Copic Markers | Catered Crop

We need hope. We need change. We need experience. We need pens.
~ Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) on 30 Rock

Catered Crop Top Chef Design Team

Oh my goodness gracious gravy with pumpkin pie and Halloween candy! You guys are rockin' the FTR23 challenge already. I'm just pickin' my jaw off the floor every time someone uploads a new project. If you need any more inspiration . . . here's what our Catered Crop Top Chefs and Guest Chefs have cooked up for you to help you spice things up even more.

Our inspiration and recipe is provided by the very talented Kristi S and Jane Wetzel.

Playing with us at the Catered Crop "Follow-the-Recipe" linking party is easy as stealing Halloween candy from a baby. Here's how it works:

Use any of the ingredients (themes, colors, techniques, etc.) in Jane's and Kristi's projects. You don't have to use all the ingredients or the same brands. Just pick a few ingredients and then add your own spices to cook up something uniquely yours.
Add your project using the InLinkz (froggy) button below and join the party.
Be sure to list your recipe or tell us what ingredient you used from the sample recipe.
Don't forget to link back to this post or include the "I Followed the Recipe" button on your blog (see the side bar to the right).

Here's your FTR23 recipe.

Colors – Fall colors
Papers – Pattern paper, polka dots, crepe paper (fun!)
Stamps – Men, senior citizens, leaves and, okay, I'm gonna say it, bare bottoms
Color Mediums – Copic markers, Glimmer Mist
Embellishments – lace, thread, buttons, tags, pearls, ribbon, seam binding, twine
Techniques – paper piecing, sewing, layer your buttons, make a bow bouquet (a bow with lots of layers and elements)
Tools – Die cuts, punches
Themes –masculine, Autumn/Fall and make us laugh!

Yes! Copic Markers is sponsoring the Catered Crop party!! As always, the winning entry gets an "I Baked it Best" button to put on their blog, will be the inspiration for the next challenge and can be a guest Chef for our QuickFire. And . . . one incredibly lucky, randomly picked player will win a prize package from Copic Markers: X-Press It Blending Card, High Tack Double Sided tape samples, a 2011 Color Swatch Book, and a four-piece Sketch Marker gift set.

Oh man, I wish I weren't ineligible – I would totally grab this package! That X-Press It Blending Card is magic with Copic markers. The whole package is amazing!

Without further delay here's what our fabulous Top Chefs and Guest Chefs have dished up with the recipe. Just click on the pictures to go to the Chef's blog and get all the details.

Guest Chef Kristi S.

Guest Chef Jane Wetzel

Top Chef Dorcas Designs

Top Chef Renee Van Stralen

Top Chef Linda McClain

Please remember that winners of the random drawing must claim their prize by the end of the next challenge. The more you enter, the more your chances are of winning.

Just click on the link below to join the Catered Crop party. You have until Thursday, October 27, 8:00 PM EST to join the party. We're really cooking with gas now!

October 23, 2011 | Filed Under: Copic Markers, Dorcas Designs, Renee Van Stralen Tagged With: Copic Markers, Dorcas Designs, Follow the Recipe, FTR23, Renee Van Stralen | 3 Comments

I'll love you 'til the end of vine.

One of my all-time favorite stamp illustrators, Claire Keay, just released two new stamp sets for October, and, yes, I HAD to get my hands on this one. Well, you know, it was destiny formed more than 20 years ago.

I'm not much of a seamstress but I did try my hand at making the kids' Halloween costumes because, well, imperfections just gave them more character. They were Peter Pan (complete with fairy dust glitter), a Lady Bug and Ballerina, and then there was the year I made all four of us M&M's.

Baby Ben was just two years old when I sewed my first costume and it never occurred to me he would NOT want to go Trick-or-Treating. Oh my. I was floored, and not just because my costume masterpiece would go unused, but because of all that candy I, oops, he would miss. After much humiliating begging and grovelling, Baby Ben agreed to try at least one door. He quickly grasped the concept of costume = candy. Smart, that kid!

Pumpkin-adorned Ben made it half way around the block with a respectfully filled bucket when one of our neighbors got into the spirit of Halloween and answered the door with a "Boo!" Well, one "Boo!" sent Baby Ben into a tizzy and we had to run all the way home. This has to be one of the most under-utilized costumes of, at least McClain family lore.

