Feathers & Pluck!!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone <3!  Hope that whatever you have planned with a loved one today is fun and fabulous and full of LOVE!!  I'm not much of a V Day girl, sorry, lol!  I think that love should be shown through-out the year in many small and big ways not just on Feb.14th KWIM.  I don't want flowers that die, chocolates that will add inches to my hips or jewelry I don't really need.  I'd rather have my husband get me a Dunkin Donut (boston creme only,lol) one Saturday morning a month & deliver it to me in bed with a 4 scoop Chocolate Milk.  Or give me a back rub when my muscles are sore from being hunched over my craft table for hours all day.  Pick up dinner from my favorite Japanese restaurant when I'm too dang tired to get dinner together.  Drive me 6 hours to an airport in a blizzard to catch a plane when he'd already driven 6 hours in it to get home.  Be a loving father to our children and be willing to sacrifice his golf game or rock climbing to spend time with them and me.  Take care of the kids, animals and house so I can pursue my dream of teaching art to everyone and travel away from home.  And basically be my best friend. the love of my life and the person that is my polar opposite thankfully so he can successfully put up with my craziness every day, LOL!  That's all I need through out my year and why I can skip over Valentine's Day because I get so much every other day of the year.  Love you much honey and thank you for giving me love every day of the year for the past 16 years!!!

NewsBitz:

-I will be in San Diego teaching a small Copic Class on Feb.23rd--I have a couple of spots left and you can see details and how to register at www.cmcroad.com.  I'd love to see you in sunny CA!  All my other locations are there too.  I will be announcing an ARIZONA date and time later this week, so stay tuned!!

-If you are interested in trying out for my NEW CMC Challenge DT you have until Feb.25th to get your entries in.  It is a rotating 3 month DT, all levels can apply and the only MUST is that you use Copics and show others how to love them.  You can find all the details in my CMC Challenge Group HERE (you must join the group to see---it is open to everyone).

-I've got 4 new videos on Copic Coloring--updated with my "flicking" technique.  Scroll down to below post to see them or enter "suzanne dean" into YouTube's search engine to see all of my videos (56 at last count, wow how did I get that many, LOL).  You can always find links to all of my videos, pdfs and articles by clicking on the Tutorials/Templates tab under my blog header above.  I try and keep it updated for ya'll ;)  I will have 6 NEW Copic videos coming in the next few weeks so look for that--they will all be new and updated--nothing like the classroom videos so don't worry!

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Today I get to announce a NEW CHALLENGE BLOG for the "House of Gilli" Blog and I get to be the first hostess, which is I am honored to do!  My fabulously good friend Anary Baumgarth is the artist and owner of the Gilli stamp line and I'm so happy & excited for her.  She asked me to be her Art Coordinator (right hand gal so to speak, hee hee) and I was happy to say yes and help her carry out her vision for this challenge blog.  Wini Bell is the DT Leader who will wonderfully organize and lead the DT gals for us!  You can find the NEW CHALLENGE and BLOG HERE---make sure to try & enter for some fabulous prizes including a free class from my CMC Classroom!!

This is my project for the challenge!  The Challenge is a RECIPE Challenge and you MUST use 1 form of sparkle, 3 patterned papers and at least 2 punches and/or dies on your project!  I used "Burlesque Gilli" for my project, I think she's super sassy and so much fun!  A great gal card to send to a good friend dontcha' think?  You can find the whole line of Gilli Stamps at Stamping Scrapping HERE!   The papers are by Basic Grey called "Marjolaine"--I loved the color combo as I think they match a peacock feather perfectly!

I used the oval and scalloped oval Spellbinders Nestabilities to cut out my image and mat it.  The scrolls and feathery leaves were made with Marianne Dies sold exclusively in the UK.  The black lacy border piece was made with a MS border punch.  A few elegant black pearls finish off the card nicely.

And of course she is colored with Copics, my favorite coloring tool of choice!  Copic Colors used: BG75,BG72,BG11,BG10/YG25,YG03,YG0000/C9,C7,C5,C3/E11,E00/R00.  I used Stardust Stickles on her peacock feather and ruffles/accents on her outfit for my sparkle.  Diamond Glaze on her shoes and eyes for some pretty shine!

Now I hope your creative juices are flowing and you are ready to get a jump start on this

1st "House of Gilli" Challenge with us all!