Birthday Josh

It’s been a long time since I’ve had the luxury of creating a card that wasn’t part of a DT commitment so I’m excited to this one off today.  I created it to participate in the Sparkle Creations Challenge #87 where the theme is to use “Neutral Colors” – mainly backs, grays, browns, creams and whites.  I thought these would be perfect colors for another boy card as well.

The main image is Birthday Josh from Sparkle Creations Rubber Stamps and the sentiment is I Chart from Penny Black.  I kept the layout simple, added a little ribbon for a tag, a chippie from Make it Crafty and finally went around the edges with a white gel pen.  I colored the images using Copic Colors from the “E”arth and “C”ool Gray markers.

These colors also lend well to some other pictures I have been meaning to share.  I recently went out into the wilderness and spotted this little creature less than 20 feet away from me!!  I know it’s a little unbelievable but keep with me as the story unravels a little more.  He he he

This animal is called an Axis deer but are also know as Chital deer or spotted Indian deer. They have a bright reddish coat marked with white spots that remain throughout it’s life and are originally native to India, Nepal, Sri Lanka.  Did you know that Axis deer are good swimmers with no fear of the water?  Also their fawns are protected by both parents, but stay close to mother. So what is one of these doing in Texas?  Good questions, but first, as I was admiring this little fawn and taking pictures, I found this guy lurking next to the tree right beside us!

Ok, now I’m sure if you had hackles they would be raised by now, but don’t fear as I wasn’t in any immediate danger.  We were actually taking a day jaunt to the Fossil Rim Wildlife Center where over 1000 animals live, 50 species native and non-native, on 1700 acres of land, a sanctuary for endangered species.  It’s a place that you can drive around in and feed these animals right at your car window!!

It was amazing and these animals would stick their heads in the car window if you weren’t watching closely – and did one too!  Nearly scared the bajeezies out of me!  LOL  We bought a bag of feed and were were allowed to throw out on the ground near the car so many of the animals came right up to us.  We were allowed to feed the giraffes from our hands unfortunately none of them were hungry enough to come eat.  Above is a close up of a Wildebeest.

It was great day trip and I’m sure I’ll go again.  This time with a fully charged camera battery and backup memory sticks!!  None the less, we were able to see all these different species, most of them up close and personal: Wildebeest, Addax, Backbuck, Bontebok, Waterbuck, Aoudad, Emu, Ostrich, Shanhill Crane, Bison, Cheetah, African Spurred Toroise, Anglo-Nubian Goat, Boer Goat, Vietnamese Pot-Bellied Pig, Axid Deer, European Red Deer, Fallow Deer, Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra, Giraffe, Jackrabbit, Roadrunner, White-Tailed Deer and Black Rhinocerous.  Above is a picture of the Hartmann’s Mountain Zebra with it’s beautiful brown stripes!