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 bit of a long one!

I hope you have had the fabulous weather we have had this weekend. Because it was so lovely, we had a walk in the woods yesterday, although there was a bit of mist around, despite the warmth and brightness of the sun. Here are a few photos.

Today I have done some gardening and made a couple of cards using snippets. My first card features some waltzing mouse stamps, a spellbinders border and some Pink Petticoat papers (which you are probably getting bored of by now!)

I used a little distress ink to add colour for the tea and around the stamped frame. I took a photo of it outside and unfortunately there was a bit of shadow that I didn't spot.
For my second card I paper pieced and decoupaged a Woodware singles stamp using lots of snippets. I am rather proud of the little stack I used up with this one!

Again I used some pink petticoat papers, but the other scraps have been hanging around for a very long time! Not the best photo, either I'm afraid. I will try to get a better one in the morning. Here is a close up of the 2 types of stickles and the glazed 'chocolate' and cherries.

I'm entering both of these into Di's Crafty snippets challenge, where I think I may get to be tuck shop monitor this week! Thanks for looking and I hope you have a good week.

A lovely day!

I've not been able to spend as much time crafting this week as I would've liked, due to SATs, so the weekend came as welcome relief! Here's one of my makes from last night. The flower stamp is a Karanthe stamp from Crafty Notions and the mini butterfly is from Crafty Individuals Butterflies Crafty Elements.The branches are a sizzix die I bought at Sir stampalot on my last visit. I used watercolours to colour the flowers then sprayed with gold Creative colour sprays. The background was made by sweeping my craft mat with Spiced marmalade and dusty concord distress inks, spraying with water and laying my paper over it. This card would be a great entry for the Sir Stampalot challenge this month where the theme is Butterflies and blossoms and the prize is lots of lovely Tim goodies!

I did a bit more crafting this morning in between washing, but this afternoon we went for a lovely walk with my dad on footpaths I used to walk with him when I was a child.

Magical isn't it? I didn't spot any violets today, but the bluebells and arum lilies were magnificent and we were followed by orange tip butterflies most of the way. Meg is far more talented than me with the camera these days (Her camera is better too!) You can see some of her photos here.

Autumn Colours at Chatsworth

I just wanted to share with you some of the lovely shades of Autumn we saw at Chatsworth House in Derbyshire on Tuesday. We went to see the Exhibition of sculptures in the gardens, but Mother Nature well and truly upstaged them!

Friends and Family

Here is a quick card I put together for a friend. The text stamp is from Crafty Individuals and the seed heads are a cuttlebug embossing folder.
I've been working on my Dad's 80th birthday card, and I've completed two square panels. I've started a third, but it is still a work in progress. Dad spends many an hour walking out in the countryside around his home. I wanted his card to reflect many of the things he would see on his walks, so started off with birds and grasses (inspired by Deby at Just Add Love)

This had a Spring/ early summer feel about it, so I decided to give the next panel an autumnal feel. With yellows and browns, mushrooms and trees losing their leaves. All of the stamps on these panels are from Graphicus.

So, my quandary is this. What do I do with them now? Whatever I do I need to be able to post it, so it needs to be flat. Do I do 4 panels, one for each season? Do I make it into a book or a concertina card or something else? Any suggestions welcome! Notice I didn't do a big 80 for him? I think he would disown me if I did, lol!

Real Mushrooms!

I took photos of these mushrooms in Glen Trool whilst on holiday in the summer. Definitely the Amanita family, but which member I'm not sure. We all enjoy woodland walks, and Fungi were some of the first things that helped fuel Megan's love of nature and photography (She has posted some of her Mushroom Pictures from the same walk). There are also some great mushroom photos on D.K. Fisher's blog too.