CCC 22 - Alcohol Ink Splatter (in autumn !)

I love this technique on page 52 of the Compendium of Curiosities. I first tried it when I found a can of air on special offer at a local stationers, and am hoping to use it again to make some Christmas cards, though I fear there may not be much more air left in the can ! CCC is my favourite challenge, and I am hoping that when we have got through all the techniques, Linda at Studio L3 will have devised a way of letting us do it all again, or Tim will have produced another book !

I wanted to make a snowy icy Christmassy page using blues and pearl and silver mixative. However, when I got to the stamping stage, you will see that I'd been a bit heavy handed with the silver mixative in places where I wanted to stamp.

So back to the drawing board, and time to try a design for a Christmas card with different colours and this time some gold used more sparingly.

As we're well into November now, and even though I am still enjoying the autumn colours, I have let myself start to think about Christmas and got my box of festive stamps out ready to start on cards. We've had lots of disgustingly wet and windy days, but these have been interspersed with beautifully clear dry sunny ones.

On one recent walk to enjoy the autumn colours, when I climbed over the wall at the top of my garden, three sheep were staring at me, but two decided to make off.

Then the third turned her back on me and strode out across the field which is strewn with fallen oak leaves.

Here there are oak, hawthorn and holly trees. A couple of frosts towards the end of October started the turn of the leaves on the deciduous trees. Some oaks have lost their leaves, which I think have mostly ended up in my garden !

On some the leaves are brown and look golden in the sunlight.

On others they are still mostly green and clinging on to life.

There are plenty of holly berries at the moment, but by the time I want some for Christmas decs, the birdies will have devoured most of them.

We lost many of our old oak trees in the Great Storm of 1987 when they blocked our road for two days while local people worked with a chainsaw to remove them. The devastation was indeed a sad sight. But there are lots of young oaks growing.

When I first saw this young oak uprooted, I felt very sad.

Then I took a closer look, and realised that it still had roots in the ground and was very much alive.

What were limbs now appear to consider themselves trunks and are reaching for the sky. An amazing sight. What will happen? Presumably at some point their weight may prove too much for the root system, but I guess if it does succumb, it may not be in my lifetime !

Another tree common in this area is the silver birch. The sunlight in this one drew my attention and admiration. A real metallic look: the silver bark and the golden leaves.

From the field there is a fine view of mixed woodland where it is so peaceful to walk.

More autumn scenes.