Sorry It's Been "Ruff"

A member of my mom's writing group has not been doing well for a while, and is currently receiving hospice care at home. She "commissioned" me to make a card for the group to sign and send to him. He has a great sense of humor, and likes dogs, so I figured this image by Bugaboo Stamps would be perfect.

I chose a sketch from Splitcoast Stampers for my card design. The sketch was sized for an A2 card, and my mom wanted an A9 (5.5x8.5") card. So I created a blank A9-size "canvas" in Photoshop, and used the shape tool to draw boxes to sketch out my layout, based on the sketch. I added in the image on my canvas as well. When I had the "bones" of my design in place, I printed the sketch onto copy paper, and printed the image only onto a piece of 140 lb. watercolor paper.

I colored the dog with my Inktense pencils, using a damp paintbrush to blend the color and create shading. Then I set that aside to dry while I worked on the rest of the card. I used 2 patterned papers for the background. The paw print one is an old one by The Paper Studio, and the red polka dot paper is from BoBunny's "Pop Quiz" 6x6" paper pad. I adhered those onto a piece of lightweight white cardstock that I'd cut to 5.5x8.5", just to give me a base to work on. I also adhered the focal panel in place. I determined the placement of my brads, then pierced the holes and put in the brads. I added some detail to the dog's cheeks and catch lights to his eyes with a white gel pen. I also applied a coat of clear Wink of Stella glitter to the tag on his collar, and coated his tag & nose with Glossy Accents. Finally, I adhered the completed card front to a white card base.