Chicken Girls Design May Release

It's the 10th of the month, so hold on to your shorts because it's a fantabulous line up of images being released from Chicken Girl Designs!!! AND there are some fresh faces joining the Chicken Girls Design Team. AND, as I posted yesterday, Kate is launching a new line of stamps called, Mint Motifs. OH MY GOODNESS!!!! It's very, very exciting around i {heart} papers right now!!!


Here's the Chicken Girl Designs images now available;

Aren't these images FUN?!!!! My youngest daughter really liked the alligator image, so she asked me to use it first of these images. Here's what I came up with;


We meant to use this card for a birthday last Saturday, but I didn't have it done in time. I coloured this image using copic markers and I did a little shading with prismacolours. I used my big scallop petite borderabilities to make the scallops between the strips of Garden Variety papers. The ribbon I used is a discontinued Basic Grey line, Recess.

The rest of the design team has some *uber* fab projects to show, so go ahead and take a boo!


Carlie
Christy
Laura
Lori
Michele

Tammy
Kate

stamps; gator greetings (chicken girl designs by i {heart} papers)
paper; garden variety (cosmo cricket), patch, walnut creme (bazzill)
accessories; big scallop borderabilities, big scallop rectangle, rectangle nesties (spellbinders), ribbon (basic grey), copic markers, prisma colour pencils

OCC - Blooming Blossoms!

So far this month we've used buttons, bows, and butterflies. To keep with the theme of B's, Dana Grothaus is challenging us to use blossoms on our cards. We can't wait to see all your beautiful blossoms and flowers.

To play along, upload your creation to your blog or gallery, then link it here with the direct link with our NEW linky system on the OCC blog. If you upload to SCS, remember to use keyword:OCCC
Our sponsor this week is Paper Maniac! They are an online store for paper crafters. They have a wide variety of stamps, papers, tools, and embellishments. Patti, the owner is generously giving away a $30 Gift Certificate & Free Shipping to one random participant. In order to qualify for this prize you have to submit your creation no later then Friday, April 30th by 10:00 PM EST. Be sure to stop by the Paper Maniac store to see all their fabulous goodies!


In my community the leaves are starting to come out. This is the earliest I've ever seen our trees in bud. The green haze around the trees makes me feel almost giddy with joy that another winter is over! I'm totally in the mood for spring colours and pictures so I chose this image for today's OCC challenge;


Love it! I coloured 'Raccoon Flowers' with copic markers. The designer paper is from one of Basic Grey's new lines called Kioshi. It has all the right colours for my idea of spring! The embellishment list is LONG for this project in my recipe list below, but I've been going a little more simple lately, so I decided to splurge this time. This card is 6"x6" and the larger size scallop border and rectangle feel like they have the right whimsical proportions to carry the size of the card well.

I hope you have a lovely spring weekend with an opportunity for the sun to kiss your face! And check out what the rest of the fabo-licious OCC design team did with blossoms today!

Dana, Diane, Jennifer, Jocelyn, Julie, Linda, Sarah

stamps; raccoon flowers (chicken girl designs)
paper; kioshi (basic grey), pear crush, coconut swirl (bazzill), purple core'dinations cardstock
accessories; jumbo scallop borderabilities, big scallop rectangles (spellbinders), purple ribbon (may arts), green ribbon (SU!), kioshi buttons (basic grey), hydrangea border punch, branch punch (martha stewart), rhinestones (heidi swapp), copic markers

Feature stamper chicken girl challenge

I love Theresa Momber's gallery on Splitcoast because she has such an amazing way with copics. For this week's feature stamper challenge, I cased this card by Theresa. It's sweet and fresh for spring. I tried to be true to her design but I did change it in a couple of ways;

1. I had to change the card size a little to accommodate my longer, narrow image.
2. My colours are a little darker, but I sponged in the same way Theresa did.
3. I added a sentiment and a just a few embellishments.

I really do love Theresa's colours and layout. I chose to keep the same neutral papers neutral - meaning the only distinctive pattern is my abstract floral in the same place Theresa used a flourish pattern. The tiny, itty bitty polka dot paper I used basically reads as a solid orange, so that's why I'm sticking with it. I used 'Just a Note' digi image from Chicken Girl Designs. Now, this is a digi I totally understand! *giggle* I play flute and my DH plays guitar! Yup, it's a happy day!

