Crafty Dog Blog

I am now in my second year of learning parchment craft. and am finally getting the hang of some basic but vital techniques. Embossing is the technique that makes or breaks any project and thanks to a little book by joanna sheen i now feel that i am improving.

most parchies will agree that the rose is the most difficult flower to emboss. with overlaping petals and petal turning over at the edges it is difficult to know how the embossing should look. but the most difficult thing to decide is wheather to emboss from the front or the back of the parchment. it is this that gives your work a 3d element. think of a flower as a cup if you look at the out side of a cup it curves towards you therefore emboss from behind so that the embossing comes forward when you turn to the front. if you look at the inside of he cup it curves away from you therefore emboss it on the front of the work. remember that the dark areas are just as important these are left unembossed.

this card is a styalised rose...

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it has just dawned on me that i have an enormous job with my wedding invitation commission. Until Rowan chose the design i wasn't quite real. BUT NOW IT IS

so i have 40 ice cream cones to colour emboss and pick out and 40 sheets of backing paper to colour. I'm not sure if i want to make all the elements separately and then construct the cards or if i should make complete cards one at a time. I have absolutely no experience of doing this type of thing so any suggestions will be gratefully received.

for those of you who have not seen the design here it is. the only element missing from this image is the wedding rings hanging from the flake

Katy and i went to an official function today to give a talk and a demonstration. It was a national trust property and the lord and lady of the manor were in attendance.

it was a great day lots of business people all looking for prestigious office space. there was a free bar - free buffet and a pig roast. and a jazz band. We were there doing the usual bit of talking to people about the organisation and katie was having a great time being the centre of attention.

about 4pm we had to do our demo - well honestly it was not my fault that they chose to hold the event in the garden of this venue.

everything was fine untill i had to take katie off th lead for part of the demonstration.

Well katie be a lab and labs having a one track mind to there stomach as soon as i released the lead...

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you may have seen this project on my gallery



this was a new technique for me so i thought i would try and tell you how i did it.

polychromos are oil based blendable crayons they lay down a lot of colour that is blendable by either a blending pencil or blending oil like zest-it or sansador.

I just just three colours- a dark blue and a mid blue- red and yellow. this project is coloured on the reverse side of the parchment. and on this occasion i did not have to worry about going out side the pattern lines as I planned to cut it our and mount it.

starting with the dark blue i coloured one section of the fan then with the mid blue i coloured the next section.

using yellow i then coloured the next 6 sections and the last three sections in red.
now here comes the clever...

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some of you may not know that working dogs do not go for a walk everyday like pet dogs. for a pet dog a walk is probabley the only time they do any head work apart from playing around the house. most pet dogs are walked so that they can toilet and exercise.

Working dogs on the other hand toilet in a spending pen on command. there toilet routine means that they can then work in and around places that pet dogs are not allowed to go. All dogs need stimulation and dogs for the disabled get it in spades.

now let me see what has katie done today?

I wake up and katie gets on the bed. i am pretty stiff in the morning and katie helps get the day started by insisting on being stroked and fussed. we both enjoy it and no mater how grumpy i am she ALWAYS wakes up in a good mood you can't help but smile. i get up and have a coffee to give myself a much needed kick start. then it is breakfast time for katie and straight out in the spending pen.

then for me a shower. while i am in the shower katie...

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