Cattywampus

Oh my goodness, how fun is that word?! Say it with me... catty-wampus![ kat-ee-wom-puh s, kat-uh- ] LOL! Love it!

I had never heard of the word until Sara Emily posted it as a challenge on The Funkie Junkie Boutique Blog. Sarah quoted it as meaning..."appearing off center, diagonal from, crooked or not level, appearing askew, tilted or lopsided". She mentioned that it is something she hears around her home area in the Southern States.

It made me think of kitty-corner or catty-corner. I had the urge to look it up discern the origin... waywordradio.org had this, "We do know the word has been around for more than a century and is spelled many different ways, such as catawampus and caddywampus. It may derive from the Scots word wampish, meaning to “wriggle,” “twist,” or “swerve.”

This definition example from yourdictionary.com made me laugh because of the true to life picture it created in  my mind... "An example of something cattywampus are the positions of the items on the top of a coffee table after a two year old has been playing with them and moving them around."

Oh words are so much fun! Anyhow, I digress... on to the task at hand, sharing my Cattywampus creation!

I created an ICAD with my mind on using up one of my little bitty bobs baggies that I had curated a while back. Using multi medium matte, I collaged the index card with a dictionary page from the 'C' section where cattywampus would have been if it wasn't a simple affordable home dictionary from 1977 that I found for crafting use. Then, I applied scrapings of white gesso and once dry a little touch of clear gesso knowing that I was going to add watercolour on top. On my craft mat, I scribbled a good amount of Chocolate gelato and mixed it with glass bead glitter gel. I stenciled with it through the Crafter's Workshop Mini Damask stencil. I use the excess on another sized index card and what was left of the dictionary page. Once the gel was dry, I scrapped a bit of gesso to add some white bits to the damask. Once that was dry, I added on Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist with the nozzle tube end around the damask areas. Then, spritzed it with water and angled the card to get the colour to run. After it set up a bit, using the nozzle tube again, I added some splatters. While that was drying, I scraped some gesso onto the play word, edged it with a brown sharpie and distress inked it a bit. 

Next, I glued down the cheese cloth, lace, and old athletic tape all a bit cattywampus. I added the Create transparency and secured it with a mini brad and a few drops of Glossy Accents behind the 'A', 'T', and 'E'. I used a scrap bit of uneven dyed muslin to mat the corrugated play word and added the die cut butterfly slightly a skewed. Lastly, I added a second mini brad and a meandering brown craft wire for the final cattywampus touch.

Supplies: index card (Staples), glass bead glitter gel, Chocolate gelato (Faber-Castell), Vintage Pink Glimmer Mist (Tattered Angels), Mini Damask stencil (The Crafter's Workshop), Multi Medium Matte, Glossy Accents, Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress ink (Ranger), White and Clear Gesso (Liquitex), NoName cheesecloth (Loblaw's), circa 1977 dictionary page (Webster's Dictionary), brown marker (Sharpie), athletic tape, lace, Create transparency, corrugated Play word, die cut butterfly, craft wire (Misc.)

I had so much fun making this ICAD, that I decided to use up some other scrap bits and the pieces that I had used the leftover glass bead glitter glue on to make two ATCs for trading.

On this one, I added cheesecloth, spritzed kraft cardstock and old athletic tape and sewing it with a zig zag stitch with embroidery thread. I used a fussy cut Prima Apricot and Honey butterfly and pink craft wire for embellishments. The Magenta Make Time to Play was stamped with Black Soot Archival ink.

On this one, I first stamped the background with Finnabair Messy Writing stamp with Jet Black Archival ink. I added tan tissue, the spritzed kraft cardstock and lace. I fussy cut another Prima butterfly but it was too pale against the background so I watercoloured it with Bubblegum and Guava pink gelatos and added highlights and shading details with a Staedtler brown and white pencil  crayons and then outlined it all with a Stardust Gelly Roll pen for some sparkle.

Again, I added the pink wire and this time the Create title is a Tim Holtz rub on.

If you are interested in trading one of these ATCs, just let me know in the comments below.


TTFN,