Rudolf Day for October

It is 25th October so time for Rudolf Day and there is only one more left after this! As it is half term I have found the time to make 3 cards this month. The first two were made with inkylicious stamps (and an inkylicious stencil on the first). I used oxide inks and white pigment ink on the first, which is a lovely effect on Kraft card. The background on the middle one was made with cosmic shimmer pixie powders so it really sparkles in the right light.

 

The stamping around the edge is a splatter twinchie from Inkylicious, stamped in citrus oxide ink and brilliance gold

My third card was stamped with the Woodware lino-cut wren...I can see me using this stamp a lot and it produces a very quick and easy card. Papers are from Craftwork Cards.
Before I go I will just introduce you to the new addition to the garden wildlife family. Buster and partner had at least one baby this year...we think they might have had two, but haven't managed to spot all four squirrels at once yet!
                  
He (or she) is already a dab hand at raiding the bird feeders, but is very wary of the larger birds like pigeons and the magpie. The parents seem to relish scaring those birds away! No doubt his escapades will keep me amused throughout the winter!
Thanks for looking, and do pop over to Scrappy Mo's if you fancy joining in!

Dora's Digis for March

Carrying on with the African theme I have been playing with my ink dusters to create a background for Dora's fabulous Elephant that you can find here. The background stamps are all from Inkylicious and the inks are Izinks. I coloured the elephant with alcohol based markers.

I also made a card with one of the squirrels which you can also find on the realistic animals page. It was a sunny morning for once so the base of the easel card is a bit too washed out in the photo.

I'm hoping it got to it's destination on time.
Here is a photo of our resident squirrel during the recent snow

 
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments.

Happy Father's day

Here are the two cards I made for Father's day this year. The first is for my Dad. We were chatting about a holiday he took some years ago where he visited Skomer in June. There were puffins everywhere! This was the ideal opportunity to use my new puffin stamps from Hobby Art , the current monthly special. I coloured them with a mixture of Zig clean color markers and distress markers. I am entering this one into the current challenge at Penny Black and more where the theme is anything goes

For my Father-in-Law I used one of Dora's digis - a squirrel drawn from one of my photos. I used a woodgrain embossing folder and made a circular aperture in a piece of Kraft card. The leaves are from a stamp set by Hobby art. You can find Dora's digis here on her blog.
I do hope you are having a good weekend and not suffering too much with the heat. Do forgive me if I don't visit so much for a couple of weeks as I am writing reports at the moment - five done, 22 to go!

Hearts for Valentines day

I've been busy working on my Valentine card for Steve. Inspiration for a valentine card for a man who doesn't do cute are few and far between, so I resorted to a scene in a heart shaped aperture. I used my ink dusters and distress ink to create the background, then stamped with memento ink. The one job Steve has done outside in the torrential rain this morning is feed the birds, so it seemed apt to add his feathered friends. All stamps are from Inkylicious. I added dots of stickles and liquid pearls for the buds and water droplets on the branches that make up the border.
The theme at Allsorts this week is hearts and/or flowers, so I am entering this one there.
This is my thousandth post - I can't quite believe it! 
I will leave you with a few photos of buster the squirrel who is enjoying our bird food so much, lol.

Another walk around Rufford

Steve and I had another walk around Rufford a couple of weeks ago in the hope of spotting that kingfisher again. It was a bright Frosty morning so we donned our thick coats and set off. Here are a few snaps...

 The Kingfisher wasn't there, but a Heron was

 So were these black headed gulls

 This is the view from the bridge and at the foot of that big tree was where I saw the kingfisher last time

 Here is a view down the lake to the Mill where there is a cafe and a shop selling outdoor clothing

 The Greylag Geese were enjoying the sunshine...

 This little fellow was gorging himself on the bird food!

 I had taken some bird food with me and found a convenient fence post near the Ice House. The birds are used to people feeding them here it seems...

 especially the blackbirds and robins

 The shaft of sun picked them out beautifully...

Then we walked back to the car. It looks like mid afternoon, but it was only about midday when we left.
Hope you enjoyed the stroll. Lets hope for some more bright frosty mornings soon.
Thanks for looking!

A snippet make and Buster the Squirrel!

Hi There! I realise that it has been over a week since my last post, but I am working on a few things that I will share with you in due course. I thought I would pop on and share a snippet Christmas card and some photos.

 My card has a snippet of vellum and a snippet of green card that have been in my stash forever! The bauble stamp is a very old one from Stampourium (no longer available). I coloured it using be creative markers, then applied some flake and glitter using the be creative glue wand. Here is a close up.

 I'm taking it to Miss Di's snippet playground. Do pop over and join in the fun if you can. I am also entering this into the current challenge at Penny Black and More, which is Anything Christmas.
Now to introduce you to Buster. This may be Cyril, but I renamed him, due to the fact he is pigging out on my bird peanuts and is now enormous!

 As you can see he fills the bird house!

Thanks for looking!

More garden visitors and flowers

Over the weekend I had a few moments in the garden with my camera and sat near the bird feeders.
The first visitor was Bobby's offspring. This young robin was so curious...and so cute too! Think we might call him Scruff!

Next was the squirrel who took great delight in scaring the pigeons!

He also tried the hamster technique with the peanuts...

Here are a few of the flowers...

As you can see I am still putting my camera through it's paces, and have to say I am very happy with it!
Hope you enjoyed sharing a few minutes in my garden.
Thanks for looking!

Another garden visitor

I wasn't really lying down all week after the Pink of Monday! It was the run up to half term and SATs week for year 2, so things were busy at work. Anyway, I have spent the day pottering and visiting my Dad before getting started on another commission for Creative Stamping magazine. Issue 25 is out next week, with my previous commission in it and I am looking forward to seeing what you think! Today though I have some photos from the garden again.

Here is another visitor to the bird feeders this week. She has had a busy year so far, planting a conker in every plant pot in the garden and relocating half a dozen daffodils from a pot to under a shrub!
Elsewhere in the garden we have the Lily of the Valley in bloom...wish I could share the beautiful perfume with you too!

I will be back on Monday to join in with Scrappy Mo's Rudolf Days Challenge.
Thanks for looking!

A Good Day

Well, I have been finding it difficult to get into blog land this week, but I am finally here and I will be back tomorrow too, with the October Stamping Sensations challenge. So what has brought me here today? I have had a wonderful day so far. This morning I made a ginger cake for my lovely friend Megan, who I went to Rwanda with. Here it is:

After a fairly hectic week at home and at school I needed some baking therapy, lol! Whilst it was in the oven, I discovered who has been raiding our peanut bird feeder all week!

He was quite small, so I think he is a young one. After that I went down to the New Writers UK book fayre where I met up with my friend, Megan and daughter Megan who was volunteering there. We listened to talks by Mark Gwynne Jones, a performance poet from Matlock Bath, and Steve Dunne, a crime fiction author and English teacher from Derby. They were both very approachable and we had a good chat with them. After that came the award ceremony for the children and young peoples writing competition, where Meg was a finalist. We were thrilled to find she had won the silver medal in the 14-16 age group.

Her short story will be published in a collection with the rest of the finalists in February. As you can see I enjoyed my proud Mum moment, and came home with a pile of books to read too! Hope you are having a good weekend. I will be back in the morning with my cards. Thanks for looking!