woof!

if you've been reading by blog for a while you know that i started as a scrapbooker and evolved into a cardmaker. as a scrapbooker i considered myself a scrapper, but cardmakers call themselves stampers. and this is the first card i've made that made me truly feel like a stamper. i didn't use any patterned paper on this card it was all about the stamping, which before felt foreign and weird, but this card felt completely natural. now that i've made this wonderful leap in the craft world i think i'll call myself a scramper, LOL! maybe not :) anyway, enough of my random humor, on to the card. 

banner cards are huge right now. they're EVERYWHERE. and they're adorable. and i purchased this new stamp set and my first thought was hmmm. . . .how cute would it be to make a doggie banner with bones instead of flags strung between the fire hydrants. so that's where the idea for this card came from.

the other thing that different for me with this card. it's a square card! 4 1/4 x 4 1/4. this is a really fun size to play with, you have an even smaller space, so if having too much space is a little intimidating for you, i highly recommend this size, it's like a mini card, very non-intimidating.the inks are rangers distress inks in shabby shutters, spiced marmalade, and broken china. 

that white cardstock is cut to 4 x 4, and i used the doggie paw print and stamped my background. making a diagonal line with each ink color. until i had the background covered. 

then i cut a strip of cardstock that was 2 x 4 (which i later cut down to 1 3/4 x 4 because i mounted it on black cardstock). i stamped the fire hydrants on each end. then stamped them again on another piece of cardstock and cut them out. i used tombo mono removable tape runner to adhere the hydrants to the cardstock to create a mask. 

i used inkessentials blending tool, and rangers shabby shutters, and broken china distress ink to create grass, and the sky behind the hydrants, then removed the masks. 

i stamped the hydrants again, and colored them with regular markers. (i can't wait till i get copic markers. they're so amazing and they blend beautifully and make your projects look so cool. but i don't have any yet, so i used regular bic markers that i got on sale at staples :)

then i stamped and colored the doggie. i was going to use the poodle at first, but she felt a little fancy, and i wanted this card to be more playful. i colored him with a brown bic marker, just adding some brown spots, and i made his collar orange and red (to match the hydrants.) and gave him a pink nose. 

then came the part that i made much more complicated than it needed to be. ok, a normal banner card just has the string running behind the pennants.clean. simple. easy. i don't know what i was thinking, i decided to wrap the string around the bones. which was so hard to do. 

problem: the string kept slipping and moving, and i couldn't get the spacing right, and i couldn't lay it out and see exactly how i wanted it before i had it adhered down, it was cardmaking chaos. solution: glue dots!

i attached each bone to the string using mini glue dots, had to figure out how far apart i wanted them placed, and secure them to the card with dimensional adhesive.

it's really sad, but i felt so acomplished after i finished that doggie banner. LOL!

so i had all the parts and i layed it out on the black card base, and realized it needed a little something more. 

i used the speech bubble from a hero arts christmas stamp set. i believe it's jolly christmas. stamped with walnut stain distress ink. then stamped the word woof in spiced marmalade distress ink. and cut it out. glued it all together, and i was done. 

thanks so much for looking, if you have any questions leave them in the comments.

blog ya later!