It's that time of year again...

There are chirps and cheeps coming from all over as the young fledglings are hatched.
C called me last night and said there was a robin feeding a young one on the back wall. I was in the middle of making cheese soufflé for dinner so I only had  few minutes and just grabbed two shots.

But this morning, with half an hour to sit in the sun before heading out for the day, I took my camera and got a couple more. One shows the adult robin taking a well-deserved pause from feeding two greedy beaks; he sat there for a few moments ignoring the insistent chirps. And apparently one is never too young to enjoy a good sunbath.

Giverny part 3

Mostly in the house - which was very crowded and consequently not photo-friendly.

We had been planning to get a later train back to Paris, but at this stage in the heat we felt we didn't want to walk around the town just for the sake of it, and the shuttle bus for the earlier train was due to leave in about twenty minutes so we went for it - and the next post will be a few photos from a very quick walk we took in Vernon before the train. If we had been planning to get the earlier train, I think we might have felt rushed, but because it was a spontaneous decision when we felt we'd seen enough of the garden, there was no pressure on us. It was beautiful to see Giverny again, but I hope that our next visit will be an autumn one.

Giverny part 2

In the main area of the garden (mostly the tulip as you can see from the reflections was by the water).

Giverny - part 1

We visited Giverny on the Friday of our trip to Paris. It wasn't our first choice of day, having just arrived on Thursday afternoon, but with a train strike scheduled for Monday, and thunderstorms for Sunday, we thought Friday was the best option. It was hot and sunny, as you can see. I'm breaking the photos down into three posts so that they aren't too picture-heavy.
The queues were much longer than on our last visit four years ago, but they were very proactive and ushered a lot of us in through the group entrance. Since that's just at the underpass to the water garden, we visited the water garden first.

Spring has Sprung

Even last week we still had a frosty morning and most people were still wearing hats and scarves. But just in time for the holiday weekend fine, warm weather has arrived and we took a quick trip to Farmleigh this morning.

I thought I would remember to make a post for my blogiversary - but somehow I misremembered that it was the first week in May when in fact my very first post was  of magnolia blossom in the Botanic Gardens in April 2009. We thought of the Botanics this morning but knew we didn't have enough time to really enjoy it.

April Favourites

Thanks to a trip to the Botanic Gardens last May, I had plenty of choice for a header photo this month. It was a toss-up between a peony, a squirrel, a robin or a heron - and the heron won the day.

We were in Paris last week so I hope to have a few photos to share shortly, but in the mean time here are my favourite cards from April.

A fun light-up card for my younger nephew's birthday. The older one gets a lighthouse - they both have May birthdays and I think I'll send one package with both cards.

I decided to use the Gerda Steiner gnomes, the April stamp from her progressive challenge, to be prepared ahead of time with an anniversary card for my sister.

This last one is a card I made as a sample for the Black Ice technique - which is very hard to photograph (as was my background, Galeria glass bead gel medium with Brushos), so it needs two pictures to give something of an idea of what it looks like according to the light and angle you hold it at.

More Serendipity

As you remember, I had a lovely early surprise birthday present when Mary Lee Dew invited me to be a guest designer for the two blog hops on Serendipity Stamps this month (the first and third Wednesday). I love their stamps - you may remember the big " And the angel said..." sentiment which I used on my mass-production Christmas cards last year. So I was delighted to say yes please, and thank you.

Blog hop details: Mary offers a $20 gift certificate to spend at Serendipity stamps, awarded randomly to a comment left on any of the blogs. Start on the company blog and follow the hop, remembering to leave comments. I've often been inspired by the beautiful cards the DT have created when I see them on the website, I'm sure you will be too.

Serendipity Stamps blog

My Miscellany (yes, mine)

Beth Chiu

Julie Warner

Marybeth Lopez

Miriam Napier

Vickie Z

You have until April 22nd to leave comments; on the 23rd Mary will award the gift certificate so make sure to check the Serendipity blog again then in case you were the lucky winner.

Here's the card I made for this week - you can see I chose one of the large sentiment stamps this time round.

Details: This card too has a tangential French connection. A couple of years ago when we were camping down in the south we went to visit the ochre quarries near Roussillon, and I bought a beautiful set of pigment colours. I used two of these to create a cling-wrap background with spray starch, which helped hold the pigment but still gives a lovely chalky look, very reminiscent of the paint wash used on the houses in that region. You can see some of my photos from that visit HERE. I sadly admit I still haven't edited last years, when we went to visit a larger area in Rustrel, known as "the Colorado of Provence". One of only two grey, dull days in three weeks camping, but we still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Having created my background, I stamped To Everything and heat-embossed it for definition. Then I dry-embossed the frame with a Spellbinders die, and highlighted the frame and the edge of the panel with a gold pen. I knew I wanted to use these sweet Birds Looking Up, which I couldn't resist buying as they're so different to any bird dies I have. Mary also sent me the branch die, and when I saw the way it's designed for partial cutting (the end of the branch is open, it doesn't cut), I changed my original plan and decided to incorporate it for the birds to perch on. I cut an A2 size piece of textured brown card for my base layer, and then cut the die from it, so that the cling-wrap layer sits on top of the brown matting layer, and the branch just lies across the card. For the seasons, I added some leaves cut from assorted background scraps using the Reverse Leaf Die, and some punched flowers and snowflakes.

Thanks for stopping by! And thank you, Mary, for inviting me to be your guest this month.