Jessica Lynn Originals Pet blog hop

Hi gang!  I know haven't posted for a bit.  I think this whole Spring-but-it's-still-cold-and-snowy thing has had me in a funk.  I have got to make my own spring I guess!  But today I am participating in something extra special.  It's the Love Your Pet Blog hop hosted by JessicaLynnOriginal.  I'll post a link to the her blog where you can link up!   See the picture below for details.  We'd love for you to participate.

I am also thrilled because I get to take part as a guest designer this month!!  Woohoo!!!

As a cat lover, I chose to work with Celine's Kittens which you can find here: Celine's Kittens

This set is SO adorable.  Perfect for any cat lover.  If you happen to have dog lovers in your life then you need to check out Flynne's Puppies or any of the many pet sets they have!

Anyways, back to my card.  And here it is!

I randomly picked one of the main images and just got to crafting.  Sometimes I don't have any sort of a plan and I just see what happens.  I am very pleased with the end design!

I stamped the cat image onto Desert Storm Neenah cardstock using a copic friendly brown ink.  I did it as a second generation stamping so that the outline was pretty light.  To color the main portions of the cat I used E41, 43, 44 and 47.  The eyes were colored with YG05, the nose with R32 and the inner ears with E01.  The book cover was R32, 35 & 39, the pages were T0, 3 & 5 and the little fish was YR07.  I think I used B02 for the tiny bubbles on the page.  I did go over the whiskers with a very fine tip black marker because they got a bit lost.

At first I was going to just draw a little bit of a shadow under the book and cat to ground them but I think Sandy Allnock's YouTube videos told me I should try more.  So I created blue carpet with B85, 97 & 99 and the wallpaper with G00 & 07.  Eep.  I'm always scared to freehand things with Copics but I think it turned out alright.

I cut it out using a square detail die and dug through my collection of colored cardstock for a matching blue.  I came up with a retired color (Not Quite Navy) from Stampin Up!  I mounted the cat piece but cut off the far right side as I planned on butting it up to the very edge of the card for a little something different.

I took another piece of Desert Storm cardstock and inked it up using a chevron stencil and the matching Not Quite Navy ink.  I intentionally put it off center to so it looked like it was pointing right to the square with the cat!  

I flicked on some white splatters with white paint and let it dry.  While it was drying I went to work on the sentiment.  I colored on the back of a piece of heavy vellum with B97.  On the front I stamped my sentiment with Versamark ink and added white embossing powder.  I then cut a banner edge.  It didn't stand out quite enough so I cut a Night of Navy banner and a white banner.  The white banner I went over it with Wink of Stella to add a little shimmer.  I played around until I like they way they were layered and adhered them to the card.  The cat image I popped up using foam tape.

For the final step I added Nuvo drops in white and navy.  I did learn a little lesson.  The large white dot was over an inked portion of the background.  It sucked up some of the blue ink and is now a blue-ish white.  Oopsie!  I still think it looks fine but I will try to remember that in the future!

Now, for full details on the Love Your Pet blog hop and to link up a card please click HERE.  There are prizes to be won AND they are making a donation for every card linked up!

I'll be back again in a few days with another card or two for more inspiration!

Toodles!

~Kristina