Dogs and a Mouse

I haven't done a post for a couple of days so am including three cards here: a couple of dog cards, one sad and one happy, and a card with a mouse!

The sad one was made for a friend whose elderly dog passed away.

 

I did the dog by inking up the stamp once, stamped it full strength, and then stamped it off twice without reinking as it goes off the page to give the idea of her wagging her tail right to the end as her life fades away.

On a happier note, I recently came across a stamp that reminded me so much of my puppy, Tessa, and her litter mates when I went down to see them a couple of weeks before I got Tessa.  They were weaned off of their mother and just starting to eat mushy food - and they all shared it from the same bowl.  They would step in the food sometimes and then track it all over their pen.  There is a lot of clean-up and laundry involved if you breed dogs!  Whoever designed this stamp's image sure knew what they were doing!

I turned it into a thank you card to send to Tessa's breeder.

I stamped the image in Distress Tea Dye ink as it is close to Tessa's colour, then watercoloured it with various Distress inks.  I added the pawprints on the bottom right to balance with the sentiment.

Tessa no longer steps in her food and is growing up into a well-mannered (most of the time) and very sweet young dog (most of the time) - she's now five and a half months old.  Here's a recent photo:

And finally a card I made with a sweet mouse - I sent it to a 10 year old great-niece who loves to read.

I used an ancient stamp I have of a mouse on a stack of books - simply stamped and watercoloured.

The sentiment below the mouse makes me think of my childhood - whenever my mother asked me to do something when I was reading, I'd always reply "as soon as I finish this chapter".

I cut it out with a tag die, made a background with a text stamp, and popped it up on fun foam.

Thanks for dropping by!

Supplies:

Stamps -
1st card: SU D is for Dog
2nd card: PB puppies, Bouji paw prints, Savvy Stamps sentiment 
3rd card: Kidstamps mouse, Wendy Vecchi text stamp, PTI sentiment 

Ink -
1st card: Memento Tuxedo Black
2nd card: Distress Tea Dye and various others, Memento Tuxedo Black
3rd card: Versafine Onyx Black, Adirondack Lake Mist 

Paper -
1st card: PTI Vintage Cream, Deja Vu dp, black cs
2nd card: watercolour paper, cream cs
3rd card: green and white cs, watercolour paper 
 

Size - all are A2

Accessories -
1st card: dimensionals, twine, Spellbinders tag
2nd card: Lil Inkers stitched rectangle die, fun foam 
3rd card: watercolour paints, Die-namics tag die, brad, fun foam

Cards for National Chocolate Day

When I saw yesterday's SCS Ways to Use It challenge, I discovered that yesterday was National Chocolate Day - never knew there was such a thing, but I took it as an excuse to go out and treat myself to some lovely chocolates and to make two cards that refer to chocolate.

The challenge is "Celebrate Chocolate" by using brown, white and/or cream with the option of red, gold and silver.

I have two fabulous sentiment stamps by Kay Foley that refer to chocolate so decided to make two cards so that I could use them as my focal points.

For the first card, I used the option of gold:

I used cream cs, stamped the sentiment in brown, and framed it in brown. I stamped a bit of Gorgeous Grunge splatter on the card base and scattered some gold sequins around the frame.

And for this card, I used the option of red as it toned in well with the reddish colours that come out in brown bister:

I stamped the sentiment on a piece of coated cs that had been sprinkled with brown bister, spritzed, and air-dried. I then layered it with red and brown borders, and used a cream card base.

It will make a great get well card next time I need one.

Speaking of dogs, as the second card does, my sweet pup, Tessa, is growing so quickly.  Here she is out on the back porch soaking up some sun:

Thanks for dropping by today!

Supplies for the first card:
 

Stamps: Kay Foley sentiment, Gorgeous Grunge splatter 
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream, Bazill brown linen cs 
Ink: Memento Rick Cocoa 
Accessories: gold sequins, MFT pierced frame die  

Supplies for the second card:

Stamps: Kay Foley
Paper: PTI Vintage Cream, coated cs, brown and red cs
Ink: Versafine Vintage Sepia
Accessories: brown bister, clear embossing powder, fun foam, Nesties matting basics rectangles    
 

Meet My New Puppy (and a Card)

Finally the weekend for picking up my new puppy and bringing her home arrived.  Meet Tessa:

She is more formally known for Kennel Club registration as "Eclipse Tea for Two".  Eclipse is the breeder's kennel name, Tea for Two picks up the "T" of Tessa, refers to the fact that I now have two dogs, and is in honour of my Mum who passed away in January - she and I shared many many cups of tea together, and I so long to be able to tell her all about Tessa.  I got my love of dogs from her.

Here she is with me and Snow, the mother dog:

And just so he's not left out, here's one of me with my 12 year old dog, Will (from the same wonderful breeder - his official kennel club name is "Eclipse Shakespeare's Sonnet"):

He's not overly thrilled about Tessa coming home with us, but I'm sure he'll come round.

Now on to the reason why you're visiting my blog.  I couldn't help but do another card for CAS Mix Up's June challenge:

I made a card for my father and it seems appropriate to post it on Father's Day:

I have a stamped sentiment, a die cut bird / branch, and my others are watercolouring on the die cut and dry embossing.

I die cut the "Happy News" die and then watercoloured it. I cut it twice more from scrap cs and glued the three together to give it more substance.

I tried to line up the branch with a logical spot on the dry embossed background as if it were part of the same branch.

