It's a wonderful life

Hello, crafting friends!

 

Lorraine at Allsorts Challenge has chosen a theme very close to my heart this week: For the Love of Animals. "It would be great to see entries with the animals we have as pets," she says on the post. Say no more Lorraine, I need absolutely no encouragement!

 

As a golden retriever owner, you'd think my shelves would be groaning with retriever stamps, but no. Stamp manufacturers don't seem to understand that these are the best dogs in the world (this may actually be just my own biased opinion!) and golden retriever images are sadly few and far between. I do have a Penny Black set though, called Doggone Sweet, which does represent my pair of rascals pretty well! 

 

 

The dog nearest the hedge is Eva. At nearly ten years old she is the sensible one of the pair and occasionally demonstrates this. She has no toys near her - we, the humans, are her toys! She plays us for fools all day long, taking breaks for well-earned snoozles. If we aren't available, Eva does like to tear apart a toy sometimes, imagining herself to be a great huntress, and if we have guests she likes to rummage about in the laundry basket and parade through the room showing off our oldest underwear!

 

We adopted Lulu last year. She was four years old and will be five in June. She still behaves like a puppy despite my efforts to train her to be a Grown Up Lady Dog. She expends a lot of energy chasing things and trying to communicate her urgent desire for snacks, so she needs plenty of naps too. She loves a ball and her little plushie toys and uses them as a comfort blankie when she gets confused about life. Her sleep style is pretty much always on her back with her paws all over the place. Both dogs' hobbies include getting wet and muddy, snacking, rolling in nefarious stuff and pretending they have no idea what 'No' means.

The card is very simple: edges of card base masked off with low tack tape; dogs stamped and masked; sky and foreground sponged in; hedge and trees stamped with retired SU sets; masks removed and dogs coloured and detail added with ink and paintbrush. The sentiment, from an old Clearly Besotted set, was chosen with a chuckle - there aren't any days that aren't wonderful in these dogs lives. The worst that happens is that Mum goes out for an hour or two to replenish stores of Meaty Chunks and Fishy Treats!!

 

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with Allsorts but also Stamping Sensations, where I've been inspired by the spring mood board, and We Love Stamping where the theme is also Spring. Double D's challenge this month is Cute Little Animals and although I explained to the golden girls that they are NOT little, they insisted that they are extremely cute and practically handbag dogs, so I'm joining in there too ;)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

I've been very light-hearted about the dogs but when Lulu came to us, she was very stressed, had lost a lot of weight and was really scared to be in new surroundings. She had begun to be reactive around other dogs and had to be toilet trained all over again. She didn't want to let me out of her sight and barked her head off if I left the house. She slept on the bed right from the beginning and would wake multiple times in the night whimpering. I would just cuddle her until she fell back to sleep. Eva is not a dog that likes to be in close contact with other dogs but gradually, she began to help to comfort Lulu. They bonded on our daily long walks which really helped Lulu to unwind and let go of her fears. This is a (very bad, sorry!) photo of her in the early weeks cuddling up at night with Eva and with a stuffed toy as her comfort blankie.

 

Today, she has put on weight and become beautifully fluffy! She knows our routine and is no longer stressed. We have just come back from a long walk and she has swum and fetched sticks from the river and frolicked about with Eva. We met several dogs and she greeted each of them calmly with a friendly wag and a sniff. On the way back I bumped into a lady I know with a lab and a wolfhound, and we all walked back together while the dogs sniffed and played. I am so proud of Lulu's progress and of Eva who has helped to rehabilitate her sister.

Thank you for reading my ramblings about my beloved dogs! Sending hugs,

Winter joy

Hello, crafting friends!

 

I thought it was time to catch up with some challenges today! I scrolled through Challenges for Days to check out the latest challenges and was inspired to make...

