Gaudy is Good...

Hope your Thursday has been a good one - tomorrow is Friday, and for most of us, that means a couple of days off. I, for one, thought Friday would never get here!

This 'gaudy' card was my answer to two challenges today! Challenge #59 at My Time to Craft, was to use black, white, and one other color. The Resq Challenge #6 was to use black, white, and pink. Being the avid researcher that I am, I raced right over to their blogs and looked at what was being posted so far. There are so many beautiful cards! Beautiful being the key word! All are so pretty, and clean, and neat, with shades of red, and teal, and blue... Well, the 'paper-devil' in me decided that this card would not be neat and tidy and elegant! (although, my pink flamingo probably thinks she is extremely elegant!)

The background is some of that amazing downloadable paper from TAC, and the stamps are the Tickled Pink set from TAC as well. All of the coloring was done with my pink Sakura Gelly Roll Glitter Pen, and the cute little pearls are from a package from Kaiser that I picked up last week at O'Dear's. Her stole was paperpieced and colored with the glitter pen to give it a 3-D look, although you can't tell that from the photo.

Hope she makes you smile! If you have time, why don't you help me name her? She's so fancy that she deserves a name!

Have a great night!
Patti J.

Look for opportunity. You can't wait for it to knock on the door. . . . you might not be home. ~Jinger Heath

Make and Take Saturday...

HELP! I need your opinion! Our little town is having quite the shopping extravaganza this weekend! The Red Rooster, is our local 'has everything' craft store. Everything, of course, (!!!) includes stamps, inks, designer papers, etc. I've been asked to get together a quick 'make and take' for the occasion, and will be there all day to be the 'teacher'... It needs to be a very quick project. I've worked this up, using DP by K and Co., a Kaleidacolor Ink Pad, and Inkadinkado stamps. It's VERY quick and very easy.

What do you think? If you happened into a craft store to do a little shopping and could walk out with this greeting card for free, would it be an okay project? It's a terrible photo - the ceiling fan was trying to blow it over, and I did a pretty sloppy job with my marker border, but hopefully, you get the idea! Please share your thoughts...

Have a nice night - it's off to bed for this tired gal! (Is tomorrow REALLY only Thursday?)

Patti J.
~Eat a live toad in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you for the rest of the day. (really!)

Blog Candy!

Be sure to go and check out Stephanie's blog! She's giving away some wonderful blog candy - this is really really really cool!!! If you leave her a comment, tell her Patti J. sent you!!! Sleep well!

Gloomy doomy day here again....

What is up with the gloom and doom of this spring? Yuk! Someone needs to remind Mother Nature what month we are in!

I've been a tad under the weather today. BP is up, so I stayed home today. Have just stayed quiet.

I did finish a Father's Day card this morning. I thought I'd post it. It features The Angel Company's downloadable FREE designer paper. You just have only to download and print! Amazing! There are four other black and white patterns. (Between TAC and Gina K, a person would not have to buy any more paper for a long time)! The stamp is TAC Ship Collage (on TAC's list of 'to be discontinued' stamps) (sad face), and the sentiment is TAC Trendy Greetings. The ink is "Black Soot", a Tim Holtz distressed ink.

Hope you are having a great day and it's dry and sunny where you are!

Patti J.

~ DAD: someone who hopes his son will turn out just like him,and who is afraid his daughters will meet someone who did.

Happy Sunday!

I am finally finished with a project I've been working on that I will share in a few days. It's my April swap for a group that I swap with, and I hate to post before they arrive snail mail! They will be mailed out on Mon. or Tues., so I should be able to post by the end of the week.

Anyway, I found a challenge from Steph C.'s blog, over at Sparkle's blog that I am recycling a card for. The challenge was to use a snowman/snowwoman on a card! I have one that I made a couple of months ago that looks like s spring-themed snowperson card, so I am going to revive it! All stamps are TAC, and I used my Zutter Bind it All to cut the cute little pink piece on the front. Also used on the black c.s. was my Cuttlebug which I cannot live without!