Normally, I try to stick to life like colours for my images, but I decided to go a bit more whimsical today - must be the lovely weather that's making me feel a bit tipsy! LOL! I coloured this image with copic markers and sponged around the edges. I cropped the image very closely because I wanted the sentiment that comes with the image to be mounted separately. I love the look of this little banner!

Thank-you so much for popping by and have a delightful week!

stamps; just a note digi (chicken girl designs by i {heart} paper)
paper; sugar rush (basic grey), core'dinations cardstock, copic cardstock
ink; sunset orange adirondack (ranger), bordering blue (SU!)
accessories; crepe ribbon (creative impressions), sugar rush brads (basic grey), copic markers

CC263 - Surprise! I love a great Priate Story!

Today's colour challenge on splitcoast is creamy dusty pinks! And Betty Wright graciously asked me to supply a sample for her. Am I over the moon tickled or what?!!!!

I got it done between going to the lab for more blood tests, grabbing a couple of groceries, sick kiddo again, laundry (it never ends, does it?!), gifts and birthday cake, and piano lessons. It's really hard to bow out when it's your gifts and cake, KWIM?! *LOL* Since I ended up a little more pressed for time than I thought I would be, I went a little simpler on the embellies and put my time into colouring this cutie patootie pirate dude, officially called Sailing By by Chicken Girl Designs.

I coloured him with copic markers, but this time I used prismacolours for my shading and highlighting. I was talking to a darling friend of mine from Florida, and she mentioned Asela Hopkins work with copics and prismacolours. I figure if it involves colouring, I can do it (*snort*) and I had used them together in the past, so I decided today was a good day to reacquaint myself with the technique. Love it!

Yup, on the whole, it's a good day for a colour challenge!!! Enjoy yourself!

stamps; sailing by (chicken girl designs)
paper; joy ride (cosmo cricket), yam, romance, coconut swirl, brown (bazzill), creamy caramel (SU!)
ink; tea dye, vintage photo distress ink (ranger)
accessories; labels 8, oval & scallop oval nesties (spellbinders), faux suede ribbon (may arts), copic markers, prismacolour pencils, bow easy

Chicken Girl Designs goes Digital!!!

Hello! We're so excited to announce that our exclusive Chicken Girl Design line is moving to digistamps! This will allow more frequent releases, more seasonal releases and overall more flexibility. This month we’re launching 9 new images. The complete collection is shown here. Each individual image is only $2.50 or you can get all 9 images as a the March Collection for $20. Our clear polymer sets will remain available until inventory is depleted.

If you’re new to digi, here is how it works. You buy the stamp and on your emailed order confirmation invoice you will have a little icon that you click to download you file. See here:

Click that, a little box will likely pop up asking you where you want to save your file, save it (I usually make a folder in My Documents/My Pictures or save to my desktop) so you can find it and then open it in Word or your image editor and print it. That easy!

Our files are 300 dpi transparent PNG files but if you require a JPEG or other file type, just send Kate an email after you’ve ordered and she’ll work it out.

This is our first attempt at delivering downloadable content through the shopping cart and while it has been tested and tested and tested, there may be a few hiccups. If you experience any issues, please contact Kate and she will work to resolve it immediately.

So, now that all the technical jibber jabber is over, how about you go look at some amazing creations?

Here's mine using Springing Bunny;

We’ve had some changes to our previous design team, so here is the updated list:

Christy
Tammy
Judy
Lori
Loretta (*me!*)
Shelly

Kate

Thanks for stopping in today! I hope you’re as excited as I am about this release! Have a great day!

stamps; springing bunny (CGD)
paper; lemonade (basic grey)
ink; pretty in pink (SU!)
accessories; octagonal & tag trio nesties, mint glimmer ribbon, light pink faux suede ribbon, brads, copic markers

Part 1: The Saga Begins...

Lady Bea loves to cuddle up for her naps in my husband's guitar case...all 60lbs of her!

Last Monday I started substitute teaching. It was a one off position while the teacher wasn't feeling well. It's all good, and until I have my permanent certification, I will accept as many placements as come my way! I was in a grade 3 classroom and the morning went very well. They were a bit chatty and I quickly learned what was an acceptable decibel level for the other teachers.

