Happy Dad's Day Card

I bought the Cricut cartridge Designers Calender just because it was going for a ridiculous low price in an online sale. I had no idea if I would ever use it, but hey, a bargain is a bargain.

So I was quite delighted yesterday as I browsed through the handbook to find all sorts of really cute cuts, including this collar and tie. I don't often use words and sayings from the Cricut, prefering to stamp or computer generate them, but I love the font on this one. The base card is 6 x 6, the collar and tie was cut at 6 1/4", and the sentiment at 3"

All papers are by K & Co, I added some faux stitching and a couple of little buttons on the collar. The 'happy' that I turned into a label is a Papermania sticker.

I shaded around the tie with a copic pen - grey 02 - to give it a bit of depth
One thing has struck me since we returned, as it does each time, is how beautifully the little dogs are groomed over here - or at least they are where we live. You see no end of cute little white fluffy dogs bouncing around, some even have little ribbons in their hair. It reminds me of our little westie, Kirsty, who was a dearly loved family pet for 17 years. Not that Kirsty was white and fluffy, far from it, she was always rather scruffy looking, and peered out at you with black button eyes from behind a raggedy fringe. We did have her groomed obviously, but it was a bit of an occasion - I had enough on my plate taking three children for haircuts. So one hot summers day, my daughter and I were lounging around in the garden. Kirsty was panting happily by our side. 'I must take her to be clipped' I said idly, taking another sip of my lemonade. 'We could do it mum' said Alex, 'there can't be much to it, and I'll bathe her afterwards'.
So we got the scissors and started snipping. I will draw a veil over what happened next, lets just say that we couldn't take her for a walk for weeks, she looked such a mess (luckily we had a huge garden at that time for her to run around in). Pink skin in big patches on a little dog's back - not a good look. The more we tried to repair our mistakes, the worse she looked. A westie is supposed to have a 'skirt' - a 3" fringe of fur on the belly, well Kirsty had a skirt, the only problem is one side was a maxi, and the other a mini. We still howl with laughter when we remember the event. When Kirstie died, we had her cremated, and I bought a Italian terracotta pot, and put her ashes beneath a camellia - a beautiful white camellia with very raggedy edges and a yellow raggedy ring in the centre - nothing could be more perfect for our scruffy little pet.