Hope you're having a great day. DH and I are going to leave here in a couple of hours for a nice, relaxing Sunday drive in the B-mobile. (For our 30th wedding anniversary, six years ago, DH got on EBAY of all places (!!!) and bought me a beautiful 1998 BMW Z3 to scoot around in. It only had about 27k miles on it and looks like a new car still today. It's been fun for us. It's base model, no bells and whistles, but we love getting out, putting the top down, and enjoying the day. I think I shall keep DH, what do you think??? lol

Have a great day - cya later!

Patti J.
~Star light, star bright, please don’t let it snow tonight!

Thursday blessings...

So far today, we have been blessed with another rain-less day here in Missouri! Hopefully, it will continue for the remainder of this week, so that we might begin to think about mowing the 'hay fields' that our yard is fast becoming!

I don't have anything to post today - I just wanted to let you know I've not fallen off the face of the earth. This has been a very busy and tiring and trying week for me! Am working on a swap project right now, that I hope to be able to share tonight or tomorrow!

For today, I hope that you are all blessed with sunshine and happy thoughts!

Patti J.
~By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right,he usually has a son who thinks he's wrong!

Give a girl an inch....

AND she will make "Inchies" - lol!

Shirley, my friend, and I went down to O'Dear's today and took an "Inchies" class!

We had SO much fun! Our heads are just reeling with ideas. We had both 'piddled' with Inchie type things before, but had never been shown exactly what to do.

Well...Karin Braxton is a wonderful teacher, and had some beautiful projects for us to do. The 16 square black card could honestly be framed and hung on the wall. The photo's simply don't do it justice! There is one additional card that we didn't have time to do, so it was sent home with us for 'homework'!


And, as for O'Dear's, I certainly enjoy an 'excuse' to go there and shop! (I now have TWO sets of Spellbinder's!)...

Hope you have all enjoyed your Saturday so far! DD and DH left for St. Louis this a.m. about 5:30. She ran in a 5k race that was sponsored by the YMCA. She finished up just a few minutes before the rain began! Stan went on to get the oil changed in our little fun-mobile, and I went to my class. All is well with our world so far today!

Have a great night -


Patti J.

~We are the people our parents warned us about.

Card Idea Needed...

I needed a card idea today. I just couldn't come up with the 'right' card! A young lady we know tried out 4 weeks ago for something at the high school, and did not make it. So today, she tried out for something else that was actually a MUCH better fit for her, and she DID make it! I wanted to create something for her to let her know how happy we are for her. I remembered the challenge card at Our Creative Corner, and voila! How perfect is this???

The Cardstock is a downloadable stock from Gina K Designs, and the sentiment is from The Angel Company. All stamping and distressing was done with Chestnut Roan Color Box Chalk Ink. (You have probably guessed by now that this is one of my favorites!)

Hope it brings a smile to a special young lady tomorrow!

Have a good night!

Patti J.

~Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.

First Challenge!

This is the first challenge from Unscripted Sketches. (Unscripted Sketches 01). The DP is from BoBunny, the CS is DCWV, and the stamp is Inkadinkado. This was a fun sketch - thanks to the design team!!!

(Top of the 5th - St. Louis winning 3-0) - Go Cards!

Blog Candy! Be sure to check out Mary's Blog, and Alison's blog for a chance to win some fabulous give-a-ways! It will be worth your trip!

Patti J.

Believe you can and you are halfway there.

~Theodore Roosevelt

TV Tuesday....

Tuesday happens to be about the only day that I really care if the TV is on or not. I find myself flipping back and forth between American Idol and Biggest Loser. Tonight I will add a third channel as the Cardinal's will be playing in Az. again and I must not miss that! So...the TV is on in my woman cave as I prepare to work on some challenges!

