Happy Birthday Big Guy!

Hi and a Happy Saturday to you all...I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far :)

I normally have a couple of DT cards to share with you on Saturday's but earlier this week I made a decision to step down from some of my DT posts...recently my card making has sometimes felt more like a full time job and instead of crafting to ease stress...it was creating more! lol....I have really enjoyed my time with all my various DT buddies it's just time for me to ease off.

I am not going to stop crafting...I will still be posting my creations here most days...I just need to have more time to do the other things I love.... and also to spend some time looking after my Mum who is still not in good health.

...So on to my card today...I have another birthday card for my new guy Jan (pronounced Yan). This image is just so perfect for him as he loves gardening and helps me at the weekends...and only last week he planted up 24 tomato plants...it's as though the image were tailor made for him :)

The image is from the 'Big Guys' collection at Mo's Digital Pencil . I have coloured the image with Copic Markers and again I have masked the image and sponged some 'Antique Linen' distress ink to blend the image in with the papers. I love these fab papers they are from the Tim Holtz 'Retro Grunge' stack from Bunny Zoe's Crafts. I have used my Tim Holtz Edge Distresser to distress all the edges of the papers. I have kept to a few buttons and some garden twine for embellies...it's so difficult when it comes to embellishing mens cards isn't it!

Here are the Copic Colours I have used for this image:
Skin: E000, E00, E21, R20
Dungarees/Hat: YG63, G20, G21, G24, G82, G85.
Shoes:E31, E33, E35
Basket: E30, E31, E33.
Tomato Plant: YR17, R22, R24, R29.
Earth: E42, E43, E44.
Background sponged with 'Antique Linen' Distress Ink.

I am entering my card for the following Challenges:
Friday Sketchers ~ Claudias Sketch
Cards for Men ~ Monochrome.
Crafty Catz ~ Spots.
Sew Many Challenges ~ Anything Goes.

Before I close I have a few Garden Pics to share with you...gardening is my other great passion and I have been wanting to share this with you all for some time so as we had such lovely weather yesterday I popped out and took a few shots...I hope I don't bore you to death!

....This is one of the tubs of the Tomato Plants that Jan planted last weekend...lots of pasta sauce to come...yummy :)

...Here is a shot across the garden...trying to avoid getting Jacks trampoline in the shot! lol

....This is where I like to sit and drink my cuppa in the mornings...and where you can find me with a good book on sunny days...Jack on the other hand just likes to throw the gravel around ...half of it usually ends up in the fountain! lol

This is my mini Jungle....after spending so many years in Cyprus I really love the Mediterranean style garden and these are my Palm trees...and you can just make out my Camellia that is flower...it is named after me 'Debbie' :)

.... Another corner of the garden...You can see one of my tree ferns at the back there....

....They are so freaky aren't they...the fronds always look like hairy spiders legs when they are unfurling at this time of year....

This 'burning bush' is the first plant I bought when I moved to this house over 24 years ago. A lot of my plants hold memories for me...some were bought as gifts, some were planted by the kids and some were smuggled back from Cyprus...tut tut slapped wrist for me! lol

...one of my rhododendrons...what colour do you think the flower will be...if you thought hot pink you were wrong...surprisingly the flowers are such a pale pink..a R000 in Copic colours....I got it years ago thinking they would be hot pink too! LOL...ooh I just noticed a buzzy bee got in on the shot!...

...and here is one of my newest garden additions these 'Black' tulips...well as near to black as you can get in plant terms...can't wait to see what they look like when they open :)

... I hope that didn't bore you too much

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!
Hugs