It's almost here!

The Gobble It Up Sale! It's our last SALE of the year and it starts TOMORROW. 25% off our entire website, excluding our Kitty Kat Pack.

Woo! Hoo!

TCP Tuesday!

It's Tuesday, so it must be TCP Tuesday! Amy is the Hostess with the Mostess this Tuesday.

She's doing a technique challenge this week and just like Amy, it's fantastic! She's challenging you to use embossing. Thanks right, embossing. Dry embossing, embossing powder, you name it. When you get a chance check out her card. It's super cute. Check out the other members of The Cat Pack for their take on this color choice.

Play along with us and add your own design to the guestbook at the bottom of the post. You could be eligible to be the next Swanky Stamper of the Month and win 25 smackeroos, that's $25 in Cat's Cash.

Here are the deets.
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, techinque, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
4. Post your design to the guestbook on this blog.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. Only designs posted to the guestbook will be considered for the Swanky Stamper.
8. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

TCP Tuesday

Welcome to the TCP Tuesday! Toni is the Hostess with the Mostess on this Tuesday. And not only is she the Hostess with the Mostness but the gal is a brand new graduate with a bright and shiny new degree. And it only took her 4 years, which is a super accomplishment to those of us who took much longer. ...ahem.

Anyways, she's doing an inspiration challenge this week and it will knock your socks off! Well, your hat off, anyway. When you get a chance check out her card and check out the other members of The Cat Pack for their take.

Play along with us and add your own design to the guestbook at the bottom of the post. You could be eligible to be the next Swanky Stamper of the Month and win 25 smackeroos, that's $25 in Cat's Cash.

And thank you everyone who ordered our new releases. We are STILL busily packing them up for delivery to you.

Here are the deets.
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, techinque, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
4. Post your design to the guestbook on this blog by the end of the month.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. Only designs posted to the guestbook will be considered for the Swanky Stamper.
8. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

TCP Tuesday Holiday Hop

Welcome to the TCP Tuesday Holiday Hop! If you came from the oh-so fabu blog of Joanne then you have reached the end of the Holiday Hop.

If you haven't visited all the other "Hoppers", what are you waiting for?

Susan, is the Hostess with the Mostess this time around. And for this week and she has picked any December Holiday for this week's stamp challenge. Which fits in pretty well with our new release. We are releasing 5 brand new Swanky Sets with the Holidays in mind. With 2 Christmas sets, a New Year's set, a Chanukah Set and an alphabet set, we've got you covered until the rest of the year.

Play along with us and add your own design to the guestbook at the bottom of the post.

So I've made a simple transparent card. With these clear cards less is more, for a more elegant look. And, it's one of the cards that I'll be making at Stamper's Ink this weekend with Kim from My Favorite Things. I'll be teaching a bunch of designs that the Cat Pack have come up with and a couple of my own. I'd love to see you if you are in Shawnee, Kansas. It's not too late to sign up.

Thank you for visiting and Thank You to The Cat Pack, and our Swanky Stamper, Meredith for making this Holiday Hop so fun.

Here are the deets.
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, techinque, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
4. Post your design to the guestbook on this blog.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. Only designs posted to the guestbook by the end of the month will be considered for the Swanky Stamper.
8. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

State of the World

I was doing my daily visit of blogs that I love and I came across this one from Ginny Carter. Ginny is the former owner of Stamper's Anonymous and the Creative Block. And a wonderful artist. I always like reading about what she is doing and her point of view as an artist and a person.

She reminisced a bit about where stamping as it is today started, and a bit about where we are now. And, of course, it makes me think about how I started way back when.

I think, for me, it started how it starts for so many. I wanted to make a card. For Mother's Day. And I saw these cool little blocks that I could ink and reproduce the same image over and over. Of course, I could produce the same results with a computer, but after spending 8+ hours at a computer, I wanted to make something with my hands.

So I made that card for my Mother. And one for every Mother I knew.

Then I went to a Stamp Convention where I took a stamping class and I was hooked. The class was a discovery of the art form and breathed a hunger in me that could only be satisfied by stamping. I discovered Somerset Studio magazine and proceeded to purchase every back issue I could find. I memorized the names of the artists featured, as if they were rockstars.

I discovered there were a lot of stampers out there and I spent the hours not working, stamping away and learning how to "distress" things. How to properly sponge the edges of a card so that it looked vintage. I was a stamping, distressing and edging queen. As confused as many of my non-stamping friends and family were confused when they got brown cards and "art" pieces, I loved it. And, I resigned myself to keeping my creations to myself and amassed a huge pile of them that sat diligently under my bed.

Then 9/11 happened. And after the sadness and tragedy of it, I needed something that would pull me out of the constant state of depression I seemed to be in.

That's when my stamping saved me. And here is where I have to go back to Ginny's post about where stamping has gone. Some of us needed to make things that weren't so "heavy"...and "brown". We needed to lighten our hearts. We needed to smile again. We needed to use color in bright swathes across our pieces and return to a simpler way of design. A simpler life.

And that's why The Cat's Pajamas happened. To fulfill that need. Plus, I was running out of room under the bed. And I've had a smile on my face ever since.

TCP Tuesday

Welcome to the TCP Tuesday! Leigh is the Hostess with the Mostess on this wonderfully warm California Tuesday.

She's doing a sketch challenge this week and it's fun, fun, fun! When you get a chance check out her card and check out the other members of The Cat Pack for their take on this cute set. And you just may get a sneak peek at some of the new images that we will be releasing next week.

Play along with us and add your own design to the guestbook at the bottom of the post. You could be eligible to be the next Swanky Stamper of the Month and win 25 smackeroos, that $25 in Cat's Cash.

Here are the deets.
1. Each a week one of The Cat’s Pajamas DT members will host a challenge.
2. The challenges will vary {stamp, techinque, color, theme, sketch, etc.}
3. You will have until the end of the month to complete the challenge.
4. Post your design to the guestbook on this blog.
5. TCP stamps are not required, but of course, highly encouraged. {Unless it is a challenge calling for a specific stamp}
6. There will be one winner each month. They will be deemed that month’s Swankiest Stamper and get $25 in Cat’s Cash {money to spend on the TCP site!}.
7. Only designs posted to the guestbook will be considered for the Swanky Stamper.
8. The newly crowned Swanky Stamper will be announced on the First of the Month and have his/her winning entry posted on The Cat’s Pajamas website where he/she will reign for the entire month.

Swanky Stamper of the Month

Chris V — Swanky Stamper for November

What I love about this card is that there is so much to look at. Using Leigh's Sketch as a basis for her design, Chris went to town. Scallops here, glitter there. Snowflakes, distressing and a bit of frivolous fluff for Sprinkle's outfit just make this card a jaw-dropper.

Chris V — Swanky Stamper for November

Chris V, please email me for your prize!

Project of the Month

Ready for something wonderful to hang at your door to welcome everyone at Thanksgiving? Toni Armstrong pulls out all the stops with this quick and yummy project.

Check out the Project of the Month.