This card is for a challenge over at Corrosive Creations. I had this fun patriotic paper by Kaiser that was stripes, stars, and just a plain distressed looking tan. I decided that with all of the stars and stripes, I would use balloons instead of stars...AND...since it IS baseball season, the stamps from TAC were perfect. The balloon strings are Scrapper's Floss, and the mini-brads were a gift in one of my Gina K Designs orders. I hope you like it!

Have a great night!

Patti J.

Things turn out best for the people who make the best out of the way things turn out.

~Art Linkletter~

You make my heart smile...

So, my birthday was actually on the 3rd, but due to roadblocks on both sides, my friend Shirley and I couldn't get together until Saturday the 11th! It is always so much fun getting packages from Shirley! She never ceases to amaze me with her "gift" imagination! This card features many of the items that were in my goodie bag... Scrapper's floss, Ribbon Brads, new stamp set "Dear Friends" by TAC, etc. I colored with Kooh-I-Noor Colored Pencils and mineral spirits.

Thank you Shirley for making my birthday last for 8 days, and be so much fun! You rock!!!

Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Patti J.

~A friend is someone who does things that count, but never stops to count them.

Easter Blessings

For those of you who celebrate Easter, I send Easter Blessings. To those who don't celebrate the holiday, I wish you the best on this Sunday morning.

No photo's today - I just wanted to take a minute to bring up a bothersome blogger issue. One of the things that really bothers me about blogging, is that there is not a really easy and quick way to respond to your many wonderful comments. It's such a blessing to read the nice things that you are posting, and I would love to just be able to hit a 'reply' button like we do on our e-mail, and say Thank you!

So...this morning is my simple Thank You for reading my blog, making such nice comments on what I have posted, and for being such good friends.

I am so very blessed!

Happy Easter to you all!

Weaving + Layers = Fun!

Well, this challenge was fun! It was a challenge over at Paper Craft Planet

The challenge was to actually weave the main section using paper, ribbon, etc. I chose to use papers from Gina K's downloadable paper pack, Floral Fantasy. I edged it with some silver tape. The sentiment is from Inkadinkado, the flower stamps are from Hero Arts, and the Butterfly Stamp is from The Angel Company. It was fun to do something a bit different. Not my favorite card, by a long stretch, but fun!

Hope you are all having a nice Saturday, and I wish you and your family a blessed Easter Sunday.

Hugs to all,

Patti J.
~If God had intended for us to touch our toes, He'd have put them on our knees.

It's Sorta Like Friday - Yippee!

Well dear friends and family - I'm a new woman already, as it's a three day weekend!!! DD and I plan to go to the city tomorrow and shop until we really DO drop! I'm very much looking forward to just doing the 'girls day out' thing!

My post for tonight is for the Mojo Monday Challenge. All stamps are Verve Stamps, again from the Abundant Blessings set, and one of the Verve Plain Jane's. All card stock is DCWV, and all ink for stamping and distressing is Color Box Chalk (Chestnut Roan).



I tried to stay true to the sketch, but I wavied up the inside strips a bit with the EK Success Wave Border Punch. The brads and bible were just in my 'everything' boxes, so I'm not sure which company produces them.

Hope you like it!

I'm off to relax a bit! Take care!

Patti J.
~Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.

Last Minute Challenge!

I just realized that tomorrow is Thursday! This card is for the Nesties challenge at http://www.kgiron.blogspot.com/

It uses Nestabilities, TAC Beautiful Place, Stampabilities Sentiment, Tombow Markers, a maroon sharpie, and a white paint pen. It also features a piece of Gina K. Designs' downloadable Floral Fantasy DP.

I don't like this as much as the one I posted earlier today, but it was quick, quick, quick!

Patti J.

~Mama said there'd be days like this.....

One and one...

Well, our beloved Redbirds are one and one on the season!

Pittsburgh wasn't very nice to them the first game, but we came back last night with a winner. I couldn't find the game televised, so was forced to flip between American Idol and Biggest Loser. I could, however, imagine how cute Yadier Molina looked when he hit his home run. He is so expressive - it's great fun to watch his face when he does something good!!!

