The song of a robin

Hello, crafting friends!

 

The garden doesn't have much in the way of flowers at this time of year so it's lovely to see the birds fluttering about instead. Watching a bossy little robin on this frosty morning prompted me to pull out an old Clearly Besotted set called Red Robin and make a Christmas card.

 

I started the card by sponging blue ink through Funky Fossil's Burlap stencil, removing the stencil and layering more of the same ink over the top for a subtle look. On top of that, I stamped holly and fir branches from Uniko's Winter Foliage and a sentiment from the Red Robin set.

 

A die-cut music score was added using The Greetery's Noted die set. I stamped one of the little birds from Red Robin and coloured him with coloured pencils before fussy cutting him and popping him up on the music score with a dimensional pad. The card was finished with a cluster of enamel dots to represent holly berries.

CHALLENGES

LeAnne's challenge at The Paper Players this week is to make a card with music as the theme so I'm linking up there; I'm also playing along at We Love Stamping where the challenge is Anything Stamped with the option to add a stencil; and the ABC Christmas Challenge where C is for checks and/or D is for Die Cuts.

 

AND IN OTHER NEWS

The dog walks have been wonderful for the last few days - crisp and frosty in the mornings, then glorious blue skies and golden sunshine by lunchtime and warm enough to go without a coat! That's me not the pups ;) We had Murph the spaniel to play this week and as one of his favourite things is to go rabbiting*, we went on the special Rabbit Walk. You can often find other interesting creatures in the hedges...

 

... don't know what this one is, lurking in the undergrowth, but I'd guess it's probably a Beige Beast!!

*Please rest assured that no bunnies are ever in danger of being harmed in the course of our walks!

Sending hugs,

A wet day for the birds

Hello, crafting friends!

It has poured all day, and not just with rain either! We've had the kind of sleet that is driven by a bitterly cold wind and gets down the back of your neck. When we went out for a walk this morning, I explained to Eva that some days are just not suitable for long hikes but she remained unconvinced! 

Since we were so wet anyway, I thought I might as well use a watercolour technique! For the background, I started with a panel of watercolour paper and stencilled SU's Sahara Sand ink through the Burlap stencil by FunkyFossil. After masking off a horizontal line, I blended more ink upwards and outwards to a fade.

The bird, branch, flowers and leaves are all from the Birds and Branches set by Stampin' Up, inked up, spritzed with water and stamped onto the background. I trimmed the panel to size with a stitched rectangle die by Heffy Doodle and then it was time for some splattering!

First I wet my hands with water and clapped over the panel; then I loaded a paint brush with watery green ink and tapped it against a bone folder; then repeated that step with watery Sahara Sand ink. I think I'm getting better at splattering. By that, I mean that I'm not so scared to do it but I still have no idea where the splatters are going to go and it all ends up being a happy (or otherwise) accident! 

EDITED TO ADD AN AWARD

Thrilled that this card was challenge winner at The Day of the Month Challenge!

CHALLENGES

I'm squeaking in under the wire at The Day of The Month Challenge where this month they're celebraing National Bird Day; also, I think when you see the inspiration photo at Inspired By, it's fairly obvious how I got the idea for this card!!

AND IN OTHER NEWS

Sometimes I dream of whisking out some watercolours and dashing off a quick, beautifully rendered sketch! Unfortunately my watercolouring skills are pretty much zero! But in these lockdown dayys people are learning new skills all the time aren't they, so perhaps I should sign up for a watercolour course. Anyone know of any?

Sending hugs,