Cat Gift Bag

While browsing the Silhouette Studio Store site I found the cutest cat gift bag.  The bag is small but the perfect size to hold a gift card.  Michelle loves cats and the cat bag  reminded me of her cat Bandit (a.k.a Mr. Sweetie).

This was a fun, quick project. the total crafting time was about 10 minutes from start to finish.  The cutting file is available from the Silhouette Studio Store or directly from Studio Illustrado.

Cat Gift Bag

Directions for Cat Gift Bag:

Black, pink, yellow and white 12x12 inch card stock
Glue
Ribbon to tie the bag closed
Studio Illustrado Cat Bag cutting file


1.   Open the cutting file and ungroup the cat.  Keep the small circles for the cat's eyes and the cat bag on the mat and move everything else off to the side.

2.  Open another mat and place the paws. inner ears and white fur  on the second mat.  Open another mat for the large eye circles and a fourth mat for the nose.

3.  Cut the cat out of black card stock, the fur and paws from mat 2 out of white card stock, the eyes out of yellow card stock and the nose out of pink card stock.

4.  Fold the cat on the perforated lines.

5.  Glue the white, pink and yellow pieces to the cat and layer the small black circles over the eyes.

6.  Fold the sides of the bag and glue the tabs in place.  Hold a few seconds until the glue dries.

7.  Cut a small piece of ribbon and thread it through the holes at the top of the bag and tie a bow to close the bag.

Mail Art

It's always fun to get a package in the mail.  It's even nicer to receive a brightly decorated package.  The first time that I encountered "mail art" was while leafing through Sommerset Studio magazine.  The editor published some of the creative packaging the magazine received containing art submissions.   At the time, I was sending so many packages to Connecticut that I thought it might be nice for Brittany to see a brightly decorated box on her door step after a long day on campus.  The decorated package was an instant hit, she loved it and so did her neighbors, her room mate and the UPS driver.  I reached for a plain shipping envelope to enclose a small box containing a gift card,  but I couldn't bring myself to place the contents inside this boring envelope.  Maybe it's time to revive mail art.

For the past few nights I had been trying to work art into my busy schedule.  I bought a copy of Dyan Reaverly's  Distictly Dylusional art journaling book, some Dylusions spray inks, stamps and the Dylusions journal and had been working my way through the book.  As I finished up my first entry in this new journal I decided to use the left over stamped flowers in the mail art.

Dylusions Journal Entry

I squirted some light blue DecoArt craft paint on the envelope in several places and spread it out with an old gift card.  Next I added some dark blue, and then purple paint creating a marbled effect as I spread the paint out.  I found a Chat Noir cut out in the "Pandora's Box" of die cuts and decorative elements. I glued the cat and the flowers to the envelope and added a decorative border (with a quote from Shakespeare on the inside of the border) for the address label.  Once the label is attached to the envelope the design area will be covered with clear contact paper to protect it during shipping. Hopefully this decorated package will brighten everyone's day.

Chat Noir Shipping Envelope

Directions for Decorated Shipping Envelope:

8x10 Padded Shipping Envelope
DecoArt light blue, purple and dark blue craft paint
Used GiftCard
Dylusions Flower Stamps
Color Box Chalk Ink-black
Dylusions Acrylic Block
Chat Noir Die Cut- SVG Cuts Maple Manor
Black and yellow card stock
Black Sharpie Marker-regular and fine point
White Gel Pen
Prisma Colored Pencils
Strathmore Bristol Paper
Clear Contact Paper or Shipping Tape


1.  Stamp several sizes of flowers on the Bristol paper using the black ink.

2.  Color the flowers with the colored pencils using colors that will stand out against the blue background.  Carefully cut the white paper away from the flowers petals.

3.  Cut Chat Noir at the given SVG Cuts file dimensions, out of black card stock.  Glue a small scrap of yellow card stock behind the opening for the cat's eyes.

4.  Randomly squirt light blue paint over the surface of the envelope and spread with the gift card.  Squirt dark blue paint over the surface and swirl with the gift card.  Repeat with the purple paint. Set aside to dry.

5.  Glue Chat Noir the left side of the envelope.  Use the journaling block to add a scalloped border the right side of the envelope.  The border should be large enough to attach and address label later.

6.  Add doodles or Zentangles to the inside of the border, with the black Sharpie marker.  Use the white gel pen to highlight to doodles.  Use a fine point black Sharpie to add a quote around the inside of the border.

7.  Glue the flowers randomly around the envelope, leave room for the postage in the upper right.

8.  Outline Chat Noir and the flowers with the white gel pen.  Add the cat's pupils and whiskers with the black Sharpie.

9.  Cover with clear contact paper or shipping to protect the design.

Inspirational Book

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I have spent the last few days hibernating in my studio, working on gifts. One of those gifts is an inspirational book, The Cat and the Moon. This book is truly a labor of love and I vastly underestimated the amount of time that it would take.

