Rudolf day for April

Happy Rudolf day! I managed to make two cards this month! Both cards used stamps from Inkylicious. The first using a white tag and card, inked with Memento Paris Dusk. I covered the base card in panels embossed with a Sheena embossing folder.

My second card used the faux vellum technique, dusting white ink onto craft card. The edging thistle is a hobby art stamp from the Highland cattle set and I added a tartan ribbon to continue the Scottish theme.
Do pop over to Scrappy Mo's blog and take a look at the wonderful Christmas cards there! Thanks for looking and for all your wonderful comments. Hopefully I will manage some time in blogland this weekend. I am giving myself some me time :-D

Another walk in Ploughman's wood

Warning, Photo heavy post! Are you sitting comfortably? Ploughman's Wood is a Wildlife Trusts nature reserve a couple of miles from our house. We sometimes go there just for an hour and a short walk. I know there are Bluebells there, so we made our way with my camera. Here are a few of my photos

 The blackthorn was beautiful on the walk from the road...

 There was a carpet of bluebells as soon as we entered the wood.

 There were also wood anemones in both white...

 and various shades of pink

 We were accompanied by the song of robins, great tits and chiffchaffs.

 We also heard green and spotted woodpeckers

 In some places the wood anemones looked like snow!

 We also saw cowslips,

 primroses...

 and lots of Greater Stitchwort

 I hope you enjoyed joining us on our little walk.
Thanks for looking!

Inky backgrounds

 As I said in my last post, I decided to take a trip to PDA Cards and Craft to escape the quiet house...several pounds later I emerged clutching a stack of card, some stamps and a couple of ink pads. I didn't find all the Woodware stamps I was looking for, but I did find Large Fennel, which I used on the first two cards. I now need small fennel too, having seen the samples the ladies there had made.

When I got home I thought I'd better clear a bit of the mess on my table and found some lovely bits of card coloured with Distress ink re-inkers and a water spray. If I remember rightly I used squeezed lemonade, seedless preserves and either ripe persimmon or spiced marmalade. I lay the card onto the inky wash and keep alternately spraying with water and laying on snippets of card.  The first card on this post was probably the last spray of the inks before it got too pale for me. I found one last bit  which was an almost perfect fit for this inkylicious picture perfect stamp

I'd mounted this one on the card before I decided it needed a hill in the background, so masked the rest of the card and added a hill with ink dusters. Unfortunately I managed to get a smudge on the white base card, but a well places die cut leaf soon covered it up. All stamping was done with Versafine black and then embossed with clear embossing powder.
Do you want to see what else I have been doing for the past couple of days?


These are Rhubarb and Ginger Muffins, and finally...
Soda Bread!
The Chocolate cakes raised £28 for Karate class trophies and medals this week. I was very happy with my soda bread and have decided to venture further into making bread not using a bread machine.
Thanks for looking and feel free  to help yourself to a cake  - all calorie free, lol!

A Squirrel Card

Whilst photographing the Squirrels last week (see previous post), I remembered that Dora had borrowed my photos from a previous visit to draw some digis. She very kindly let me have them, so I had a lovely half hour colouring and making this card. If you fancy it, you can purchase the digi from Dora's digi shop.

I coloured it using Be creative markers. For the squirrel I used natural oak, light orange and yellow ochre. Mixing the light orange and yellow ochre produced the lighter shade. I used some Be Creative paper too. The little die cut leaves are a Joy crafts die that I absolutely love. The brown card and the gold paper are oth snippets so I am off to Miss Di's snippet playground with this. 
The house is feeling rather empty as Meg returned to uni on Sunday and I still have a week of holiday. I am thinking I will take a trip to a craft shop to take my mind off it, lol! I particularly need some of the lovely whimsical flower stamps from the woodware range. One of them has my name on it, quite literally! Thanks for looking! 

Red Squirrels in Scotland

Meg and I had a lovely time visiting Lynne last week. On our last day we visited Eskrigg Nature reserve, a red squirrel hot spot...

 We had a chuckle at this one...

 who finally emerged from the peanut store.

 Some were a little more refined in their dining habits!

 Some liked to make the other squirrels jump with Jack-in-a-box type moves!

 Some tried to blend in with the trees, keeping a close eye on us humans...

 I think this is my favourite shot of all the ones I took (96!) 

 And finally, this little fellow was eager to pick up the food that others had dropped on the floor. 

 It was so lovely to spend a very quiet couple of hours in the company of these delightful creatures (Meg and Lynne included!)
Thanks for looking! 

April at Stamping Sensations

Good Morning! It is the first Sunday of the month, so time for our April challenge at Stamping Sensations, where this month we have a great theme of........

********One for the Girls********

Now I decided to veer away from the predictable and create a couple of cards that are feminine, but not pink or cute! My first card features that Woodware Clear Magic single flower, coloured with alcohol markers and added glitter glue. The base card (Colourplan White) was stamped in citrus shades of Distress Ink using an Inkylicious leaf and the flower was mounted on a strip of stardream card, embossed with a stencil for Inky Doodles.

  The stamp on my second card is another Woodware Clear Magic one, and I have paper pieced it to imitate some of the wide range of converse style footwear available. I added white gel pen to the laces and eyelets.
  we are being sponsored by PDA Cards and Craft this month. I am a very lucky crafter as I live only a 25 minute drive away from PDA at Langley Mill, and visit (and spend lots!!!) often. Their paper and card selection are wonderful and they also stock a wide range of other crafting products, including some Woodware stamps, promarkers and stickles!
Here is the prize:                                                                            
                                        
 I'd be very happy to help you with the spending of that if you want, lol!  Be sure to pop over to the challenge blog and take a look at the stunning feminine creations that my talented team mates have created.
Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments too.