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! 

A few more photos from Scotland

 I can't believe that this is my 900th post! I am planning blog candy fairly soon as it is my 7th bloggerversary, and I really appreciate the support I have had from my lovely followers. I will let you know more when I have got it organised!
I know I have already shown you lots of bird pictures, sky pictures and my '3 reds' day, but I have a few more photos to show you, I hope you don't mind! Today is the turn of the mammals and garden flowers! First of all I have some more red squirrels, this time at Threave gardens. We sat in the woodland hide, and first to arrive at the bird feeders was this beautiful creature...

 He was then joined by another squirrel with a very blonde tail, who found it quite hard to get at the peanuts...

 Our first friend had a totally different technique!!!!

You've got to congratulate him on his enthusiasm, lol!
Next up is a Bank Vole (I think) who also liked peanut bird feeders...

That little face is just so cute!
Now onto some flowers (and insects) at Threave.

 Butterflies and bees loved the pot Marjoram

 and the Scabious was very popular with the bees too.

 One side of the walled garden was planted as a wild flower meadow, although one or two Californian poppies had found their way into the party!

 When it rained we sought shelter in the greenhouses, where this magnificent Lily greeted us...

 Back outside the rain stopped and the bees continued their busyness.

 This last one was a type of primula, which came in the most beautiful sunset colours!
Hope you enjoyed the photos and thanks for looking!

A Birthday card and some more photos

Here is the Birthday card I made for my niece before we went on holiday. The stamps used are all from Inkylicious and I used my ink dusters to shade the central aperture and the base card. I used memento inks in Teal zeal and lilac posies for the main stamping. I stamped the background grass in shaded lilac distress ink. The circle was dusted with dried marigold and faded lilac distress ink. I am trying to adapt to using inks that aren't Adirondack (now they have stopped making them), and for most I can find a decent substitute, but I haven't found a substitute for Eggplant yet.The Dragonfly was from an Inkylicious acetate sheet. I coloured the wings and body with a turquoise promarker, then put glossy accents on the back and added a sprinkle of glitter. The glossy accents was also the glue I used to attach it to the card.
Now for a few photos. When we were in Scotland there were posters in the visitors centres encouraging people to see if they could spot the '3 Reds' - Red deer, Red Kites and Red Squirrels. We set out to have a go all in one day!

We started the day at the Red Deer range for a Ranger led 'Come and meet the Deer' session. If you ever want to get close up with wild Red Deer this is the way to do it, as they come to see the Rangers for a bit of easy food at 10am each morning!

 The hinds would take the food from your hand and we were allowed to hand feed a few...

 but the Fawns were only about 6 weeks old and were quite timid still.
We then went on to see the red kites being fed at Ballymack Hill Farm.

The sky was full of Red Kites waiting for a meal...

Then along came this lady with a bucket of food and as she threw handfuls, the kites swooped down to catch it.
Once the spectacle was over, we went for a little walk at Ken Dee Marshes RSPB reserve. We had no idea that we would see our third red there, but when we got to the first hide, look who was feasting on the Peanuts!

 It was a rather wonderful day.
Thanks for looking!

More red squirrels and more snowy treescapes

 After the lovely comments on my last post I thought I would share some more photos of the red squirrels at Eskrigg Nature reserve. These wonderful creatures are rare here in the UK, but well managed nature reserves like Eskrigg help to keep them going. This first photo was the nearest Lynne and I have ever been to a red squirrel (less than 2 foot away!) unfortunately it isn't as sharp as I would have liked - they move so quickly!

 

They were a joy to watch!

As you may have seen in my last post, this treescape stamp from Inkylicious is great for a very quick Christmas card! This time I decided to make a purple version...

I used memento Grape Jelly and diamond stickles on the snow for this one.

I also made one using Memento Paris Dusk, but this time used my sakura clear stardust pen for the snow...

Thanks for looking!

Fresh Air and Wildlife!

I'm back! Meg and I have spent the last three days in Scotland with Lynne. The Scenery is breathtaking and although it was a little bracing at times we got out for a walk every day. Here are a few photos.

Lichen encrusted tree trunks,

 

A male bullfinch,

 

A red squirrel (his ear tufts are being blown flat in the wind!)

 

Another red squirrel, who loves to pose for the cameras,

 

A lovely sunset over the river,

and a tree (well, I have to include trees somehow!). Now I think I have an Andy Skinner stamp that looks a bit like that...

Well, thanks for looking. Hope you have a great Easter weekend!