Puppy Kisses & Fancy Stitches

I spied Bronte Kisses by Mo's Digital Pencil, and I just had to have it! All proceeds from this $1 digi will go to Pet Orphans of Southern California. This special set includes 3 lovely quotes, and I used one as part of the main image for this card. As you can see by the photo on the right, the resulting card was a big hit. (What you can't see is Allen, the white one, licking and then sitting on the card. It's fine though!)

I wanted the challenge of a color combo, so I chose SPCC's: River Rock (I used Kraft), Bashful Blue, Whisper White. For a sketch, I chose Mojo Monday. I was blown away by Julia's paper-pierced card, so I decided to try my hand at the Sew challenge at Do You Stack Up? (DYSU). I found all sorts of inspiration & tricks at Mel Stampz. Seriously, Mel's tutorials are so good that you totally believe you can do it!
I created piercing templates by putting a dotted "stroke" on a square (with the digi) and a circle. I did this in InDesign, but you can do it in Word too. I drew the "thread" with a gel pen and then used my awl to create the holes.

For a little extra something, I glued white ribbon to cardstock, and ran it through my sewing machine with 2 colors of thread. Funky! I love how my thread collection is a story of items hemmed...Curtains, bedspreads, slacks. All hemmed by Mom, I'm sure. She visits once a year, and it's still faster than waiting for me to do it!

The dogprint paper is simply stamped with watermark ink. The white background was embossed in my Sizzix. It's a happy accident that my only light blue ribbon also has a stitching theme!

I distressed the edges of the inside pieces; I like how the brown piece kinda looks like leather. I've never understood making dog collars out of leather, though: if you have more than one dog, it's like putting a chew toy on them!

Inspiration:
Mojo Monday #200: Sketch
DYSU Challenge #28: Sew, Faux or Real
SPCC #109: River Rock, Bashful Blue, Whisper White

Faux Stitching tutorial: Mel Stampz (with lots of great links)

Stamps: Bronte Kisses by Mo's Digital Pencil, StampCraft
Tools: Fiskars papercutter, Tim Holtz scissors & paper distresser, HP printer & ink, Adobe InDesign, awl, Sizzix Texture Boutique
Other: ZipDry glue, Elmer's gel pen, stash button, Celebrate It! & Offray ribbons, Versamark watermark ink
Copic markers: YR01, E13, FBG2, B0000, BG000, B05, RV02, E11, E31, E000
Update 6/25/11: This card won SPCC #109 as well as the random drawing at Mojo Monday. Thanks everyone! I love my Verve stamps from Mojo, and look for my SPCC Guest DT project in the coming months.