Last year my husband gave me a Cinch binding tool as an anniversary present. I love making books and the Cinch makes it a lot easier. My first project was an inspirational book for Brittany. The book contained inspirational quotes, poems and pictures. She loved the book and keeps it on her nightstand. The book was such a hit that I decided to make one for Michelle as a Christmas gift.

Michelle's book contains inspirational quotes, poems and pictures of her cats. I can not thank Brandon enough for supplying pictures of their cats. Without his help there would have been no book. Getting the pictures was the easy part. I spent hours cropping and printing the pictures and then matching them to the quotes.  There were so many design decisions, book size, paper for the book pages, decorative accents, etc.  Each page had to be hand made but the end result was worth it. Once the book pages were finished, I turned my attention to the book cover. I used chipboard for the cover and covered it with card stock. I found a picture on Pintrest and printed and matted it for the cover. I then hand lettered the title (from the Yeats poem by the same name that I used in the book) with black Sharpie. Once the cover was in place, I covered it with two coats of  Mod Podge. I wasn't sure how this was going to work but it ended up giving the book cover the look and feel of a commercial book.

This was a fun but time consuming project.

Book Cover- The title is from the Yeats poem, picture from Pintrest.

I used the Art Impressions stamp for this page.

One of the decorated pages.

Page embellished with paper punched butterflies.

Directions for Inspirational Book:

Chip board- I used two 12x12 pieces
Light grey card stock- 8 1/2 inch x 11 inch from Staples
Cinch 1 inch Antique Brass Binding Wire
Wire Cutters- I used the Cinch Wire Cutters, but any wire cutters will work
Cinch Binding Machine- the Zutter Bind It All will also work
Martha Stewart Butterfly Paper Punch
Assorted card stock and black card stock for matting photos
Assorted ribbons, trims and stickers to embellish the pages and the book cover
Mod Podge
Foam craft brush
Hot glue gun
ATG tape runner or similar tape gun
Scotch Scrapbooker's glue
Brayer
Photos printed with a laser printer
Quotes and poems printed with a laser printer


Notes:  Personalize the book as much as possible. Use what you have on hand to create the book. Embossing folders, distress inks, stamps, sticker, scraps of paper. Except for the Crazy Cat Lady stamp, which I purchased specifically for this project, everything else came from supplies I had lying around my studio. The butterflies were punched from a left over scrap of card stock that was used on one pages. Do not use dimensional embellishments such as buttons or flowers because they will keep the book from closing properly and give it a lopsided appearance.

1.  Cut two pieces of chip board to 7 inches wide by 10 inches high and set aside.

2.  Cut 15 pieces of grey card stock 6 1/2 inches wide by 9 1/2 inches.  These are the book pages. With a pencil lightly mark about a 1/2 inch border along the edge of the page. The border will be on the right edge of the left book page and the left edge of the right book page.

3.  Cut a piece of patterned paper of card stock, leaving at least 1/4 inch top, bottom and page edge margin. Print photos on multipurpose paper using a laser printer. For this size book I printed the vertical photos using the 4x6 inch option and the horizontal photos using the 3x5 inch option. Trim the excess white paper away from the photos. The decision to mat some of the photos was based on the background paper used. Some photos looked better when matted, while others didn't. Print the picture for the book cover using the 4x6 inch option.

4.  Type the quotes and poems for the book in Microsoft Word.  Use varying font styles and sizes.  Print the quotes and poems using a laser printer. Cut out each quote and mat it with card stock.

5.  Use the ATG tape gun to adhere the photos and quotes to the decorative card stock and to adhere the decorative card stock to the grey card stock book pages.

6.  Use the Scrapbooker's glue to adhere the embellishments to the book pages.

7.  For the book cover, use two pieces of identical card stock. I used medium slate blue textured 12x12 inch card stock. Lay the textured side of the card stock face down on the work surface.  Apply a thin coat of Mod Podge to the chip board with a foam craft brush. Center the chip board, Mod Podge side down, on top of the card stock. Press down, brayer the chip board in place, then turn the card stock over and brayer the textured side. Trim the excess card stock from the edges, leaving about 1/2 inch of card stock around all of the edges of the chip board.  Fold the bottom edge of the card stock over the end of the chip board and crease with a bone folder. Open the folded edge and fold the corner of the card stock over the chip board corner. Fold the bottom edge of the card stock back over the bottom of the book cover and glue in place, using the Mod Podge.. Repeat this along the top edge of the book and then the sides.  Book Play by Margaret Couch Cogswell has detailed instructions on making book covers (and hand made books).