My card tonight is for a Cuttlebug Challenge. The colors to be used were Kraft Card Stock, Black, and Ivory. There was no 'sketch', but it was to be kept fairly clean and simple. I chose to use the "D'Vine Swirl" Cuttlebug Embossing Folder on the large black oval and on the corners. I have had this great DP on hand by Design Originals. It's from the Linen Collection by Lisa Vallrath, and it was just screaming out to be used on this! There are several coordinating pages, of which I used a couple. This is just another one of those 'must haves' that I picked up at O'Dear's before Christmas! I used the Marvy Green and Pink scalloped oval punches, a paper flower, Kraft C.S., Palette Noir Ink, and a white pen and Gelly Roll Starburst pen. The stamps are from the Abundant Blessings set from Verve Stamps. I hope you like it! I love a monochromatic card, but am not very good at making them!

Have a good Wednesday night!

Patti J.
~Enthusiasm is the electricity of life. How do you get it? You act enthusiastic until you make it a habit. ~Gordon Parks

Challenges....

Before I get started rambling, there is a very talented 8 year old girl in the U.K. that has designed her very own card and posted it on her momma's blog. I think she did a fantastic job for as young as she is!!! If you get time today, please take a moment to visit Pat's blog, and leave Sarah an inspirational message! The blog is: http://clevercrafting.blogspot.com/

I am finding that I really enjoy the card challenges. It gives me an excuse to make something, and a sketch or main idea to work with. Sometimes, when I just sit and stare at paper and stamps, nothing happens!

This being said, the card I'm posting today is for The Corrosive Challenge #6 (Spring has Sprung) in which we were to use an Easter or Spring theme, AND for the Card Patterns challenge, which was to follow the given sketch (posted below also!). This was fun, trying to combine the two. I'm not crazy about the outcome, but I guess I'm not supposed to like them all!

The stamp sets are Fleur Birdies and Tag Tidbits, both by The Angel Company. The punches are by Marvy Uchida. The beautiful paper is Garden Party Green Floral Flat Glitter Paper, by K & Company. I picked it up on my last visit to O'Dear's. I can't wait until the 18th of April - am going down for a morning class, and will more than likely come back with a bag FULL of goodies!
Have a blessed Sunday - hope you get some rest, and some quality family time today.

Patti J.
~Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. - Job 37:14

Earning my keep....

Earning my keep.... Or in this case, my prize!

A few days ago, fellow stamper/blogger/Angel friend, Melisa W., of Paperlicous Designs, http://paperliciousdesigns.blogspot.com/ wrote to tell me that I had won a free set of stamps for leaving the most comments on her blog. While I was totally thrilled, the give-a-way was originally meant for the week's challenge, which was to stamp on something other than paper.

So, I am sending Melisa this card, a full week+ too late! Hopefully, it will make me feel like I've earned my stamps! I had originally thought to stamp on a piece of tumbled tile, but thought I'd try stamping on miscellaneous ribbon scraps (here we are Windy City Stamper, using our scraps again!) which I adhered to a piece of card stock.

The stamps are from the Angel Company's new magalogue, Serendipity. The edging is from a set called "Edge Designs", and the sentiment and swirl are from a set called "Playful Parenthesis". Hope you all like it!

I'm working on some challenges for this week. Hopefully, I'll post some tomorrow.

On to yesterday! We went to Jefferson City and got all of my retirement (manley Stanley keeps calling it "unemployment") squared away. We had a wonderful day. The weather was beautiful for a 3 hour drive up. We left home about 8:00 for our meeting. After we got things in order there, we went by the Longhorn and had a delicious birthday dinner. Stan needed a nap, and I needed to work off a scrumptious Parmesan Chicken dinner, so we headed up Missouri Avenue, to lo and behold, a HOBBY LOBBY, where I truly shopped till I nearly dropped. This was the cleanest, largest, and nicest HL I've ever been to! I got a couple of magazines, and a set of NESTIES!!! Wahoo! I have Nesties!!! Anyway, we came home, and stopped off at the YMCA Trout Lodge, where our daughter's gone to work, and took a tour. The facilities are beautiful. The lake is about 500 acres, I think, and the whole facility sits on about 5,000 acres. It is all rustic and wonderful - we felt like we were in Coloroda, not Missouri!

