YAPPING CAT STUDIO

Time off...for just a bit!

Hi Y'all, I need to step away from this blog for a bit, as this blog is taking up quite a bit of my time right now. 

For those that don't know, I started Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat with Tina Wright about four years ago.  Sadly, we lost Tee to colon cancer, a year ago this January.  I decided to continue on with Paper Cowgirl, to keep Tee's dream alive and as an honor to her. 

This year, as PC continues to grow, we are offering thirteen great crafting, art, painting, altered art and jewelry classes.  As well as having a fabulous keynote speaker, Lisa Pace, of Delight in the Details, will be talking about making the change "From Artisti to Author" and signing books too. 

Our Vendor show is going to be bigger than ever (and last years was great!).  So, very much to do yet and no time to craft or play.  But I'll be back soon.  Meanwhile, check it out over at Paper Cowgirl to see what this yapping cat girl is up to! 

hugs!

-c

 

Lookie! Lookie!

Peter Pan said, "isn't it wonderful, what clever girls can do?"  Well, I happen to be the lucky recipient of one of those, oh-so-clever girls!  Lookie, lookie!  Ain't it pretty? I won, I won!  Yaaaay, me!  :) 

Love the details...the small glittered round on each banner tip, the snowflake at the top of each piece and I LOVE the colors.  So gorgeous. LOVE the color..did I say that already? 

And sweet Terri, even sent me this:

I'm such a goober for red...LOVE this! 

Adorable little details. 

And the word, "Smitten" says it all.  That's pretty much how I feel about Sweet Hub...I'm pretty smitten. Terri...you are to dear and I'm so grateful to be the lucky gal that won!  Let me show you just a peep of the cuteness on her blog:

These were on her blog today!  Too stinkin cute, I tell ya!

And love these!  She made these herself...see I told ya...clever girl!  And she has recipes too!  Oh...and check out the cute roses she made out of coffee filters, you will love em.  See?  Peter Pan would be sooo impressed.  As am I.

If you have not had the chance to check out Terri's cute blog, The Gypsy Magpie, go do it!  She has such an imagination and just makes the cutest things.  She is a very, very clever girl.

-c

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

What? No Color!

One of the coolest perks of being the Coordinator of Paper Cowgirl Art Retreat, is that I get to work with some pretty amazing gals.  Being surrounded by all that talent can be very intimidating.  Or very inspiring, just depending on how you look at it.  Me?  I'm inspired. 

If you remember this little project, it was fun.  And I loved the concept of the whole little hanging pocket.  But the colors, never quite sat well with me. And I love color.  LOVE!

So, inspired by my (amazing, might I add) friend, Lisa Mac, over at Tarnished and Tattered, I decided to re-do the little pocket, in neutrals.  Eek.  I'm a color kinda girl.  Neutrals hard.  All vintage...even harder.

But, really....it was fun!  And kinda freeing!  Because I was staying neutral, it made choices of what to use, easier.  Even though it was a little harder to stay our of my scrabooking bins, they are usually my go to.

The finished pocket above...

And here.  One of my favorite details, was that I attached the (real! gasp!) photo to some recycle cardstock (Salt-tine box), and then cut the edges.  As I was looking for toys to fill the pocket, I grabbed a piece of white writing chalk.  I decided to just chalk the edges of the cardstock the photo was adhered to for some additional detail.  It turned out to be my favorite thing.

I tucked in some "inspirational" toys.  I wanted the pocket to be an inspirational piece.  I made shred by repeatedly printing out this Picasso quote:

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.

And then I cut it all to use as filler.  And I also did a hand-lettered card that read the same thing.  All sorts of "toys" bits of a bingo card, a fortune, a wish ticket, kiddie park tickets, etc.  All to inspire one to "play". 

Here it is stuffed and ready to be wrapped.

By then, I was really in the neutral groove and added a hand-made tag to match.

And here it is, all wrapped and ready to go! 

If you've never been over to Lisa Mac's world, go check her out.   Her blog is truly a trip down the rabbit hole into a wonderful, dream of cream, wonderfuland. 

I'm so honored to have this talented gal be involved in Paper Cowgirl again this year.  To check out her class at Paper Cowgirl in June, go to:  http://papercowgirl.blogspot.com/, and look at the amazing class she will be teaching this year! You too will be, like me, inspired!

