Just Paint and Pens

 Hello...

Yesterday the sun was glorious and I honestly thought Spring was here but today it's a completely different story.. It's really windy and the visiting kitty has been chasing leaves all over the garden, much to the amusement of my lazy fur babies.

 

I had a few rough days following the vaccination and it left me devoid of inspiration and energy so all I've got to share are a couple of 'messy' cards, just random watercolour that I've sketched over.

 

It's difficult to see but the flowers are gold and I used some old Washi tape for the border

 I used Cosmic shimmer paints with some ordinary W/C paint on this next one

Told you they were messy

At least I felt like I was doing something and I enjoyed it

Stay well and safe friends

Till next time

~ Ros ~

Beak to Beak

 Hello there... I hope you are all well?

I had my first vaccination this morning and I'm counting down the months, I'm hoping that come summer we will be enjoying a much better life.

So Valentine's ... Did you get something nice? 

 I got beautiful red roses, chocolates and a card. 

 DH got one of my duck cards..

 I made this sometime ago and thought it would be ideal for Valentine's... He loved it

I also have a little painting to share with you... Meet Tinker

 She has a lot of mouths to feed and knows that one of the best times to collect food is when it's raining - There are very few cats about! Her umbrella keeps her dry whilst she forages and then she put everything in the open umbrella to take home.

Today she managed to fill her umbrella with a lots of of nuts and seed but the rain was heavy. Thankfully there are always a few mushrooms to shelter under.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today, I'll be catching up with you all soon

Be safe be happy

~ Ros ~

 

Happy Birthday Ewe

 Hello! 

If you looked out my window right now you would see the sun shining, but don't be fooled, it's freezing cold with an icy wind. I know it's the same if not worse for many of you... Hurry up Spring!

It's DH's birthday today and he was so happy with his "Marlon" card... said I captured his legs perfectly.

Today I'm sharing a birthday card I made for my SIL... She has a penchant for sheep so I attempted to paint one... Meet Betty

I could have called her Bah...bra but Betty it is. I'm not sure what breed of sheep she is but even with that curly wool coat she still needed a scarf in this frigid weather.

I don't know about you, but sometimes I think sheep have scary eyes... Betty is wearing mascara today and they look even more intense.

The flower she's holding didn't grow in the snowy Dales.. It came from the local supermarket. The sheep often wander a fair distance and have been known to hold up traffic whilst rummaging around for something a little more tasty than the snow covered grass.

 At least she saved one flower to give to my SIL

Have yourselves a lovely day and stay warm my friends

Till soon

~ Ros ~
 

Going Quackers

Hello friends... I don't know about you but I'm so over winter

I am becoming obsessed with ducks, who knows why, but I'm sharing two more cards today... 

 

Little Elinor (Ellie) has a birthday and brother Marlon has been busy putting up the banners. He likes to think he's a cool dude, though I'm not so sure he should have written on the wall

But this is actually going to be my hubby birthday card so it's fine

 

And of course I had to share Ellie with you, I mean she is so cute

She's hoping to get a fairy dress for her birthday... I hope her wish is granted

I've not come to the end of my obsession yet so you may be seeing more of the feathered family in the future.

Have a super day, stay warm, stay safe and thanks so much for your visit.

~ Ros ~

Two Little Pups and a Gift For You

Hello lovely people... I hope you are well?

Hubby had his first vaccination today and so far all is well.

Today I have an anniversary card to share, another one drawn by me and as a little thank you for your kind comments, I have drawn one for you to use.. I'll put the link further down

Friends of our will e celebrating 50+ years of marriage later in the month and they are both dog lovers - They actually provide day care for their fur grandbabies

So I'm hoping that they like this card

Though the photos don't show it too well, the two little hearts are glittery with glitter falling from them..

Okay, so I have drawn a couple of pups for you to use too, I'd love to see what you create

I've converted it to a transparency file and you can get the link Here

 

Enjoy!

~ Ros ~

Who Froze the Pond

 Hello and welcome to February!

It's bright but bloomin cold out there...

 

First off I'd like to thank the team at CAS Mix Up for my win last month... I'm amazed by how many of you liked the little goose - She called Esmeralda by the way. Unfortunately I couldn't respond to some of my new visitors so if you're looking in, Thank you! Your kind words are much appreciated.

Clelie wanted to know more about Esmeralda and you too may have been wondering what she was looking back at... 

Well it was this guy...Meet Albert

He's not the brightest duck on the pond and occasionally forgets his swimming trunks when he goes for a dip, hence Esmeralda's expression, sadly this day he found the pond completely frozen over

Ducks and ice are not a good combination, poor Albert... He'll just have to come back tomorrow and hope there's a thaw

 

Thank you for indulging me in my imagination... I'm sure Albert and I will one day end up in the same care home Lol!

Be safe and enjoy your day

~ Ros ~

Birthday Shakers

 Hello friends... 

Not much to report this week, we are okay and still awaiting our vaccination appointments - Many of our friends have already had theirs so we'll have to be patient.

February is almost upon us and for me there are lots of cards required, both birthday and anniversary at least I've made a start. Today I'm sharing two shaker cards that I made for friends' birthdays.

When I have little pieces of card around I tend to stencil on them or paint something, or both. Here I used a couple of those as the background for my shaker cards. 

The stencil I used here is a Lavinia one and I painted the flower on top. The flower frame I used is rectangular in shape (as you will see in my second card) but the painting was a square shape... I remedied that by placing a square frame over the rectangle and just trimming it.

