K is for Kittens

Greetings from Magpie Heaven this bright Friday morning (well, the sun is shining at the moment but for how long?) Thank you for stopping by. Hello too to all the Alpha Challengers at the Craft Barn. Thank you, not only for running this challenge, but also for making it possible for 'newbies' to join in! Having only just started blogging  I was really excited when I discovered the challenge and learned that I would be able to participate without having been in right at the start. I dug out a discarded and rather tattered dictionary from our Magpie loft, which is brimming over with all our 'useful' but abandoned bits and pieces and I was ready to go! Here is my contribution to the Craft Barn Alpha challenge at http://thecraftbarnblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/alphadictionary-challenge-letter-k.html
'K' is indeed a challenging letter; but being a cat-lover it had to be 'K' for kitten!

Kittens just give me a warm glow, so I decided on a warm, vintage look. I used a tag made from a Tim Holtz 'Movers and Shapers' die and Paper Artsy Smoothy card and coloured it by swiping it through Tim Holtz Distress Inks: Dried Marigold, Aged Mahogany and Squeezed Lemonade spritzed with  water on my craft mat. I dried with my heat tool and then embossed a design from an old 'Non Sequiteur' stamp set, which echoed the globe on the kitten illustration I wanted to use on my tag, with copper embossing powder. I then collaged the vintage images of kittens onto the tag with Claudine Helmuth mat medium.

 The Tim Holtz tag comes with a little frame, which I used to frame the adorable kitty on the bottom right. She is Queen of Kittens with a tiny gold crown from Retro Cafe Art Gallery. I distressed my dictionary definition with Squeezed Lemonade and Walnut Stain Distress Inks. I embellished the frame a little more by painting it initially with Butternut Fresco paint and distressing the edges with Aged Mahogany, embossing with some copper lettering and then rubbing some Treasure Gold (Green Amber) over it in places.

 I also used small punched out circles with the letter 'k'; Spell-binders dividers and a  punched stamp coloured with Distress Inks and die-cut from warm brown Bo-Bunny paper. The rose is a Tim Holtz tattered pine cone die made from Smoothy card painted with Frescos in Smoked Paprika and tipped with Blood Orange. I finished off with seam binder coloured with matching Distress Inks and tiny topaz gems and Dresden foil trim. My daughter - now nineteen and a life-time cat-lover- has her eye on this tag on its little easel for her room, so I'd better post this blog without further ado!

 My camellia has been so glorious that I just had to include a bloom in the picture - the purrfect complement to Princess Kitty's charms. Thank you for stopping by and Thank you Craft Barn for the Alpha/Dictionary Challenge Challenge! Have a creative Friday everybody!