National Bird feeding month.....

Good morning everyone,

 well its come round again National bird feeding month , where we live in Surrey there has been an invasion of Parakeets. You may assume they need a more tropical climate than Surrey , apparently not!! As the birds originate from the foothills of the Himalayas, they seem to find our mild winters easy to cope with.

They eat berries, buds, nuts and seeds, all of which are in plentiful supply in the area, both in the wild and in garden bird feeders, and due to their size - approximately 40 cm (16 inches) from top to tip of tail, they are able to compete for food and nesting spaces with our native birds.
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It's believed that there are about 30,000 Ring-necked Parakeets living in the South East of England, mainly in Surrey, with some flocks also sighted in Sussex and Kent.

The one in the picture was photographed from my kitchen window, he was with his mate (not photographed) they were eyeing up the garden bird tables with great interest and popped down a few times to get some breakfast from them.

 Hundreds of them have taken up residence in our local woodlands but food must be thin on the ground for them to come into the gardens, its the first pair I've ever seen from indoors before, though you can hear them in the summer quite easily..

Here's my card to celebrate today...
Its a really pretty little stamp by Bildmalarna of a little girl feeding her chicks and seemed ideal for today's project Bildmalarna have a huge range of stamps over at J and C Creations website, many of which are now reduced in price so why not pop over and grab a bargain

You will need:
Bildmalarna Minosa 'Chickens Stamp
Embossed 6' card blank
Spellbinders Floral oval die
Green pearls 
Ribbon, paper flowers
Alcohol Pens to colour
Sentiment  

I've used a Minosa 'Chickens' Stamp from Bildmalarna and coloured it in with my Spectrum Noirs
colours used were
Hair - TN8, TN7, TN2
Skin - F2, F3
Dress and top
CG1,CG2, LG2,LG5, LY2
Chicks LY2, LY1 , CT3
Basket - GB6, GB7, GB8

When this was coloured, I cut the image out with my Floral Ovals die and mounted it onto an 6 x 6'' square embossed card blank. I added some ribbon down the side and some flowers in the corner and a few green pearls to embellish. The sentiment is from an old stamp I've had forever, and this was cut out with a 1.5 circle hole punch.

All items highlighted can be found on the J and C Creations website 

And if you would like to know more about our feathered friends and how you can help them through this cold spell, why not visit  the National Bird Feeding Society

if you would like to see more crafting items why not visit the J and C Creations website