Richard Bell's Wild West Yorkshire nature diary

Ruby Card

cardSaturday, 24th March, 2007
YOU’D HAVE TO LOOK for a long time to find a card for the Ruby Wedding Anniversary of our neighbours which included a selection of their pets: a Chihuahua, a lop-eared rabbit, a red-eared terrapin and a sheepdog-ish pet called Penny. So, instead of searching the shops, here’s a one-off special that I made this morning.

The A5 card I used is from a pick-your-own selection box that you can get at the Paper Mill shop at the Rheged visitor centre, Cumbria; I like the textures available and the range of colours; more than the standard colours you’d come across at an office supplies store. The shop stocks a small selection of those made at the paper mill at Burneside, which, despite being the largest in the western hemisphere is surprisingly well hidden away in this village on the south-east fringe of the Lake District National Park. We discovered the mill as we walked the Dales Way (see my little Dales Way Diary sketchbook).

Just one problem for me; the new Noodler’s ink that I’ve started using doesn’t work on some of the card. Noodler’s reacts with the cellulose in paper to quickly become waterproof and permanent. I guess that some of this card has a coating which prevents the ink reacting with the wood fibre content in the card but the Artline Calligraphy Pen, 3mm, that I used works fine.