Penny Black Fetching Slippers Masculine Retirement Card

Hi everyone,

* I just found out that my card was Top 3 at Crafty Catz Challenge Blog*

** Woo hoo 😀 **

**My card was also picked by Becca over at Critter Crazy Challenges and offered a Guest Designer Role for May - Yippee!**

Last December, we adopted a beautiful 7 years 8 months old Groodle (Golden Retriever - Poodle cross) from a Council pound in a country town several hours away from where we live.  He had been surrendered by his family to the pound which is so incredibly sad and had been there for many months.  We saw his ad on a Pet Rescue website and I just had such a good feeling about him.  I get alot of strong senses about many things and have always been that way since I was little.  I guess they call it a sixth sense (?) but it is more than that - and interestingly, my late Father and his Mother (my Grandmother) were exactly the same.  My Father and I even used to sometimes have the same dream on the same night which used to be quite unnerving to say the least!  I even have senses about someone's imminent passing even when they aren't sick.  Anyway, I am digressing.......  

So we rang up the Council to find out more about the dog and they told us he was good with children and adults and other dogs and not aggressive in any way nor had separation anxiety.  So we made the trip up to see him and oh, he is just the LOVELIEST dog and we couldn't wait to bring him home with us.  Tucker is very gentle and has the sweetest nature - doesn't pull on the lead when you walk him - loves being brushed - honestly, we hit the jackpot.  He just wants to be cuddled and loved.  I also love that he doesn't shed because of the Poodle in him.   Here is a photo of Tucker rocking his bow tie:

Honestly, he is just like a teddy bear!  And who could resist that adorable face?!  We took him to the dog groomer for the first time yesterday and he was brilliant.  The lady who groomed him said he was so friendly and relaxed the entire time and made friends with her friend's dog that was already there and they sat on the mat together like they were besties.  

Now that we are retired, it means we have the time to put into having a dog plus it is good company for my husband when he is pottering around in the garden or garage - or when any of us is outside.  We just adore him and so happy that he now has a fur-ever home.  We are his 3rd family and I really can't imagine how sad he must have been when he was given up not just once, but twice 😢

So, I HAD to make a card to celebrate my husband's retirement with a dog on it - it just seemed so fitting for the occasion!

This is also my card for the following Challenges - click on the underlined link to take you to each challenge:

• Crafty Catz - #708 - Anything Goes
• Critter Crazy - #108 - Anything Goes with a featured critter (real or fantasy)
• Ellibelle's Corner - I Spy with my Little Eye - Something You Love - I chose dogs
• Splitcoaststampers - Ways to Use It WT1055 - Make it Masculine - this is from a while ago and there are no time limits to play their challenges
• Crafty Animals - #103 - Anything Goes - Must include an animal but birds, bugs, bees and insects are all OK

The main image is an old stamp from Penny Black - Fetching Slippers - and was stamped onto Ranger Watercolour Cardstock using Versafine Onyx Black Ink.  I tried to colour the dog to look similar to Tucker and to also make the fur look curly.  I used a mix of Watercolour Pencils and Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers + a Zig Blender Pen.  Check out those cute bunny slippers!  They sure put a smile on my husband's face!  Here is a close-up:

I still had my Basic Grey Max and Whiskers Designer Papers on my desk from a birthday card I made the other day for my BIL - see HERE - so I thought I would use them again.  I do love these papers - Basic Grey had such unique designs and I really miss them.

I went over the black lines on the main image using an Anko 0.05 Black Pigment Pen to darken up the lines after my colouring.  I diecut the image using a Quickutz Nesting Card Templates Die and my Big Shot - then layered it onto some Blue Designer Paper and then onto Dark Brown Cardstock from my stash.

I added the 1/4" wide Grosgrain Ribbon in two separate elements and glued the knot on using Helmar's Fabric Glue.  I find that attaching the ribbon elements separately saves some ribbon because I don't have to wrap it around my card and the knot sits flatter and just looks neater and better IMHO.

