Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.

So, I did warn you that I was obsessed with this stamp!  I have had such fun playing with it this weeked.  I have colored it with Copics; colored it with pencils; watercolored it and overall, just had tremendous fun with it!

I saw this great color challenge across at the Altenew challenge for August.  It's a rich collection of emerald and bronze - gorgeous!

I decided I wasn't going to go with florals for this.... I mean... who could compete with Erum's stunning floral card!   So, I took a decidedly different direction and thought these colors would be fabulous for my make believe parrot :-)

I stamped the parrot onto Bristol Smooth card stock with

I colored him with my Copic markers and there are many different shades of greens, blues, yellows, browns and oranges in here!  I added a little shimmer to his beak and the crown of his head with my gel pen and then used some black Irresistibles to add his eye.  I spattered a few drops from some Altenew inks that were similar to the challenge colors and mounted the whole thing onto an Island Indigo card base.  Aren't those colors gorgeous together?

On a personal note:

We finally got some rain today.  It's been so dry that our wetland is dry and cracked and caked.  There are no water birds -in fact, not many birds at all in the wetland.  We are lucky that our little selection of Orioles, Rosebreasted Grosbeak, woodpeckers, chickadees and an assortment of sparrows continue to visit us.  We are perplexed by the fact that the insect eaters have all gone.  Our swallows, flycatchers and bluebirds are nowhere to be seen.  Neither are our Cranes. In fact, we haven't heard the cranes for a number of weeks already.  Another thing; the year after we moved in - and for a couple of years beyond that, the baby frogs were copious.  In fact, Lou had to stop the car coming into the driveway so that I could heard them off the driveway.  This year..... not a single frog has appeared on the driveway.  In the last two years - things have changed dramatically - and not for the better. 

We continue to provide food, housing and water... all in the hope that our visitors will find a little haven where they can breed just as they would have done - but it seems to be getting harder and harder each year.    This year, I have only seen two dragonflies and a handful of fireflies.  Moths are even hard to find.  It seems our obsession with keeping our gardens "insect free" is taking a massive toll on the population that we rely on not only for pollination, but our that birds rely on for food.

Talking about birds, I will leave you with a couple of photos of our visitors.  Our Sapsucker has finally found a mate and they have been very quiet thee last couple of weeks.  I wonder where they have gone?  Their absence has allowed our Elm tree to have a little break from their constant food foraging:-)

Our redbellied woodpeckers have had a couple of rounds of babies. You can see this juvenile against the amazing textures of the tree bark.  His parents did a really good job of teaching him where - and how - to find food.  I have had the pleasure of spending may hours watching them teaching him to feed:-)

I'll be back tomorrow with another card.  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe: 

• Stamps:  Parrot Paradise - Altenew
• Inks:  Copic Markers
• Card stock:  Bristol Super Smooth.  Neenah Solar White #110

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