More Easter Cards

 Hello friends

Here we are on the first day of Spring and it's raining and windy...Never mind, I'm optimistic that the days will get better.

I've some more Easter cards to share, normally my friends and I don't send Easter cards but we aren't living in normal times so it's my way of saying I'm thinking of you...

 

And given that it's Easter, it wouldn't be fair not to include some of my ducks now would it, so I drew and painted a couple

 

This one is a slider (as per Jennifer McGuire) and has an open front window

 

 

 No acetate was needed and when the card is open it looks like this

 

The second one also has an open window but it's not a slider

and the inside...

And finally...

 

... An Easter bunny card

That's me for today... I hope you enjoy your Sunday 

~ Ros ~

 

Easter Cards

Hey there... How are you?

It's a beautiful day here, looking more like Spring and I'm loving it. There's a ton of buds on the lilac tree and I can't wait for it to flower.

Thank you for your kind wishes regarding my brother, he had his operation yesterday and is doing fine.

Today I have a couple of simple stamped and painted Easter cards 

 

Okay, all you stampers (and gardeners) will no doubt notice that the large flower is in fact a poinsettia...

 

But with another flower (one of my hand drawn ones) on top, I know the recipients won't really notice.

 

The actual stamp is by Woodware and this is how it looks in it's entirety

 

It was just too pretty not to use and I fussy cut just the top portion for my cards

They are painted with blue watercolour and black soot distress ink

I love the combination of blue and grey...

Thanks so much for looking in on me, have a lovely day and take care

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Slider Shaker & Shaker

 Hello there, I hope this finds you well

I've a couple of cards for you today, first a slider / shaker card I made for one of hubby grandsons last week

 

I wanted to make something fun for his birthday and couldn't decide between a shaker and a slider so I combined the two

As the tag is pulled, up pops this guy

The octopus is sparkly and glossy but I think maybe I should have used a brighter colour, either way he enjoyed it and I had fun making it.

And following the sketched and painted girls in my last post... I also have one I turned into a shaker

Acetate cards are always so hard to photograph!

I'm getting a few Easter cards done at the moment... I can't believe how fast Easter has come around this year!

As far as my world goes, there's been good news and bad news this week... The bad news

A couple of weeks ago my brother fell whilst cleaning his conservatory roof (not recommended when in your 70's) He thought he'd just sprained his ankle and hobbled around for a few days until his leg began to swell and had to go to hospital. He was told he's broken his fibula, no big deal they said and just put it in a cast. Cutting a long story short things got worse and after several hospital visits and 2 changes of plaster casts, he finally got to see a doctor and it turned out his knee was also broken and has to have surgery this week.

 

As for the good news, my GP gave me a prescription for my RLS. I've been struggling every night with this dreaded complaint and have had many sleepless nights. Well I'm thrilled to say that the tablets worked and I've had 2 nights of undisturbed sleep! Oh I can't tell you how happy I am.

Have a beautiful day friends and stay well

 

~ Ros ~

Little Ladies

 Hello there... Happy St Patrick's day to all who celebrate!

Lately we have been experiencing high winds and it's been cold but yesterday, the sun shone and I got to spend a couple of hours in the garden. I was delighted to notice that there are robins nesting again in the garden and the trees are all in bud and the forsythia is in bloom.

Of course being indoors so much means I've done more sketching and today I'm sharing a couple of birthday cards featuring my sketched and painted ladies

Her dress also sparkles (courtesy of a wink of stella) but it's hard to capture.. I thought this would be a good card for my great niece's upcoming birthday

My second card is a little more "grown up"

Again the glitter on her dress is difficult to see... I stenciled the balloons after I painted her and added Nuvo drops then sprinkled them with glitter

Funnily enough the hardest part of this was drawing the shoes... 

I've quite a few more to share in the next few weeks including some shaker cards.

Thanks so much for your visit, enjoy your day and stay safe

~ Ros ~

CAS Mix Up Reminder

 Hello there...

I'm here today with my second card for  the CAS Mix Up Challenge where I'm honoured to be guesting this month

It also happens to be the CAS Mix Up's 5th Birthday and there are amazing prizes on offer, you don't want to miss out I tell you

For my card I used a seahorse die cut and watercolours

I love the result I got from this and it really was easy to achieve

Head on over to the blog and take a look at the creations from the rest of the team and check out the amazing entries too! 

A huge thank you to my friends at CAS Mix Up... It's been an honour to celebrate with you this month.

Till soon my friends

~ Ros ~

The Badger

 Good morning friends 

Still keeping in my theme of grey with a hint of colour, I have 3 similar cards to share. I needed a birthday card and a new home card and these came together very quickly

The flower painted in distress ink, is from a very old set I have but the badger I haven't used before, he's from a woodland animal set I got ages go.

These flowers are from  an old set by Clearly Besotted, coloured with sparkly gel pens,  I drew the stems and leaves and like the other 2, the badger and hills are done with distress ink.

I haven't added a sentiment to this one yet yet... 

Thanks so much for your visit, have a beautiful day

~ Ros ~

Stayin' Cool

 Good morning!

 When it comes to art everyone has their own idea of what is pleasing and what is not. Some things inspire more than others...

I've always loved oriental paintings, the ones you see sometimes done in ink, or sometimes with paint, black and grey often with a splash of colour.  They inspire me. I think it's the serenity they express, the silent echo in the mountains, cool waterfalls and misty air that you can even feel...

