A CAS card for Bee Crafty

 Hi there! I am here with a clean and simple card for Bee Crafty today, using some of their older stamps. I wanted a simple 'thinking of you' card for a friend.

 I used:

Mandala 7 inkable

Script background stamp 

Beautanicals Wildflower 2 

Wordage Everyday  sentiments 2

I also used Tim Holtz distress inks in Cracked Pistachio, Antique Linen and Tea Dye. The wildflower and Sentiment were stamped with Versafine Clair in Pinecone. I used an ivory scalloped edge card.

Here is how I made it as a step by step

I inked through the stencil with a cheap but fabulous make-up brush. I have tried a range of brushes recently and this type are great with stencils. 

I stamped the script in antique linen distress ink to the right of this, covering up to the edge of the card.

I used the blending brush to add some tea dye distress ink around the edge of the card before stamping the wildflowers in Versafine Clair pinecone.

Finally I stamped the sentiment in the same ink.

Here is another look at the finished card. I think it is another 'all occaisions' card, and any of the sentiments in the everyday words sets would work with it. It would also make a good set of notelets, with stamping in different colours. Very simple, but I hope you like it!

Thanks for looking!

Mid month inspiration for May

It is mid-way through May so time for our mid month inspiration for Stamping Sensations where the theme is

***Say it with Flowers***

 My mid month creation has a sentiment from Hobby art, and two recent woodware stamps - Vetch and Cow Parsley over an ink dusted background. I added a few highlights in white and silver pens. I do hope you get chance to enter the challenge. 

How are you doing? Hope you are okay and staying safe and well. I think we are all on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. It is important to realise that it is okay to not be okay at the moment, but equally, talking about it can help. I'm keeping very busy with various things including some really amazing new stamps from Crafty Individuals that are going to be on Hochanda, along with shows from Chocolate Baroque on 2nd June.  see if you can catch the shows - you won't be disappointed! I'm continuing with the craft sort out, doing some sewing and crochet, doing karate on Zoom 3 times a week as well as helping to manage the Crafty Individuals facebook group. We would love for you to join us there if you haven't already - just click the link. We have a project of the week award for a stamp prize, a monthly challenge (ATCs this month) for a larger prize and Jean also does giveaways on her Facebook Lives which are at 2.30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays.  

Thanks for looking and for all your lovely comments!

 

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!

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!

A lovely walk and a bit of extreme lying down!

 We had a fabulous walk today. The weather was glorious and the wild flowers were breathtaking. We went to Linacre reservoirs near Chesterfield again. I have always visited there in the Autumn, but never in Spring before. A friend had said there were lots of bluebells there, so we thought we would check it out.

First of all we came across thousands of wood anemones, and this was where I started my extreme lying down. I am using a phrase introduced to me and Meg by my niece. For those of you who aren't familiar with the pastime, it is where you lie down with you camera to get a real close up, but show the surroundings out of focus (depth of field comes into it somewhere! - Thanks Faith, was struggling to find the words!). I'd better show you some of the pictures.

 What the photo doesn't capture is the way they seem to shiver in the breeze. Such beautiful delicate flowers.
Next we saw dog-violets.

Judging by the number we saw and the number in our garden I think it must be a good year for violets!

 There was a carpet of wood sorrel on the north side of the reservoirs, and quite a few lesser celandines as well.

 By one of the inlets there was an abundance of Marsh Marigolds too.

 

We saw some places where there were blue bells coming but not out yet, so I took a photo of some new beech leaves

Finally we found some bluebells that were out.

  I will leave you with a very subtle portrait of my hubby,

and a portrait of Meg

Hope you enjoyed our walk as much as we did! Thanks for looking!