To do the sentiment, I stamped the banner which is from a very old WPlus9 Basic Banner and Die Set (2013) - and fussy-cut around it using my Uniquely Creative Fussy Cutting Scissors, which meant I could then diecut the banner from the Blue Designer Paper so I had a layer underneath it.  It just looked better that way instead of just having just the banner on white cardstock.  I went around the edges with my Anko Black Pigment Brush Pen to hide any imperfections in my fussy-cutting.  The sentiment is by Penny Black - a Bear of all Trades - and went perfectly with the image I thought.  I stamped it using Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip Ink which is a very dark brown and looked better than using black ink.  Yep, retirement is all about "taking it easy".   I diecut the banner again from white cardstock and glued that underneath so I could have a little bit of dimension for the sentiment panel.

The centre panel was popped up on scraps of white cardstock as is the main image panel.

The buttons on the RHS are also by Basic Grey from their Granola Collection released in 2008.  I sewed matching threads through each button then glued them on using Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

The hearts either side of the sentiment were diecut from a Reddish-Orange sheet of Designer Paper using an Impression Obsession - Heart of Hearts Die.  This is a well-used but retired die that has seen alot of love over the years because it diecuts many different sizes and styles of hearts - just perfect for anytime you need a heart:

Once I had finished my card front, I glued it to a Kaisercraft White Card Base using Tombow Mono Multi Glue.

As finishing touches, I added Uniquely Creative Clear Sparkle Pen to the dog collar plus the hearts.

Finished size is 6" x 4-1/8" or 153mm x 105mm.

Thanks for visiting my blog today.

Jocelyn

Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Penny Black Fetching Slippers 2085F + Bear of all Trades 30-108, WPlus9 Basic Banners (2013 - retired)

Ink:  Versafine Onyx Black, Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip (retired)

Designer Papers:  Basic Grey Max and Whiskers 6" x 6" (2009-retired)

Accessories:  Big Shot, 1/4" - 6.5mm wide Grosgrain Ribbon, Buttons - Basic Grey - Granola (2008-retired), Matching Sewing Thread, Needle, Kaisercraft Trimmer, Tombow Mono Multi Glue, Helmar's 450 Quick Dry Adhesive + Fabric Glue, Anko Black Pigment Pen - Brush + 0.05, Zig Clean Color Real Brush Markers + Blender Pen, Watercolour Pencils, #2 Round Paintbrush, Uniquely Creative Clear Sparkle Pen, Uniquely Creative Fussy Cutting Scissors, Cardstock - Ranger Watercolor + Scraps of White Cardstock + Dark Brown

Dies:  WPlus9 Basic Banner WP9D-059#-32557 (retired), Quickutz Nesting Card Templates DC0431 (retired), Impression Obsession Heart of Hearts DIE052-I (retired)

More Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins

Hi blogging friends

I am still playing with my Mama Elephant Arctic Penguin stamp and die set and thought I would make another Christmas card - this time for my husband.  I am so lucky that my husband doesn't mind cute images - he is such a great encourager for my cardmaking and I feel so blessed :-)  This card is also my entry for the Crafty Catz Challenge #256 of Winter.

If you missed my last post using this stamp/die set, you can see it HERE.  I decided to go with the same layout, twine, papers and dies to make the whole process quicker and will probably make a few more cards in similar fashion - although I always make a few little changes to make the cards a bit different.  You know, I hadn't even thought about the fact that there are no penguins in the Arctic until my blogging friend Jackie pointed it out!  Maybe the set should be renamed "Antarctic Penguins" instead!

I love how this stamp set has lots of little images (as well as lots of penguins in different poses) and the matching dies saves alot of time fussy-cutting.

To do the background, I used a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die to diecut the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland snowflake designer paper and Ranger watercolour cardstock - then used one of my WPlus9 Landscape border dies (which comes in a set of 3) to cut the designer paper where I wanted the edge of the horizon to be then adhered the designer paper to the watercolour cardstock circle.  I scribbled Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers Distress Markers on an acrylic block, added some water and painted the watercolour paper to look like the sea.

I stamped all the images using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto watercolour cardstock and coloured them with various Distress Markers and Tombow Pens, then diecut each piece.  