You have until June 24 to link up a card for the CAS Mix Up challenge.  As well as following the "Stamping + Die Cuts + Other" part of the challenge, please remember to keep your card clean and simple.

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI sentiment

Paper: rust and cream cs, watercolour paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Memento Rich Cocoa

Accessories: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Penny Black Happy News die, watercolour paints

Puppy Photos and a Doggy Card

Since most of you come to my blog to see the cards I made, I'll start with the card and then go on to puppy photos. 

As a dog lover, I just had to do the latest SCS Free for All challenge "Dogs are Kids Too". And I wanted to make a card for the SCS CAS374 challenge "Let the Background Talk".

I wanted to depict my English Cocker Spaniel, Will, as I'll be giving the card to friends who are going to dog sit for me in the summer. The stamp I used looks a lot like him. I stamped and fussy cut it.

To "let my background talk" for the CAS challenge, I used it to depict Will's colouring which is called "blue roan" - kind of a blend of blues, greys, and black. To depict that I made the background by sprinkling blue and black bister on coated cs and spritzing with water. I added a black paw print in one corner. I die cut a stitched panel from it. The "thank you" die is cut from the leftovers of it that had very little of the bister colouring on it.

The new puppy I will be getting in June is also an English Cocker Spaniel, but her colouring will be "orange roan" - a blend of white and rusty orange.  The puppies are born much lighter than they will end up once grown into adult dogs.  I went down to see them again on Saturday.  They are now three weeks old, eyes and ears are open, they have tripled in weight, are moving around on unsteady little legs, and are looking more like puppies.  But no personality differences showing yet so I still don't know which of the three girls will be mine.  They had their first meal of mushy puppy food and yogurt when I was there - they tasted it and then walked through it!  They sleep in crazy positions all piled on top of each other. 

Eyes are open now and they totter around unsteadily.

First taste of food (other than their mother's milk).

Sleeping in a pile.

Looking out of the whelping box.

Pretty cute, eh?  Thanks for dropping by and I hope you don't mind me including puppies in with cards!

Supplies:

Stamps: Raintree dog stamp, paw print stamp

Paper: white cs, coated cs

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black

Accessories: bister, thank you die, stitched rectangle die

Puppies and Petunias

If all you're interested in is cards, skip down through this post to see today's cards.  If you like puppies, read on.  Many of you know that Shea, the brown dog in my photo on my sidebar, died of cancer last spring.  Her brother, Will (the black dog), is 12 now so I'm thinking if I want to be sure I don't end up dog-less (that would be a dire state of affairs for me!) when he passes away, I'd better get a puppy soon.

Their breeder has become a good friend of mine and invited me over to watch her lovely English Cocker Spaniel, Snow, give birth this weekend.  It was quite a thrill watching the miracle of birth.  We were up all night as she started panting and pacing and went into the whelping box late in the evening, and then labour started at 3:00 a.m. when her water broke.  The first pup was born at 4:35 a.m. so we were up most of the night.   She had 3 girls, 1 boy.  They were all born by 6:00 a.m. so we got a couple of hours of sleep after that.  Here's a couple of photos:

One day old puppies aren't the cutest things in the world but give it a couple of weeks, and they will be adorable.

It amazes me how animals have such strong instincts to know exactly what to do.  Even though she'd never had puppies before, when each puppy came out, Snow immediately started tearing off the birth sac and licking the pup vigorously to get it breathing and then chewed through the umbilical cord.

In 9 or 10 weeks, one of the sweet girl pups will be coming home with me.  So expect to see quite a few puppy pictures!

Now on to the reason you visit my blog - a couple of cards.

I've been following Karen Dunbrook's lovely work where she stamps images using brushos and water instead of ink.  I made two variations of the same image, one just with the outline of the image, the other with the outline coloured in.

For the basic technique of stamping with the brushos, see Karen's tutorial on SCS.  That's all I did for the first card before adding the sentiment, die cutting with a stitched square and popping it up on foam tape.

The second one required more work and is going to be taken over to April's CAS Mix-Up challenge of Stamping + Stenciling + one or more other elements of your choice.

My other elements are brushos, watercolour paints, texture paste, splatter, and gemstones.

I painted the stamp with various purple, violet, and green brushos that I'd watered down a bit on my craft sheet. Then stamped and let it dry a bit. Then using my waterbrush, I picked up more of the colour and filled in the flowers and leaves. When that was dry, I did a blue wash around it with watercolour paints. I stamped my sentiment in grey. I laid a stencil over the top, went through just areas on the corners and sides with texture paste, and let that dry. Last touch was a light splatter using the sentiment ink watered down a bit. The panel is popped up on fun foam and a couple of purple gemstones added to the flowers.


Thanks for dropping by (even if you didn't read all the early part about puppies!).

Supplies:

First card:

Stamps: Rubbernecker Petunias, unknown sentiment
Paper: PTI vintage cream cs, watercolour paper
Paper Size: 4.75" square
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: purple, violet, and green brushos, Lil Inker stitched square, foam tape

Second card:

Stamps: Rubbernecker Petunias, Impression Obsession sentiment

Paper: PTI vintage cream cs, watercolour paper

Paper Size: 5"x4.25"

Ink: Ranger Hickory Smoke

Accessories: green, violet, and purple brushos; purple gemstones, TCW stencil, texture paste, blue watercolour paint, fun foam