Spring in Blogland!!

Isn't it wonderful to see all the signs of Spring popping up in Blogland! : ) Tulips are among the first to show themselves - especially since Papertrey Ink released this lovely stamp set!

I have a feeling that this is going to be my favorite stamp set this spring!! : ) I love the amazing detail in the three stamp - stamped flowers.

I am very excited to see that our friend Darnell is kicking off a new challenge at djkardkreations with NBUS Challenge #6.  With all that NBUS SCHTUFF! we all have I know there will be plenty of excitement happening at the Playhouse!  Hop over and have a look at the fun Darnell is cooking up!

The design for my card was inspired by CAS(E) this Sketch!  and the theme inspired by The Sisterhood of Crafts calling for Spring cards.  I have been determined to join more challenges and have found some really terrific ones, like these, simply from visiting other blogs.  Please click on the links that I've provided and check out these great challenge blogs and the stunning talent of each DT!

I have been so excited about our new home in the Black Hills of South Dakota that I've wanted to share some of the beauty that surrounds us.

Here is a shot from the Badlands National Park in South Dakota.  The Badlands are about 100 miles east of us.  We go there often and each visit astounds me more! it really is spectacular.

What do you have planned on this first day of March?  To show you how "boring" my life is -yesterday it was clean the house and today! grocery shopping! LOL Ah! but don't feel too bad for me because our best shopping is about 50 miles away so whenever I head 'to town" I always plan some FUN stops at my favorite stores. I NEED to buy more schtuff! right??!!

Whatever you find yourself doing today I hope you enjoy it!! : ) Thanks a bunch for stopping by.

Patti

Supplies: 

NBUS - bran new Tulip Time stamp set

Script writing stamp from the long gone - Angel Company

Coral Baker's Twine from SU

a strip of black and white paper from my stash by Reminiscence

Distress?! Not with a little help from our friends!!

Oopie I just noticed the deadline for the challenge at the CASology Challenge Blog and I wanted to enter this card that I made yesterday for it.

This is a NBUS image that I ordered on-line from JoAnn Fabric and Crafts but I have searched for the packaging and I simply cannot find the name of the stamp or the manufacturer. I am sorry - I have tried to Google the image to see if I could find it but I have not had any luck. I will keep looking and edit my post at a later date if I can find it.

Edited to add: I could not find this exact image but a similar image on JoAnn.com where I purchased mine. I believe this is image is from a line by "Stampendous".

The design for my card is inspired by the Just Add Ink Challenge Blog.    I thought this was a sweet sketch!

I made a  "resolution"  when I returned to blogging to enter more challenges!! I have never entered either CASology or Just Add Ink's challenges before but I thought they were both fun and clever!! I hope you will too. And I hope you will visit these great blogs and when you get inspired I hope you'll leave them some sweet love!!

This is my second post today but as I said I wanted to be sure to get my card entered in these challenges.

Have a wonderful Monday!! doing whatever it is you love best : )  Personally I will be cleaning the house ugh! not exciting or fun but that is what Mondays are for! : )

Thank you for stopping by!

Patti

Wish You Were Here

This is my first time for playing along with the As you See It challenge blog.   

The challenge: Do you have a sentiment that speaks to you? This is your chance to highlight it in a project! 

I am sure they mean --> do you have a sentiment in your stash that you LOVE to use on your projects but I selected a sentiment that follows me in my LIFE!! I was born and raised in upstate NY, lived in Las Vegas after high school then lived in Northern California for 16 years and then in Wisconsin for 19 years.  Last year we moved to South Dakota.  In each and every place I have lived I have left friends and family behind and "Wish they were HERE" This truly is my most often used and most heartfelt sentiment!

The colors I selected for my card were my answer to the ColorQ challenge  that I am also joining - for the first time I believe.  I loved this color combo!!!! and hope to use it more often on my springtime cards in the future!!

I started my card by embossing the United States die on to my green paper.  I then cut the die from white card stock and carefully layered it over the embossed image.  The rest is easy to see in my pictures : )

Edited to add:  I was invited by Stephanie Lanzalotto to enter my card in the challenge at AAA Cards Challenge Blog.  I was blessed and honored to join the fun.  Be sure to blurf over and see this great new (well, new to me) blog.

