The Cat Who …

I recently discovered The Cat Who series of murder-mystery novels.

The books, written by Lilian Jackson Braun, tell of the adventures of a semi-retired journalist, Qwill, and his smart Siamese cat, Koko. They take place in Moose County, a rural region 400 miles north of everywhere, in Michigan.

While I enjoy the basic mystery portions of the novels, I also like to read about the slow-paced small-town life, the quirks of Koko and other small tidbits in the stories. I am particularly intrigued with the creative license Braun uses in her fictional county. It appears she has taken the best of Michigan and combined it into one location. So taken by trying to figure out where Moose County is, I decided create a scrapbook page about the clues in the book.

As always, click on the photo for a larger view …

The paper and flower stickers are from Cloud 9 Design. The state die cut was a gift from my sister. I printed the journaling on vellum and the clues on cardstock. The cat is a digital stamp by Doodle Pantry, printed on X-Press It Blending Card and colored with Copic Sketch markers.

As a side note … Copic will not react with laser or toner from a copy machine. They may react with ink jet printers. I have an HP and it works fine. I haven’t tried it with my Epson photo printer yet. So, always check your printer before coloring. Trust me, you will not like it when the black bleeds into your images and you could damage your nibs.

Back to the layout … the large letters and question mark are Grunge Board from Ideaology. The question mark is painted with Adirondack Paint Dabber and then covered with Diamond Glaze. The small letters are chipboard from Maya Road. They are colored with Rusty Hinge Distress Ink … a lot of ink for a solid color, less ink for the spotty ones … and then covered in Diamond Glaze. The black is painted on, then glued to the top of the squares and then the entire image is covered in Diamond Glaze. I love the finished look … especially the way the Diamond Glaze puddles where the letters meet the blocks. Once dry, I used Black Soot Distress Ink to ink the edges and then adhered it to my page. My favorite adhesive for these is Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear. I used Removable Glue Dots to hold the letters to my Nonstick Craft Sheet while painting. Trust me. You will want to do this!!