Jellypark GDT

Today is a first for me. I am  so tickled to be guest designing for the Jellypark Friends Friday Challenges! The theme for this week is Back to Nature. Now, for those of you who know me really well, you will be laughing hysterically at this. For those of you who don't, I don't really want to explain. But I will.

I am like the last person you will find out in nature. Unless, of course, there is an ocean nearby. Then, Calgon, take me away: I am in that water, snorkeling, if at all possible. But, if it is just going outside to sit, unless I am in the shade, you won't find me. If it is hikes on trails, you won't find me. If it is gardening, you won't find me. If it is riding a bike, you won't find me. If it is sitting on a beach, under a shady umbrella, you may find me. That's kinda the way I am. A house potato.

So, in doing a back to nature theme, I had to take myself back about 50 years. I was raised in the Montana Rockies, in Whitefish, to be exact. As a child I was outside all the time. My parents had trouble getting me to come home. Unless I was deep into a book. Otherwise, I was always doing something outdoors: roller skating, bicycling, sneaking to Whitefish Lake to swim, (and getting spanked for it later), playing softball, and in the winter, sledding and ice skating. So what happened? I think I'd need to lie down on a psychiatrist's couch to figure that out, because I have no idea. All I know is I quit the great outdoors when I got to be a teenager, and my family moved to Minnesota. Perhaps the shock of going from a small town to a big city did it. I am really not sure.

Anyway, I thought about what I loved seeing outside as a kid, and it was always the animals. Even the bears. From a distance. We didn't have the same kind of squirrels in our area as we saw in Minnesota. In Montana they were chipmunks, tons of them. Saw them in the trees pretty much everywhere. Just too cute, even though they are from the rodent family, and I really wouldn't want to get bitten by one.

So I thought I would do a rodent squirrel for my back-to-nature themed card today. I think this Jellypark digi, "Squirrel, I'm Nuts About You" is darling, and I had to color him up. Or down. But mostly up. He was printed on Make It Colour blending card. I brayered the background for him. Everything else was created with paper from a distressed piece of Authentique's Thankful collection, and card stock from Stampin' Up and Bazzill. I added a Memory Box Orchard Tree Frame die-cut around him. I also used a Memory Box Acorn die, as well as a La-La Land corner flourish, and several leaves from a Spellbinders leaf die. Then I finished die-cutting with a Spellbinders Classic Circle die and a Labels 8 die for framing my sentiment from Create with TLC, which I modified slightly by paper-piecing the acorn. A bit of baker's twine behind the frame, and I'd call him done.

He was shockingly, (oh, not really) colored with Copics: E04, E07, E09, E15, E17, E19, E40, E41, E42, E43, E44, E47, E49, E81, E84, E87, W00, W0, W2, W4, W6. If you are familiar with Copics, you will note I used colors mostly from the Earth collection, which was quite fitting for the theme, don't you think? I did a small bit of accenting with a white gel pen.

That's it for me. Over and out. But not before I encourage you to show us your back-to-nature side. Looking forward to seeing what you create!