A Walk in the Woods

 Grab yourself a cuppa and a chair. This is a picture heavy post!
This afternoon Meg, Steve and I went for a wander around Ploughman's Wood, a small but beautiful local nature reserve about ten minutes drive away from home. I took my camera (okay, I have hardly put it down since I got it!) and took quite a few photos!

 We went to see the bluebells, which were beautiful

 as were the wood anemones...

 There was also a lot of greater stitchwort and the hawthorn was just coming out too.

 In the woods the lesser celandines were like little stars shining.

We also heard lots of skylarks, saw yellowhammers,

 several large bumble bees

 and some tiny spiders. This last photo was taken by Megan and she managed to capture the webspinning in progress.

It was such a lovely afternoon, and we will definitely be going for a stroll around there again soon.Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed the photos.

A Bluebell Walk

On Sunday we went for a stroll around Bunny Old Wood, famous for it's bluebells in Nottinghamshire. Here are a few photos, some by me and some by Meg.

As well as bluebells there were lots more wild flowers.

 Red Campion,

 Greater Stitchwort

and Arum Lilies.

The hawthorn hedges were dripping with blossom too. Thanks for looking!

Boxes and Hearts

 Here is the box I decorated for Inkylicious. I saw it in Dunelm Mill for £3.99 and immediately loved it. It has a small chalkboard behind the picture, which I had thought about painting onto, but the colour and texture of the wood made me think of the beach, so I added a beach scene, using the windswept stamp, on silk art card and some shells. I ummed and ahhed about whether to add anything else, but Meg said it was fine as it was so I left it. 

 Here is a close-up of the lid. the larger shells were collected from the Norfolk coast a few years ago, and have been in a bowl in my bathroom ever since. the tiny shells were bought on the east coast - a bag full for £1.00! I found some sand in a bucket in my garage which we had bought a couple of years ago when nowhere had any salt left in the snow. I managed to spill sand all over my craft space and had to spend Sunday clearing it all off as everything was crunching! Next time I will use sandpaper - much less messy! Magic hands used it as the cup of chance on the show, which made me laugh - hope no more sand escaped!

I also found a wooden heart in The Range for 99p. I gessoed it and then tried stamping on it but the images lost their definition with water based ink and I didn't have the shades I wanted in any other ink. I gessoed and started again. Next I tried stamping in acrylic paint and it worked brilliantly. I used docrafts pearlised acrylic in blues and purples, dusting just a bit of purple ink over too. The sentiment was stamped in Versamagic ink and comes from the 'Simply Said' stamp sheet. They tried to show this on Create and Craft, but the lights were way too strong, and the pearlised paint reflected them!Hope this photo in my porch on a dull day gives you a better idea!
Thanks for looking!