Happy Meow-lo-ween!
“Happy Meow-lo-ween from The Four Housecats of the Apocalypse!”
As an artist I turn to my surroundings for creative output, and what better to do with a family of five black cats during the festive Halloween season?
This sketch from Halloween night in 2012 as I handed out my candy and all the knocking got to be a bit much for these four was destined to be a Halloween design. I put together my desktop calendars, but when I designed the card the sketch needed a little something extra so I drew a pumpkin to add to the design.
You can find Happy Meow-lo-ween! in my Etsy shop as a single card and as a half dozen and I offer it with either a white or an orange envelope. Other quantities are available as well, and this card assorts with all other cards.
“Happy Meow-lo-ween” garden flag.
Happy Meow-lo-ween Garden Flag
In addition, I’ve printed a Halloween garden flag in the same design. These “garden flags” are digitally printed on both sides of a heavyweight, durable indoor/outdoor woven printable fabric, and I finish by adding the rod pocket. Each flag has a design on both sides, in this case it’s the same design back to back. Flags are 11” wide x 15” tall and fit the most common garden flag bracket available, sold in most hardware and home renovation stores with a garden area.
You can find the Happy Meow-lo-ween garden flag in my Etsy shop.
Other Halloween cards featuring cats you know
As you’ll see below, the photos in the designs below are from my posting last year on October 31 as well as the one from October 30. In addition, three other designs include photos which appeared on The Creative Cat or one one of my other blogs. From the time I took the photo and when I posted it somewhere on one of my blogs and received the feedback about it, I’ve held onto a creative idea for those images: Halloween cards!
I don’t like to associate black cats with Halloween for various reasons so I actually tried to avoid this, but from the combination of looking at cards in shops whenever I get the chance, and currently compiling my holiday cards to post for sale this autumn and winter, I decided I really did want to create a few Halloween cards this year—especially when my generous felines gave me these first two images which were completely unposed—I got out the pumpkins, but my black cats organized the creative compositions!
And it’s never a bad thing to have cats of any color or pattern on a greeting card for any holiday. I so love to see my cats in my design work and share them with others.
You can find them in my Etsy shop as individuals (click each image for a direct link) and as a set of six, but also enjoy the stories of how these images became greeting cards. All cards come with the option of either a white or an orange envelope.
Madame Mewsette will tell your For-tuna
This card, “Madame Mewsette Will Tell Your For-tuna” features Miss Mewsette, who has a strong sense of the dramatic and arranged herself in this living still life, then looked at me as I walked through the room at night, probably preparing dinner. Where’s my camera?! And my tripod for this one, a difficult shot with the lamp contrasting with the very dark areas around, but Mewsette was patient. Here is what I included in the post adapted to the back of the card:
This is what Mewsette is dressed up as to celebrate this evening’s events. And she didn’t even have to put on one embarrassing garment or accessory.
When I attended Catholic grade school, we were to dress up as our patron saint for All Hallow’s Eve, and dressing up as St. Bernadette was pretty easy for me as I already tended to wear peasant-style clothing and St. Bernadette didn’t suffer any dire injuries or horrible torture like some of the other saints, she just lived to be very old, despite Lourdes.
Well, I think Mewsette is dressed up as one of her patron kitties—she is quiet and introspective, unlike her brothers, and I can just see her in the role of a familiar or a gypsy fortune-teller!
Enter: Three WITCHES
This card, “Enter: Three WITCHES” features Miss Mewsette, her mom Mimi and her brother Giuseppe.
This image was taken on the same night as the one above, as Mewsette was joined by her mom and brother. Dinner was late as it was much more important to get all the photos I possibly could while they arranged themselves!
I majored in English in college and still keep my books around and still read Shakespeare. The text from MacBeth came to me as I looked at them gathered together around the lamp—I remember I couldn’t wait to post the photo and share the idea! Here’s what I posted with the photo and placed on the back of the card.
Guess the kids have been getting into my literature textbooks again. I thought my Riverside Shakespeare was too heavy for them, but there is no getting in the way of a determined reader. Now that they’ve mastered Act 1, Scene 1 of MacBeth, I can’t wait to see how they interpret Scene 2.
Maybe reading to them as kittens really did work.
Actually, Mimi, Mewsette and Giuseppe were gathered around the lamp “to keep warm” as they said, because the temperature was all of about 65 degrees. Time to get out the cozy beds!
“Boo!” featuring Lucy.
This card, “Boo!”, features Lucy from a photo I took in early summer 2007. Sadly, I lost Lucy to FIP when she was 15 months old so she never had the chance to develop her career as all my other cats have, so I love to use her image in a creative endeavor whenever possible. It’s my way of remembering and honoring my relationships with my cats, no matter how short or long they may have been.
When I took this photo of her next to the orange paper lamp most of my greeting cards were just a vague idea of something to be done in the future, and I dreamed of various other products like tote bags and woven blankets and all the other things I’m finally getting around to creating. I knew some day I’d want to use this photo as a Halloween or fall-themed image either as a card or another product, not the least because I knew I’d be losing Lucy sometime soon after it was taken. I kept this photo in mind all this time and, finally, here she is.
“I Dare You!”
This card, “I Dare You”, features my next-door neighbor’s calico cat, who could have a bit of an attitude as you can see by her expression, but I enjoyed her visits for the brief time they let her outside.
She had unique markings—her face, legs and tail are calico including white paws, but her torso is tortoiseshell. Even though she’s not my cat I loved this photo generally as her colors and random markings blended with the random leaves in the grass as well as the way the vibrant green and bright orange enhance each other. Her expression just makes it all the better.
I had actually posted her on The Creative Cat because the neighbors were moving and for a while were concerned that they couldn’t keep her indoors with two young children going in and out all the time. Apparently they worked that out since she’s doing fine in their new home.
