March Twofers-Spring Chickens

More then likely when you think of Spring chickens you would think of little chicks. But on my parent's farm a Spring chicken referred to the chicks that were grown up big enough to start laying or ready for butchering. And that was usually by mid June. Mom kept the hens for laying eggs and the roosters were, of course. used for fried chicken. Spring chickens made really tender and juicy fried chicken. And, we never kept them as pets but instead they were a means of income for my Mom and Dad who had lots of debt due to the many operations my brother had to endure before he died. So between the income from the chickens and the eggs my Mom also sold the cream separated from the milk our Holstein cows produced. All were sold at the local creamery except for the dressed roosters which were sold to her customers who always put in their orders ahead of time. After she got her money for these sales then we would go to the grocery store to buy our supplies for the week. I thought a little explanation should be given as to why I chose to use these chicken images. These are the cards I made for Darnell's Twofer Challenge for March.

For my cards I chose to use an Inky Stamper set called Chicken. It included the cute chicken image and also sentiments along with the chicken tracks and chicken wire. There also was a die with the set and I used that as well to cut out the chickens. On both cards the chickens were popped up.

I went with fairly CAS designs for both of the cards. This first one I am showing was depicting a White Leghorn chicken which was mostly what my Mom raised. I guess their legs were not completely gray but it seems they scratched in the dirt so much that as a kid that was the perception I got when seeing their legs. Anyway, this is a card I thought someone who was ill or just feeling a little down might enjoy.

This last Twofer I tried to make my chicken look more like a speckled Rhode Island Red by coloring it with two shades of brown and then taking a white paint pen and trying to make the mottled look of the feathers on them. I had a leftover frame from some other project using a Cutplorations die and that was added to the design. The focal panel was a beige ribbed card stock that I had in my stash. The card was finished by adding some gems. The sentiment reminds me of when I get stuck on a design and cannot figure out a conclusion to it. Many times I have had to walk away and leave it sit.

My Mom got what they called "straight run" chickens so until they grew up a bit we had no idea if they were hens or roosters. And, even if she did order White Leghorns now and then a chicken of a different breed would be in with the batch. They came in the mail and when they arrived we had to go to the Post Office and pick them up. Wow! Could all those little chicks make lots of noise with their constant peeping. I can imagine it nearly drove the Post Office crew batty. I am not sure where my Mom ordered them from but I rather suspect it was from a Sears or Montgomery Wards catalog. We  seemed to get lots of things from the mail order catalogs.

Anyway, I hope these Spring chickens will work for the Twofer. I just love those chicken images. I hope you get a few chuckles from these designs too.

Take care and until next time God bless,
Verna