A new layer

And I don't mean layer like in a layer cake, I mean layer as in CHICKEN layer! I opened the door separating the "little" girls from the "big" girls on Saturday. Queen Biotch Survivor has spent all of her waking time since in chasing the little girls back and forth, forth and back. I don't call her Queen Biotch for nuttin! But apparently, one of the little Americauna's found some spare time in being chased to lay her first egg. And that surprises me since the Buffs are the oldest of the "little" girls. I just ASSumed (and you know what "they" say about ASSuming, right?!) that the Buffs would be first to lay. I don't know who it is that gave me this pretty little blueish green egg, but I'll take it! I put it next to one of Queen's eggs since hers are the biggest of all. The eggs start small since their hoo-ha's aren't stretched out as much. As it stretches, the eggs will get bigger. And a little more chicken "birds and bees" if you will. You DO NOT need a rooster (male) for the hens to lay eggs. All females "lay" an egg. Chickens just do it on a more frequent timetable than say, a human female. The only reason you "need" a male is to fertilize the eggs. Hens will lay an egg every day or so, rooster or no rooster. Just like a human female "lays" an egg every 28 days or so. And there is NO nutritional difference in a fertile and non-fertile chicken egg. Also, eating a fertile chicken egg will not hurt you in any way, shape or form. Class dismissed!

Life IS good!

Now that I know they both have them, I can share a tag I made for friends Jeanne and Liane. They've both had some trials and tribulations this past year, Jeanne losing her beloved husband the 9TS back in February and Liane was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in April and has just finished up her Chemo and is now headed for Radiation. In my Internet travels, I find ideas that make me smile and sometimes I think the idea will make others smile as well. This tag is where that idea comes from. Life truly IS good.

Fungi

Now that his birthday is over, here is the card I made for brother-in-law John. Using a little play on words!! Mushroom stamp is Dyan's and I used her Spray Inks and a brush to paint the mushrooms. Card base was done with t!m's Distress Inks in Broken China, Mustard Seed and Spiced Marmalade and then I did the Spritz and Flick technique then edged the whole thing in Vintage Photo.

Enameled Birthday

It time for challenge 15 at Linda's and it's based, as always on CofCII by Mr. Grungemaster himself, Tim Holtz. This week our challenge is Enameled Metal and it's found on page 56.

Since I was such a baaaad Aunt Sue and brain farted Favorite Only Niece's birthday, I thought I'd go ahead and work a full month in advance and get Favorite Youngest Nephew's 13th birthday tag done using this challenge. I used t!m's gears texture fade for this and added a bunch of gears and screws (that John nicely cut the heads off of for me!) and I even found in my stash a piece of a ruler with "13" on it, so I added to the tag as well. I even used another technique in the book, Faux Patina, on the largest gear! Now I have a month to get a gift card and get it in the mail in a more timely fashion so it gets to him before  his birthday and not after like his sister's did! It's hell gettin' old, I tell ya!

CTMH sneak peek

It's almost time (Aug 1) for the new CTMH Idea Book to go live to customers. That means it's time for our team swap and time for sneak peeks! Letting the cat out of the bag just a bit early, but we have another FABULOUS Cricut cartridge called Artiste that has lots (over 700 as a matter of fact) images with a large portion being 3-D and home decor items. CTMH discontinued our markers earlier this year and has now come out with our own Alcohol based markers. We've also got 8 great new paper packs and over 53 new embellishments.

I'm back to my normal two spots in Susan's swap because she's gonna spread things out a bit and do a traditional card swap first, then later she will do a swap using the new markers and then later still a swap using the new Artiste cartridge.

First up is the new Dakota paper pack. A go-to for those who have boys with lots of blues and reds and a western-ish theme.

Second is La Belle Vie, a very French feeling paper pack. Two colors limited to this paper pack are La Belle Pink and Mauve. There are no inks to match these colors as they are meant to be a highlight color.

The burlap ribbon on the La Belle Vie card is one of our new embellishments. It's about 1.5" wide and I folded it in half and whip-stiched down the folded edge, then pulled the thread tight and gathered the ribbon into a "flower" shape. The "diamond" in the center of the heart is also one of the new embellishments, Boutique Assortment.

Building doors

I don't think I'd done a page in my art journal using CTMH stuff. Got an email from my wonderful CTMH upline Susan this morning with this quote and decided I really liked it and I needed to journal it. Started with a piece of CTMH Goldrush cs and applied CTMH inks in White Daisy, Goldrush, Autumn Terra Cotta and Chocolate in a swiping fashion on the cs. Then used my Distress Marker in black and applied the lines for the planks and nail holes. Did the quote on the computer and doodled around it. The doorknob is a CTMH Durables Round Stud.

Guilded Glassine Birthday

Baaaaaaad Aunt Sue here. Completely brain-farted my Favorite Only Niece's birthday which is tomorrow. But Linda rescued me!! It's time for Compendium of Curiosities II, Challenge 14. As always, based on the book by Tim Holtz, who's latest and greatest thing is his own app! Yep, Tim Holtz...there's an app for that! You can get it for your I-phone or pad and also for Android. Just click his name above and look for the app link in his sidebar. One really cool feature is you can input all of your Tim Holtz supplies based on manufacturer as an easy reference for when your shopping so you don't get duplicates. :::not that I know anyone who has done that!::: And there's also a "wish list" section so you can put all the things that you don't already own that you want. Ummm...wouldn't that be everything else he's created that I don't own?! This week, our sponsor is The Funkie Junkie and one lucky player will win a $25 shopping spree to her Zibbit store.

This week's challenge is the Guilded Kraft Glassine technique located on page 39 of the book.  I decided to do a "Dyan-esque" tag for Miss Joy since she's more of a girly-girl than gears and sprockets (not that there is anything wrong with that!) So I started with three of Dylusions Spray Inks and then used Dyan's ghosting technique with stencils and water, then splooshed a bit of Spray Inks on some stamps and rolled them here and there for some layering and texture. Used the head and legs from Pondering Petunia and painted them using Dylusions Spray inks. I did the guilded glassine technique and used my Heart Wings die to cut out the heart for her body and crown, which I applied some pink bling to since Joy is a Princess and must  have some bling on everything Aunt Sue creates for her! There's also a tiny bit of the glassine on the right leg of her pants which had a bit of a hole in them! Since she will be 10 tomorrow, I used a 10 BINGO chip and painted it white then once it dried, painted it with Dylusions Squeezed Orange Spray ink. A little Vintage Photo Distress Ink around the outside edges and a piece of grosgrain ribbon dyed using Squeezed Orange, Lemon Zest and Bubblegum Pink Spray Inks finished this tag off.