Teapot Tuesday 209 - Whatever The Weather

I haven't been to a Tea Party for a long time - just about 16 weeks.  There are a number of reasons why, but I won't expound on that.  Instead I'm going to take part in this challenge which happens to be a Tickle A Teapotter week and hosted by my friend Sabrina.  

Sabrina showed us the cutest Winnie-the-Pooh teapot which was a gift from her mother, and asked us to make cards that have a weather theme.

We woke up Sunday morning to find the birds having a party of sorts in the wildlife refuge behind the condo.  It had rained the day before, so the water level was up and the birds were certainly taking advantage.

There were cranes, herons, gulls, ducks, geese, and swans, and they were making a riot.  I love these days when I can go out on the back porch with my breakfast and watch and listen to the crazy sounds of the birds.  You almost think that they get so excited when they find a juicy morsel that they let go with such a belly laugh, or maybe they're just warning the guy next to them to stay away from the sweet spot they just found.  Whatever they're doing, they're certainly entertaining.

So I was inspired to use this Poppystamps crane  image knee deep in water in front of a clump of grass in the brackish water.  You can see the colors of the morning sun reflected off the clouds as it rises after a day and night of rain.

This card is of the larger size, about 5 x 7, and I purposely left off a sentiment so the teapotter who gets it can add one of their own should they decide to pass it on. 

I used sponges and daubers to get those colors mixed for the water and the sky.  I tried watercoloring it first, but I was too impatient to wait for the colors to dry enough in between and kept getting water spots.  The crane was stamped on white cs in Black Stazon and then I cut it out, cutting off it's legs at the knees on purpose so you could get the feeling of the depth of the water. 

I'm thinking I'm going to have to reproduce at least one more of this card as I got an "Oh, wow!" from HWNSNBP when I showed it to him.  He's usually appreciative of my work, but more on the lines of "very nice" (sometimes even before he actually looks up), so when I get an "Oh, wow!", well I know I've scored big with him.

Okay, off to the party to see all the other lovely cards for this week.  Great challenge Sabrina!