I [HEART] Dogs and Cats by Judi Kauffman for The Queen’s Ink

I taught. I shopped! It’s the perfect combo. I can’t just teach a class at The Queen’s Ink and leave without looking around, and I can’t look around without filling a basket. Last Saturday I went home with Laurel Burch’s Tribal Cats stamp set and matching dies, plus the set of dies to match the Laurel Burch Dog Park stamp set (five dogs) that I’d purchased on my last trip.

I haven’t yet had time to stamp the new Tribal Cats or more of the dogs, but I did manage to play with my new dies! I thought it would be fun to see what I could come up with using only the simple silhouette shapes. One thing led to another and before I knew it there were three Valentines on my table!

Instructions:

1. Put the ‘leftovers’ from a sheet of Transparent Glitter Dots peel-offs onto a piece of tan cardstock. Because the sheet is transparent, the color of the cardstock is visible through the sparkle and it creates a tone-on-tone effect. Die cut a cat head, body and tail for each cat card; die cut one or more dogs for each dog card. (Leftovers from one sheet of Glitter Dots yielded three dogs and one three-piece cat.)

2. Using a sponge dauber, add dye inks to selected areas of the die cut shapes to shade them and to add stripes or spots to the animals. Please refer to the photos for some ideas on where to place the sponged-on inks and vary in whatever way pleases your eye.

3. Use 5mm or 7mm cat’s eye or lure eye stickers, gems, sequins, or small die cut or punched circles for the eyes.

4. Die cut or punch some red hearts in assorted sizes.

5. Add a 1.25” or 1.5” strip of green cardstock to a blue card base (side- or top-fold) for the ‘grass’ where the animals will sit or stand. Arrange the hearts, cat, dogs. When pleased with the arrangement, adhere the hearts, then the cat or dog(s) or two cats, two dogs, one of each, or whatever mix you want, using glue or double-sided tape for the hearts and foam tape under the animals for dimension. Tip: Angle the cat’s head toward its tail and add a heart on its chest. 

Supplies: 

• Laurel Burch Tribal Cats die set (Stampendous)
• Laurel Burch Dog Park die set (Stampendous)
•   (Also available at The Queen’s Ink: Matching Tribal Cats and Dog Park stamp sets)
• Transparent Glitter Dots peel-offs (Elizabeth Craft Designs)
• Cardstock in tan, bright red, shades of blue, shades of green
• Sponge dauber
• Dye inks in shades or orange, rust and dark brown
• Heart shaped punches and dies
• Foam tape
• Double-sided adhesive tape
• Clear-drying glue
• Cat’s Eye and Lure Eye stickers 5mm and 7mm (Stanislaus Imports, lasioux.com)