Upside down dog

Hello, crafting friends!

Welcome to another Tuesday and another fun challenge at CAS Colours and Sketches. This week is sketch week and this month's hostess Jenny has come up with a slimline design to get your creative juices flowing.

I must confess, the slimline format is not one I've particularly embraced but I have a new stamp set with horizontal images which I thought would work well for a long card.

This adorable pup is from Doggone Sweet by Penny Black which I fell in love with the minute I saw the upside down retriever! I recently guested at the very last Twofer challenge where the theme was Dogs/Cats and I'm afraid I was very much inspired by many of the dog stamps on display!!

I made a background for my little upside down dog by masking off the top of the card and sponging grey ink below it, then removed the mask and used Clearly Besotted's Tear Away stencil and some blue ink to create a puffy clouded sky above.

The pup was stamped in yellow ink, coloured with alcohol markers and coloured pencils, fussy cut and glued to the background. I finished it with an MFT sentiment which fitted neatly around the dog's ear. 

So now it's your turn! Do hop over to the CAS Colours and Sketches website to see all the gorgeous samples the design team has made to inspire you. You'll find the Linky Tool there too so that you can share your own creation. Have fun!

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Delighted to be a top 3 winner at Cardz 4 Guyz with this card!

CHALLENGES

I used the colour palette at Cards 4 Guyz for this card. It was actually made for a dog-loving female friend who recently had a fall (I thought the upside down dog might raise a smile!) but it could perfectly well be used as a masculine card. I'm also sharing at the NBUS challenge where Darnell wants to see our Never Before Used Schtuff!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

This is a rare photo of Eva with a ball:

She is not a dog that likes people to throw a ball for her to retrieve and is inclined to give you a 'go and get it yourself' kind of look if you try. She prefers to retrieve shoes and garments from around the house, cuttings I've put in a compost bag in the garden, or tissues. There are balls in her toy basket though and sometimes I ask her to get one so that I can reward her with a treat. She can differentiate between Ball, Sock, Fish and Squeaky, although sometimes she thinks it's quicker to just try them all at once!!

Sending hugs,

Playing with poppies

Hello, crafting friends!

Tuesday has cheekily popped up again and it's time for another fun CAS Colours and Sketches challenge! Here are the colours our host Bhavya has chosen this week:

I immediately thought of poppies! The poppies that grow wild in the fields here in middle England are an intense red, but I was also thinking of a pal who lives in California where you get lovely yyellow ones, so the challenge colours were perfect for a mix of both!

To provide a background for my poppies, I used the Pool Party ink and Clearly Besotted's Tear Awayy stencil to create a sort of misty background directly onto a card base.

The poppies are beauties from Clearly Besotted's Pure Poppies. I stamped the stems and leaves in a neutral grey and flower heads in the red and yellow of the challenge colour palette, filling in extra colour with coloured pencils. To keep my card nice and clean and simple, I kept the stamping to the bottom of the card front only, leaving plenty of nice clear space above it. 

The sentiment is from Hero Arts' Cheeky Birthday - very handy when you are ludicrously late for a birthday. I'm afraid I've brought it out several times already this year :/

Are you ready to get inky? You'll find lots of inspiration from my teamies over at the CAS Colours and Sketches site so do have a look! The Linky Tool is there too, at the bottom of the post, ready for you to link up your creation. Don't forget to keep your card clean and simple will you, with lots of lovely clear space!

CHALLENGES

I'm linking this card up with AAA Cards where they want you to use only two quarters of the card with the option of using our favourite colours; I'm also joining in at Happy Little Stampers Stencil challenge where Anything Goes.

AND IN OTHER NEWS

We have a lovely cockerpoo staying with us, a great friend of Eva's. Unfortunately, after a paw injury, he arrived with a bandaged leg and a soft cone to prevent him from worrying at it. It hasn't dampened his spirits at all and although Eva was initially a little worried about the cone, she soon found that it didn't stop her pal from playing with her. During their initial playtime, we discovered that the cone was pretty loose as it came off over the top of our visitor's head! The two dogs looked at each other for a moment and then this happened...

I swear Eva thought this was a new concept in coming to visit: bring a toy, but wear it!

Sending hugs,