Technique Junkies - Clear Coat Collage

Another fantastic technique from the latest Technique Junkie newsletter. I was inspired by a tin sign that I bought awhile ago at Hobby Lobby. It has a vintage postcard background which I was going to try to replicate, but while looking for stamps I came across a crackle stamp from I Brake for Stamps and ended up heading it a totally different direction!

The rest of the stamps are from various Oxford Impressions plates. That's one of my favorite things about OI sets - they all work so well together. The trim at the bottom is my favorite Baroque Border from RockCandy Studios.

I am so happy with how this turned out. Coloring is definitely not one of my strong suits, but I'm trying to improve!

Theme Thursday - People With Hats

For Theme Thursday's People With Hats challenge I'm sharing a card I made for the latest Technique Junkie newsletter. It uses a technique called Double Bugging. I had made the background and couldn't decide how to use it - I spotted these wonderful stamps from Artistic Outpost and they were a perfect fit!

Wednesday Stamper - Fairy

I tell you, I'm on a roll - two posts in two days! For this week's Wednesday Stamper I created a background using a combination of two different techniques from the latest Technique Junkie newsletter - Scrappy Spots and Stencil Stamping. These are both such cool techs!

My fairy is a photo stamp from ARTchix Studio (no longer available), the text stamps are from Oxford Impressions, and the trim is from RockCandy Studios. Speaking of RockCandy, you need to go check out their new blog. Dianne Adams and I are the featured artists this month!

Created Byhand Challenge - Circles

Finally got around to doing a challenge card. I read that the theme over at Created Byhand was circles and I thought - ooh, what a perfect way to highlight a new Technique Junkies tech!

This one is from the latest newsletter and is called Scrappy Spots. Another fantastic idea from Nancy Judd!

Stamps are from Oxford Impressions and I Brake for Stamps/Time to Stamp.

We're finally getting caught up with all the activity that's been going on lately (chickens! ahhhh!) so hopefully I will be getting to post more frequently!

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.

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.