Happiness is a Warm Puppy…Words 2 Craft By

Hello!  I’m so thrilled to be joining the super talented ladies at https://words2craftby.blogspot.com/ on a regular basis now!  Thank you to Sybrina, Penny, Bobbi and Annie for inviting me – I’m so happy to be part of the team!  Please visit the blog to see their inspirational designs and hopefully join in on the fun!

This month our words are, “Happiness is a Warm Puppy” by Charles M. Schultz.  So true and in recognition of October being “Adopt a Shelter Dog Month”, I’d like to expand on his quote:  “Happiness is a warm puppy…no matter the age or size”.   If you are thinking about adding a dog (or cat or any pet) to your family, please consider the thousands of animals in need of a home.  You can also find puppies and kittens on rescue sites if your heart is set on that.  I can tell you from personal experience that a rescued pet appreciates being given another chance.  Okay, off of my soap box!  Here’s my project:

 

I went a little overboard on my Fall colors!  It’s my favorite time of year, though, and I wanted these dogs to have fun playing in the leaves.  LOL!

I started with a black 8×8 board that I had in my stash – really too small for all of the dogs, but you know how it is when you just want to use something you’ve had for years, plus I was determined to use all 6 dogs!  My background paper (love that paper!!) is from G45, Raining Cats and Dogs.  Such a beautiful collection of papers!  I used watercolor paper and Distress Inks to paint all of the dogs.  I did write down the colors used for each, but after looking at how many colors I used for 6 dogs, it’s just too much to list them all and too boring to read about!  It’s hard to tell in the photos, but I did fussy cut an extra set of eyes for all of them and then applied Glossy Accents (also added to dogs’ noses).

 

For my leaves, I colored my paper and then stamped some leaf images onto part of it.  The stamps were way too big for the dies I used, but I thought it would add a little bit of interest.  After I cut the leaves out, I inked with a combination of Vintage Photo and Mowed Lawn.  I used flower-shaping tools for dimension (I also did that to the dogs’ ears, except for those tiny Bulldog ears).

 

I used the Woodland Branch die by Memory Box (you can’t tell in the photo, but I used the Steam Punk Faber Castell Gelatos set to add color to the branches) adhered some leaves, and also stenciled some hearts (Tim Holtz stencil) onto the branches and at the side.  I colored my Wendy Vecchi Crackled Texture paste with Fired Brick ink and after it was dried, added more of the same color in addition to Vintage Photo.

My sentiment was cut from the Raining Cats and Dogs collection and you can’t see that it’s a tag, but I used the Main Street dies by Poppystamps.  I also embossed the sentiment with a paw print folder by Darice.  I added a little fork bow I had previously made.

My pumpkins are digital stamps from http://gracielliedesign.blogspot.com/ (she has gorgeous digital stamps and papers!) that I printed onto watercolor paper – my first time using digi stamps and I love how they turned out!  I colored them with distress inks, added some Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder to each for texture, and used my flower-shaping tools for dimension.  I also made an extra set of flowers and leaves for each pumpkin and added some Perfect Pearls for shine and sparkle (it doesn’t really show in the photos 😦  )

I decided to add a few sequins from my stash just for a little something extra.  I think that’s it!  Please feel free to leave comments and/or questions.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

 

Playing along in the following:

http://diesruschallenge.blogspot.com/2016/10/challenge-58-leaves-on-trees_1.html

http://www.happylittlestampers.com/2016/10/hls-october-anything-goes-with-dies.html

http://craft-deebowz.blogspot.com/2016/10/october-challenge.html

http://allsortschallenge.blogspot.com/2016/10/week-384-colours-of-autumn.html