Fine Feathers Thanks Card

Today's Lesson From The Craft Room:  Get Mesmerized By What Is In Your Backyard

This past weekend we decided we were not normal.  Well, actually, we realized we weren't normal a long time ago.  We just reconfirmed it this past weekend when we found ourselves staring at the backyard for hours.  We watched the downy woodpecker move from place to place.  We watch the flight paths of the bees that visit our little water dish (and decided there might be members of three different hives visiting us for water since they fly off in three distinct directions).  We even watched the little mice in the corner of the yard, where the fence meets the driveway.  They come hunting for fallen seed.  We laughed about what it would be like to be on the dating scene again and, when asked what we like to do, to answer "sit in the backyard and stare at the bees for hours!"  Not quite the "watch movies and eat at fine restaurants" answer :)  Then we learned that maybe we are not as abnormal as we think.  Or we just seem to find people who are as weird as us when it comes to nature :)  We were in the park at night and were talking to one of our park friends.  He told us that they just had there small pond in their backyard cleaned - with the extra lilies and other plants removed and the liner replaced.  As a result, the pond was about a foot deeper.  He said he and his wife sat out in the evening, for hours, after the person who cleaned the pond left.  They sat there and watched their two koi swim happily in their cleaned out surroundings.  When was the last time you were mesmerized by what's in your backyard?
For today's card I decided to keep it clean and simple.  I took a small piece of chipboard and stamped it with the small feather in the Fine Feathers stamp set using Early Espresso (or maybe it's Soft Suede...I'm sorry I can't remember) ink.  I then stamped some background leaf images from Tiny Tags using the same ink at 1/3 strength.  I also sponged the edges of the chipboard.  Next I used my paper piercing tool to make a hole in the chipboard and added an Antique Brad.  Then, I stamped the sentiment from Little Labels onto a piece of Sahara Sand card stock and cut it out to form the banner end.  I then stamped the tiny postage stamp from Little Labels with the same ink at 1/3 strength.  This little banner was then added to the chipboard with glue and the whole piece was adhered to a Sahara Sand card base with dimensionals.  Here is a close up of the chipboard piece.  I hope you like it!