Happy Birthday, America!

On this 4th of July, our nation celebrates its 235th birthday.  I never miss a chance to fly Old Glory on my front porch and today was no exception.  Hope you all had a safe and happy Independence Day.  Long may Old Glory Wave.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Harley Kitten Shurkus

One of the craftiest chicks I know, Jenn Shurkus, (well, I don’t actually “know” her because we've never actually met.  But I wish I did.  I’ve been following her blog for what seems like forever, and if I ever get to Cape Cod I want to go to one of her classes!)…  Back to what I’m here for.  Jenn recently posted on her blog that on April 12 her special baby kitty Mr. Harley Kitten Shurkus turns 3 years old!  I’ve followed Jenn’s posts for a long time now and I’m always fascinated by Mr. Harley’s adventures.  Plus, he’s a very handsome kitty.  I secretly think that Kitty Scarlett has a big crush on him, even if she’s old enough to be his granny!  Anyway, Kitty Scarlett told me that I had to send a b-day card to him from her and she had me make this special greeting for her.  She’s sort of the “Maxine” of the cat world as far as her attitude goes, but she does like a good b-day celebration ever so often as long as nobody reminds her of her age.  So here’s her card.  Happy Birthday, Mr. Harley!  Hope your birthday is the best ever!

If you're interested in seeing the object of Scarlett's affection, here he is.  Isn't he a handsome boy?

Texas Tuesday - Wildflower Season

Spring has sprung in the Hill Country. We didn't have the winter rains we needed to have a super wildflower crop like last year, but we should have some colorful scenery here and there. I decided to devote this week's Texas Tuesday to the flowers we see in this area. I got fired up and created 2 cards for you this week. No stories this week, just card descriptions…so here goes.

The first card is a bit whimsical because as we all know bluebonnets do not grow on trees. But I thought it was a cute idea for a card. I used the large tree and small bluebonnet stamps from Deadbeat Designs. The card base is a Bazzill color with a lil texture. The other cardstock is scraps from my stash. (I am a hoarder when it comes to paper. I honestly have to make myself throw away a paper scrap. They sometimes come in very handy.) The tree is inked with memento Rich Cocoa, the bluebonnets are done in Memento Danube Blue and Cottage Ivy. I put a few white highlights on the flowers with a Sharpie poster paint pen. The ground is Copic YG03 and I used a Zig Millennium microliner to draw in some grassy accents. I freehanded the yellow ribbon on a scrap of yellow cardstock and added some accents with Copic Y17. The clouds in the sky are courtesy of the Rosie’s Roadshow cloud template and some baby blue ink. I also used a corner rounder on all of the pieces.

The thought for the second card came to me while I was putting the first one together. Those little bluebonnets looked an awful lot like Mountain Laurel blooms when I looked at them upside down. So I planted a lil Mountain Laurel tree on the second card. The card base is a green polka dot paper by A Muse. The card mat is Bazzill purple dotted swiss, and the tree is on white cardstock scrap. The stamps are all by Deadbeat Designs (tree, bluebonnet, leaves). Inks used: Memento Tuxedo Brown, Cottage Ivy, and Pear Tart for the tree, and Versa Magic Purple Hydrangea chalk ink for the blossoms. Again, I used the Sharpie paint pen to highlight the blossoms. The ground beneath the tree is again Copic YG03 with the Zig pen for grassy accents. I even added some birdies in the sky – hopefully they are all flying back north and winter is officially over. I freehanded another yellow ribbon for the trunk, and added clouds with the Rosie template.

I know I said no story, but I have to say this – there’s an awful lot of tragedy in the world these days. It’s like Mother Nature is taking her frustrations out on us. That awful situation in Japan, floods in the Northeast due to snow melt, some areas still having lots of snow. And I can’t forget our troops who are still protecting our freedoms and giving their lives for us. So that’s why the yellow ribbons are on my trees. Here’s hoping everyone is reunited with loved ones who are near and far away. Thanks for stopping by my little blog. Hope you enjoy what I have. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else did this week.

Texas Independence Tuesday

Another Texas Tuesday, and this is one just one day before Texas Independence Day.

