Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Today’s blog post features a Birds and Branches Happy Mail Card. This stunning card is by Shelly Millett. Shelley is a fellow Canadian demonstrator from Moncton, New Brunswick. Do you know anything about Moncton?

Moncton, New Brunswick

Moncton is the second largest city in the Maritime provinces and has a thriving economy. The people there are resilient and have learned to overcome obstacles.  It was first settled in 1733  so there is some significant Canadian history here. Hub city is its nickname since it is integral in the transportation network of the eastern provinces.

Shelley’s Birds and Branches Card

Here is a picture of Shelley’s card. I love all the details from the frayed gold cord to the carefully coloured leaves and branches. It looks like Shelley also sponged on some extra colour on the wings of her pretty bird. The green leaves on the background of this card come from Very Versailles and the “Hello” comes from Forever Fern.

Here you can see a closeup of this beautiful card. Is this bundle on your wish list? It was one of the prizes from my online Bingo last month and I hope to do another one in August or September.

This bundle reminds me of one of my very favourite Paper Pumpkins, it was the one inspired by Shelli Gardner. If you want to see the cards I made with it, check out this blog post. I was looking for another post featuring Birds and Branches but it turns out that I made the cards for a Facebook live but I haven’t blogged about them yet! Good thing I checked!

A Funny Story

When I saw what Gerard made himself for lunch the other day I just knew I had to share this story with you. Part of what I miss is all the stories I share at my coffee and a card classes. This is for you my friends!! Pour yourself a cup of coffee, grab a treat and pretend we are at coffee and a card and your crazy squirrel demonstrator is sharing a funny story with you.

People in Holland eat a LOT of bread. There is a plethora of bread toppings available and in their defense they do have pretty awesome bread here. Freshness is so important that you can even buy bread by the half loaf at the bakery. Bread is eaten for two meals of the day and toast is almost unheard of. Toasters are not a staple in the Dutch kitchen. Butter is also avoided by a lot of people. Note the state of this bread.

Now in Gerard’s defense I did not realize that he was planning to fold each slice in half and then eat it, sort of like a bun or a burrito. In his bachelor state of mind this is efficient. No need to cover the whole slice of bread with the topping, his stomach is not going to know the difference. To me this was austerity at a whole new level!! I am of the other extreme. The  bread is only a vehicle for the toppings. I have been known to cut my slice of bread into four pieces and put something different on each quarter. And trust me, the toppings go to the edge and they are not paltry.

Iconic Holland

I just wanted to share two pictures from my day in Leiden yesterday. One is the view from one of the many bridges over the old Rhine river and the other is of a famous windmill.

This windmill is the last one that still has an active miller living inside! You can read more about it and other wonderful things to do in Holland here.

Thanks so much for joining me here on my blog today, I hope you have a super day. If you live in Canada you are most welcome to shop with me by clicking on the links  below. If you do, you will get a free pdf tutorial from the Demo Design Dream Team with 16 3D projects. There is only one more week for Bonus Days as well. Get a $6 bonus bucks coupon with every $60 you spend that you can redeem in August.

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