 

 

... a Christmas card!! You'd think I'd have had enough of festive creativity but there's some great inspiration out there and it's never too early to make a start on this year's card stash. This card began with the background: I swiped the bottom of a card panel with a pale blue ink pad, then masked off the ground with a sticky note and blended purple, pink and blue inks over the sky area. I added the fir trees from Stampin' Up's retired Snow Front stamp set, stamping repeatedly to get an illusion of depth, and a tiny church from a thrift shop find.

 

The sticky note was removed and I stamped the tree from Stampin' Up's retired Sheltering Tree, adding a little bird from Snow Front and extra details and shading with coloured pencils and markers. A load of snow was dotted in with a Posca acrylic paint pen and the sentiment was stamped using an old magazine freebie. Finally, the panel was attached to a card base and I'm delighted to have a 2024 Christmas card under my belt!

CHALLENGES

I was inspired by the gorgeous colour palette at Colorful Options so I'm linking up there; The Sisterhood of Crafters have an Icy Cold theme and Little Red Wagon's challenge is Still Snowing, so I'm joining in there too; And last but not least, I've gone for A is for Anything Christmas at ABC Christmas. (They also have B is for Berries there so I may well pop in again soon!)

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

My worry over Lulu's cut pad is subsiding a bit as I can see it's on the mend. I have come up with a way of bandaging her foot for the outdoors with an 'inner' of bubble wrap secured with an 'outer' of lots of vet wrap and this has enabled me to let her off lead for short periods. She needs some good runs though and is beginning to be a little bit naughty (stealing some chocolate off the coffee table - luckily I caught her before any harm was done - and even jumping up at my husband, who admittedly has a very excitable energy!) I can't wait to get out into the countryside with them again - not least because this gentle on-lead walking isn't doing anything for my waistline!!

Sending hugs,

Happiness is...

Hello, crafting friends!

Sometimes a card challenge really sends you off down a rabbit hole! I am just emerging from the one Time Out has sent me down with its challenge of 'Create a card inspired by the word 'You'. It was very therapeutic, got me thinking and I definitely recommend you try it!

The first thing I did was write down the things that are important to me. I decided on:

1. Family and home 

2. Friends and activities that bring me joy

And here we are! The background represents nature in my preferred summer form - blue skies, flower-studded grass, trees, birds. I'm so grateful that I'm able to go out walking in nature every day and in the summer I spend time in my tiny garden. The strip of striped paper is to represent colour, which I love. In the centre I've placed the house, decorated with a heart, which represents my beloved family and home. Around that are my other passions - arts and crafts, books and dogs. The dog in the foreground is Eva (only with pointy ears!) and although of course she is part of my family, she is here representing all the other dogs I love too, the ones I walk and look after. All these activities have brought me the loveliest friends - including lots of crafters here in blogland!

The strips of designer papers are from Stampin' Up and the easel is cut from a snippet of SU paper. The house and tree are from retired SU sets (From Our House to Yours and Sheltering Tree respectively.) The sentiment is from Waffle Flower's Books and Coffee, as is the pile of books, coloured with alcohol markers and fussy cut. The adorable dog is from Clearly Besotted's Holiday Huskies.

I arranged my images collage-style and once they were glued down, trimmed the panel with a stitched rectangle die from Heffy Doodle before adding it to the card base. I hope you like this card and are inspired to join in with a card that illustrates you. I'm going to enjoy finding out a little bit more about my crafting pals!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

I was thrilled to see that this card was the Emerald Winner at Color My Heart Color Dare and  that it got an honourable mention at Time Out!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking up this card with Time Out Challenges with its theme of You; I used the colours from Color My Heart Color Dare challenge 427 (Smoothie, Glacier and Sage with extra Canary.)

AND IN OTHER NEWS

A frost happened in the middle of the mud fest! Here's a young lady that was very excited to see the frosty grass and got straight down to making puppy dog frost angels!

Sending  hugs, 

Hello my son!