Please stop by and leave some LOVE at these three challenge blogs and by all means join us in the challenge!!

I get to proudly wear this badge again today because of the NBUS Untied States Die I used for my card.  : ) Thank you Darnell for your fUn cHaLlEnGe to use our Schtuff!

Finally I want to share a fun picture I took in Custer State Park (about 5 miles from my house).  These little Prairie Dogs are nothing but pests to some people but I have to say I just love seeing their delightful antics.  I will be sharing lots about Prairie Dogs in future blog posts and more about how I became nick named "Prairie Puppy Patti" by our visiting friends!! 

I hope you are enjoying a wonderful day!! and having lots of time to play with paper!!

Thank you for stopping by : ) 

BIG (((Hugs)))
Patti

Supplies:
United States Die - PTI
These United States Stamp Set - PTI
Heart Die is cut from the Envelope Zipper Die - PTI

Rubber Cement - P U!

My card today is my take on to Papertrey Ink's Make It Monday challenge #240  " Watercolor Resist"

I was not sure I really wanted to do this challenge for two reasons.  One reason is that I have not done much - if any - watercoloring and two because I didn't have any rubber cement.  I found a beautiful 12 x 12" sheet of really nice watercolor paper that I must have purchased for a challenge I never did LOL and tried to improvise with something other than rubber cement but in the end I had to go to the hardware store and buy some real rubber cement.  The best thing for you to do would be to go to PTI's blog and watch Lexi Daly's video of the process.  She explains it very well  but I will share some about  my experience with this technique : )

I washed the paper using water and a very light colored re-inker.  I'm not sure it this is "legal" heehee but I do not own any water colors.  This worked great!  After the paper was completely dry you were to then drizzle rubber cement all over your paper.  I wanted a fine line so I put some rubber cement in a baggie and punctured the bag with a needle.  The stream of cement still came out thick at first but once the flow was started it was pretty easy to get thinner lines.

So far so good : )

After the rubber cement was completely dry I washed the paper again with water and re-inkers but this time I used a darker re-inker called  "Flamingo" which is supposed to be pink but turned out really orange and a little bit of green.  I dried the paper with my heat gun and added more rubber cement.  When that application of rubber cement was totally dry I washed the whole thing with my Flamingo re-inker.

This morning when I woke up I removed the rubber cement and this was what it looked like

Not so bad : ) It is hard to see in the picture but the first wash of light pink was sealed by my first application of rubber cement.  The next wash of orange and green were sealed by the second application of cement and finally the top layer of orange was the main color you see in my "egg".

A couple of things that I experienced:

Less is more! While the end result was ok it really was hard to get the rubber cement off the paper - without ripping the paper

Mixing Orange and Green in watercoloring? bad idea.  Once those two colors met it became ugly and "muddy".

Rubber cement stinks to high heaven! and it really doesn't go very well with lunch! : )

At one point during this process I almost tossed it but in the end I say A+ Lexi for a challenging challenge with sweet results! Please follow THIS LINK TO LEXI'S BLOG for some additional and super cute! projects using this technique.

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend so far!!

Thank you for stopping by.

Patti

I love Polka Dots!

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Spring ~ Polka Dots ~ Bicycles & Babies

This makes for  the perfect post to the City Crafter Challenge Blog challenge.

The sun is streaming in to my crafty space right now and I'm excited for spring!! I hope you are warm - if only in your heart - wherever you are today and finding some time to get crafty!

Before I go let me share with you a great shot of a nursing antelope that I captured last year.  I can'twait until those darling babies begin to arrive again!!

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!!

Patti

Spring Blog Hop

My card today was inspired by both the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop and Freshly made Sketches Challenge Blog.

Aren't these colors sweet? I am just in love with the PTI inspiration photo!

I began by stamping some flowers on my solid pink card stock and then added a partial velum layer with tiny gold polka dots.  I sewed some vintage green rick rack from my stash to hold the velum in place.