Here are a few obscure and not-so-obscure facts about our great state. (If you’re not into this sort of thing, skip to the next paragraph.) Texas is known as the Lone Star State. The Alamo is considered the cradle of Texas liberty and it the state's most popular historic site. Texas is the only state to have the flags of 6 different nations fly over it: Spain, France, Mexico, The Republic of Texas, the Confederate States, and the United States. The land area of Texas is larger than all of New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois combined. It extends 801 miles from north to south and 773 miles from east to west. The King Ranch in south Texas is bigger than Rhode Island. Texas has more counties (254) than any other state. Forty-one of those counties are also larger than Rhode Island. More wool comes from Texas than from any other state in the U.S. Texas is the only state to enter the United States by treaty instead of territorial annexation. Texas was an independent nation from 1836 until 1845. A coastal live oak located near Fulton is the oldest tree in the state with an estimated age of over 1,500 years. Caddo Lake is the only natural lake in the state. All of the others are man-made. Dr Pepper was invented in Waco in 1885. The capitol building in Austin opened May 16, 1888. The dome of the building stands seven feet higher than the U. S. Capitol in Washington DC. The armadillo is the official state mammal. The first word spoken from the moon was "Houston". The name Texas comes from the Hasinai Indian word tejas memeaning friends or allies.

Well, my friends, I majored in history at UT, and sometimes get carried away with facts and lore. Forgive me, please. If y’all aren’t bored to tears by now I’ll tell you about my card. I used a burnt orange card base cut into an A2 card size. Added some striped paper from my stash that had some burnt orange accents, then added a thin white scalloped piece to cover the edge of the stripes. The focal point of the card is the super-duper “Texas Forever” Deadbeat Designs stamp. I used a wreath from a Sizzix die to frame the circle. Popped up the circle with a pop dot. The wreath is made from grunge board adhered to white cardstock. I used distress ink in Vintage Photo to darken the wreath a bit to give it definition.

Hope you all enjoyed this post. Have a great Texas Tuesday, and thanks for dropping in. And Happy Texas Independence Day tomorrow!

Happy Trails on Texas Tuesday

First, let me wish all of you a belated Happy Valentine's Day.  I've been concentrating on Valentine's cards lately because I am donating them to a fraternal organization that I belong to for a fund-raising project.  It was a bit difficult to switch gears and think of Texas Tuesday, but here's my post for this week.

I wanted to come up with a card that would be suitable for a male  or female coworker who is retiring or leaving work.  I also wanted something simple and quick to make.  I had some Texas map paper in my stash, so I used that for a mat on a craft cardstock base.  I should have thought a bit more before I cut the mat because I wanted Austin in the picture, but alas all I got was that big old San Antonio.  Actually, with our lack of freeways, Austin looks pretty puny on the map compared to San Antonio anyway so maybe this is a good thing after all.  I used the same craft cardstock to stamp the horse and rider and then stamped "Happy Trails" beneath that. I trimmed it down, then I rounded the four corners and stuck it in the middle.  I intended to give it some bling to the horse and rider and the sentiment with my black Spica pen, but I couldn't find it.  That can always be added later if I ever find that darned pen. So there you have it - a quick and simple card with a Texas theme.  Hope you like it.  Thanks for visiting my blog.  

Valentine's Texas Tuesday

Greetings this Texas Tuesday! I know we're all anticipating the "deep freeze" that's coming our way. I'm certainly not looking forward to it. As far as I'm concerned, if it's gonna snow I hope it's enough to shut down the county! I hate driving in icy weather and I'd just as soon not use my lovely vacation leave for ice days! Anyway, if it happens, I'd rather be at home doing something crafty. I'll get off my soapbox now. On to the purpose of this post.

I know we were supposed to do Valentine-themed cards this time, but I just couldn't resist this departure from that theme. My DH recently had knee surgery after a mishap on the Sunday after Christmas. Our PCP referred us to the same orthopedic surgeon who repaired DH's ankle about 15 years ago.  This man is a super doctor and a super person.  He's devoted countless hours caring for some of our local high school athletes, and he's an avid UT fan. And to top that off, he always wears cowboy boots.  Not just boots - no, they are georgeous ostrich leather boots.  Even in the OR!  I can't say whether they have those blue booties to fit over the cowboy boots or not because I didn't get to observe the surgery, but he sure had the boots on prior to that.  The DH goes back this Friday for a follow up appointment and I thought it might be nice to do a thank you card for the doc.  So that's my project this week. 