I used a Red Wink of Stella glitter pen on the red Santa hat, skates and berries on the mistletoe and Clear Wink of Stella on the floating pieces of ice, leaves on the mistletoe and the green hat.  I added Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the pompom and cuff of both hats.  I also added white dots to the green hat with a white gel pen and Glossy Accents to the nose on each penguin.  I lightly chalked in the cheeks using pink I-Kandee Pearlescent chalk.  Here is a little close-up so you can see the detail:

The floating pieces of ice were glued on using Tombow Mono Multi glue and the penguins and mistletoe were popped up on dimensionals.

The scalloped circle main image panel is a gorgeous die by Spellbinders from their Majestic Circles die set.  

The snowflakes are dies from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set.  I glued down the centres then bent the arms up a little and added red and teal Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel dots to the centres.  You probably can't tell from the photo but these enamel dots are very glittery and are absolutely gorgeous!  

I was so annoyed with myself because I had coloured the hats and added the Fun Flock and put them aside to dry.  I had already attached the penguins and decided to glue on the diecut snowflakes totally forgetting about the hats.  When I went to glue on the Santa hat, I realised that it was covering part of the snowflake so tried to remove the snowflake but of course, it was stuck fast.  If I had my time over, I would have moved the snowflake down a little so it wasn't partly hidden - oh well - just one of those little irritating things...... Here is an even closer view of the main image:

A few months ago, I decided to upgrade my Digital Camera and it takes fantastic close-up photos.  It's a Nikon Coolpix L320 and takes 16.1 megapixel photos.  My husband had bought a second-hand Nikon Coolpix L310 which was the previous model to this one so I tried it out and was really impressed with how easy it was to use and the quality of the photographs was much better compared to my old camera.  So I bought the latest model and really love it and it didn't cost an arm and a leg which was great.  I have found that I don't have to fiddle as much with my photo editing programs to get the colours true to real life compared to my old camera - and most of the time, I don't need to do very much at all.  With my old camera, I would often spend quite a bit of time editing and but sometimes, no matter how much I fiddled, I couldn't get my photo to look like my card did in real-life which would frustrate me no end!  By the way, I use a mix of Google Picasa and GIMP for photo editing - both free programs.  I am no expert on cameras and I am sure there are more amazing ones around but thought I would share my experience in case it is helpful to someone.  Anyway, I am digressing.......back to my card......

The twine and designer paper on the card base are by My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland which was released in 2012.  The sentiment was also trimmed from one of the designer paper sheets; I layered it onto teal cardstock and trimmed it to 1/16" using my Perfect Layers Tools then popped it up on dimensionals.  

The teal cardstock base and burgundy cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.

As always, I added Fray stop to the cut ends of the twine to stop them from fraying and unravelling.

As I type this, I am at the hospital in the City with my loved one waiting for an appointment - just routine.  We have just been to one appointment but there is a 3 hour gap between appointments so we are hanging around.  We are coming back in again tomorrow for another 2 appointments - again just routine - and then another one early next week - but fingers-crossed, that will be the last of the hospital appointments in the City for the year.  I am using the hospital computer and the colours look super-bright compared to my home laptop - in fact, my card colours look too bright and the sea looks like there are brown patches in amongst the teal!  Gee, I hope it doesn't look like that for all of my blog readers and that it is just this computer (?!). Thanks for visiting my blog today - hope to see you again very soon!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye (MME) Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Majestic Circles, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles (snowflakes), WPlus9 Landscape Borders die set

Accessories:  Big Shot, Ranger Watercolour cardstock, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel Dots (by Helz Cuppleditch), Twine from MME Winter Wonderland twine set WW1068, Perfect Layers Tools, Glossy Accents, Distress Markers - Evergreen Bough + Peacock Feathers + Festive Berries, Tombow Pens, #2 round paintbrush, Cardstock - burgundy and teal, Wink of Stella glitter pens - red and clear, I-Kandee Pearlescent chalk, Ranger Inkssentials white gel pen

Mama Elephant Arctic Penguin Christmas card

Hi blogging friends  

When Mama Elephant released their Arctic Penguin stamp set recently, I couldn't help myself and just HAD to get the set - those little penguins had captured my heart!  I love how the set has alot of penguins in different poses PLUS it has tons of little extras like the Santa hat, winter hat, present, cup, mistletoe, 2 sizes of floating ice and a few other little images.  Cute, cute, CUTE LOL!  I also bought the matching die set which makes putting together a little scene nice and quick.  And here is my card:

To do the background, I used a Lifestyle Nesting Circle die to diecut the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland snowflake designer paper and Ranger watercolour cardstock - then used one of my WPlus9 Landscape border dies (which comes in a set of 3) to cut the designer paper where I wanted the edge of the horizon to be then adhered the designer paper to the watercolour cardstock circle (I hope that makes sense!).  I scribbled Evergreen Bough and Peacock Feathers Distress Markers on an acrylic block, added some water and painted the watercolour paper to look like the sea.

