Miniature Schnauzer Card

 Hi crafters! I hope you are well! Today we are celebrating our four-legged friends at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge. 

As you might know, Simon Says Stamp was named after Heidi's dog Simon and this week our theme is Four-legged friends, in his memory. It doesn't have to be dogs. Don't miss the beautiful project by our May guest designer Simona Rebecchi aka Ginny and the Sheep.

When I was in my late teens, my family had two Miniature Schnauzers and this card is a celebration of them. They had such fun, and very different, personalities. One lived a very long life, the other one died too early. 

I used the Simon Says Stamp Lil' Critters Schnauzer die and die cut the dogs from watercolor paper.

They were watercolored using just one mix of a brownish grey color. They look spooky without eyes, I added the eyes later. The paint was added in several layers, creating a splotchy appearance.

For the background I heat embossed the Simon Says Stamp Halftone Background with cream embossing powder on heavystock paper. The embossing powder and cardstock are very similar in color, which is what I was looking for. A white embossing powder would have stood out more, but I wanted subtle, almost invisible dots.

Place the Mix and Match Squares Stencil on top and ink through it with yellow and orange Distress Ink. This will reveal the white dots, making the squares look patterned.

Die cut a Shimmer Heart from Tim Holtz Backdrop paper, using a piece that is neutral grey. Stamp the Old Letter Background with Smoke ink. There was a little orange ink on my stamp, so my stamping ended up being more brown than grey.

Add the eyes and nose to give the dogs life. I left some of the paper white for highlights. You can fold out the front legs, ears and tail a little for added dimension. 

These dogs are so fun to color and you can give each one a different personality.

The hearts were die cut from Sizzix Aluminium Metal Sheets, silver, first adhered to cardstock. I used the Clipping Hearts die.

You can see how shiny the hearts are here.

I inked the edges of the heart slightly with Pumice Stone and Hickory Smoke.

This is a fun technique to do combining background stamps and stencils. The dots are almost invisible on the cream area, while the resist effect makes them stand out clearly where there is ink.

 

Finally, I die cut a sentiment from the silver sheet and from black glitter paper. The second part of the sentiment was stamped with a stamp from Laugh In Flowers.

I hope you will join us this week in our Four-Legged Friends challenge. You have a chance to win a $25 gift voucher to do some fun shopping at Simon Says Stamp. You have until Monday 8am Ohio time. 1pm UK time, 2 pm CET to join in.

Do you use Instagram? If so please add #sssmchallenge so we can see your entries there too.

Thank you so much for taking the time to stop by here today! 

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

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