Wednesday 23 November 2011

New Forest Inspired Little Acorns Card

We stayed in the New Forest last weekend with our fab friends Debbie and Mike.  They have stayed in a lovely New Forest B&B several times and they always rave about it.  Oh my goodness, I can quite see why, we had such a wonderful time!  A lovely couple, Chris and Reg run it together with their gorgeous Cavalier King Charles spaniel called Willow who completely steals your heart!

The garden is huge, stunning and full of wildlife.  Badgers regularly visit the garden at night and Debbie and Mike have always seen them when they've visited - they saw 7 together one time!  Debbie had more or less promised us that we would see badgers.  Chris said they had been visiting much later though, in the early hours of the morning and the first two nights we didn't see them.  On our last night though, a badger came up to feed and we got a brilliant view - magical!

Chris makes cards and we got chatting about supplies etc. and Chris said she couldn't get kraft card blanks. I said I'd send her a few PaperMania ones which she'd be able to order online if she liked them.  Of course, I had to make a card to send with the package and as the B&B is called 'Little Acorns'  I had to make a little acorns card!

I've used the SU! Day of Gratitude set and a colour combo totally inspired by some of the beautiful forest colours we saw over the weekend.  I inked the medallion in Pumpkin Pie ink and then added Cajun Craze and Early Espresso with sponge daubers.  I cut out the shape, added an Antique brad and popped it up on the circle layers.  I then used the same inks to stamp the leaves but I used just Cajun Craze and Early Espresso to ink the acorns.  I then cut them all out and arranged them on the card, popping some of the acorns up.  To finish the front I added some raffia tied in a knot.

 
I stamped two leaves on a Very Vanilla panel, masking the first one off with a Post It note, added the sentiment and glued the panel inside the card.  I stamped and cut out 3 more acorns for the envelope flap.


I think it's wonderful that Chris and Reg are willing to share their beautiful New Forest home.  We loved our peaceful and relaxing stay there and I hope Chris liked her card as much as I enjoyed making it for her!  Here's a photo of part of the garden - * sigh *


Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Day of Gratitude set, sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps Say It With Style clear set
CS: PaperMania 13.5 cm square kraft card blank, SU! Cajun Craze, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze & Early Espresso
Tools: Circle Nestabilities dies, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Antique brad, raffia, 3d foam pads


Photobucket

4 comments:

Sue said...

Brilliant card Ruth and what a back garden for a B&B think i would like to live there Luv Sue x

kelly said...

I'm sure she will love it Ruth, the colours and imagery are beautiful.
Kelly xx

Margaret said...

Your card is as beautiful as the garden! I can see why you felt so inspired by this place!! Your colors are so beautiful on the card!

Becky said...

Stunning! Colours are perfect! Which part of the newforest was the b&b?

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