“Silhouettes”
This card features the big yellow Harvest Moon I photographed in September 2011, and the silhouettes of two of my five black cats in a wordless design that actually can be used even outside of Halloween.
I’ve photographed nearly every full moon this year and post the images on my daily photo blog, Today. I wanted to incorporate this year’s Harvest Moon in at least one design, initially working with a photo where they sky was somewhat blue intending to use the cat images as a dark silhouette, but I just didn’t like the way it looked and so used one of the later shots where the sky was solid black, coordinating the color of the silhouetted cats to match the pale orange of the moon, light against dark instead of dark against light.
This image I used for the silhouettes is of Jelly Bean and Mimi looking out the front window where I often catch those silhouettes of two and three and four cats in the morning, but I never posted this one, possibly because there were several others I posted in the beginning of January 2011 when this was taken. My original idea was also to have several cats in silhouette possibly looking up at the moon or simply sitting with tails dangling hanging out as buddies, but I liked the pose and the more romantic idea this brought to the card; in every project there is space for change and development from what I first intended, and this is one example of that. I also adapted this card in red for Valentine’s Day.
We Three Pumpkins
This card, “We Three Pumpkins”, features my photos of jack-o-lanterns taken at the annual Night Walk on the Panhandle Trail. The Rennerdale Youth Group carves more than 100 pumpkins donated by Beccaris Farm Market, and the Collier Girl Scouts set out and light the jack-o-lanterns along a half-mile stretch of the Panhandle Trail from the bridge near the Walkers Mill trailhead to the Sunnyside entrance.
I use the trail all the time, volunteer for events as well as manage their website and social networking, and photograph the pumpkins every year seeking out the feline-themed pumpkins especially. When I posted my article about the many purposes of pumpkins this year I decided I wanted to use these photos in something else related to the holiday, so they became one of my cards.
These 5″ x 7″ cards are printed on 12 pt. gloss card stock and include a matching envelope, packed in a clear-top white cardboard greeting card box. Cards are blank inside but can be customized with your message (please convo on Etsy). I sell them as individuals and as a set of six—but for this year the set of six will include seven, to include the new design.
Tortie Girls Garden Flags for Halloween too!
“Tortie Girls” garden flags.
The Tortie Girls designs are based on a pair of linoleum block prints I designed in 2001 to show off my two torties’ best features. Typically I print these by hand and hand-color the print, but the size of these flags didn’t accommodate the 9” x 12” original so these are digitally printed from a hand-colored original print which I scanned. Each flag has the same design printed front and back, with a white background on one side and a yellow background on the other. “The Goddess” features Cookie and “The Roundest Eyes” features Kelly.
Each flag has a design on both sides, in this case it’s either “The Goddess” or “The Roundest Eyes” on both sides, one side with a white background and one side with a yellow background.
You can find “The Goddess” garden flag and “The Roundest Eyes” garden flag in my Etsy shop.
And other Tortie Girls items for the season too!
You really can’t go wrong with tortie girls in any season! Visit this post to read about the fun things I’ve made featuring Cookie and Kelly, or browse the gallery of what’s available in my Etsy shop.
For Christmas, Hanukkah and Winter Seasons
I also offer Christmas, Hanukkah and winter holiday cards and garden flags featuring natural scenes, winter scenes and backyard birds; honestly, winter is my favorite season for art and photography, and I’ll be posting more fully about them in a week or two, but here is a preview.
Since the late 1980s I’ve handmade my holiday cards or designed and printed them from my art, and eventually began offering the designs for sale to others. Then after my exhibit “Winter White” I decided to branch out to offer my artwork from that show, other artwork as well, and then my photos too, and last year designed cards with cats and nature for all the winter holidays.
Cookie’s Full of Holiday Cheer
You know that Cookie is usually the sweetest tortoiseshell kitty you’d ever want to meet, but she’s less than thrilled about modeling. Especially when she’s been…”decorated”.
Inside card.
On the back:
“You’ll Pay For This.”
Photo • 2006
“This is not how I want to be remembered.”
It all started when I set the silver sparkle ball on Cookie’s head, and she gave me the tortie look, but stayed put. Cookie isn’t really wild about modeling for her mom’s stupid pictures. But you don’t see her running away. Too bad for Cookie.
Ordering Information
. . . . . . .
Ordering Single Cards
You can purchase individual cards from any of my shops, and I will generally mail them them out the same day in first-class mail.
Custom Sets
Right now custom ordering is done by contacting me directly, but all 5″ x 7″ cards in my Etsy shop and on my websites can be mixed and matched for your own custom set. If you’d like a few regular sympathy cards and a few other cards to complete your order, you can simply list them and send me an email, I’ll return a PayPal invoice. You can choose cards from anywhere on my website or in my Etsy shop.
Wholesale for Animal Professionals
All cards are available for wholesale prices and quantities to animal professionals, and likewise you can also assort all cards for your order. Please contact me for details.
Mewsette and Mimi help me stitch the pockets into new garden flags.
Marketplace
Take a look at other new merchandise and featured artwork.
Once a week on Thursday I feature something new in my “shop”, whether that’s here on The Creative Cat, in my Etsy shop, on my main website or even at one of the bricks and mortar shops that carry my work.
Read about creating custom items
Find out more about creating custom items for your own home using the images you see here. Visit the “Ordering Custom Art” page to see samples and read bout how to order.
Find out about events and festivals where you can find me and my work.
Sign up for my e-newsletter (below), check the widget on the sidebar on my home page, or sign up to receive posts on Portraits of Animals Marketplace. I plan on plenty of events this coming summer in the Pittsburgh area.
It’s all done under the close and careful supervision of my studio cats!
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All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
© 2014 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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