Thursday, October 25, 2012

Bookmarks XLVI: Grey, Red, and Black

I used to think there were two kinds of squirrels: grey squirrels, and red squirrels. Then I moved to Michigan, where there are also black squirrels. I'm still not totally used to it, and I've been here for more than five years. Black squirrels!

(There is also a quasi-fourth type of squirrel here, which I call "who dipped half that black squirrel in a bucket of bleach?" squirrels.)

The internet tells me that black squirrels are just melanistic (i.e. very dark) grey squirrels, and can have all sorts of weird mottling patterns, but still. Black squirrels! They're not less cool-looking for the knowledge.

So when I wanted to make a fallish bookmark with some scraps of acorny paper and my new Lawn Fawn Critters in the 'Burbs stamps, the squirrel (and the acorn) were the obvious choice, and doing squirrels in three colors was only a very small step from that. They're all stamped and embossed in gold, and then I colored them in with silver (for grey), copper (for red), and black (for black... you probably figured that out) and stamped and embossed some acorns in the same set of colors.

The background brown paper is a scrap I used to soak up spray from the craft mat a while ago and then set aside to dry. I love to do this, especially with bookmark-y sized scraps of plain paper; they go back into the paper box to become neat backgrounds for future projects (like this one). I'm pretty sure there's both gold and copper spray on here, although I can only swear to the copper. In the picture it looks like there's silver as well, but that's just the lighting.

I have some lovely novels starring squirrels that I should have used to photograph this bookmark on, but they're in a box -- oh, shoot, the Redwall books aren't boxed, I could have used one of them! Anyway, I ended up putting it on a page of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

I'm entering this squirrely bookmark into the following challenges:

Supplies: (the acorn paper is from DCWV's Autumn Melody matstack)

11 comments:

  1. I did not know that about squirrels, hey we don't have them here in Australia. Your post had me laughing that is for sure. Dipped in bleach really, still made me laugh.

    Nice art, keep up the squirrly work.

    Eliza

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  2. Great little bookmark, I love all those squirrels! Thanks for playing at The Crafty Pad this week in our Use An Animal challenge!
    Good Luck
    Hugs
    Dawn xx

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  3. Lovely bookmark. Love the colours. Thanks for joining us at Inky Impressions.
    Kerry

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  4. Gorgeous bookmark, just loving those squirrels !! Thanks for sharing it with us at The Crafty Pad this week !!

    hugs Diane xx

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  5. we have black squirrels in PA as well-I am always taken bac kwhen Isee one running around my yard-this is such a cute bookmark-looks good in the 3 colors-thanks for sharing with us at the Great Impressions Stamps fall challenge

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  6. What a pretty bookmark, we have squirrels in the garden and there been very busy collecting the acorns lately.

    Thanks so much for joining in with our Animal Magic theme at Penny Black and More challenge this month.

    B x

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  7. Your bookmark is so pretty and I love all the squirrels. The Island I live on had no squirrels until a couple of months ago. With the decline of Red Squirrels 3 were introduced here and have been seen enjoying their new habitat. There is no threat her as grey squirrels are unable to get to the Island.
    Anyway back to your bookmark.
    We are so glad you decided to enter your work into our challenge at Penny Black and More. Good luck in our prize draw and we hope you will join us again next month.

    Shirley

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  8. What a lovely project, very clever and creative. Thanks for joining us a Inky Impressions this week.

    hugs Vicky xxx

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  9. Wonderful bookmark.
    Thank you for joining in the Animal Magic challenge over at Penny Black and More @ Allsorts and good luck x Susan x

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  10. we have black squirrels here in ontario too; one friendly one that likes to dig in the pot on my deck. this is a lovely bookmark with the different coloured squirrels and i love the background. thank you so much for joining us for our animal magic theme at penny black and more this month.
    linda

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