Jen Mitchell from Freshly Made Sketches drew the sketch for this week.  I really love playing with Jen and the other talented ladies at FMS.  Here is the sketch inspiration and my card : )

If you have been blogging for more than a day or two :) you will recognize this icon and the darling Queen of Blogland associated with it:

I am talking about Darnell from djkardkreations.  Darnell is ever challenging us to use our stuff! with the fun twist Darnell adds to Blogland.  Today my card was created using mostly never before used schtuff.  I may have been away from papercrafting but that doesn't mean I was away from shopping! woo hoo  The following supplies are NBUS:

Mum's The Word Stamp Set from PTI
Phrases & Praises Stamp Set from PTI
Butterfly Die cut from Impression Obsession
Winter Wonderland Designer Vellum Stack from Stampin Up

Please join me in hopping over blogland to drink in all the springtime inspiration going on at both Papertrey Ink and Freshly Made Sketches.  Don't forget to stop by Darnell's blog too - especially if you need some giggles : )

Have a great day! and thank you so much for stopping by

Patti

Just a quickie

Just a quick post today - I'm still exhausted from yesterday's post! : )

Here is a card I made using what has become my favorite color combo.  I used Doodlie-do Stamp Set by PTI and colored the images using Prisma Color Pencils and Gamsol Mineral Spirits.

I have not been able to get into the terrific Copic Markers craze simply because of the expense. I use the colored pencils and blend them with Gamsol and a blending stump.  This has long been my coloring preference.  It is easy peasy and much cheaper!

I created several of the Doodlie-do die cuts and placed them in a few different ways on three cards.

Before I sign off today I will share a picture I took of one of our neighbors! : )

Big Horn Sheep are prevalent here in the Black Hills. Most of the time we see them in Custer State Park but sometimes on my way to Rapid  City I will see some just having lunch along the side of the road.

Thanks a  bunch for stopping by and have a great day!

Patti

More than a year!

You blink and a year has gone by! Hello friends : ) I'm back!! I find it almost impossible to believe that it has been over one year since I last posted. So much has happened in my life during this past year!  For starters we enjoyed a difficult but mostly trouble free move to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota in the DEAD OF WINTER! but we are so happy to be here!! It is beautiful! and every bit as amazing as we dreamed it would be.

One of the perks of living in such a beautiful part of the country is that you get lots of visitors!!

Visiting Mt. Rushmore

Enjoying the spectacular Needles Highway

Yellow Mounds in the Badlands

Devil's Tower in Wyoming or as I like to call it:
The Lord's Footstool  (Hebrews 10:13)

Crazy Horse Musuem

Me and my hubbers in a shot taken from the Coolidge Lookout fire tower in Custer State Park.  
Crazy Horse Memorial is the tiny speck in the distance between our two heads : )

Not all of the things happening in my family have been good in the past year. Sadly I lost one of sisters in June. She was my big sister and partner in crime! Oh the fun and mischief we got into together over the years. I miss her terribly every day!

Sherry Beth

In August I celebrated my 40th High School reunion in upstate New York. : ) I was treated to a side splitting - tears rolling down your face time by my dear friends and classmates I have not seen since my 10 year reunion. A "Merry heart really does good like a remedy as Proverbs 17:22 says : )

This picture MAY have had something to do with "boobs" but honestly my lips are sealed!
What happens in Lockport stays in Lockport!

This girl was present at nearly every crazy event in my school days history - from the 2nd grade until graduation.  And here we are at it again after 40 years!

There really IS a GREAT STORY here! : ) And best of all no policemen were involved.

Our new temporary home doesn't afford the same crafty space I enjoyed in Wisconsin but I have found a "niche" in my little home and enjoy playing with paper whenever I am able. I am excited to be back to blogland to visit all my old pals and make some new ones too, I hope.

I want to say a BIG thank you to so many of my blog friends who have kept in touch by sending me notes and cards and e-mails over this past year. It has really just blessed my socks off!! Since I've been gone I've been continually reminded that I was missed and encouraged to get back to what I love doing - making cards and blogging with other card makers : )

Thanks a bunch for visiting me today! I look forward to catching up with all of you.
BIG (((((Hugs)))))
Patti