I checked my voicemail at lunch. First message, 'Hi, Mom. I don't feel well. Talk to you later.' *sigh* First day?!!! It will be okay. Second message, ' Hi, Loretta. Do you know where your foster dog is?' * EXCUSE ME?!!!* When I left the house that morning, she was in the dog run, exactly where she should be... My prayer; 'God, please take care of my home front while I'm not there...'

My son took some advil and recovered. A nice neighbourhood lady took the big, ferocious, dog aggressive rottie cross (we still haven't seen dog aggression. Timidity, yes quite a bit which I know can lead to aggression in the right situation) to the local vet where Lady Bea had a lovely day visiting with all the other dogs and people that came in the clinic. My husband reported to me over the phone after school, ' Um, yup, she pulled the chain link door in and popped the latch. She pulled the security bars off the window and pulled out the screen. Then she forced the crank window open and that was that.' HOLY SHAMOLIES!!! Are you kidding me?!!!!

Lady Bea howled for 4 nights until 2:30am, starting up again at 5am. I went to teach with very little sleep. A week ago, we started kenneling her in our room at night, and the howling stopped. She is up with us all the time, and is the happiest dog - better behaved than my shelties, fer sher! Stay tuned there is so much more that happened last week people...


This image is from 'Just Skating By' by Chicken Girl Designs from i {heart} papers. I coloured the image with prismacolours and cut it out with circle nestabilities. This sentiment is long and narrow which it perfect for creating a banner.

I cannot take credit for the hardware embellishment. I saw this card by Vicki Garrett last weekend and I just loved how she used ribbon on her hardware. I wanted to give it a go, and I happened to have this skate embellishment which fit this card perfectly.

Thank you for stopping by today!

stamps; just skating by (chicken girl designs by i {heart} papers)
paper; eskimo kisses (basic grey), parakeet, coconut smoothis (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; ribbon (basic grey), charm (karen foster), brads (making memories), ribbon (basic grey), HH, snowflake #2 die (SU!), circle nesties (spellbinders)

Chicken Girl Design Release

Today starts the sneak peeks for another Chicken Girl Design release. This time, it's a darling Birthday set and I must say, it's one of my favourites! My kids really like this set too... Make sure you sneak a peek at what the rest of the Chicken Girls have created with this set using the links available on my sidebar.

I almost did a purple elephant, but I figure on occasion it's in my best interest to give a nod to reality and do a little life-like colouring! *LOL* I love colouring whimsical characters whimsically though. It seems fitting. Anyhoo, I used copic markers on both the elephant and the little pink gifts.

I have several birthday parties coming up and am in need of several children's cards. While I normally like to make an A2 size card so I can put a slot in it for a gift card, this time I made a 4"x4" easel card. It's fun and cute and perfect for a little girl from my youngest daughter's grade 3 class. I'm thinking a little critter from Build a Bear will be a perfect accompaniment for this sweet little elephant.

This birthday set will be released next Monday, November 16th so stay tuned this week for all the peeks coming your way.

stamps; birthday wishes (chicken girl design by i {heart} papers), giving it all meaning background (unity)
paper; oh baby! girl collection (basic grey), coconut swirl (bazzill), cardstock by cored'inations
ink; milled lavendar, concord grapes, black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; fancy tags, labels 5, oval and scallop oval nesties (spellbinders), brads (unknown), copic markers

SC252 OCC stacked pale pumpkins

This week on the OCC, this adorable pumpkin family is your inspiration. Create a card or project inspired by this photo. Have fun with this challenge, ladies!!!

There is no time limit on our challenges - feel free to participate whenever you are able. To play along, upload your creation to your blog or gallery, then leave us a comment linking to your project so we can check it out. If you upload to SCS, remember to use keyword: OCCC.


I know those pumpkins are orange, but I went a little paler with my round stacked family. Totally sweet, eh?!! I used 'It's a snow day!' from Chicken Girl Design by i {heart} papers. This image is coloured with prismacolor pencils and Gamsol and I used last week's sketch challenge from SCS for this card. What can I say, I had the paper and image ready to go from last week when I was ill, and it was perfect for this OCC challenge as well.

