Furever Friends!!

  I'm sure most of you know by know that I'm a big fan of Dachshunds and that I have three of my own -- Scout, Skye and Zeva.  Scout is my oldest and he's a Purebred Dachshund and was my first dog.  I adopted him from my Son and Daughter-in-Law, just before they set off on the big move to San Diego.   Shortly, after Scout came into my life, I realized that one dog was not enough for me and posted on my blog about wanting to Rescue another, hoping to find more information from my online friends.   And sure enough that is exactly what happened and how I found out about  "Furever Dashshund Rescue", a local rescue that will always be very special to me, as is "Little Paws Dachshund Rescue", another local group I totally love and support.  

   And because of the contacts I made through both of these amazing groups, I adopted Skye, from FDR in April of 2013, and Zeva (her sister), also from FDR,  in September of 2013, the day they both turned 9 months old.  It's hard to believe that I have now had Scout two years, Skye just over a year and soon little Zeva will have been us us a year too!  They are my little loves and it's been so fun having them in our lives.   That being the case, and because I love to make cards, I have now collected quite a few new stamps and dog-related crafting goodies, one of my favorites being this stamp/die set from Taylored Expressions.   It's also the set that I used to create my first card today, which was inspired by the current challenge at "Addicted to CAS".  I took the Code Word and put a fun little "spin" on it with this card.   Hope you like it!!

    You might be thinking, what?  How does this fit into the "Transport" theme?  Well if you look close you'll see that a cute little orange butterfly, has hopped onto this quite little Doxie's nose and is "hitching a ride" with him.  I hope you agree and enjoy my fun!!

    And now, I am excited to share two more cards, and to also tell you about a new online craft group that I have joined.  It's called "Stampnation" and was created by Catherine Pooler , who I am sure many of you know from blogland!  I actually met Catherine oh about five or six years ago now, when we were both members of another online group.   Shortly after that group closed down, Catherine opened up "StampNation": and I was actually a member in the very early stages, but as time went on, I had taken on too much and found I had to give up some of my groups and even my design teams and that's when I kind of took a little time to relax and create on my own.    But, I'm BACK!  -- And, I am totally loving the changes and seeing how much the group has grown, not to mention all the new videos and inspiration I've already found there -- Woweeeeee!!!   I even recognize quite a few of the members and some of those gals, I've also know, since I first started card-making, making SN a great place for me!  If you would like to find out more about StampNation, all you need to do is visit one one of the links above or go directly to the link below!   And if you also decide to join, please let me know, so I can look for you there!!

Click Here for more details!!

    As I mentioned, my next two cards were both created and inspired by one of the many new "challenges" that I found since I've been a member.   Today's is all about "Color-Washes" and Watercoloring, which is so popular in the crafting world right now.   Catherine shared a fabulous video with us and the Design Team also created some fabulous cards, but I can't share those --- you need too be a member for that! What I can show are my cards, both of which I have now submitted to the challenge!!

  This is my the my first take and I started this one by taking a variety of purple/plum and pink water-based markers and scribbled the colors onto my craft mat.  I then heavily misted the colors and took a piece of watercolor paper and "swiped" it back and forth through the colors.  I also used a aqua brush to move around some colors and dried the paper in between each new layer of color.   I did this a few times, until I was happy with the background, and then heat set it to be totally dry.   That's when I picked out my image which are the flowers from the wonderful new  Hero Arts Stamp set - CL779 - Night and Day Flowers!

  I took more markers (SU and Tombow) and then colored to the stamp directly, and just before stamping it onto my new background, I took I ever so lightly misted it a fine layer of water.   I then used an Aqua Brush to move around a the color a bit and when that was dry, I took the "outline stamp", inked in black and stamped over the image and added the matching "Your Kindness" sentiment.  I then die cut that layer and added some white pearls before layering it on my multi-layered card base!    Hope you like it.

     And this is my second card, which was also created with markers and water, but in this technique, I applied them to a rectangle shaped Acrylic Block and used the block almost like to stamp to apply the color to the inner area of my watercolor paper.   I did this also in layers and again heat set it when I had the colors as I wanted.  I used the same stamp set and stamping technique, but simply chose different colors.  I finished this card off with a "Hello" sentiment from my Winnie and Walter collection and then uploaded both cards to my new Gallery and the challenge post over at StampNation.

  I also have to give credit to the fabulous teachers who taught me some of these amazing watercolor techniques, when I took the Watercolor for Cardmakers class offered by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner in their fabulous online card classroom.    Oh and that reminds me, have you heard about their next class -- it's called "Stretch Your Stamps II" and will be a brand new follow up to the first Stretch Your Stamp class, which you can still take HERE!   The new class starts  August 4th and ALL of the teachers and designers will be creating with the same 15 sets of stamps.   The class will be soon to announce the stamps sets they use in the next few weeks, so that we all have plenty of shopping time for those who want to pick up some of the sets they'll be using!   For more details on this class, Go HERE!!

I have already signed up and can hardly wait to find out which stamps we'll be using!  Hoping I already own lots of them!

   See you in class and again, hope you'll all consider coming on over to create at StampNation too.  If you are already a member, please let me know, so I can visit you there!

    PS:  Don't forget that you still have plenty of time to play in our "Stars and Stripes" challenge over at a2z Scrapbooking too!   You can find all the details along with some inspiration from the Design Team over on the store blog!   Hop to see you there and please also consider donating some of your cards to Elizabeth's very special "Any Hero" Card drive for Operation Write Home!