I stamped all the images using Ranger Archival Jet Black ink onto watercolour cardstock and coloured them with various Distress Markers and Tombow Pens, then diecut each piece.  

I used a Red Wink of Stella glitter pen on the Santa hat, skates and top of the present and Clear Wink of Stella on the floating ice and green part of the present.  I added Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with Crystalina glitter to the pompom and cuff of the hat.  I added Glossy Accents to the penguin's nose.  Here is a little close-up so you can see the detail a bit better - the photo is a little dull as it is very stormy here today and I had try and take photos inbetween squalls:

The floating ice was glued on using Tombow Mono Multi glue and the penguin and present were popped up on dimensionals.

The scalloped circle main image panel is a gorgeous die by Spellbinders from their Majestic Circles die set.  

The snowflakes are dies from the Poppystamps Christmas Baubles die set.  I glued down the centres then bent the arms up a little and added red and teal Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel dots to the centres which I bought 2 weeks ago at Scrappy Hollow in Croydon, Victoria.  You probably can't tell from the photo but these enamel dots are very glittery and are absolutely gorgeous!  There are quite a few colours and sizes in the set which makes it good value for money.

The twine, chipboard sentiment and large brad plus the designer paper on the card base are all by My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland which was released in 2012.  Here is a close-up of that gorgeous brad:

Gosh, I love the colours in the My Mind's Eye Winter Wonderland set - right up my alley and so perfect for cool, winter/Christmas scenes.  Yes, I know it is summer at Christmas where I live but I am just crazy for snowmen, snowflakes and snowy scenes.  I have never felt very attracted to images of Santa on a surfboard or Santa wearing shorts for Christmas cards - they just don't appeal to me - and I am blissfully singing "Winter Wonderland" or "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" no matter how hot it is!  I just bought some more of this MME range online from Scrap Therapy in Queensland, Australia as I was getting a bit low - they have great customer service - prompt and the goods are really well-packaged for the postal service (I have no connection to the company other than being a regular customer).  

The teal card base and burgundy cardstock layers were trimmed to 1/8" and 1/16" respectively using my Perfect Layers Tools.

As always, I added Fray stop to the cut ends of the twine to stop them from fraying and unravelling.

Challenges:

I am entering my card in the following Challenges:

Splitcoaststampers - Free for All Friday F4A248 - Grab and Go - grab the most recent thing you have purchased and haven't used and use it.

Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra - November - Anything Goes

Thanks for visiting my blog today!

Jocelyn


Card Recipe:

Stamps:  Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins set

Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black

Designer Paper:  My Mind's Eye (MME) Winter Wonderland (2012) 6" x 6" pad

Dies:  Lifestyle Nesting Circles, Spellbinders Majestic Circles, Mama Elephant Arctic Penguins, Poppystamps Christmas Baubles (snowflakes), WPlus9 Landscape Borders die set

Accessories:  Big Shot, Ranger Watercolour cardstock, Stampendous Cotton White Fun Flock mixed with fine Crystalina glitter, dimensionals, Tombow Mono Multi glue, doublesided tape, Fun Fair Glitter Colours Adhesive Enamel Dots (by Helz Cuppleditch), Brad from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Brads set WW1063, Chipboard sentiment from MME Winter Wonderland Decorative Buttons set WW1064, Twine from MME Winter Wonderland twine set WW1068, Perfect Layers Tools, Glossy Accents, Distress Markers - Evergreen Bough + Peacock Feathers + Festive Berries, Tombow Pens, #2 round paintbrush, Cardstock - burgundy and teal, Wink of Stella glitter pens - red and clear