April Artists' Trading Card (ATC)

 I am so pleased with how this month's ATC has turned out.  It really says 'Spring' to me.

 The background is blue acrylic paint with white clouds, then branch shapes painted on.  I used texture paste through a blossom stencil, which I painted in shades of pink once dry.  Tiny gold glitter accents add a bit of sparkle.

The gemstones are kyanite, rose quartz, peridot, chrysoprase, kunzite, fluorite and blue lace agate.  The gemstone of the month charm should be diamond (which I don't have) or clear quartz, which I used instead.

The back is decorated with the April rhyme and photos of primroses and daisies from the garden.
I think this could be my favourite card so far.  On to May!
Edited to add:

Here is a (rather dark - apologies) photo of the seasonal tree as it is at the moment.  It has wooden bird and flower pegs together with my felt flowers and birds too.  It will become an Easter tree shortly.  Chris made the tree shape for me and decorating it is something I enjoy as I mark the seasons.

First Garden Visit 2016 part two

Having visited Brightwater Gardens, we then went on to Hackthorn Hall, part of the Hackthorn Estate.  The gardens are open three times a year and this was the first time this year, opening for the snowdrops.  When I looked back at my photos, snowdrops didn't figure very highly - I was obviously more interested in the box hedge and the blossom.

 The box hedges either side of the path leading to the church were cut into a beautiful undulating pattern.

It was a very photogenic view (except for the blue pipe across the path!)

 I did take this photo of a clump of snowdrops growing inside the hedge.

This formal garden appealed to me and I'm sure that the summer planting will soften the lines.

 Looking back towards the church.

 We wandered through the woodland and I liked the ground covering ivy, camouflaging more clumps of snowdrops.

I loved the image of the church as seen through the blossom and sunshine.  We went to the walled garden, which has several greenhouses, one containing the second oldest grape vine in the UK, after the one at Hampton Court.  We stopped off at the village hall for tea and crumpets and then made our way home, after a lovely day.

Blossom Time

 Another visit to see Mum and Dad yesterday, and at last, the apple blossom is flowering.  It has been so wet and cold recently that I'm not sure whether any bees are around to pollinate the blossom, so I don't know whether this will be a good year for apples.  We shall have to wait and see.

 Some of the flowers are really not sure about the cold weather, and only just starting to unfurl their petals.

The other sight that can be seen all over the countryside at the moment is the oil seed rape flowering and giving a vast patchwork of yellow across the fields. 

Blossom from Tupholme

How could I resist putting these lovely Spring blossoms onto my Blog? I saw these at Tupholme Abbey (it means Ram's Island, apparently, and was originally surrounded by marshy, swampy ground) and thought they would make a lovely image.

The pussy willow also made a nice image, with the contrast between fully open flowers, slightly open and gone over flowers. It just shouts "Spring!" at you, doesn't it?