Today is our monthly Around the World on Wednsday blog hop and it's really a special hop. The super imaginative Angie Mckenzie leads our group and her little Shi Tzu, Benji, is taking a virtual trip around the world, visiting each of us. What a blog hop we have in store for you!
This is Benji:
If Benji is going to visit us he's going to have a hard time avoiding our grandpup, Kubel, who spends a lot of time at our place and sometimes even takes trips around Minnesota with us. Kubel is our daughter's dog and he is named for her all time favorite Minnesota Twins baseball player, Jason Kubel. The pup Kubel was expected to be a Mini Australian Shepherd but it turned out he is the same size as both of his parents ... COMBINED.
I sure hope Benji isn't afraid of him. Kubel will be so excited.
First Kubel will want Benji to take a walk with us. Yes, Benji we'll carry you if you get tired. Our first walk of the day is usually to Willow Pond Park just a few blocks from our place. If we are lucky we will see ducks, bunnies and even turtles...
Did you see the turtle? That one was pretty big! I think those pups will need a rest. It's somewhat less strenuous to supervise all the neighborhood animals, cars and UPS trucks from Kubel's place in one of the picture windows. I hope Benji can see over the hydrangeas. Maybe the turkeys will come through.
When he's rested up we might think about a trip up to Lake Superior. It's almost a 4 hour road trip but it's worth it! Kubel loves to swim in the lake, even if it is cold. He earned this swim by getting his newly groomed coat VERY dirty. Luckily the waves were pretty gentle. Benji was still smart to stay on shore though - that lake is cold!!!
When we finally got to my craft room we decided to keep working with more critters, this time from Musical Jamboree. I'm doing a demonstration with that set for an online retreat later this month and I still need some extra samples. For this card I used one of my favorite sketches for characters. Last year I used it for cards I made with a bird, a cat and a goose.
- The main part of this sketch is the trimmed off circle that I usually fill with some sort of animal or character. I always feel like these characters should have appropriate or even elaborate settings and using the circle seems to let me off the hook a bit. Of course, this time I used the coyote. I just love this guy. For this circle I used a white Stylish Shapes circle layered onto a Spotlight on Nature circle - the one with the dashes and dots. This layer was Pretty Peacock.
- Often I cover the whole card with one DSP or dry embossed design on the top 4 or so inches with a contrasting paper on the bottom - about 1 1/2". This time I used the striped Pretty Peacock DSP from the Regals 6" x 6" and a wood tone from the Online Exclusive Meandering Meadows DSP. Since it seemed a bit dark and that's not my usual style, I trimmed the combined patterned pieces down to 4" x 5 1/4" so that a white border of the card base would lighten things up. I used the 3D Timber Embossing Folder on the wood. In the past I've used borders to accentuate the "seam" of the two papers but I used some Wild Wheat Jute Trim that I unwound into three separate strands. Once it is unwound the individual strands will be wavy as you can see on my card.
- Sometimes I use tags but for this card I simply embossed the greeting with white powder on a scrap of Pecan Pie and trimmed around it.
- As you can see in the close up, I like to use "dry" watercolor pencils a lot on animals as it gives more texture, especially if they are supposed to have fur.
- In this instance I set out to color a lot of animals while I sat in on a zoom meeting. I colored a bunch of them with either light Gray Granite or light Crumb Cake Blends. Then I add more texture, detail and shading with the colored pencils. I did not add any water to these so it's fine to stamp them with any dye ink. I used Early Espresso pencil over Light Crumb Cake on this fella. The banjo was light Wild Wheat Blends with Crushed Curry details. I layered several blues and greens (Garden and Night of Navy especially) in an attempt to get something that I would like with the Pretty Peacock. I really like that this guy has a kerchief as it gives me a chance to tie it in with whatever background I'm using.
- I made a mask so that I could use the blending brushes to add a touch of color to the background of the circle. Pool Party, and "grass" blend of Pretty in Peacock and Garden Green. Use a really soft touch for this!
One more card. Benji and Kubel thought I should try this sketch out with them. The tree "border" is a preview from the Frosted Forest Dies which will be available in July. The pups are from another Online Exclusive set, Pets and More.
Now it is time to travel on to Theresa. I imagine she has quite a creative adventure planned for Benji.
***The online retreat I'm doing is Kevin Theesen's Summer '24 Online Retreat, Friday, June 28-29. It will be recorded. There is a great line up of demonstrators presenting many different projects. You can find more information and registration here. Let him know I sent you!
I so appreciate that you took the time as you visit my blog today. Let me know what you think and come back again soon! Feel free to ask questions if something isn't clear.
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