Hello crafty friends. Today’s card takes another look at the new Retro Family stamps, this time focusing on the cute cat & dog, who seem to have declared a truce!

Rather than a plain background, I started this time with one of the Elements Skies toppers and cut it to a square. I then laid the Brick Wall stencil across the bottom and used an ink blending with ‘walnut stain’ Distress Oxide to create the wall.

I added the top to my wall with the ‘nougat’ Polychromo pencil and a ruler, followed by the puss and pooch, first with the outline images in black Archival ink, then using the infill stamps with ‘black soot’ Distress Oxide. I went over the cat’s white face and chest with an ink eraser pencil to lift the pale blue background colour out.

The sentiment is from the Retro Family set, but is in a straight line so I masked each word in turn (just popped a little low tack tape on the stamp) to ink and stamp them so they sat one under the other. Next, I got out the Meadow Treescape stamps to add the trees and birds – haven’t used those for a while.

Finally, I ran a black Sharpie around the edges of the topper and popped it onto a 5×5 card blank.

This little pair do look very pleased with themselves for sitting nicely, don’t they? I cannot imagine my cat, Benji, sitting anywhere near a dog – he’d have his hackles up and be hissing loudly!

And as these two are so well behaved, I think it;s safe to share them with a couple of blog challenges – both Stencil Fun and Neglected Stuff (my Meadow Treescape stamps) have got ‘anything goes’ themes.