Autumnal wandering

Finally I made it back to blog land! I have had a very successful if tiring week, so today I've had a little bit of fresh air and some craft time. First of all my card.

I used distress inks and a range of Elusive images stamps, oh and hero arts old French writing. I also embossed the tree with mirror gold embossing powder. The challenge this fortnight at the Stampman is Autumn, so I thought I'd enter it.
We had a lovely walk on the Robin Hood Way  (a great footpath through Sherwood Forest) this afternoon, with my Dad.There were some fabulous fungi specimens.

 Lots of Fly Agaric from tiny ones like this to some the size of dinner plates.

 Not sure what this one is but there were lots.

This one was quite big - you could pull up a chair and rest your cup on it!

We walked through an area where the only dry land was the footpath. Both sides of the path were waterlogged and swampy. Looking at the trees it has been like this for a while. A little eerie at first, but we saw woodpeckers, ducks, a pair of Buzzards and some warblers too. Further along the rivers Meden and Maun meet and part again, and the view down the Maun from a little footbridge was very tranquil.

I'm sure if we had had a little more time to stand and watch we would've seen a kingfisher or a water vole. Thanks for looking and I hope you get some tranquil moments this weekend. If you manage an Autumnal creation you could add buttons and a bow and enter it into the sir stampalot challenge too!

A walk in Sherwood Forest

Yesterday Meg,Vicky (my lovely neice) and I went for a walk around Sherwood Forest. We started off at a village called Budby, crossing some lovely heathland with lots of heather to get to the ancient woodland.

Here is a picture of Vicky taking photos. As you can see there are some very ancient trees in the forest. Some are hollow and dead, but are amazing habitats for so many species, including these creatures...

Yep, this is a hornet's nest. I am quite surprised at how well I coped, seeing as I am a bit scared of bees and wasps after a mishap at Bee club aged 13 whilst at school (Imagine the health and safety around a school keeping bees now?!) The hornets tolerated us for a while, but began to be a bit more than curious, so we left! I was quite fascinated to see the social behaviour of these insects. The one at the top of the last picture was the Doorman/ Bouncer and seemed to vet every other hornet arriving back at the nest. Not the clearest of shots, but I wasn't going any closer!!!
We also saw a couple of different fungi specimen...

I liked the short, dumpy nature of this one!and the one below is it's tall thin friend! Thanks for looking - hope you weren't put off by the hornets!

Four Seasons

Here are the four panels of my Dad's Birthday card. They each measure 13cm square. All stamps are Graphicus except for the distant trees on the winter panel - they are a Stampin' up! image. Outside it is snowing and yet again the gritting lorry has failed to find our road - getting to work tomorrow could prove tricky!

Friends and Family

Here is a quick card I put together for a friend. The text stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the seed heads are a cuttlebug embossing folder.
I've been working on my Dad's 80th birthday card, and I've completed two square panels. I've started a third, but it is still a work in progress. Dad spends many an hour walking out in the countryside around his home. I wanted his card to reflect many of the things he would see on his walks, so started off with birds and grasses (inspired by Deby at Just Add Love)

This had a Spring/ early summer feel about it, so I decided to give the next panel an autumnal feel. With yellows and browns, mushrooms and trees losing their leaves. All of the stamps on these panels are from Graphicus.

So, my quandary is this. What do I do with them now? Whatever I do I need to be able to post it, so it needs to be flat. Do I do 4 panels, one for each season? Do I make it into a book or a concertina card or something else? Any suggestions welcome! Notice I didn't do a big 80 for him? I think he would disown me if I did, lol!

Real Mushrooms!

I took photos of these mushrooms in Glen Trool whilst on holiday in the summer. Definitely the Amanita family, but which member I'm not sure. We all enjoy woodland walks, and Fungi were some of the first things that helped fuel Megan's love of nature and photography (She has posted some of her Mushroom Pictures from the same walk). There are also some great mushroom photos on D.K. Fisher's blog too.

Mushrooms!

As a fan of Fungi I thought Steve would appreciate a card made with the Graphicus Nature's Table plate. I started off thinking 'Fly Agaric', but forgot to put the white spots on before I embossed it! These mushrooms are more like field mushrooms in shape though, so I had another go.

Stamps in the background come from the Arboretum and Wild Meadow plates (also Graphicus).