By Dawn Omboy
We love art, and we love dogs. What better combination could you think of than the two? None, says the creative groomer in me! From a little touch of color on the ears or some shiny booty bling to a full-on extreme creative transformation, there is something creative that will appeal to everyone on every level. If body art on people is your thing, or even if it isn’t, maybe the “tramp stamp” on your pooch would be. You know what they are. It’s usually a flowering vine or something of the sort that runs across the lower back just above the buttocks (well, that’s where they are on people, anyway). Naturally we would use a similar placement on our pooch.
The tramp stamp can be done many different ways with a variety of products. I will discuss a couple of options as I share with you how the tramp stamp on this particular Lady of the canine kind was done. The tramp stamp I chose for Lady is a Lotus Flower. I wanted to make it bright and colorful on this black dog without changing her coat for this bit of temporary fun. White Pet Paint makes a great base for this and comes in an easy-to-use spray can, making it fast and convenient.
I began by placing a tattoo stencil that has a sticky back across the lower back of my clean dog. Next I sprayed a light layer of white Pet Paint over the stencil, being careful not to overspray the area. You can avoid overspray by blocking the edges with extra paper so only the exposed area in the cutout of the stencil receives the coating of the white base color. Give it a moment to dry before carefully lifting the stencil off and placing it back into the stencil book. I then used small paint brushes to color in the details of Lady’s tramp stamp by dipping the brushes straight into small bottles of colorful India Ink and hand-painting the pattern that was already there. By painting over the white, my colors would all show up true.
That’s it! If you would like to be a bit more elaborate, paint some of the pattern with a thin coat of Elmer’s washable school glue or Girley Glue and sprinkle a bit of Glamour Glitter into the center flower. That will really make your tramp stamp stand out. This is just another fun creative tip from the Queen.
For more tips, tricks, and ideas, visit Dawn at www.queenofcolor.com.