Enough rambling - hope you all have had a delightful Saturday! Except for a trip to Wal-Mart and a trip to the accountant, our day's been fabulous so far!

Peace out dudes and dudettes! More later...

Patti J.
~If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door. Milton Berle

Hi!

This is what I named tonight's 10 minute card! Don't you just love a quick, easy, cute projects?

After working and working out tonight, I stopped by our local craft store "The Red Rooster", and picked up a few spring colors of cardstock. I was just about to leave when I noticed that there were some cute new Inkadinkado stamps in the basket. Amazingly, I couldn't resist!

When I got home, I realized that I just didn't have much time to spare, so I grabbed a Kaleidacolor Inkpad, stamped two of my three new stamps, ran a square through the Cuttlebug, and put it all together. No coloring, no glittering, just stamp and stick!

On another note, I feel so lucky! I received a comment from Melisa, a fellow blogger, who gave away some unexpected prizes today. I got a stamp set of my choice from the Angel Company! What a nice surprise! Tomorrow is my birthday, so this is like a present early!!! Melisa has an amazing blog! Please go visit her!

The link is: http://www:paperliciousdesigns.blogspot.com and she loves to have visitors!

HELP!!!!! Did ANYONE out there record last night's ER episode? I tried umteen dozen DVD's we had here, and could NOT get it recorded. DH, the world's biggest ER fan was on his way home from Branson, and didn't get here in time to see it. Let me know if you have a copy I can borrow, beg, or steal!

DH and I are taking the day tomorrow and traveling to Jefferson City Missouri to meet with the retirement people. We need to finalize my paperwork, and see what is lacking in order for me to be ready to finish up on June 30th. We enjoy spending time together, and are looking forward to the day. There just happens to be a Hobby Lobby in Jefferson City.....hmmmmm.....

Well, I'm headed off to gather some paperwork for tomorrow. Hope you have a great friday!

Patti J.

~Don’t work for recognition, but do work worthy of recognition.

Happy Tuesday...

Ugh....it's Tuesday. Tuesday's have been known at my workplace as THE day to be anyplace else. They have always just been plain old icky days. If my friend Tami is reading, she is probably smiling right now and saying "yup"! (miss you chatdumpgirl!).

So...before you read any further... I could say that my title is an April Fool's Day joke, or that I did it on purpose to see if anyone is paying attention and really READING this blog, but that would be pretty far from the truth. The real truth is that I thought today was Tuesday, silly me. Our daughter, who is 28, and VERY intelligent, has moved back home just in time to rescue me from the calendar monsters, and set me straight on the date! So...without further ado....

HAPPY WEDNESDAY!!!

I have a couple of cards to post today that I did for a challenge. For the life of me, I can't get the sketch photo to transfer to my blog, so you will have to look at both of my cards and used your imagination! It's the the Saturday Sketch Challenge over at Paper Craft Planet. I did two using the same sketch to show you how differently they can look. Hope you like them!

I also wanted to let you know about Korin's birthday. She's giving away a wonderful HUGE assortment of things in honor of her birthday and she's spreading it out over the month of April.

Head over to her blog and sign up to win! http://www.inkydoodleblogspot.com/

Card one details: DCWV Pink c.s., Best Creation, Inc. DP, Best Creation Inc. Pink Glitter c.s., EK Success Bubble Punch, Inkadinkado Stamp, Color Box Pink Pastel Chalk Ink, Black Staz-On Ink, Sharpies

Card two details: The Robin's Nest Striped Lavendar c.s., Inkadinkado Stamp, Pearl Brads (source unknown).

Must go to my 'pay for my toys' J.O.B. Have a great day - see you later!

Patti J.

~Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you.