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches! This week we have a great sketch to inspire you with:

Isn't it brilliant?! You can use anything for the non-geometric shape so it's very versatile. Here's is what I came up with:

To make my road, I masked off the top and bottom of a thick card base and blended grey ink to a fade on the remaining strip. I masked that off with the bottom of the card and used the leaves from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree to stamp the suggestion of a hedge. I added a little more sponging and doodled in some grass details and then the background was ready for the star of the show!

I adore this character from MFT's Pile on The Hugs because he reminds me of my youngest son. I stamped him, coloured him with alcohol markers, fussy cut him and popped him up on dimensionals. The sentiment is from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks and completes a card that I'm sure will give my son a laugh :)

You can see all the inspiration from my talented teamies here and can link your own creation up there too!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with The Rainbow Card Challenge where this month the challenge is Nothin' But Neutrals. 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the things that reminds me of my son in the stamp I used today, is the cardigan the figure is wearing. My son had one just like it when he was maybe 9 or 10. It was made of softy grey wool and was padded and lined. My son declared it was the most comfortable thing ever! It was a really nice garment at first but, after being worn almost every single day and only ever being washed when I could wrestle him out of it, it began to look a little disreputable and we rudely nicknamed it 'the dog blanket'. Ahhh, happy memories!

Sending hugs,

A birthday in the park

Hello, crafting friends!

It was my gorgeous daughter's birthday at the weekend and Eva and I made a card to help her celebrate!

I made a background by stamping the bench from WPlus9's New Home, then covering it with a mask made from a sticky note. I was then able to mask off, and sponge in, a sky and some grass. I added the tree from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree (and if you're reading this Gill, I bless you every time I use this set - thank you!) colouring the leaves with autumnal markers before stamping. I  added more leaves to the grass too before removing the bench mask and trimming the panel with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle.

Now we needed a pup to sit on the bench. I nearly died from cuteness overload when I saw Clearly Besotted's new Holiday Huskies stamp set; the dogs have been drawn by a human who clearly knows dogs very well! Eva thought one of the huskies could pretend to be a golden retriever, only with pointy ears instead of floppy ones. She asked me to help her demonstrate the look and, since she looked very cute with her ears up, I stamped the dog, coloured her with alcohol markers and snipped her out before popping her up on the bench. The sentiment is from Concord and 9th's Enjoy it all.

CHALLENGES

This card was inspired by the beautiful colour palette at The House That Stamps Built (this is the challenge blog of Repeat Impressions Stamps and I enjoyed having a browse there too!) I'm also joining in at Animal Friends Challenge where the theme is Dog/Cat; I'm also sharing at NBUS (never before used schtuff) with my new Holiday Huskies and New Home schtamp schets - thank you for bearing with me Darnell!!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

One of the dogs I walk has to be kept on lead at all times sadly, but she and I have made friends and we have lots of fun together. Once while walking her, I had a text that I had to deal with immediately, so I sat down on a handy bench. The little dog hopped up and sat solemnly beside me until I pressed send and continued our walk. I was amused by this so I sat down at the next bench to see what she'd do, and she came up and sat beside me again! It gave me the idea for today's card but, since my job is to be walking and not sitting about, I now use the benches (which are just narrow seats, no backs) as sort of agility equipment for her to jump over. She loves this :)

Sending hugs,

Under the Apple tree

Hello crafting friends!

It's been such a beautiful weekend here in the heart of England, it was hard to think of all the craziness going on in the world. I realise how lucky I am to have my little garden and it definitely helps to be connected to that little patch of nature. I've had gardens on my mind in the Craft Square Metre too. Come and see:

I've gone masculine with this one, with a mix of NBUS (never before used stuff) and older stamps. I cut out an elongated hexagon with my new Sissix Geo Frame thinlits, sponged it with blue and yellow inks and added some grass with another new item, the Scenic Borders stencil from Funky Fossil.

