Puppy Love

Good morning friends!  I hope you all had a Merry and Blessed Christmas  or special time spent with loved ones during this holiday season.  Our Christmas was very pleasant.  My 15 yr. old had his wisdom teeth removed on Thursday.  Other than having chipmunk cheeks, he has been such a trooper and hasn't complained a bit.  Though he has been eating puddings, and jello, and ice cream and yogurt, he was able to eat a couple of helpings of turkey stuffing with gravy for his Christmas dinner.  The rest of us enjoyed turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and some other sides.  My oldest son said the turkey this year was one of the best he has ever had.  It was very moist.  I soaked it in a salt brine the last couple of times and I believe that has made all the difference.  I always baste my turkeys but the salt brine was the only thing that was significantly different than other times I have prepared turkey.  I always wash and soak my poultry, like my mother taught me, but I added much more salt to the soaking water than usual.  I hope I haven't bored you with my little cooking lesson.  I don't usual ramble so much.  After dinner some of us started putting together a 1000 piece puzzle, another past-time my mother also shared.  It is nice that my son's girlfriends also enjoy doing them as well.  Enough of my rambling lets move on to my card.

     I used the very popular Peeker Pocket die along with the Shih Tzu Peeker die to create my card.  The little pooch was one of the first dies I ever received, and I still love it!  I cut the pocket and puppy from white cardstock and colored the images with copics.  To create the texture on the pocket, I first colored the pocket with a blue copic, I think it was Manganese Blue.  Then I took a piece of scrap fabric that seems like a denim of some sort, and my colorless blender refill solution.  Wet the fabric scrap with the colorless blender and press it to the colored pocket to remove color and create the texture.  I learned this technique from a very talented artist, Joanne Basile, who taught some My Favorite Things classes at my local Scrapbook Store.  (I hope I spelled her name correctly.)  Isn't it a great technique?  The paw print and sentiment are from Market Street Stamps Pawprints on our Hearts set and the clipboard stamp is by Unity.  I hope you have a wonderful day and a safe and Happy New Year!  I will be back with another post on January 7th.  Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs and smiles,
Janice