Please take a few relaxing minutes to see what the rest of the OCC DT did with this fun challenge! All the links are on the side bar of my blog.

stamps; it's a snow day (chicken girl design IHP)
paper; eskimo kisses (basic grey), starmist, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; ribbon (SU!), buttons (basic grey), rhinestones (heidi swapp), double scallop border punch (ek success)

A double challenge Post

It's a little trying having multiple kids sick - KWIM? I haven't been on much because I've had someone needing my attentions starting at about 4:30am every morning for nearly a week now. *sigh* If it doesn't kill me it'll make me stronger right?! It's tough watching asthmatic kids struggling with a cough that would be bad enough because of the cold alone, but combined with their asthma, it's downright alarming! Now, I'm just starting to get tight and a little ahem-y. Bring on the puffers, the vicks and BED...


I made this pink elephant card on Tuesday, but have been a little busy since then to post it. This cutie patootie guy is from the new Chicken Girl Design release by i {heart} papers called Just Skating By. As soon as I saw the SCS colour challenge this little elephant dude popped in my head dancing and skating like the 'Elephants on Parade' dream sequence from Dumbo. I've been looking for an excuse to do a pink elephant and I think he's sweet!

stamps; just skating by (chicken girl designs by i {heart} paper)
paper; always artichoke, cameo coral, bravo burgundy (SU!), poison cardstock (unknown), eskimo kisses pad (basic grey)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; buttons (basic grey), picture hangers (daisy d), ribbon (SU!), black brads (bazzill), create a flake 1 & 2 (spellbinders), branch punch (martha stewart), clear rhinestones (heidi swapp), prismacolor pencils




Today's ways to use it challenge was to use patchwork on a project. I knew immediately what I wanted to do. There was a card from CHA in January in the Basic Grey booth done like patchwork using their Wisteria paper. It was stunning! There were little pearls on the corners where the papers joined and now that I think about it, their paper placement was much more random than mine.

I used my scor-pal on the paper the patchwork is mounted on, scoring my base into 4 quadrants and then turning it to score into diagonal quadrants. This made the paper placement a guaranteed success situation since I just had to line up my paper with the score lines horizontally, vertically and diagonally. The paper squares were punched out with a 1 1/4" punch. Very easy, despite how complicated it looks.

Thanks so much for popping in today! Your lovely words always mean so much to me.

stamps; home for christmas (SU!)
paper; eskimo kisses (basic grey), parakeet (basic grey), white linen, cardstock vellum (paper accents), rich razzleberry (SU!)
ink (black soot distress ink (ranger), pink chiffon chalk ink (tsukineko)
accessories; goldenberry dew drops (the robin's nest), ribbon (SU!), fancy tags (spellbinders), rhinestones (heidi swapp), 1 1/4" square punch (ek success)

Feature Stamper tribute

I saw this card from Riley and it was a no brainer CASE for me. I kept the touch of pink and used polka dot paper like she did, but my polka dot pattern is much denser. I have the same layout, including images up the left side and I popped up my images as well, like Riley. A totally cute card there GF!!!

I used a new stamp set from i {heart} papers chicken girl design, released last Friday. Totally adorable images on the Just Skating By set. I keep having visions of a pink elephant winter card, so we'll see if I can make that happen or not in short order here!

stamps; just skating by (CGD by IHP)
paper; eskimo kisses (basic grey), garnet pearlescent cardstock (paper accents), brown, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; espresso adirondack (ranger)
accessories; ribbon (SU!), petite ocval and scallop oval nesites (spellbinders), chablis rhinestones (bazzill), snowflake charms (embellish it!), copic markers & glitter markers



I made this card for a class I taught on emboss resist. I cased myself because I had a specific request to do this card. It's one of my favourite layouts, and the new SU! set, Pendant Park is perfect for the embossed panels running along the edges of the card. Love it!

stamps; serene snowflakes, pendant park (SU!)
paper; coconut swirl, splash (bazzill), 24kt pearlescent cardstock (paper accents)
ink; versamark (tsukineko), pool, ocean aqua, antique linen (ranger)
accessories; labels 2 nesties (spellbinders), ribbon (SU!), clear ep, diamond stickles (ranger), goldenberry dew drops (the robin's nest)

Chicken Girl Design New Release

Today is the day!!!! There are 2 new sets available from i {heart} papers Chicken Girl Design!

Here's Just Skating By ($10);




and It's a Snow Day ($10);




Totally darling aren't they?!! We've had a boatload of snow, so I'm in full Christmas card mode. I have a fun twisted card up my sleeve for the 'It's a Snow Day' set, so stay tuned!

Now, for some BIG news from Kate;

Celebrate with our Birthday Bash Challenges

Get ready for the i {heart} papers Birthday Bash! That’s right, IHP is turning 1 year old this month, and we have a week-long party planned!

