The FJBChallenge #3; Groundhog Day!.... & SSS Monday Challenge; Hearts.... Hands and Hearts Full !

    Life in Florida during the winter months has proven to be just as busy as any time spent down here during the summer months. And while we've been coming to this state for over 30 years now, it still has lessons to teach us. One of the biggest lessons we've learned now: fleas are very abundant here. And even while this has been the duration of coldest temps for some time (dripping with sarcasm: aren't we so lucky?), the sand and fleas apparently still thrive in it. Not so up in Indiana, and while our choice of discontinuing the flea drop medications since the death of our precious BudderCup kitty back in 2018, it never crossed our minds what our Besties do for their numerous FurryKids in this climate. We know NOW; the hard way. Poor puppy pi, Hunni Pi has suffered her first "hot spots" of her lifetime, and it has NOT been a fun learning curve. But thanks to the awesome Faithful Friends Animal Clinic, who called Hunni's Dr back

home in Indiana, they got her on track once again and she is on her way back to healthy! They set us up with everything: from shampoo to Rx meds and even furniture/carpet spray- to get rid of this menace. And, she's now on chewable flea meds- seeming not to have any sensitivity on her stomach with it- the way most Chesapeake Bay Retrievers are with lots of things. Wearing the "Cone of Shame" has been another new experience...imagine, if you can... bumping into every single thing in her path and basically being so MOPEY about it that she gets away with simply being told "don't lick!" which she does obey pretty well anyway. So that took a bit of energy and fun out of the week for all of us. Because of all of this, her first trip to any beaches has been put off for now, 

     Getting into this new couple of challenges was pretty easy- I'd had this in my mind ever since I saw another person's version of the Tim Holtz octopus stamp with watch pieces, sometime in the past month. I wanted to try the stringed theme, but with a slight twist to it. I've told about the three kitties who have come into our lives to claim us as theirs, and I figured that I'd give them their due with this make. The TFJB Challenge #3 "Groundhog Day" is about repeating; repeating patterns, colors, shapes, whatever is chosen must be repeated as in the movie of said title, where the day keeps repeating itself. And then, Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Love or Hearts" seemed to work out perfectly along the same idea I had. All I needed, was for the "kitties" to all go along with the plan- lol.

    As for the big day of love itself; we'll be out on a 2 hour catamaran ocean cruise- sailing a reach before the following seas... of the Emerald Coast! As a sailor myself, I am excited for the trip, and the ChiefHubby really surprised me with the reservations on the 76-person boat! (COVID19 regulations apply as well as my own 'bubble-wrap' medical situation; details will be TBA since we also need to wait on the weather for the Valentine's Day Cruise). In the meantime; I may have stumbled on another version of sailing which might be easier than finding and towing another sailboat; it's called kite sailing:

Looks like FUN to me!!

  Moving on: the above TFJB Challenge of "repeating" made me think that's actually correct when you think of it: having kids is just repeating yourself and then repeating AGAIN when the kids have Grands! Those three tiny "Repeats" are our pride and joy! We already sent out packages in the mail for little Valentine surprises of their own. In the meantime- they are all thought of during this make.

The Oldest "Repeat Repeater"

The Princess "Repeater"

The Youngest Repeat "Repeater"- both his Parents are also Youngest of all.

                                          So, let's get to it!

The first thing I did was to make the hearts.

This also doubles as

REQUIREMENT for SSS Monday Challenge; Love or Hearts

The hearts were stuffed with tissues so that when the panel is stored away,

it won't crush as much.

I then took a full 8&1/2 x11 manilla cardstock sheet and used mostly Black Soot 

Distress Oxide Ink on my Craftsheet to make a basecoat of a grayish color.

After heat drying that base coat, I then used Distress Oxide Inks in Iced Spruce and Speckled Egg

(heavy on the Iced Spruce) with just a touch more of the DO Black Soot...

...and came up with a more blueish-gray hue that resembles the color of my 3 kittycats.

Tim Holtz's newer "Snarky Cats" just would not do here:

my kitties are definitely much more like TH "Crazy Cats", so these three out of the

five would work nicely along with the Octopus....whose name would come to be Lolly.

The kittes were all stamped with Distress Oxide Ink in Iced Spruce- and all pieces- including Lolly-

coated with just a touch..very lightly...of Distress Glaze in Antique Linen for that

bit of creamy white fur they each have in varied amounts.

Using Distress Regular Ink in Chipped Sapphire, I made three of the same stamped images.

(Another "repeater, obviously.) 

I then used some DO Aged Mahogany and some Distress Embossing Powder

to add some faux rust to the hearts, and edged all the kitties with more DO Iced Spruce.

And a tiny bit of edging on the kitties was made with DOxide Black Soot, for more depth.

All three sets of "repeats" getting the last depth coloring.

Ready for popdotting to a panel.

First, the octopus had to be layered by cutting each stamped image according

to the layer it would be on.

Then cutting several very thin strips of black Sizzix double-sided popdot sheets-

the black would also add to the dimension with the edges showing just a tad bit.

Adding a hat and some coloring to her suction cups...

ya'all; meet LOLLY!

Adding some hemp string ties to the hearts.

Results:

The blue is the base of the panel itself, but I took liberties with the paper confetti hearts for the

purpose of photo-taking. 

The kitties do look EXACTLY like each acts!

Lolly Octopus is, of course, myself- juggling all the love for each of our family...

the heart in her...hand?...belongs to the ChiefHubby,

while the rest of the 7 hearts are our four adult kids and the 3 Grandbabies.

We have 5 Grandpups and at least 3 GrandKitties, and our own

Hunni Pi....

what's THREE MORE?!? LOL!!!

But, that will be ALL since we'll be having all three fully vetted when we get back.

They'll be old enough by then.

REQUIREMENT: SSS Monday Challenge; Love and/or Hearts.

Lolly herself is definitely REPEATING....legs, and suction cups !!!

Chase- Kitten #2...named for Chase Utley- the playful, sneaky one.

We still have yet to get hold of him and see if he is really a HE or a SHE!

Mokie (full name is Smokie but we're calling her Mokie for Mookie Betts)

is the one that is gullible and is easy to catch.

She's also the one most afraid to trust. 

The Momma of the two kittens: Artful Dodger (calling her just Dodger).

She's no more than a kitten herself, not quite a year old yet.

Makes me want to spit nails at whomever dropped them out in our area,

as I simply cannot see how anyone can treat animals so.

Makes me very afraid of how they would treat CHILDREN or older people.

But, their heartlessness has been turned around by GOD to be a BLESSING to us!

The backside- just plain blue.

This is another 'build up' with lots of shininess mixed with roughness in texture for 

a fun-filled panel that tells yet another story of our family.

Once more, I give a huge shoutout of "THANKS!"

for everyone who stops by and for those leaving such kind comments!

I am saddened to say that this Friday; February 12th, we will  be losing

our very first Grandpup as the younger couple of kids deal with helping Baxter,

a rat terrier mix they adopted in 2013 after they were married

(aka "The Little King" of Memaw's) cross over the Rainbow Bridge.

He's was older when they adopted him, and this past year 

had an extremely rough time with being able to move.

While we will be very saddened at this loss, we also have the responsibilty to

take care of our FurryKids- in every way- as GOD commands. 

This is the tough part. But without it- we'd never know the best parts.

GODspeed to our little Baxter pup!

Join in on the crafting:

at 

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and at 

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Until next time...

Stay Safe, Wear the Mask, Wash the Hands &

HAPPY BLOGGING!