Nut-thing Compares to you

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I got the chance to play along with two challenges in my craft room yesterday.

and

I needed to make a card for Lou, so the Watercooler challenge was perfect.  When I saw the Pop It Up challenge at Simon Says, I knew exactly what I was going to do  – and it involved a squirrel and a wobbler!

I began with the new Squirrel Layering outline stamp from Hero Arts – part of the add-ons to their September My Monthly Hero kit.   I could have used the layering stamps but decided I wanted to spend a little quality time with my pencils and add all the details, shading, etc. with my pencils.  It took about 30 minutes to color the image using a variety of greys from my Prismacolor sets. 

Here's a closeup of the coloring and shading:

You can see the squirrel surrounded by a little cluster of acorns.   Ooops.  Naughty, naughty.  I managed to get a little glitter on a masculine card by adding some shimmer and shine to the nuts of the acorn… well, they are shiny in real life!!!

You can see that the squirrel doesn't look as though he is attached to the base…. That's because he's not!   I die-cut a hole in some brown woodgrain cardstock and mounted him to the inside base of the card and popped him up on a wobbler.  He has so much movement, I love it.

Here's the outside of the card:

I added some vanilla woodgrain cardstock to the inside (where the squirrel sits), a couple more nuts, and the sentiment.

Here's the inside:

I love the mixture of woodgrain cardstocks.  They really add so much wonderful texture to the card.   I fussy cut the acorns as I didn't want the white border around them, but did use the die for the squirrel.

I can share the card with you as I gave it to Lou on Sunday.  Now… I suppose you are wondering why a squirrel?  Well, when Lou and I first started dating – and I had started to introduce him to the joys of Mother Nature he found that every bike ride he went on he saw a squirrel.  As we were living on different continents at the time, he took it as a sign that I had sent the squirrels to look out for him.  Consequently, he has called me Squirrel ever since.  Luckily he remembers to call me by my real name when we are out and about, otherwise people might thing he truly had gone nutty :-)  Sorry, couldn't excuse the pun :-)!!!!

On a personal note:

After 100 degree days, the temperature has finally dropped to the 60s and the rain came back.  Glorious.  This is how it should be.  Mind you, I did enjoy spending time in my craft room this weekend avoiding the heat.  I am pleased to say that my little velcro cat Charlie was back to normal and spend most of the time in there with me.  It is wonderful to have him back to his normal, naughty, fun-filled self!  

Also… you have one more night to play along with the blog candy challenge.  As a reminder – here is what you need to do….

So… how many people are looking for a woman who has the same name as my great-great-grandmother?  Well, it's a bit of a trick question…… :-)  I must admit when I first saw the number I almost fell off my chair – until I realized (well at least I hope it's true) – that Ancestry had counted the name – and not my great-great-grandmother specifically :-)  

So…. what's the number?   Well…. here's another clue – it's 7 figures!   So now what do you think the number is?  :-)  Take a guess.  Closest person to the real number gets the fabulous Altenew set – Crafty Friends.

Here's a link to the original post showing the blog candy.

No limit to the number of guesses.  What's the final clue for tonight.   Ah….. it's more than 2 million and less than 3 million.  So, what's your guess?  Remember, closest to the number – gets the Altenew prize 🙂

I'll be back with the winner tomorrow – as well as some answers to some questions that you have left me :-)  In the meantime, warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight

Hugs

jaydee

card recipe:

• Stamps:  Squirrel Layering – Hero Arts
• Inks: Prismacolor Pencils
• Cardstock:  Woodgrain – Altenew