There will be prizes galore (free stuff – you like free stuff, don’t you?) with our daily challenges, and at the end of the week someone will win the Grand Prize of an IHP Guest Designer spot for the month of November!

There will be 6 birthday party themed challenges, one posted each day starting on Monday, October 19th. Each challenge will be hosted (and posted) by one of the IHP Design Team members. It will also be posted on the IHP Blog and on the store site HERE. Some special invited guests will be posting throughout the week, too! There will be a prize given for each challenge.

To qualify for the Daily Challenge prize, all you have to do is upload your challenge card/project to Splitcoast Stampers (SCS) and/or Paper Craft Planet (PCP) with the appropriate tag so we can find it. The tag (and the prize) for that day’s challenge will be posted on that day. You will have until October 25^th to post your work, and you can enter as many challenges as you like, but you CANNOT combine challenges in one project. The daily challenge winners will be randomly selected at the end of the week.

To qualify for the Grand Prize of being IHP Guest Designer for the month of November, here’s how it will work: Every challenge card/project you enter will earn you points (see the list below), and whoever has the most points accumulated for the week will be the Grand Prize winner. So the more challenges you enter, the more points you earn — and the better your chances of winning the Grand Prize (and the bigger the value of your Guest Designer box will be)!

All winners, including the Grand Prize winner, will be announced at the Birthday Bash on Monday, October 26^th.

Helping more birthdays happen...

Because i {heart} papers loves birthdays so much, we've decided to contribute 10% of sales, beginning on October 19^th and through the end of October, to Hope Lodge New York City. Hope Lodge, run by the American Cancer Society, “The Official Sponsor of Birthdays,” offers free, temporary housing for cancer patients and their families who are undergoing treatment. The nurturing, comfortable environment at Hope Lodge allows patients to focus on what is most important - fighting cancer. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to help those who are helping more birthdays happen!

OCC Sketch Challenge & Chicken Girls Sneaky Peeky

Lori Rider is our challenge hostess for this month on the OCC. Your challenge this week is a sketch challenge and I'll refer you to the OCC blog for the sketch.


Get a load of this darling snowman duo from a new release on October 16th from Chicken Girl Stamps by i {heart} papers!!! Aren't these snowmen quite the pair?


I stamped the image with black soot distress ink and coloured them with copic markers. The snow is sparkled over with frosted lace stickles, to give it that diamond dusted shine like real snow. There's only a couple of things I like about snow. I love how spectacular fresh snow looks all clean and fluffy and I love the way it sparkles in bright sunlight. Both of these things can be enjoyed from the warmth of my living room with my hands firmly wrapped around a hot cup of cocoa.


This snowflake is a lot o' shine for this card, but this spot on the card was begging for a little something up here! I used Create a flake 1 snowflake die by spellbinders - please note it is a limited edition die available for a limited time only!!! {insert public announcement to all you ladies who buy spellbinder dies from me...} Again, I used stickles to bling up this snowflake for a little sparkle and shine.



I love charms. This is a snowflake charm from a carded set I have called Embellish It! I used quite a few of their charms and this snowflake set comes in both gold and silver.

Keep an eye out for another sneak a peek coming up on my blog in the next week of a second set being released and visit the blogs of the other Chicken Girls to see some more peeks!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

stamps; it's a snow day (chicken girl designs by i {heart} papers)
paper; dewfrost (memory box), coconut swirl (bazzill), not quite navy (SU!)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; rectangle and scallop rectangle nesties, create a flake 1 (spellbinders), modern label, lg oval punches (SU!), silver snowflake charm (embellish it!), white sating ribbon (offray), snowflake brads (making memories), rhinestones (heidi swapp), frosted lace, diamonds stickles (ranger), copic markers

Gobble, Gobble

Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!!!!

I have my turkey. I want to make a pumpkin pie this weekend because my dad likes it. My family really isn't big on holiday feasting and such, but I've been feeling convicted lately that special feasts for occasions like Thanksgiving are important and I need to start sitting up to take notice. We'll be doing Thanksgiving with a twist.

This card is monsters with a twist;


I keep using this monster set for boy cards, and wanted to give a girl card a try. I took my cues from today's limited supplies challenge on SCS today - use only stamps, ink and paper. I forgot that the other part of today's challenge was to make a fall card. D'Oh!!!

