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 ~