A blog devoted to the cards I make in my tiny upstairs space. When my sister stays there, she calls it an "artist's garret". I'm not an artist, but am an enthusiastic cardmaker - hence the title "Cardmaker's Garret".
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Sunday 10 April 2016

Puppies and Petunias

If all you're interested in is cards, skip down through this post to see today's cards.  If you like puppies, read on.  Many of you know that Shea, the brown dog in my photo on my sidebar, died of cancer last spring.  Her brother, Will (the black dog), is 12 now so I'm thinking if I want to be sure I don't end up dog-less (that would be a dire state of affairs for me!) when he passes away, I'd better get a puppy soon.

Their breeder has become a good friend of mine and invited me over to watch her lovely English Cocker Spaniel, Snow, give birth this weekend.  It was quite a thrill watching the miracle of birth.  We were up all night as she started panting and pacing and went into the whelping box late in the evening, and then labour started at 3:00 a.m. when her water broke.  The first pup was born at 4:35 a.m. so we were up most of the night.   She had 3 girls, 1 boy.  They were all born by 6:00 a.m. so we got a couple of hours of sleep after that.  Here's a couple of photos:



One day old puppies aren't the cutest things in the world but give it a couple of weeks, and they will be adorable.

It amazes me how animals have such strong instincts to know exactly what to do.  Even though she'd never had puppies before, when each puppy came out, Snow immediately started tearing off the birth sac and licking the pup vigorously to get it breathing and then chewed through the umbilical cord.

In 9 or 10 weeks, one of the sweet girl pups will be coming home with me.  So expect to see quite a few puppy pictures!

Now on to the reason you visit my blog - a couple of cards.

I've been following Karen Dunbrook's lovely work where she stamps images using brushos and water instead of ink.  I made two variations of the same image, one just with the outline of the image, the other with the outline coloured in.



For the basic technique of stamping with the brushos, see Karen's tutorial on SCS.  That's all I did for the first card before adding the sentiment, die cutting with a stitched square and popping it up on foam tape.

The second one required more work and is going to be taken over to April's CAS Mix-Up challenge of Stamping + Stenciling + one or more other elements of your choice.


My other elements are brushos, watercolour paints, texture paste, splatter, and gemstones.

I painted the stamp with various purple, violet, and green brushos that I'd watered down a bit on my craft sheet. Then stamped and let it dry a bit. Then using my waterbrush, I picked up more of the colour and filled in the flowers and leaves. When that was dry, I did a blue wash around it with watercolour paints. I stamped my sentiment in grey. I laid a stencil over the top, went through just areas on the corners and sides with texture paste, and let that dry. Last touch was a light splatter using the sentiment ink watered down a bit. The panel is popped up on fun foam and a couple of purple gemstones added to the flowers.


Thanks for dropping by (even if you didn't read all the early part about puppies!).










Supplies:

First card:
Stamps: Rubbernecker Petunias, unknown sentiment
Paper: PTI vintage cream cs, watercolour paper
Paper Size: 4.75" square
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: purple, violet, and green brushos, Lil Inker stitched square, foam tape 
Second card:
Stamps: Rubbernecker Petunias, Impression Obsession sentiment
Paper: PTI vintage cream cs, watercolour paper
Paper Size: 5"x4.25"
Ink: Ranger Hickory Smoke
Accessories: green, violet, and purple brushos; purple gemstones, TCW stencil, texture paste, blue watercolour paint, fun foam

8 comments:

  1. Hi Susan, I have to focus on those cute little puppies for this comment. I can't wait to see who you bring home in 8 weeks. Let me know if you need a puppy sitter for the day :)
    By the way the card is gorgeous, I have to try stamping with brusho's.
    Christine

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  2. Your puppy and mommy pictures are adorable. TFS your experience during the birthing of the pups Susan. Mommy has such pretty soft colors and markings. The pups are going to be beautiful too. The hard part...choosing only one pup!

    LOVE both your brushos watercolored cards Susan. Your flowers on the 1st card really pop. Your 2nd card is beautiful with all the watercoloring and textures. TFS them both my friend.

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  3. Congratulations on the birth of the new member of your family, Susan! I know she'll bring you much joy! Love your petunias! Such rich colors and I love them both ways! Thanks so much for sharing with us at CAS Mix Up!

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  4. Can't wait to mmet your puppy ... you have to bring her over for a crafting day ... although we might not get much crafting done --- more snuggling with the pup! :) Great job Snow! :)

    Love both your cards Susan. The first one is so pretty with just the outline in brushos ... really shows off the image. The second is also beautiful. Love how you've added in some colour to the petals to give the flowers lots of depth. The blue background is so pretty with the embossing paste stenciling over top. Thanks for sharing with us at CAS Mix Up! xx

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  5. Just to let you know I read all of your post. Gorgeous mother and puppies. How exciting to see them and know you'll be taking one home shortly. Dogs and card making - the perfect combination. Love your cards too and particularly like the stencil one.

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  6. Such nice cards! I will be going to see the technique. I like how you used the brusho colors to color in & the embossing paste around the edge. I like your dog story. We just lost our dog. We love them too.

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  7. Such nice cards! I will be going to see the technique. I like how you used the brusho colors to color in & the embossing paste around the edge. I like your dog story. We just lost our dog. We love them too.

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  8. Love the look of how the soft blue background with paste over a stencil and some splatter sets off the flowers. And water coloring the flowers with Brushos -- what a good idea. Beautiful and interesting card!

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