Hearts Like Dogs

The new Hearts Like Dogs stamp set from Sparkle N Sprinkle was used for today's project.  I experimented with a couple different things for this and I'm pretty happy with the results.

To start off, I stamped both the shaggy dog and the sentiment at the same time using VersaMark ink.  Then I combined equal parts of Black Detail embossing powder with Clear Detail embossing powder and heat set both the image and sentiment with this combo.  It created a cool salt/pepper type of look.  It's harder to see on the dog's outline, but it's more noticeable on the sentiment.  The Clear Detail allows the color of the base cardstock to show through.

Next, I combined Snow White flock with a touch of Elephant Gray flock to get a soft gray for the main part of the dog's body.  Smokey Black flock and a touch of Snow White flock were mixed together for his hind legs and shadow areas.  These mixtures were adhered to the image with a thin layer of SNS Brushable glue.  Dots of white acrylic paint were added to the white background and covered with Lavender Iris glitter while the paint was still wet.

For the blue sparkly background, I die cut a piece of white cardstock using a Sue Wilson Designs die (New York Collection-Madison Square.  Once the cardstock was die cut, I ran it through again to dry emboss the outside edge.  The entire piece was then covered with VersaMark ink and then heat embossed with Firecracker Blue embossing powder.  This gave it a really sparkly look, but diminished the dry embossing somewhat.  To highlight the edges of the piece, I used the direct to paper method and rubbed Staz-On Cotton White ink along the edges, which brought the dry embossed areas to life again.

MFT dies (Fishtail Flags) were used to die cut the patterned paper below the focal point.  These were then outlined with a Sakura glue pen and covered with Lavender Iris glitter for a subtle sparkle.  The centers of the flowers on the card base were also dotted with a Sakura glue pen and covered with more Lavender Iris glitter.