Golden hugs

Hello crafting friends!

In these days of not being able to see loved ones it's nice to be able to send hugs through the post. Since Eva misses her human family as much as I do, I thought she could join in today. Come and see:

This is almost a one layer card and is fairly unfussy, so I thought it would be good for the males of the species. I started by stamping the golden retriever (an ancient retired stamp) onto card stock and colouring her with a combination of inks and markers. I cut her out and gave her an elegant bow courtesy of WPlus9's Silver Bells that was out on my desk.

She needed a field of golden wheat to do some zoomies in, so I used the Scenic Borders stencil from Funky Fossil for that, with their Distressed Diamonds for extra interest. She was popped up on dimensionals to bring her into the foreground and I trimmed away her tail to make her look as if she was coming into the card from the right - do not try this with an ACTUAL golden retriever!!!

The sentiment is from MFT's You're Fin-tastic, which is a set of punny greetings based around fish. I'll happily use them with fishy stamps but I confess it was the 'You're Golden' one that really sold me! The solid banner is a very useful stamp from the Uniko Simply Said Blocks set. I stamped it in yellow ink and added the 'golden' over the top, then added the 'Hugs' from MFT's All Occasion Sentiments.

CHALLENGES
When I saw the Pets theme at Allsorts Challenge  I naturally had to join in! I chose the monochromatic yellow colour palette from Color My Heart Color Dare so I'll also link up there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
The golden retriever in my card is a very golden girl but my own blonde bombshell is a pale cream colour and she is a beauty. She and I are very close - she helped me through a long illness and I helped her overcome her many fears. She is the friendliest of souls, both with other dogs and with other humans, and is a delight to walk with - we do a lot of that! I love her devotion to her family, the way she wags in her sleep, the way she politely asks to come up on the sofa, the way she plays with toys like a puppy when she thinks I'm not watching, the way she puts her head on one side when I ask 'Would you like...?', the way she takes treats so gently and delicately, the way she makes frantic little hen noises when one of us comes home after being away, the way she goes on scouting missions upstairs to retrieve shoes and items of clothing, the way she's so grateful when I groom her, the way she gets very excited when we do training, the way she 'helps' me with chores... I could go on and on but you are possibly already asleep!

Left, Eva at a couple of months; Right, Eva now at 5 1/2 years

Sending golden hugs to you!

My faithful valentine

Hello crafting friends!

I know I said there would be no more valentines here but then I suddenly realised I'd missed out someone VERY important! Come and see:

She is an absolute sweetheart who has stolen my heart, and she is the most beautiful (floofy) girl in the world!

The golden retriever stamp is by Dimension Stamps who are sadly not trading any more. I stamped the dog with light brown ink, adding pale yellow watercolour and white craft ink for the coat and black detail around the eyes, muzzle and nose.

The grass is from Stampin' Up's Enjoy Life - I knew that would come in handy! I've given my dog a tuggy toy heart to retrieve, made with a punched heart with some twine threaded through it, which I also threaded through the dog's mouth and knotted the other side. The dog has been trimmed to the edge of the card.

To finish the card, I stamped a couple of sweet sentiments from Clearly Besotted's Fresh Flowers. Of course this card isn't really for my Eva - she'd only eat it! - but it would make a great valentine for anyone, male or female, who loves dogs, or even a valentine FROM the family dog!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
So pleased to be Honourably Mentioned at CASology with this card!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking this card up with:
CASology, where the cue card is Sweetheart; The Male Room where they're looking for masculine 'Heart You' cards; The Allsorts Challenge, where they'd like us to add 'At Least One Heart' to our creations; CAS on Friday, where the theme is Love; and AAA cards, where we are required to use up to one third of the card front, and with an optional twist of Hearts.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
The inspiration for today's card was a conversation I had with a lady yesterday. She has a beautiful golden retriever and told me her husband had given him to her. The pup had a ring and a tag tied to his collar with ribbon and the tag said 'Will you marry me?' How romantic is that?! Now, I want to be quite clear, I don't approve of people using puppies as a means of proposing but this couple had been together for a long time and had already talked about getting a dog together. Also, it's a good thing my husband didn't propose like this as I would have burst!!!

Did you have an unusual proposal or do you know someone that has? I'd love to hear about it!

Hugs,