Shady Tree Studio Thatched Birdhouse

This is a sketch challenge from the Stamp Something blog. It doesn't look exactly like the sketch at first glance, but I promise, the sketch is in there!! I've been on a Basic Gray Perhaps kick lately. If I'm not using Aged and Confused for DS's thank you notes, then you'll find me using Perhaps. This stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farm's Shady Tree Studio line. It's a fairly new line, and just lovely! I like that these stamps look watercolory while still being so easy to color! I used my Prismas and Gamsol on this. I messed up the background so badly I had to cut the birdhouse out.  I have a hard time with backgrounds, so if you see cut out images, it probably isn't because I'm especially industrious, but because I've messed up the background! I added a bit of Aqua Stickles to the leaves. We wouldn't want a glitter free card, now would we? I use Aqua on most of my leaves.

I hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day. We drove out to Wheeless, OK and stopped at the church where we think DH's grandparents were married.  His great grandad's name is on one of the stained glass windows. There's no bathroom in the church, but there's a double seater outhouse out back.

Then we drove over to the Smith homestead in New Mexico where DH's grandma grew up, and looked in the windows of the old house. DH wouldn't let me go in, and caught me on my way in a window with only one leg dangling out. Later on, my oldest son asked me what I got in trouble for. "You tried to get into that house, didn't you?" All my boys know me so well. He and youngest son had been off in the ancient and beautiful trees that surround the place, so they didn't see the actual attempted crime, they just heard DH yelling at me from over at the corals. You can call me Wreckless and DH Cautious! Anyway, that old rock house must have been a real beauty. All the baseboards are eight inches high and molded. Every door and window was surrounded by five inch molding and the circle within a square business at the corners.  I love exploring old houses, but DH was nervous about the floors, so I didn't get to go in.