The long ago retired Sheltering Tree stamp set was used to stamp the tree and the rake leaning against it. I used the rubber on the end of a pencil to add arty apples, and markers to add detail. The birds are from Take Flight 2 by Inkylicious. I thought of the wartime song 'Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me' and then had a vision of someone accidentally sitting on the rake and it clocking them over the head! But I digress...

I chose a kraft card base and attached my scene to the front. When you cut the Geo Frame shapes, you also get a really fine frame, so I used a fine tipped glue pen on this and pressed it in around my scene. I'm going to have fun with these I know! Finally I added a birthday greeting from Uniko's Simply Said Blocks.

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD
Delighted this card was chosen as a Cut Above at the Paper Players!

CHALLENGES
I'm linking up with CAS on Friday where we must Use A Die; The Male Room, where the theme is In The Garden; The Paper Players where they want to see CAS male cards; and of course the NBUS Challenge, where the idea is to share never before used schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS
There are some beautiful flowers coming out in my garden:

My peony is out - at least two weeks earlier than usual.

This beautiful pink rose is gorgeously scented and I breathe in deeply every time I pass.

This one's been freshly watered by the looks of it and has a very distinctive fragrance...!

Hope you are safe and well.

Hugs,

Somewhere out there

Hello crafting friends!

Like many people, I miss the members of my family that aren't here and although they are good at keeping in touch and (bless them) making me laugh, I keep remembering high days and holidays when we were together, and feel nostalgic. I am like the puppy in this card I made today...

...  only less excitable! I started the card by masking a circle off on a card panel using a large circle punch, and giving it a flat base using a sticky note. Inks were then sponged into the area in horizontal lines and blended to represent a sunset.

I added stars with a metallic marker, which you can just about see in this close-up, then got out my Stampin' Up punches - the Twinkle one for the main star and the Dog Builder for the pup. 

I positioned my pup so that he's looking wistfully up at the sky, gazing at the stars... Cue music:

And even though I know how very far apart we are
It helps to think we might be wishing on the same bright star

Appropriate for these times don't you think?

The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree, stamped in black ink and clear embossed, and the card panel has been attached to the card base with dimensionals.

CHALLENGES
I used the sketch from The Paper Players this week and am also linking up with Addicted to Stamps and More, where it's Make Your Mark week, and Addicted to CAS, where the code word is Silhouette.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I'll leave you with a photo of my floofy girl doing an excellent impression of me with a box of chocolates.

"Where are the rest of them? Don't tell me there were only two layers...!"

Hope you are all keeping safe and well.

Hugs,

A good book in the garden

Hello crafting friends!

Although crafting is my favourite thing to do in my spare time, I do love reading too. Today I made a card that combines the two! Come and see:

This is a snippets card - everything apart from the card base is an off-cut, or was made for another project but didn't make the finished creation. The white panel was a practice run of one of the Tiny Cuts dies from Neat and Tangled, a dashed line, which I cut three times. I cut the panel out with a Stitched Rectangle die by Heffy Doodles and mounted it on a blue panel...

... which you can see through the dashes. And those dashes are perfect for threading a piece of twine through and tying into a bow. The little bird sitting on the book was snipped out of an old piece of Stampin' Up designer paper. I gave him a background of flowers from Hello and Thanks by WPlus9. It was already coloured and fussy cut but I coloured green over the leaves which had been grey.

I added a final layer of dotty green paper for extra frameage. This is probably the most layered card I've ever made! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up's Sheltering Tree.

CHALLENGES
I'm playing along with The Time Out challenge today where we're being inspired by this quote: 'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need'. I shall also link up my snippety little number over at the Snippets Playground which has not, I'm glad to say, been cordoned off by the council! Happy Little Stampers is running their usual Anything Goes With Dies challenge this month so I shall also play along there.

AND IN OTHER NEWS
I've been enjoying being in the garden and sometimes reading - I'm still being much entertained by The Road to Little Dribbling by Bill Bryson. Eva has been wondering what all the giggling is about...

... and I think she's thinking of giving it a go after me!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. Do let me know what you've been up to!

Hugs,