Instead, I'm calling this a clean and simple card, and carrying on with my day!

Have a marvelous weekend!

stamps; silly monsters (chicken girl designs by i {heart} papers)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
paper; coconut swirl (bazzill) dsp (SU!)
accessories; renaissance hearts pendants, in spades pendants, circles and scallop circle nesties (spellbinders), prismacolours

It's a Chicken Girl kinda day!

Is there anyone else out there who isn't that aware that Halloween is coming?!!! I feel like it is a world away, maybe because our Fall has been so very mild. The wind is a little more howlier today than it has been in a long time and it is whipping around the leaves that have changed colour and fallen from the trees. There is a real bite to the air too, so maybe that's why Halloween is more on my mind today than it has been to date.

With the weather such as it is, who can blame me for turning my card making to Halloween cards;


I'm trying to get a set together that my elementary aged kids can take and give to their friends. I think this one is super cute for my daughter's teacher since it really isn't one of the easily, mass reproducible cards that I'll need in short order. I'll show you some of those projects as the month goes along. *grin*

I coloured this cutie patootie Happy Halloween image with copic markers, and dolled up her little witch costume with my lavender copic glitter pen. I used Basic Grey's newest paper release, Eerie for the paper on this one.



I'm happy to report that my son is making friends in his class. With that, there are birthday parties that he is being invited to. For a party last Friday, I made this gift card holder for his friend. Duh me! I forgot to take a shot of the open card to show the gift card holder part of the card!


This little monster is from i {heart} papers new release, Silly Monsters. It's an adorable set, perfect for all those little boy cards I'm finding I need to make. Again, he's coloured with copic markers and then I doodles around the edges.

I hope your week is off to a wonderful start!!!

Halloween card;

stamps; happy halloween (cgd ihp)
paper; eerie (basic grey), yam, raven (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; circle nesties (spellbinders), black brads (unknown), ribbon (SU!), copic markers, copic glitter pens


Monster Gift Card;

stamps; silly monsters (cgd ihp)
paper; dp unknown(crate paper)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; brown brads (bo bunny), loopy brads (karen foster), hemp twine, copic markers

CC237 Happy Halloween

Phew! There has been SO MUCH happening around here! After a little 'good grief!' and a lot of prayer, I have a teaching job that will start in a few weeks. Initially, I'll be subbing in classrooms, but I will be back to full certification by Christmas-ish. This all sucked away a great deal of my time last week.

I have officially resigned from Stampin' Up! I cannot abide by the new demo agreement, so there ya go. Done.

The last puppy from Violet's litter that came to us early June went to his forever home on Saturday night. Saturday night, we got new fosters as well. These new guys have mange, which is a new situation to us. There is a mom and her 4 babies along will a spare puppy with mange as well. The spare is about 7 weeks old and looks GARGANTUAN next to the 4 week old puppies. I'll get some pictures in the next couple of days. They are growing like crazy already and the mom isn't nearly so emaciated in just 72 hours. Very cool!!! The mange is pretty gross though...


I saw the colour challenge for today on SCS and came up with this little gem using Happy Halloween, one of the newest releases from Chicken Girl Designs;



The colours are rich razzleberry, crushed curry and basic black. I immediately thought of Indian Summer by basic grey. When I took this picture, all the razzleberry got washed out. I think I'm going to go back and sponge some purple on the edges so there's more of a colour kick to it. I'm really quite gaga over these new papers. They are so spectacular!!!



Do you see the sparkles on the little witch costume? Fabulous stuff those copic glitter pens!!! I used the lilac pen which has a light enough colour to not change the colour of the dress but adds a copious amount of sparkle.

stamps; happy halloween (chicken girl designs - IHP)
paper; indian summer (basic grey), raven,coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; black soot distress ink (ranger)
accessories; black grosgrain ribbon, modern label punch (SU!), black rhinestones (heidi swapp), buttons (basic grey), copic markers and glitter pens

i {heart} papers Chicken Girls Designs September Release

Silly Monsters is such a fun set, designed by illustrator Jannie Ho. If you missed my preview you can find it here. I will be showing another fun set called Happy Halloween in the next few days. It's adorable too!

This card is 5"x7" which makes a nice group card. I find as well with this size that this super wide ribbon doesn't overwhelm all the other elements as it might do on a standard A2 size card.

