Thank You to a Sweet Friend

Today I'm sharing a little linen bag I decorated with dog buttons, lace and a pretty tag.

I made this for my stamping/blogging friend Mona to thank her for a kindness.  The linen bag is from Pouch Mart and the little wooden dog buttons are from Craftpon.com Etsy Shop.  Mona has two sweet little Westies so I knew she'd appreciate these buttons! 

I made the tag using a die from PTI that I colored using a stencil and a blue gelato - with water and a paint brush, I brushed directly on the gelato and then painted over the stencil.  I inked the stamps (that Mona just happened to have designed!!) using Ranger Distress markers - inking directly onto the stamps - spritzing with water and stamping on die cuts of the flower, leaves and stamen. I layered the flower pieces with foam dots.

 

I hand sewed the lace to the top of the bag and the buttons to the bottom. 

Kent and I are on vacation this week -  we'll be spending a couple of days in VT visiting his brother and sister-in-law and another day we will have his sister down from NH for a visit.  The weather here is suddenly beautiful summer -  hot sun and cool breeze with a clear blue sky - hope it stays this way!

Before I go -  I just have to share some pics of a hawk that was in my backyard this morning  - sitting on a rock, pretty as you please, and then flying to the top of my bird feeder -  I zoomed in with my camera from my porch across the yard - so the pics are rather blurry -  but he was a giant bird and I had to get a picture of him. 

Hawks attack from the sky and are only on the ground as they eat their kill - so I don't know why he was standing here on the rock - I didn't see any feathers around him (from a kill!) and he didn't appear to be injured - you can see a gray and a black squirrel happily eating birdseed on the ground to the left of him (!) I guess they were too big for him to eat.  Maybe he had just had a kill in the woods behind my house and he was just resting a minute to digest??!!

Then he flew up to the top of the feeders - he's so big he couldn't keep his balance up there - you can see his blurred tail as he tried to balance!  He's looking straight at me!  I don't know yet what kind of hawk he is - he's much bigger than the ones we occasionally  see in our yard.  We have a great bird book and I'll ask Kent to help me compare this pic to the hawks in the book.

Needless to say -  there were NO birds at my feeder until he had been gone for a good 10 minutes!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Stamps: flower, leaves, stampin and sweet friend from Tropical Sensations set, thank you from Apple for You - MFT
Paper: white - PTI, tempting turquoise - SU, watercolor paper pad - Canson
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black 
Accessories: snow cone gelato - Faber Castell, paint brush, water, foam dots, wrinkled seam tape, Petal Pattern Stencil - MFT, Mini Mister - Ranger, Tag Sale die #3 - PTI, flower dies - MFT, linen bag - Pouch Mart.com, Lace - Ellen Hutson, wooden dog buttons - Craftpon.com Etsy Shop.