I had a tooth pulled recently and the dentist, Dr Demaira in Montville NJ, is a genius. She believes in teasing the tooth out so it may take a bit longer than with some dentists, but she’s GENTLE. So gentle in fact, that I had to ask if the tooth was out because the awful pressure and cracking didn’t happen. She had the implant in and the stitches done before you could say jiminy cricket. Not that it’s easy to talk with dentist implements in your mouth, I admit. But she and her nurse Kathy, had me laughing a lot. And enjoying listening to the musicals. How many times have you been singing along to the Sound of Music whilst waiting for the numbing to happen?? I wanted to send her a card to thank her for such outstanding work and the subject was easy to figure out. Her office is covered in cat pictures; even the staff have cats on their scrubs. And there’s pink. Everywhere. Pink scrubs, glasses, tray liners, you name it. It’s pink.

Of course, I don’t have any cat stamps. That would be too easy. But when I went to a class earlier this month, I borrowed a retired set, Cool Cats from my upline. She said that there was no rush, just bring it back at the next class which gave me three weeks. I thought that was plenty. Have you ever tried to make a completely pink card? With a cat? It’s not easy. I have 5 different pink cardstocks (although my brother decreed that 2 of them couldn’t be termed pink – I disagreed, but there you go. Rose red is definitely pink. As is melon mambo). I decided on strawberry slush and blushing bride. I almost regret this because strawberry slush is one of my favourite colours and I’m a bit off pink now.

I worked on this card on and off for almost all of the three weeks. I finally decided on an oval shape for the cat. But what should the colour be? And how large the frame? And should I have some texture in there?

I started to panic and in fact, stamped the cat quite a few times on different card stock. I stamped in gold, I embossed it in clear, I stamped in strawberry slush. Finally on Monday night, the night before the class and my deadline – although of course Jen my upline (not to be confused with Jen from Canada who comments on my blog) would’ve let me keep it longer, I made a break through.

I was semi pleased with this. I could see that it could be better, but not how. I talked to Jen From Canada (it’s handy having a friend with an arts degree) and she pinpointed what was bothering me. The left hand side of the oval is not defined. Once she pointed it out, it was so obvious! I tried DSP with an oval cut out around the left hand side of the cat. That didn’t quite work. Then, I tried glitter. I’m not really a glitter kind of girl, but it worked. Well I think it did – here’s what the final card looks like:

The colour is actually closer to the intermediate card. Not sure what happened here with my photography. I hope Dr Demaira likes it!

Base: 8.5″ by 5.5: Blushing bride

Mat: 4″ by 5.25″ strawberry slush

Ovals – blushing bride and strawberry slush cut out with the #4 oval framelit (there are 7 so it doesn’t matter where you start counting!). BTW, the oval framelits are on special this week until next Tuesday when new weekly deals come out. They are 75% of regular price.

Stamp set: Cool cats ( retired)

Ink: versamark

Other: Clear embossing powder, dazzling diamonds glitter

If you wanted to make this card and had the supplies, it’s easy. Once you know where you’re going. Now that I’ve given you the dimensions, I think that’s all that I need to tell you! I hope you enjoyed seeing how this card evolved. I now have lots of cats and texture and ovals for use on other projects!