I invite you to take a few minutes to see the rest of the release projects by the design team and check out the newest stamp line of Petal Press by i {heart} papers!

Chicken Girls;

Kate, Kendra, Judy, Lori, Merry, Natasha, Shannon, Shelly, and Tammy


Petal Press Girls;

Ashley, Carly, Cathleen, Gretchen, Jenyfur, Julie, Krysten, Tiffany, Tracy, and Kate


stamps; silly monsters (chicken girl designs - IHP)
paper; haunted (cosmo cricket), raven, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; black soot (ranger distress ink)
accessories; labels nine (spellbinders), stripe ribbon, modern label punch (SU!), black brads (bazzill), border punch (martha stewart), spider charm (blue moon beads)

Dude! Great card!!

My kids are making friend in school left, right and center. The birthday parties have begun! My DS has a fast friend whose birthday is today and the party is forth coming. What's with all the babies in September? A cold winter? *snort*

This cutie patootie monster is from a set by Chicken Girl Designs that will be released on September 16th for i {heart} papers. This set is really great for Halloween and kids cards and stay tuned for another peek from a second set being released next week coming soon.

stamps; silly monsters (chicken girl designs - IHP)
paper; figgy pudding (basic grey), ivy, brown, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; espresso adirondack (ranger)
accessories; modern window punch, riding hood red ribbon (SU!), square nesties (spellbinders), flame dew drops (the robin's nest), eyelets (we r memory keepers), copic markers

CC235 luv ya bug

I have a DD who is 12 and 5 foot 7 inches tall. HOLY SHAMOLIES!!!! Her new friends at school say she has fairytale hair - it's a lovely shade of red and has beautiful soft curls that fall nearly to her waist. Well, said DD is all excited because she will be entering teen hood on Sunday. The calendar is finally catching up with the rest of that beautiful young woman!

Her favourite colour is purple, and she is SO MUCH FUN, that girl! I made her this card for her birthday this weekend and she's going to love it. I just realized it'll match the card I made for her for Valentine's *snort*!!!! Same paper!!! Oh well. It'll look cool on her desk.

I used some dp that works with today's colour challenge on SCS since it has old olive and elegant eggplant in it. I'd never though of putting basic gray with it, so that's a bit of an ephiphany for me. Cool! This dancing bug dude is going to make her laugh, I just know it! Now, I've got to run and tuck it away before she gets home this afternoon.

stamps; hugs from a bug ( chickengirl designs - IHP)
paper; eva (basic grey), elephant, salt dotted swiss, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; old olive, elegant eggplant (SU!), slate adirondack (ranger)
accessories; circle and scallop circle nesties (spellbinders), prima flowers (prima), paris, silver bells dew drops (the robins' nest), scallop border punch, basic gray ribbon (SU!), copic markers

Challenge triple play

We've been putting in a baseboard heat system in our basement, which means I will have heat in my studio this coming winter. This is a very good thing. A real kick in the hiney cost wise, but still a very good thing. Today, we found out our furnaces don't work. Hmmm... Canada, near the mountains with no heat to the upper floors of our house... Hmmm... I guess my family is moving into my studio *LOL*!!! {sigh} This is a double hiney whacker situation here! I need a real job.

I must be totally on another planet because I saw yesterday's colour challenge and it didn't even move me. People, it had 2 browns in the list! *squeal* What was I thinking to not even react to it?!!! KRAFT and CHOCOLATE CHIP?!!!!! Oh heaven.

I used my chicken girl designs, 'into the woods' for this one. I looked high and low for red gingham paper, and I have none so I went with the next best option, red polka dot. I coloured the bear dude using a blender pen and reinkers which is a technique I'm totally out of practice with.

With summer almost over, I bid you a fond 'stay warm'!

stamps; into the woods (chickengirl designs - IHP)
paper; chasing butterflies (daisy d), brown, sandbox dotted swiss, coconut swirl (bazzill)
ink; antique linen, tea dye, brushed corduroy, walnut stain distress ink, cranberry adirondack (ranger)
accessories; double ended tags, rectangle and scallop rectangle nesties (spellbinders), brown ribbon (offray), hemp twine

It's a big, long WONDERFUL post with a tutorial and a couple of challenges...

