Sunday, May 24, 2009

Baby Chicks!

Well, I would love to have posted my wonderful Garden Sprite Gothic Arch, but I am totally obsessing over this! One of our hens started setting three weeks ago. We were a bit worried - we'd gotten rid of our roosters about a week prior. I had read that the sperm can live quite awhile in the hen's uh, tract (oh the things you learn when you have chickens!), so we knew there was a chance they could be fertile.

We are very new to this whole chicken thing and didn't do any of the things you're supposed to. We pretty much just left her alone and hoped for the best. We were thrilled when, yesterday evening, we found an empty shell and spotted a little dark chick behind her in the nest box. This morning there was one more! Just now I went to check on them and found this wee baby, fresh out of the shell. She/he was pretty exhausted.

Now we are overrun with chickens! My husband (against my semi-strong protests) ordered another 17 chicks and 3 turkeys that arrived on the 6th. They're in the garage. Oh, and my daughter brought home a little banty chick from the feed store @ Easter. He's living in my studio. In a box - not free ranging w/the ink and stamps. ;-)

Maybe we need a Gothic Arches Chicken theme??? I could totally get into that.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Technique Junkies - Wet Stencil

Yikes! It's been ages since my last post. I've been up to my ears in baby chicks, setting hens, getting our garden in and a host of other Springtime activities. Unfortunately, that means less time inside and even less time for stamping.

I have been wanting to try the Wet Stencil technique from the latest Technique Junkie newsletter. I bought this stencil for another project and ended up not using it. It was lying on my table and I was like, aha! This is a great technique if you're in a hurry - sometimes you just have to squeeze in art when you can. I love how it turned out!

Text stamp and photo stamp are both from Oxford Impressions.