-c

When Something gets Stuck in your Head

Kinda like gum in your hair, only better.  Is this how trends start?  One thing gets the ball rolling and is builds from there.

I'm not sure, but for me, its when one thing catches my eye, and then I keep seeing it over and over again.  And is it because, now I'm more attuned to it, so I'm looking for it, or is it really some sort of trend that has begun and I'm just now noticing.  Thoughts to ponder for sure.

For instance, here are the things that are stuck in my head right now...

The British  Flag:

(Picture from Miss Mustard Seed)

OK, because I am a British Flag Geek anyway, maybe its just me, but seems like I keep seeing the British flag EVERYWHERE lately.

LOVE this pillow.  So cool.  Even though it matches NOTHING in my decor, would love to have one.

Oh wait, thats not the British Flag!  OK, really this is just a gratuitous shot of Robert Pattinson.  But hey, ya know.  And speaking of Twilight, the trend that keeps on giving, I keep seeing what I call, "Bella Blue". 

Bella Blue

See her shirt?  That color.  And her prom dress was that sortta cobalt blue too...but I could not find a pic of it. 

Of course, Fashion Colors, (if you will click on this link, and scroll down to the title, Cloth/Spring Fashion Color Trends 2011 - you will see my Bella Blue's), come in a wide range, but the one that keeps catching my eye is that Bella blue.  The night time news anchors are wearing it constantly down here.

And while I'm rambling on about Twilight, this has nothing to do with trends, gah, I wish my hair looked like this:

The sketch for Alice's hair is the coolest.  I guess in reality its just a shag?  The sketch is way better than the wig she wears.  Anyway.

French Jars
And the last, but not least thing stuck in my head...French Jars.  Tall, clear glass, no lid, medium lip, and I think they are sooo cool.  One of the gals at work, brought several back from Round Top and I really like them.  So when I saw this in the British Edition of Country Living...well, hey, now its stuck in my head too. 

Well, there ya have it!  What's stuck in your head right now? Hopefully not gum.  Or we will have to cut it outta your hair...and then you could end up looking worse than Alice's wig.  :)

-c

 

 

 

 

Ketchup

Seeing the sun today was absolutely wonderful!  I had all the shades thrown open to catch every golden ray that I could. 

I finally feel like I'm beginning to catch up.  I actually took a class on Saturday, I'll have to post pics so you can see.  Today, I spent half the day today working on my poor Etsy and the other half working on Paper Cowgirl.  Its been a busy day.

I did coffee dye some more ribbon...that's so much fun! 

Hmmm, see a common thread here....seems to be a "pink" one. 

I do like pink. 

I even coffee dyed some birds.

These were my last favorite flea find...are they not the cutest?

And I put a few more Victoria's in too!  So glad to have the little Etsy a little more fuller!

And for those that are interested, Paper Cowgirl Teacher's are now listed, if you want to go over and take a gander! We have some really great classes lined up for this June.

I am going to hit the hay...its been a long day.  See ya!

-c

What a Week!

What a week its been.  Winter certainly came roaring back in with a venegance and bitter cold was the name of the game.  We Texans are not only not used to this kind of cold, but ill equipped to deal with the ice and snow that followed.  Let's just say..its been a fun (sarcasm!) week.  The most sought thing in our household this week...the heating pad. 

But I did manage to get a few new items made and placed in my Etsy shop.  Poor neglected little thing.  Here are some of the things I added tonight.

Paper Bird Cut outs...by hand, by me.  Not punched.  :) 

Tied up cutely with a hand-written tag!

Coffee dyed ribbon.

Packaged on a sweet paper bird. 

And while I tried to stick to a neutral color palette...well, color just kept sneaking in.  So I added a sweet little embellishment kit too.

Punched medallions and those great coffee dyed velvet flowers.

Even though the week has been bitterly cold, we've stayed in and stayed as warm as we could.  We were lucky in that, we did not have to suffer any of the rolling black outs or power outtages that some did.  Sweet Hub worked here from the house this week.  Which was nice.  No puter time for me, which meant I was forced actually got some things done, hence the new items in my Etsy.  So all in all, its been a good week...but I'm really ready for some 60 degrees and above. 

Have a great weekend.  The Stupor Bowl craziness will be in full swing tomorrow I'm sure.

-c