An osprey in a tree and a tri-panel card

My husband and I live in a very rural part of North Central Florida and enjoy seeing quite a variety of wild life from our yard. One of our favorite annual visitors is the pair of osprey that return to their nest in tall dead tree in our yard. Because these birds are protected, we couldn't take down this tree even if we wanted to. We enjoy the birds so much though, we have never considered having the tree removed. It is near the house, but not close enough to hit if the tree fell.
This pair of birds have been coming to their nest in our yard for about ten years now and we were a bit concerned when one of the osprey returned this February and sat on the branch for three days calling for the other. The other did not arrive and the osprey left. A week later, it returned and repeated it's cries. Again, its mate did not come.
Hubby and I were so saddened by this as these birds mate for life and it seemed that something had happened to one of them during the months they are away from the nest. Then the osprey returned to the nest a third time and on the second day, the other one arrived!! I was thrilled to see them flying around the tree together and then settling into the nest...I suppose to do whatever birds do in their nest after not seeing each other for months. LOL!
Anyway, I wanted to share this story and if you are still with me, I have posted a couple of photos below of the tree and nest as it appears from my back door. I can't resist looking up every time I leave the house. This also a pretty impressive sight on a clear night by the light of a full moon! Look closely and you can see one of the birds sitting in the nest!

I also wanted to share a card I made using a tutorial from Splitcoaststampers. It is called a tri-panel card and it was really easy to make. I think it would make a presentation for a gift card. I haven't stamped a sentiment into it because I don't know the occasion yet. I used the SU! stamp set Greenhouse Garden. I love this set and it is often overlooked. It's a lovely collection of two-step flowers that seem to look great in so many colors. I used sage shadow and chocolate chip card stock as the base for the To The Nines dsp, also from SU!
Someone was sweet enough to leave a comment on this post a month after it was posted asking for directions to make this card. Above I stated that it could be found on Splitcoaststampers, but that information is incorrect. I went back and searched for the original source for the tutorial to make this fold and found it on Christine Creations here: http://christinecreations.blogspot.com/2009/10/friday-focus-fancy-folds.html 
I'm so sorry for the misinformation. Thanks to Robin for helping me locate the source. Without her question, I would probably never have given proper credit to the creator of this cool fold!

Well, I'm off the do some stamping in my own stamping room today. Did a little organizing this morning and now I'm ready to create. Thanks for stopping by today!

Love Birds

When I saw the new Basic Gray Origins papers hanging in Priceless, I knew I had to have them! What a breath of fresh air from all the Christmas papers I had been looking at. The new Bo Bunny papers and accessories were hanging on the next rack over and the cute love bird stamps were just too adorable to resist. I could just picture paired up with the BG papers! Here is the result.

The papers are mounted on a Garden Green (SU) base. I used a Fiskars corner punch with triple hearts on the brown layer. The SU Top Note die was used for the white layer. The birds were stamped on white card stock with Sepia Versafine ink and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I added color using just a cople of Copic markers and cut them out. They are popped up on dimensionals and perched on a strip of green paper from the Origins pad. The yellow flowers were punched out and layered with chocolate (from the scrap pile...non SU). I stamped out the words Love Birds and shaded them with the palest green Copic makes and then cut out using random borders and mounted on Garden Green.

Kenny and I have an anniversary coming up in January. Wow! Twenty years!! I'm afraid to ask him if he'd marry me again after twenty years. Some days I'm not sure I'd get the answer I want. I have to admit that the schooling years and new job stress have caused me to be just a little bit crabby some days.

I think I will use this as his anniversary card. I still need to come up with a birthday card for him. His birthday is two days before Valentine's Day....geez....another card! At least I get to keep them in my stash if they are really good cards!

Well, I'm off for a day of play at Priceless. Got a few goodies when I went yesterday for the after Christmas sale, but my favorite thing was a double sided lace jumbo border punch by Martha Stewart!! Thanks for stopping in!!!