable little girl and her Pug? This 5×7 folio has been made from a card base. It’s a simple design. Create a 5×7 card base, and add one extra score line a quarter of an inch from the fold. This will give you a 1/4″ spine, allowing you to fill the inside with all sorts of fun inserts.

Authentique Papers made me break my New Year’s Resolution to refrain from buying any new paper pretties when they released their Devoted collection. (She hangs her head in shame.) l fell completely in love with the shabby chic patterns, colors and images. Yes, friends…it found its way into the Closet of Shame.

Every Shabby Chic project needs flowers! To pick up on the antique pinks and blues in the papers, I added Petaloo Spice Anemones, Teal Forgetmenots, and Ivory Burlap Blossoms. When I’d finished layering all the elements on the cover, I spattered diluted black paint to amp up the vintage vibe.

Here’s a peek at the inside of the folio. The top half contains a really fun fold out feature with waterfall, pockets, tags and photo mounts. The bottom pocket contains several photos mounts bound together with a slide off belly band.

All You Need is Love and a Dog Folio YouTube Video Tour

Because I think it is difficult to get the feel for an interactive folio like this one, I’ve prepared a YouTube video tour. In it, I show you how the various elements work and I share lots of tips for creating interactive features like the ones in this folio. I hope you enjoy!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comment section below. I love to hear from you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheerio,

kathy

Pet Bereavement Card

Pet Bereavement Card: Love is Four Legged Word

Hello, Ribbon Lovers!

Have you ever made a pet bereavement card? I haven’t made a lot of them over the years, but every now and then a close friend or family member has lost a beloved pet, and I like to acknowledge their sorrow at its passing. My hairdresser rescued a beautiful doberman named Ivy several years ago. This pup had not been treated well, but had a loving heart that came to life once she found her new home. Sadly, Ivy developed cancer in her leg and had to have it amputated. It didn’t slow her spirit down much, but multiple rounds of chemotherapy took their eventual toll, and I’m sorry to say that Ivy lost her courageous fight against the disease. My heart broke for my dear friend, and I wanted to let her know that she was in my thoughts. So I pulled out my Graphic 45 Raining Cats and Dogs paper to make this pet bereavement card.

I found that this 3/8″ Poppy Satin Ribbon with a silver metallic edge was the perfect color match for the papers. I used my Zutter Bow-it-All Tool to tie a double layer/double loop bow that I then topped with white sweetheart blossoms and white sweetheart blossoms with a red center. A tiny snipped of the poppy ribbon worked great as a topper for the tag, too.

Here’s a quick tip for you: I used a craft knife to cut around the edges of the bicycle wheel as well as the edges of the flowers in the corner so that I could tuck my sentiment behind. Always work with a fresh blade when you are doing this type of cutting, and I’ve found that if you cut on top of a glass surface, the knife blade cuts “like buttah”.