Inspired by the Lady Herself

My card was inspired by this card by Anna Wight, which was posted recently on her Sassy and Sweet Notes blog. Anna is the artist behind the cling mount sets I have (and love) from Whipper Snapper Designs as well as many of its individual rubber stamps, including this one (I think). Not only she does draw chickens but she has chickens (and cute kittens), which she loves and photographs.

While I adore her images, I have little passion for the real thing. My experience as a chicken farmer (to the tune of 6,000 of them) is not a relished memory. They eat, squak, and try to peck you when you pick their eggs. They smell bad and poop a LOT. Two chickens together in a cage fight until it's determined which will be the "boss" chicken. That makes for a lot of dead chickens. Perhaps, had the egg market not plummeted around the same time this venture was started, I might not have minded my 13-month venture as a chicken farmer quite so much. Even with this bad experience under my belt, I reiterate that I love Anna's chicken stamps and drawings. They have so much personality. I think her real chickens have personality, too, which is probably due to the fact that she doesn't have so many and is able to give them individual attention. LOL.

As for my card, I colored the image with Prismacolor colored pencils. Like Anna, I also pierced the perimeters of my background papers, which, considering you really can't see it on the finished card, was a waste of time. As my experience is with white chickens, it was fun to color this one brown.

Materials & Tools: Naturals (retired), Desert Sand, and Barn Red cardstock; Saraspirilla paper packet; Black and Cocoa ink pads; Whipper Snapper Designs Standing Chicken rubber stamp and CTMH Say it in Style stamp set; Button from my stash; Cocoa Waxy Flax; Prismacolor colored pencils; Gamsol odorless mineral spirits; Paper blending stumps; Cuttlebug w/Argyle embossing folder; Piercing tool; Stampin' Up Piercing Guide and Mat.

I had a better day at work today, although the problems that surfaced yesterday are a long way from being resolved. Fortunately, lousy yesterday lead to some meaningful dialog between Marv and myself last night about the future and the possibility of some changes. It was one of those days when one thing that was wrong combined with everything that's wrong to make for what seemed to be one big mess of a life - mine. I had a good cry, ranted and raved for a bit, and was better, thanks to the kind husband who listened to and/or put up with me. Sleep eluded me last night, so I'm going to shoot for a full eight or nine hours tonight. I bowl tomorrow night and am thinking a night out might just be what the doctor would order.

I hope you had a good day and that tomorrow is a good one, too. The fall colors, that I get to take in to and from my way to work, are beautiful this week. If I'm lucky, they'll last until the weekend so I can get the photos I talked about last weekend. Thanks for stopping. I'll be back tomorrow night with a card and the bowling report. Until then, take care.