Your Beloved Pet...

By now I am sure you have all read the news about Theresa's little Pebbles. :( I never dreamed when I was drawing the "Basket Buddies" set (9 months ago!) I'd need a pet sympathy card so soon after we released it, but I'm really glad to have it, as I worked on the card I thought all about Theresa' story about Pebbles, as well as other pets my friends and family and I have loved and lost over over the years, and it's so much more personal than sending a card with other images or sentiment intended for "humans".
I copied the photo she posted to her blog of Pebbles, I assume it's a favorite (since I took it for the purpose of sending this to Theresa only, I'm hoping it was okay to lift it!) I cropped it into an oval and softened the edges with my photo editing program, then printed it on Pure Luxury Ivory. I put a layer of vellum over it (I couldn't find anyway to attach it that I liked from the front, brads took away from the portrait) by folding the top and securing it to the back with Scor-Tape. I stamped the little paw and sentiment at the bottom.

Then I made a little Best Friend tag for the bottom. (You may have noticed I provided a frame image almost identical to this silver one in the set, which is a nice option for different colors or if you don't have any metal tags, but I had a couple left in my stash.) You can make the greeting say "Best Friend" by inking with a marker and omitting the "s"; being able to make the "Best Friends" singular or plural is very nice for when you want to caption a single portrait OR a picture of two pets together or a pet and their owner. Sentiment is stamped on Tan Leather and attached with brads to hold the vellum down. Finally I mounted it all on Pure Luxury Bubblegum Pink to match that cute little bandana Pebbles is wearing and Black Onyx. I lined the inside with Ivory to match the front so I could write my letter.

If you don't have a photo of that pet for a pet sympathy, you can use just the paw print, pet silhouette (with or without the little cloud) or stamp just the line art image behind the vellum. Whatever you choose, the card is sure to be appreciated and you'll have a good experience making it, thinking about all the wonderful things animals add to our lives.