2011 Bunny Calendar Sneak Peek & Giveaway Announcement

Hello friends!! I am so excited for so many reasons these days...but I'll share two reasons today. First of all, I am very happy to introduce to you my first bunny girl from my upcoming 2011 Scripture Calendar: "Between Us Bunnies" - Kathleen Grace for the month of July!! I approached the design of the new calendar by basing each month's bunny on a girlfriend or family member of mine. For July, I chose one of my dear blog buddies and sweet Sister in the Lord, Kathleen Grace (Kathy) of Kathy's Cottage. If you've never met Kathy, do yourself a favor and get acquainted with her - she is so very genuine, multi-talented, funny, smart, hard-working, and warm! We hit it off as blog pals a couple of years ago or so now and I have loved reading the tales from her journey, and seeing the beautiful works of art from her hands. Plus she was kind enough to custom make a heart pillow for my Mom on her 70th birthday a couple of years ago - it was a big hit! The inspiration for the images in the illustration is from her writings on her blog as well as actual sewing projects Kathy has made and shared on her blog or in her etsy shop, Hens in Daisies. I fell in love with this sweet birdie from her sold items gallery in her etsy shop...

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Miller)

...and did my little interpretation of it for the illustration...

...same goes for this adorable apron (available now when I last checked!!)...

(photo courtesy of Kathleen Miller)

From reading "Kathy's Cottage", I knew she has a soft spot for hollyhocks and cherries and LOVES the color red! The bunny herself was pretty easy to design once I decided that she would be sitting and stitching; from there, the porch swing was just a natural next step for the design and helped tie the visual concept together. But it was the Scripture that really made it all come together as an overall illustration - it even includes the word "Grace" which is Kathy's middle name...

"Each of you has received a gift to use to serve others. Be good servants of God's various gifts of grace."

1 Peter 4:10 (New Century Version)

Yep, that's Kathy all right! I do hope you'll stop by and say hello to my sweet friend!

In addition to the calendar, I will be making this artwork available as notecards in my CafePress store, plus I will be offering all of the elements and background patterns from the illustration as a new Summer digital clipart kit in my Aimee Asher digital boutique! I hope you'll stop back by and check those out when they are available - hopefully within the next week to 10 days!

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Secondly, I am thrilled to be able to announce a very special monthly giveaway that my dear friend Sue Cramer is having right now at her awesome blog "Praise and Coffee"! I am a proud "sponsor" of sorts for part of this giveaway as I have shared several sets of my "My Cup Runneth Over" notecards for Sue to give away this month and for several more upcoming months as well!! Sue is a wonderful sweet servant of the Lord, writing devotionals on her blog (like "Two Shall be as One Tuesday") as well as for Internet Cafe Devotions, and elsewhere. She is also the founder of Praise and Coffee Nights girlfriend gatherings that are springing up all over the country and the world!!

I hope you'll head over to Praise and Coffee right now and enter the awesome double-giveaway that also includes a music CD, coffee mug, and coffee of course! You'll be so blessed as I have to get to know Sue and share her heart for the Lord, for families, for marriages, and for the special bonds of girlfriends!!

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Thanks all for hanging in there with me as I work hard on the bunny calendar - I hope you'll keep stopping by for more calendar updates and previews as well as my other ongoing adventures here at Just Bee 'n Me! I treasure you and look forward to visiting you too!!