#15 Floral Cat in Navy and White – 20 Posts, 20 Years

Hello! Today is National Dog Day (or so Facebook tells me) – so I am celebrating by posting a cat card – lol!  This technique is called Two Tiered Eclipse. With the recent eclipse this is the time to share it! We will get to dogs at the end of this post because, as many of you know, I am a dog lover (although I like cats and horses too) and one of my dogs had a very big day on Friday…but more about that later.

The Two Tier Eclipse Technique is often done with large die cut letters but it works just as well with other images and with punches – like this adorable new Cat Punch from the Holiday Catalog (available to purchase on September 1st!). The basic technique is to cut out an image, put the pieces back together, and then stamp across both.  Then remove the punched image and pop it up on dimensionals.  Here are some tips for successfully creating this technique.

I started by punching the cat out of a 2 3/4" x 3 3/4"piece of Whisper White.  I slide the punch all the way in (until you can't go any farther) and then punched.

I found that post it notes are helpful with this technique. I placed a post it note behind the white piece that I had punched out of, with the sticky portion in the opening of the cat shape (yes, these are black post it notes that someone gave me – not so good for writing on but perfect for this use!). Now place the punched cat back into the negative space that it came from, pushing it down on to the sticky part of the note. This will hold your cat in place so it doesn't stick to the inky stamp.

You can just barely make out the edges of the punched cat when I put it back in the negative space! Stamp the floral image from the Wood Words in Night of Navy classic ink.  Press the stamp firmly and hold it down on the paper for the count of 5. By holding it down longer you will get less of a "halo effect" – the white space around the punched edge.  Obviously I did not hold it down long enough on this piece -oops!

The kitty face stamp is from the Spooky Cat set which is available as a bundle (for a 10% discount) with the Cat Punch.  I stamped the face in Night of Navy ink and added the "hello" greeting from the Tabs for Everything stamp set.

To accentuate the "eclipse" effect you can add additional punched or die cut images behind the first, in a contrasting color, making it "thicker" with colored sides.

I adhered two Night of Navy punched cats behind the stamped cat – now it is thicker with colorful sides.

Assemble your card, add the gingham ribbon, and pop up the stamped cat on Dimensionals and Mini Dimensionals. I cut a mini dimensional in half for the tale.

Here is an example of the Two Tier Eclipse with the Large Letters Dies.  I used Crushed Curry and Cherry Cobbler inks with the new stamp Gourd Goodness from the upcoming Holiday Catalog (September 1st – just a few days away!).  I will share more cards like this that I made in a future post.

Don't forget to order your Cat Punch (or Spooky Cat bundle) on September 1st! Popular items like this often go on backorder – get yours before that happens!

Now the dogs get a turn in the spotlight!  Yesterday I showed my Whippet Pups at the Lake Elmo Minnesota dog show.

This is a large show and there were 88 Whippets entered on Friday, lots of gorgeous dogs and some VERY stiff competition!!  This is my female puppy Mercy and I, 2nd from the right (I'm really stressed in this photo – trying to get her to stack up perfectly)!

I'm a novice at handling so I was absolutely thrilled when Mercy won her class – finishing ahead of some fabulous females! I'm making "smoochy" sounds (those of you with dogs will know what I mean) in this photo to try to get her to run faster – as you can tell by my face – tee hee!  

In addition to her blue ribbon she got this pretty slip lead!  Thanks for letting Mercy share her big day on National Dog Day! Stop back tomorrow for the next post in my 20 consecutive blog posts in this month long celebration of my 20th year anniversary as a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!

Happy stamping,

Susan

Available September 1st: The Cat Punch, available by itself, or get it as a bundle with the Spooky Cat stamp set and save 10%.

CLICK HERE TO PLACE YOUR ORDER in my online store 24-7 or click any of the pictures below to go directly to that specific item online. When I use stamp sets for a project I give you both the wood and clear mount options – that way you and pick your favorite!