I've been a huge fan of Claire Keay every since I ran across her stamps at My Favorite Things. Oh dear, they're just so adorable. Great news – Claire just opened up a new on-line store of digital stamps called Jellypark and, if that doesn't start your engines, she's also started a new Jellypark Friends Challenge Blog with a fabulous design team headed up by Jennifer Scull. I'm crazy excited that Jennifer asked me to be their guest. I can't wait to see what's next from Claire and her friends.

Catered Crop Follow the Recipe

Oh my goodness, gracious gravy with pumpkin pie! The entries for our Catered Crop Follow-the-Recipe #23 are just amazing. It's not too late for you to join in. I played by including Jane's and Kristi's fall colors, polka dots, Copic markers, thread, buttons, pearl brads, seam binding, twine, die cuts, tags, and by paper piecing, sewing, and making a bow bouquet. I also used Kristi's crepe paper idea by using Dollar store crepe paper I tea stained to match my paper. Shew!

The Catered Crop FTR23 recipe also includes the ingredient to "make us laugh." You know I can't pass up an opportunity for some bad Pun(kin)s.

A man was arrested for carving up 100 pumpkins. He must have been out of his gourd or going through a rough patch. The District Attorney squashed the motion to dismiss and the accused faced jail or a hefty vine. Orange you glad this seedy character is off the streets? That's the scoop.

Hee Hee – I warned you. Here's the rest of the recipe.

InLinkz.com

The Jellypark gang is hosting a Costume challenge this week and also playing along with the Pile-it-On By Happy challenge. So, in honor of that, here are a few challenges I piled on for this card:

Have fun . . . and I'll see you soon at the Catered Crop Quickfire.

October 23, 2011 | Filed Under: Claire Keay, Copic Markers, Halloween Tagged With: Claire Keay, Copic Markers, Halloween | 20 Comments

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.
So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
– Nathaniel Hawthorne

It's Party Time! But, before we get to that, we have some unfinished business from our last party, FTR22. Congratulations to:

Stacey! You won the random drawing. Contact me at cateredcrop@gmail.com to claim your $15.00 GIFT CERTIFICATE at Sassy Cheryl . Have fun shopping!

All you wild and crazy paper chefs out there get ready, because this party's about to get insane! Not only do we have an amazing, amazing sponsor, but we have two inspirations for you to follow this week.

Fall will be over way too soon so we couldn't resist these two Fall cards – Kristi S's card was so full of gorgeous eye candy, and Jane Wetzel's just cracked us up! Yes, bad puns will follow. We're going to combine their recipes for an almost anything goes party!

Playing with us at the Catered Crop "Follow-the-Recipe" linking party is easy as pumpkin pie. Here's how it works:

Use any of the ingredients (themes, colors, techniques, etc.) in Jane's and Kristi's projects. You don't have to use all the ingredients or the same brands. Just pick a few ingredients and then add your own spices to cook up something uniquely yours.
Add your project using the InLinkz (froggy) button below and join the party.
Be sure to list your recipe or tell us what ingredient you used from the sample recipe.
Don't forget to link back to this post or include the "I Followed the Recipe" button on your blog (see the side bar to the right).

Here's your FTR23 recipe.

Colors – Fall colors
Papers – Pattern paper, polka dots, crepe paper (fun!)
Stamps – Men, senior citizens, leaves and, okay, I'm gonna say it, bare bottoms (like, maybe, cute baby bottoms?)
Color Mediums – Copic markers, Glimmer Mist
Embellishments – lace, thread, buttons, tags, pearls, ribbon, seam binding, twine
Techniques – paper piecing, sewing, layer your buttons, make a bow bouquet (a bow with lots of layers and elements)
Tools – Die cuts, punches
Themes –masculine, Autumn/Fall and make us laugh!

Stampers, I know you can really get behind this challenge, butt, if this inspiration isn't enough to help you crack open your craft supplies . . .

Yes! Copic Markers is sponsoring the Catered Crop party!!

As always, the winning entry gets an "I Baked it Best" button to put on their blog, will be the inspiration for the next challenge and can be a guest Chef for our QuickFire.

And . . . one incredibly lucky, randomly picked player will win a prize package from Copic Markers:

X-Press It Blending Card
High Tack Double Sided tape samples,
a 2011 Color Swatch Book and
a four-piece Sketch Marker gift set.

Just click on the link below to join the Catered Crop party. You have until Thursday, October 27, 8:00 PM EST. Swing back by here next Sunday when our Catered Crop Top Chefs will dish up their culinary delights using Jane's and Kristi's recipe.

October 15, 2011 | Filed Under: Copic Markers, Follow the Recipe Tagged With: Copic Markers, Follow the Recipe, FTR23 | 7 Comments