Bookmarks LI: Mod Cats

This project sat almost-completed on my desk for nearly a month, I think. I can't even remember why -- it was certainly very easy to assemble once I rescued it from the bottom of a scrap pile.

I'm not terribly happy with the tiny orange cat on the top square bit -- mostly because it's very hard to see that it's a tiny orange cat! I think the fault is in my color choice rather than the stamp, though, and I definitely like the bookmark as a whole.

I'm entering this cat-and-mouse bookmark into the following challenges:

• Southern Girls Challenge #58: Use Pink and Brown (sure, there's some orange too, but it's mostly pink and brown)
• Rogue Redhead Rebel Challenge 17: UnCard (it's a bookmark!)
• Joanna Sheen Challenge: Anything Goes Excluding Christmas
• One Crazy Stamper: Anything Goes
• Simon Says Stamp: Anything Goes

Supplies:

Bookmarks XLVI: Grey, Red, and Black

I used to think there were two kinds of squirrels: grey squirrels, and red squirrels. Then I moved to Michigan, where there are also black squirrels. I'm still not totally used to it, and I've been here for more than five years. Black squirrels!

(There is also a quasi-fourth type of squirrel here, which I call "who dipped half that black squirrel in a bucket of bleach?" squirrels.)

The internet tells me that black squirrels are just melanistic (i.e. very dark) grey squirrels, and can have all sorts of weird mottling patterns, but still. Black squirrels! They're not less cool-looking for the knowledge.

So when I wanted to make a fallish bookmark with some scraps of acorny paper and my new Lawn Fawn Critters in the 'Burbs stamps, the squirrel (and the acorn) were the obvious choice, and doing squirrels in three colors was only a very small step from that. They're all stamped and embossed in gold, and then I colored them in with silver (for grey), copper (for red), and black (for black... you probably figured that out) and stamped and embossed some acorns in the same set of colors.

The background brown paper is a scrap I used to soak up spray from the craft mat a while ago and then set aside to dry. I love to do this, especially with bookmark-y sized scraps of plain paper; they go back into the paper box to become neat backgrounds for future projects (like this one). I'm pretty sure there's both gold and copper spray on here, although I can only swear to the copper. In the picture it looks like there's silver as well, but that's just the lighting.

I have some lovely novels starring squirrels that I should have used to photograph this bookmark on, but they're in a box -- oh, shoot, the Redwall books aren't boxed, I could have used one of them! Anyway, I ended up putting it on a page of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I'm entering this squirrely bookmark into the following challenges:

• Penny Black and More @ Allsorts: Animal Magic (squirrels!)
• The Crafty Pad Challenge #193: Use An Animal
• Inky Impressions Challenge 82: Fall or Halloween (clearly, I've chosen Fall here)
• Great Impressions October Challenge: Fall
• Joanna Sheen Challenge: Autumn Breeze

Supplies: (the acorn paper is from DCWV's Autumn Melody matstack)

Guest Bookmark: Jack-o-Lantern

A book-blogger friend of mine, Anya, sometimes comes over and makes bookmarks with me. She made this one at my crafty birthday party! It started out looking horribly mistaken (she shared this evaluation), but the more she added, the better it looked! It's always a relief, and something of a delight, when that happens.

I really like that copper border with gold embossing powder on it... but then again, I'm a sucker for copper.

Her crowning touch was definitely drawing the jack-o-lantern face onto the pumpkin.

Anya's asked me to enter her stuff into challenges when it's not too much trouble, and there seem to be a lot of pumpkin-themed challenges about at the moment. To be quite clear, she did make this several weeks ago and did post a small picture on her book blog. I think it's still legit to enter in current challenges -- it hasn't been posted anywhere papercrafty or entered in challenges before. But please delete this entry without guilt if your challenge is not okay with that!

I'm entering Anya's bookmark (on her behalf) into these challenges:

• There She Goes 177: Fall Fun
• Fashionable Stamping Challenge #73: Shades of Autumn/Fall
• Joanna Sheen Challenge: Autumn Breeze
• No Matter Which Challenge #3: Halloween Creations or Halloween Colours
• Touch Twin Challenge 27: Fall themed project in monochromatic colors (gold/orange)

(She does read my blog, so she'll see your comments!)

Supplies:

Bookmarks XXXVII: Pair o' Pairs

Here's the story: I had rescued a particularly hideous greenish mustard piece of cardstock from the floor, so it was sitting on my cutting mat. I was paging through DCWV's "Sweet" matstack looking for something to think pink with, because hey, right now that's enter-able into about a dozen challenges without even stretching. (Look, they don't always have to be challenging.) And then there was this floral pattern incorporating pink and an almost mustard-y yellow. It kinda looked like it would go with that ugly cardstock.

I determined to force the issue. Almost-coordinating papers don't give you the opportunity to use up something ugly every day, after all.

I also wanted to use some of my new fruits and sweets stamps. And it hit me that, hey, pears are a yellowy-greenish color!

There was also a light blue on the floral print, giving me the opportunity to use some fairly dull and uninspiring light grey-blue cardstock as well... and to make a pair of pear bookmarks.

I promise that's the only play on words I'm deliberately committing here. And I totally would have stamped a bunch of grapes for the blueish bookmark if I'd had such a stamp, just to avoid the pun. 'Cause I like clever puns, but this one is not clever.

Also, that blue pear kinda weirds me out.

I stamped everything in pink (and clear embossed), edged with pink, and used a little of my new pink polka-dot washi tape in an effort to play up the pinkness for all those Breast Cancer Awareness / Think Pink competitions.

To be fair to the grey-blue cardstock, it's not entirely uninspiring. However, the only thing it suggests to me is rainy days, and I own no cloud, raindrop, or umbrella stamps. So.

I'm entering this pear pair of bookmarks into the following challenges:

• Link Up For Pink
• Our Craft Lounge 137: Go PINK for Breast Cancer Awareness
• Art Impressions 83: PINK! for Breast Cancer Awareness
• Dream Valley Challenge 42: Go Pink
• Lexi's Creations Challenge 75: Pink
• Drunken Stampers Challenge #100: Think Pink
• Ladybug Crafts Ink: Flowers and Embossing (flowers on my patterned paper, and all the stamping is heat embossed in clear)
• Stampin' for the Weekend 18: Feeling Floral (flowers on patterned paper)
• Joanna Sheen: Down in the Garden (more like down in the pear orchard, yeah? But that's a kind of garden.)
• Crafty Bloggers Network #4: Anything Goes

I'm also linking it up to DL.ART's October Linky Party.

Supplies: (washi tape is "printed paper tape" from Up & Up / Target)