Now you can see the full rectangle frame (bought sometime ago from AliExpress) and the little dragon flies are also part of the frame...They were painted with cosmic shimmer paints (on both cards) as was the stamped butterfly

I find it a lot easier to make the shaker part as a separate unit and then attach it to the card. I've got lots of these little painting and lots of sequins! So I can see more of these being made - The recipients seem to enjoy them as much as I do making them.

Be safe and stay well and thank so much for dropping by today

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Two Little Girls

 Hello there! I hope you are well and staying warm... 

We've had some snow, nothing that stays around for long but it's cold! I go out throughout the day to feed the birds and it's a feeding frenzy. This year I haven't seen any holly berries at all, even on my occasional trips out. I had plenty berries on my Firethorn shrub but most of those have now disappeared so I guess the little guys are hungry.

If you read my last post I said I'd share the paintings of the girls and here they are

This is the younger of the two and like me she loves to feed the birds

Whilst her older sister likes a late afternoon stroll with the puppy

 

Spring looks a long way off right now but to a child snow is always magical...

..And in a few months those trees are going to burst into life once more.

Have a lovely day, stay safe and thanks so much for popping in

~ Ros ~

The Dog and The Rabbit

 Hello friends... I hope this finds you well

So what's new since my last post? Well we had a visit from the police the other day asking us to stay indoors not even venture into the garden. The road was cordon off, the bomb squad and armed police arrived and we were left wondering... Seems a hand grenade was found that thankfully turned out to be an artificial one. Sad as it sounds it was a little bit of excitement for another day in lock down.

We are drowning in rain which is a good excuse for me not to go walking now my leg is on the mend and  just stay cosy in my craft room. In any event a certain someone is driving me nuts so I venture into my imagination... It's a place in the country where 2 little girls live and they have plenty of open ground to explore, not to mention quite a few pets...It's winter and today one of the the rabbits is out in the snow

Actually this is the bunny's first experience of snow

He's not quite sure what to make of it

The larger of the dogs prefers to pop out later in the day... He likes the snow and is mesmerized

 

There's nothing quite like open space and the silence of falling snow

I'll share the girls with you next time...

Have a good day though they seem to come and go so fast lately...

Be safe

~ Ros ~

Splatters

 Hello there

I'm playing along with the new challenge over at CAS Mix Up

I'm so happy to see my friend Leslie has joined the lovely ladies on the team. I still love to play along whenever I can and who doesn't like splatters?

My little sketched goose just just happens to be a snow goose (sort of) so to her this is a lovely day (sentiment stamped and embossed) and I used distress inks for the background and also to paint her, along with a little watercolour paint

One of the colours I used was Peeled Paint and believe it or not, her hat and cape are green not yellow as the photo shows... I've no idea why that happens. 

The splatters are done with water, a Posca pen and acrylic white. 

It took me ages to sketch something that resembled what I had in my head and then I wondered how I was going to create the background without covering the sketch... Well, I traced it, cut out the shape and then drew around that onto masking paper, phew... It worked.

I hope you are having a lovely day

Stay safe

~ Ros ~

Just A Note

 Hello friends...

Are you doing okay? Thank goodness we have our hobby to keep us going. 

Today I have a couple of simple cards using stamps and distress inks - I used the same stamps and inks for both cards with  two different effects

I had so many flowers for my birthday from friends and neighbours, amongst them some lovely tulips

Which really prompted these cards. 

I'm sending these to a couple of friends who called round to leave cards and gifts for me - normally we would get together but it was good just to see them and have a social distancing chat.

Both the flower and butterfly stamps are old ones by Clearly besotted but flowers and butterflies never go out of fashion do they. 

Enjoy your day and stay well

~ Ros ~

Sketch & Paint

 Hello there, I hope you are all doing well.

I'm thankfully lot more mobile than I was last week but maybe someone can tell me how it's possible to have a caught a cold when I haven't ventured out in weeks, if anything gets delivered like post or groceries, I wash my hands and sanitize each time... How is that possible? Another of life's mysteries.

I've a few more cards to share, though I feel more like hibernating than crafting lately, I'm longing for Spring. First up is a card for a blog friend who has been struggling with health issues and I'm hoping this will cheer her up a little

 

I like sketching these birds and dressing them, we have various ones visiting daily and I could watch them for hours

It's been so cold and we've see a few frosty mornings - Thankfully my next little bird was prepared for the ice...

...with her little skates

And my last card

One of the gifts I got for Christmas was a set of Cosmic Shimmer watercolour paints so I gave them a try  using my new Acquarello watercolour extra white 100% cotton by Fabriano.

 

Whilst the paint flows beautifully on this, the shimmer is not that evident when it dries.. 

And as you can see it's still not really 'white' but I still like it.

Before I go I just want to say a big thank you for all the birthday cards I've received... I haven't opened any yet, I'm keeping them until tomorrow.

Stay safe and well and thank you for visiting me today

Till next time

~ Ros ~

Two Fat Robins and more...

Hello and Happy New Year!

Sorry I'm late in my wishes and that I haven't been visiting you. As I mentioned previously I had a fall and tore my hamstring. It could have been a whole lot worse, no bones are broken anyway, but the bruising is extensive and painful and sleeping and sitting is...Uncomfortable.

I've been itching to paint some of the sketches I'd done, plus our wedding anniversary was yesterday and I needed some sort of card to give hubby so I gave it a go.

Not your traditional anniversary card but you know me... Two fat robins will do. We're in lock down once again so no doubt that's how we'll look come Spring. 

This time I added some hills behind my painting using distress inks and torn paper 

Not my best painting but Hubby was thrilled anyway.

I also did another one with birds

I love these guys in their shiny boots - the only downside is that the white Gouache I used turned a yellowish colour on my cardstock.

Okay... I'm going to try and catch up with you all

Have a lovely day

~ Ros ~