I found some really cool tan-ish lizard looking paper at Joann's last week.  It's almost the same color as the doctor's boots.  I used the same Ellison boot die to cut this one that I used for a previous post.  I mounted it on a burnt orange cards base.  The "thanks" is also a die by Sizzix.  The picture makes it look like I snuck in some Aggie maroon paper for the "thanks" but it's really a dark brown.  It was a bit plain looking, so I cut a shadow piece out of white cardstock to mount behind it and used my trusty Signo white gel pen to do faux stitching to make it pop a bit more.  Hope you enjoy seeing it.  Stay warm and if it ices, stay safe!

In my next life...

I’M GONNA BE A BEAR.

In this life I’m a woman. In my next life, I’d like to come back as a bear. When you’re a bear, you get to hibernate. You do nothing but sleep for six months. I could deal with that.
Before you hibernate, you’re supposed to eat yourself stupid. I could deal with that too. When you’re a girl bear, you birth your children (who are the size of walnuts) while you are sleeping and wake to partially grown, cute, cuddly cubs. I could definitely deal with that. If you’re the mama bear, everyone knows you mean business. You swat anyone who bothers your cubs. If your cubs get out of line, you swat them too. I could deal with that. If you’re a bear, your mate EXPECTS you to wake up growling. He EXPECTS that you will have hairy legs and excess body fat.
Yup, gonna be a bear!

I got this in an e-mail from a cousin in Dallas.  Thought it was a perfect expression about how I'm feeling these days.  I'd at least like to sleep until the cedar season is over!

Texas Tuesday - January 18, 2011

How is everyone doing today?  Hope everyone is hale and hearty despite the dreaded cedar fever!  Here's my post for the latest Texas Tuesday Challenge.  I don't have much of a story today, just a card.  Yes, I'm one those cedar sufferers and I feel like somebody has been walking all over me, so I'm making this post short. 

I started with a piece of beige Bazzill for the card base, then used a sort of burnt orange Bazzill to cut out the boots with my new Ellison AllStar die. I shadowed the boots using Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  The side panels on the boots are also Bazzill  and the star is plain old white cardstock.  I added some stitching with my trusty Signo black gel pen to both the star and the toes of the boots.  On the card base, I first put down a couple of strips of Tim Holtz tissue tape, then mounted the boots on top of that.  The sentiment was printed on the printer and mounted with Sookwang tape to top it off.  Hope you enjoy it and thanks for stopping by.

The First Texas Tuesday of the New Year!

I cannot believe that 2010 has come and gone and it's 2011!  2010 seems to have flown by!  There were so many things that I wanted to accomplish that went by the wayside, but there were also things that I am proud to say I did!  One of those things I'm proud of is participating in these Texas Tuesday posts.  Here it is January 2011 and we are getting ready to inaugurate our new/old governor for what seems like the umpteenth time.  Whenever we have some sort of high muckety-muck state ceremony, for some reason I can't help thinking of our State Song, "Texas Our Texas".  I remember learning the words in grade school and we proudly sang it (albeit off key) at assembly in the school auditorium.  My junior high (no, we didn't call it "middle school" back then) and high school bands both played it proudly at football games.  I think even UT has played it just a few times, although the probably play "The Eyes" or "Texas Fight" more often.  But as state songs go, I think ours is pretty darned good.  A bit of Texas trivia - it was adopted as the official state song of Texas by the Legislature in 1929 after being selected in a state-wide competition. It was composed by William J. Marsh of Fort Worth, TX composed the tune, and the lyrics were written by Mr. Marsh and Gladys Yoakum Wright.

And now about my card.  I used a shiny dark purple piece for the card base, then a piece of lavender cardstock on top of that.  For some reason woodgrain stuff intrigues me. I guess it reminds me of an old barn, and I love old barns. I used a huge Hero Arts woodgrain stamp on the lavender paper which I stamped in Memento Rich Cocoa ink.  I used the same lavender paper to stamp the beautiful Deadbead Designs "Texas", again with the Memento ink.  I had to handwrite "our" and I'm not too happy with that, but it was all I could think of at the time and I was too lazy to look for an alternative.  I decided some layering was in order, so I fussy-cut around the Texas, and put that on a piece of the dark shiny purple, fussy-cut around that, and put it on white, and fussy-cut around that too.  That's a lot of fussing but I think it's cool looking popped up above the woodgrain. 

We Texans are proud of our state and we do like to brag a bit now and then.  We are truely blessed to live here surrounded by such a rich heritage.  On inauguration day, think of our state song and if you want, sing it out. And if you do, be sure to sing it loud and proud. 

Here's to a great 2011.  I wish health, wealth, and happiness to each and every one of you.  Thanks for visiting my humble blog.