You've seen me doing my own version of those mountains in my cards and lately I've done more and more but occasinally a little image will creep in my head and I go with it. 

Today's card was just that

 

 I don't know why but I had this image of an elephant in those faraway mountains cooling down from the heat.

Some kind soul had tied a watering can to a branch at just the right angle for the rain to collect and act as a shower...

 

 I had to draw him just as I saw him in my head, not that I'm planning to do an elephant family - I think this will be a one off - But it satisfied me

...And made me happy to see the end result, because not everything I envisage works out. Some days I can't even draw a straight line.

I hope you like it too

Be safe and enjoy your day

Till soon

~ Ros ~

 

Puddle Brook Wedding

 Hello friends...

I hope this finds you well

Today I am sharing some wedding photos from Puddle Brook, I know you wanted to see the bride and here she is

She's wearing her Grandmother's gold and pearl necklace handed down by her mother Amelia together with the gold sequined veil Amelia wore at her wedding

There's a tradition that the bride wears only leaves in her headdress until she is officially married after that she walks through the arch of flowers and the women folk add flowers to the headdress and a glittered veil

Here she is with her little cousin Briony

For Briony this is her first attendance at a wedding and she was so excited and completely bewitched by the glitter veil

 Amelia sobbed through the whole service, she was so proud of her daughter and wished that her father were still here to see his beautiful daughter. Sadly, he was lost at sea some years ago.. He was part of the search and rescue team and during a terrible storm one night he was called out to help with some stranded fishermen. Eleven lives were lost that night.

But this is a happy occasion and Amelia's tears were that of joy

And of course I had to share a photo of Eugene who wore his uniform for the wedding and looked so handsome

His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw his beautiful bride

I hope you've enjoy the tales of Puddle Brook, I'm giving them a break at least for awhile.

Have a wonderful day and thanks so much for all your lovely comments

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Playing with Purple

 Hello...

I hadn't planned on posting today but then I saw my blog friend Michele has joined the team at 

The Flower Challenge Congrats!

 

 I rarely play along with challenges but to surprise Michele, this one I am playing along with.

As it happens I had recently been using purple and grey in my paintings, in particular a couple of sketches I did that are supposed to be iris. See what you think

Well this was my first attempt, but definitely shades of purple

I'm not even sure if you can enter your own sketches but this is for you Michele Lol!

I hope you like it

Till soon

~ Ros ~

Puddle Brook Continued

 Hi there...

I wasn't going to post but Ellie was so insistent that I show you her pretty sparkly fairy dress that she got for her birthday and she wore for the wedding

unfortunately the sparkles don't show too well on the dress but they do on the hat, which is 2 sizes too big but her Mother's says she will grow into. Either way, Ellie loves it....

 

And the one thing she so desperately wanted you all to see are her new shoes, shiny black patent ankle straps with glitter in

I know the photo is a little blurred but Ellie couldn't keep still - swishing her dress this way and that and constantly admiring her shoes.

I'm kinda jealous... When I was a little girl all my friends had the new fashion of black patent ankle straps and I would have given anything for a pair too. However, my mother insisted that black was not a colour for little girls and I had to wait 30 years for them to be fashionable again, I bought them and still have them.

Now before I go, and I will be back with photos of the happy couple in due course, I wanted to tell you a funny story that happened on the night the families got together pre- wedding.

Aunt Grace and Uncle Harold came over... I think everyone has an Aunt Grace in their family though perhaps not called Grace... In my family it was Aunt Elise, "Great" Aunt Elise (on my Mother's side),  a tiny slip of a woman but one look could turn you to jelly. You never spoke or made a sound when she arrived and you NEVER made eye contact..

 

Anyway,  it turned out Claude and Harold had a lot in common, one of them being fishing and they got on like a house on fire consuming quite a bit of red wine throughout the evening until Grace decided it was time to leave. Well, Harold's beak was practically glowing as he staggered this way and that and giggled non stop when suddenly he was lying on his back, feet up in the air. "Harold!" screeched Grace, "what on earth are you doing? Get up this instant!"

 

 

"Ss..star gazing" giggled Harold... "Come on old girl... don't you remember when we used to lie in the long grass star gazing? Come on down here and give us a kiss..."

Suddenly there was a ripple of muffled laughter from further down the path... Seems the whole party were watching and listening - Grace was mortified!

I dread to think what happened the following day... Poor Harold

So that's it for now... 

Have a great day

~ Ros ~

CAS Mix Up

 Hello there 

Welcome to March and Happy St David's Day!

I'm thrilled to say that this month I am back at CAS Mix Up as their Guest Designer

where they are celebrating their 5th Birthday!

Thank you so much for inviting me and many congratulations on your success

 

 

I just love their challenges, after all this is how I got into water colouring and learned so many different techniques and this month's challenge is also a 'new to me' one

 

If it's new to you too,  there are videos up on the blog so please check them out and don't be afraid to give to a go

Here's my card

Clean and simple, using a square die cut and distress oxides in 3 colours

I used my own cardstock rather than watercolour and painted my little square die cut first with Worn lipstick, pressed it down onto my card, then repeated with Squeezed Lemonade, then Iced spruce. You can see the colours mixed in on the 2nd two prints, well...  I forgot to dry my die cut in between - I know! And it did of course get soggy so I die cut another square (along with a frame), painted it in the same colours and voila!

I am pleased at how this turned out even with the colour transfer.  I hope you will give it a go, the team have lots more inspiration up on the blog go take a look!

Have a lovely day and thanks so much for stopping by

~ Ros ~