8.  Center the picture on the book cover. Keep in mind that the wire spine will take up approximately 1/2 inch of the left edge of the book cover.  Hand letter the title on the cover, using a black Sharpie. Go over the lettering , with the Sharpie, two or three times.  After the Sharpie has dried apply Mod Podge to the book cover to seal it. Let it dry and apply two more coats. After the Mod Podge has dried, attach decorative trim around the picture using a hot glue gun.

9.  Put the book together in the order that you want to present it.  Punch the pages with the Cinch binding machine. Punch the front and back covers separately. Cut a piece of binding wire to fit the length of the book and place on the side of the Cinch machine. Remove the front and back covers and set aside. Starting with the last page, place the pages on the wire. The first page of the book should be on top. Now place the front cover on top of the stack of pages and then place the back cover so that the inside of the back cover is facing up.  Use the binding bar on the back of the Cinch to crimp the wire. Press the handle down slowly and crimp the wire just until the front and back coils meet. Remove from the machine and adjust the covers.

Decorated Shipping Boxes

Lately I have been doing a lot of shipping. It seems like I am always standing in line at either the Post Office or the UPS store holding a package. I always made sure the contents of the package were attractively wrapped and made a nice presentation but I never thought about the shipping box itself. I always shipped in a plain brown box. I was reading the latest issue of Somerset Studio and there was a call for decorated envelopes and shipping boxes. The magazine staff liked getting letters and art submissions in creatively decorated envelopes and boxes.

I started thinking about it and thought, why not? My philosophy has always been why does something have to be boring and mundane just because it's functional? I was getting ready to send a package of sugar cookies off to Brittany, so why not send them in a decorated box? I could just imagine the look on her face as she saw one of my artistic creations sitting on her doorstep.

I had just finished reading, the recently published, Drawing and Painting Imaginary Animals by Carla Sonheim. I drew my rendition of a cat that was featured in the book. I was pleased with the way that the cat turned out and decided to use him to decorate my shipping box. I planned to ship through UPS and they do not allow the outer shipping box to be wrapped so I decided to decorate one side of the box. UPS accepted my decorated box with no problem.

My rendition of the Cat on Page 9.

Work in progress.

Close up of colored cat drawing.

Finished box.

Directions for Decorated Shipping Box:


Brown shipping box
Grey, light purple and dark purple card stock
K&Company Jubilee Printed Paper Pad- dark purple print
Martha Stewart Butterfly paper punch and Tulip paper punch
Cricut Beyond Birthdays cartridge
Stickles Glitter Glue- blue
Decorative edge scissors
Pearlescent chalk
Picture or drawing
Colored Pencils- I used Derwent Studio Colored Pencils

1.  Scan in your drawing or picture. I opened the picture with Microsoft Picture Manager and increased the contrast and the brightness to lighten the pencil shading of the drawing.

2.  Once you are satisfied with the picture, print it on white card stock. I used the wallet size option on a photo printer.

3.  Use colored pencils to color in the image. I chose two shades of blue for the cat and added dark purple for the shading and pupils and lavender for the eye itself. Once you are satisfied with the colors, trim away the excess white card stock.

4.  Cut a piece of dark purple print card stock approximately 1/4 inch larger, on all sides, than the drawing. Glue the drawing to the card stock.

5.  Cut a piece of light grey card stock slighter smaller than the box. Glue the card stock to the box. Glue the drawing to the center of the grey card stock.

6.  Use the Cricut cartridge to cut out "Thinking of You" at 1 inch out of medium blue card stock.  Glue it to the bottom of the drawing.

7.  Punch three dark purple and three light purple butterflies out of card stock, using the Martha Stewart butterfly paper punch. Position the butterflies randomly on each side of the drawing (3 on each side) and glue in place.

8.  Use the decorative scissors to make an edging out of light purple card stock. Apply this edging to the left and right edges of the grey card stock.

9.  Using scraps of card stock and the Martha Stewart Tulip paper punch, punch a green tulip and a lavender tulip. Cut the top of the lavender tulip off and glue it over the top of the green tulip. Glue the tulip that you just made, to the lower left of the "Thinking of You" phrase.

10.  Apply the chalk to the grey card stock panel. Randomly apply blue-violet around the panel. Next apply dark purple and then light purple highlights to the panel.

11.  Apply dots of glitter glue to the butterfly"s body and wings and to the decorative border on the sides of the panel. Let the glitter glue dry completely.

You may want to seal your design to prevent damage. I sealed mine with clear shipping tape.

Update: The UPS driver liked the box and said that it brightened his day. He mentioned that it was nice to see something besides plain shipping boxes.