We have a fun inspiration challenge today! Unfortunately summer is almost over…as a tribute to the lazy days of summer our inspiration challenge this week is : YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE!!!!! We’re talking colors like orange, yellow, red or how about some shine with Shimmerz or Stickles. Maybe a project with bugs or flowers or beach stamps…anything inspired by summer sunshine! We would love for you to play along with us this week. If you do, please leave a link on this post to your project or use keyword JBE068 when uploading to SCS or PCP!

Here's my card for this wonderful challenge;


A little shrink plastic info...

Did you know that shrink plastic behaves as though it has a grain like fabric? The original size of these were the same, but the one that is shorter than the others was cut horizontally whereas the other pieces were cut vertically. A bit of a bug a boo there.

Rust from a cookie sheet will become permanently fused with shrink plastic in the shrink process.

Shrink plastic can be cut with nesties. I got the idea to try it from Tosh's project here. This little fact has officially blown my crafting world wide open!!!


And in other news...

I just got the bow easy tool. It arrived in my mail today, and it is the best little tool evah!!! If you don't have it, kick yourself in the hiney and get one! It's cheap and marvellous!


stamps; critters 'n treats (basic grey)
paper; lemonade (basic grey), coconut swirl, cranberry (bazzill)
ink; brilliance pigment inks (tsukineko)
accessories; 1" silk ribbon (may arts), white satin (offray), parakeet brads (bazzill), 1/2" corner rounder (zutter)

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The ladies at i {heart} papers are doing a challenge and there is more info on the blog. It's a fun one, and I really was challenged! It goes something like this;

1-2-3 challenge;

1 sentiment
2 embellishments
3 layers

I was challenged on all fronts. However, I think I came up with quite a cutie;



I used a sentiment from Hugs from a Bug and used my octagon nesties to cut down into my layers ( I may break my arm patting myself on the back for that!). I used white satin ribbon (embellishment #1) and a prolific amount of pink rhinestones (embellishment #2). The pink and designer paper layers are from Lemonade by Basic Grey.

Be sure to check out what the other girls did with this challenge!

Carolyn, Cathleen, Deb, Gretchen, Lynn, Megan, Tracy, Judy, Tammy, Lori, Kate and Kendra

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And now for a tutorial that I have been asked for a few times. I found these cream chalks and was a little intimidated to use them. I discovered that they are quite similar to cream based make-up. It feels creamy, but goes on dry. I have no idea how that works, but I'm happy for it!

I used this technique on a card I did for the Our Daily Bread designs August release of Happy Birthday.

For this technique, I used the prismacolour pencils and metallic cream chalks pictured here. Don’t be limited by my colour choices here. This technique works so well with many open images, like the watering can from the August release, ‘Happy Birthday’.

I stamped the watering can with Adirondack Espresso Ink, but I have found that many inks work well with prismacolour pencils. My favourites though are Adirondack and Distress Inks.

I lay down a light layer of my darkest colour first. I emphasize ‘light’ layer. ;) Having some of the white of the paper show through is a good thing for this technique.

Next, I colour a little further into the open space lightly with my mid tone colour as well as going over the dark layer, to blend the colours.

Finally, I finish filling the watering can with the lightest or accent colour. As before, I colour over the previous layers of colour. At this point, it really isn’t a pretty thing! However, the magic happens with the next step.

I have applied the cream chalk on the body of the watering can to show how the chalk fills in the white spaces and blends the prismacolours. I take up a little chalk on the end of the blending tool and rub it on in little circles to thoroughly blend the layers of colour. The metallic cream chalk has a very subtle metallic sheen to it that is very appealing on metallic objects, like the watering can. However, I do have visions of it on flowers, butterflies, and many other images where a little bling is a good thing!

Here, the watering can is completely coloured. I used the rust coloured chalk pictured to the left of the stamped image.

To finish the look on the watering can, I did a little highlighting with a white gel pen. COlouring with prismacolours and blending with cream chalk is a very forgiving technique that I have found covers many ‘wish I hadn’t done thats.’

And here is the finished card;

stamps; happy birthday (ODBD)
paper; coconut swirl, capetown (bazzill), Ancestry (K&Co)
ink; antique linen, tea dye, vintage photo distress ink, adirondack espresso (ranger)
accessories; cross charm (blue moon beads), silver brads (making memories), pink ribbon (american elements), ivory scallop and brown satin ribbon (may arts), adhesive pearls (kaiser), long mega deckle rectangles, nesties (spellbinders), prismacolours