The Best Thing to Hold on to ...

... in Life is Each Other.

This is the card I created especially for my husband for our anniversary this year ... and he liked it ... phew! That's a relief :) It's always difficult thinking of something suitable but not to 'fussy and flowery' as he puts it.

However, birds are always safe ... he looks after the birds that visit out garden, making sure there's food left out each day and topping up the water in the bird bath when it's low, and it has been getting very low during this heat wave.

To make the card I began by cutting brown, kraft and white card (all from Papermill Direct) to size to fit the deckle-edge card base. Then I stamped the white card using the two stamps from the Hero Arts Feather set.

Hopefully, you can see from this close up that I inked the stamps up with three shades of brown distress ink, Old Paper, Pumice Stone and Brushed Corduroy, just dabbing with the ink pads along the length of the stamps.

Next, I stamped, in Brushed Corduroy, another of the bird stamps from Caroline Stamps, this time the Chaffinch - one of our most regular garden visitors and a great favourite of ours. Then it was die-cut with a Spellbinders Nestability, Labels Nine. I inked around the edge of the die, firstly with Old Paper and then just a touch of Brown Corduroy. To finish the topper, I did the usual for the kraft layer, traced and cut around the same die. The brown layer was cut using the next size die up.

Once I had decided on where to place the completed bird topper, I then stamped the sentiment from Sheena's A Little Bit Sketchy Only Words - Through the Rain ... chosen because it is one that the EM particularly likes ... in Momento Rich Cocoa. Of course, I had to use the stamp thingamajig to get it in just the right place. Oh, to be able to see grey/red rubber stamps!

You can just about see that there's another little greeting inside the card ... another of Sheena's sentiments, this time from the A Little Bit Sketchy Only Words - From the Heart set, stamped with the Rich Cocoa onto kraft card, edges inked with Brushed Corduroy and die-cut with Spellbinders Shapeabilities Die D-Lites Petite Labels One which was layered on to brown card - did the usual here to create a 'faux' Spellbinder shape. Not seen in the photo is a stamped and cut out heart layered onto the far corner of the sentiment

... just like this one on the back, also from the From the Heart stamp set.

We've had a wonderful anniversary weekend. Yesterday, we went for a drive up the coast towards Largs and stopped for a meal at out favourite Italian bistro which has a fabulous view looking over the Firth of Clyde to the Isle of Arran in the distance. Today, we took a trip to the steam railway at Dunaskin ... we've been there before but it's always worth another visit :)

The weather has been amazing - on Saturday the temperature reached 29.5C just up the road from here, at Prestwick ... that's scorchio plus, plus!!!

Today hasn't been much cooler :)

I hope you have all had an equally enjoyable weekend. I believe schools out for the summer for children in England so they can enjoy the fabulous weather at last. My grandchildren have been having fun in the sun for the last two weeks because school breaks up a week or two earlier in Scotland.

Needless to say, nothing much in the way of crafting has been done here but as the EM keeps telling me there will be plenty of time to craft when the summer is over :))

Take care, drink plenty fluids and try to keep cool,