it's the dog days of summer...

...this fortnight at shopping our stash, so we'd like to see projects with (waiiiiiit forrrrrrrr iiiiiiit) A DOG on them! easy, peasy right? unless it turns out you don't have even ONE dog stamp, sticker, journal card or diecut, lol. luckily i found this lovely illustration in an old, falling apart, children's book which lives in my collage stash!

image from a falling-to-bits 950's children's book; patterned paper: creative imaginations-- maybe-- but it's SUPER old and you'd never find it anyway, so let's just go with that; flowers, butterfly and awesome edge-distressing tool: prima marketing; leaves (actually a green paper flower petals that i cut apart): eyelet outlet; nested label dies: spellbinders nestabilities; ink on edges: antique linen distress

as i usually do when working with fragile vintage paper, before i diecut the illustration, i backed it with a piece of plain white cardstock which i had run through my xyron adhesive machine. notice that i xyroned the CARDSTOCK and not the vintage paper, this is crucial. if you try to xyron or even use a taperunner on fragile paper, there is a much greater chance you will lift off a layer of the paper, instead of applying a layer of adhesive. (...ask me how i know...) when working with vintage, your best choice is to apply the adhesive to the OTHER paper, then gently set the vintage piece down on it. your second best choice is to use a good quality gluestick (the xl scotch create is my fave). you will want to work with a magazine or scrap paper under your image, so that you can run the stick right out over the edges and get really good, generous coverage. you can also just tack the image lightly in the center and machine stitch all the way around the edges. it's nice to have options, lol.

once i had a nice stable, sturdy focal image, i diecut and mounted it on foam tape over a scrap of patterned paper so ancient i do not know who made it. then i embellished with lots and lots of small prima flowers. et voila!

there's loads more canine creativity going on at SOS. why not head over and fetch some for yourself?