Much obliged, pardners!

I beg your pardner... uh, PARDON! I've been lost in FAMILY celebration recently! My SWEET Mama, Sheila, just celebrated her 70th {*goodness!*} birthday... And we did it RIGHT, friends! Lots of good folks, dear old friends and family... a gorgeous day, and enough food to feed a small army! It was lovely!

And it took all of my creative mojo and tired it out for a good while! (The rest of me is a little tuckered, too!) BUT I'M BACK! Back with some good old WESTERN DELIGHT! I got inspired by my fabulous CAT'S PAJAMAS STAMPS, "It's a Western Thing!"

I decided to... THROW MY HAT!!! ...into this week's Card Patterns sketch challenge!
And if you know me... You know that where there's STARS.. there's usually some SERIOUS
Western Style inspiration! Yee HAW!

What a cool sketch! I love the layers of shape and composition! It really set the stage for the use of lost of materials, tools and PAPER! Lots of color and texture: what fun!

Speaking of FUN! Just to mix it up, you'll see that this swanky pup, by the lovely and talented Alma de la Rosa at The Cat's Pajamas, has been a little altered... The magic of detail scissors! He's all "aw-shucks" and holding flowers, INSTEAD of guns! To see how he looks with "stock-usage" check out my post from a few months back where he was shootin' it up in his lil' Western town! I love trying to get new "milage" from the same images! Yippie-cia-yai-yeah!

I am MUCH obliged that you stopped in today to set and visit-a-spell! Please KNOW how much delight I take in reading your comments and just knowing that you've taken the time to visit! Have a wonderful day, ya'll!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Staz On, Stampin' Up! Classic Dye and Craft Ink
Stamps - The Cat's Pajamas
Brads - Michael's
Twine - Yaley
Embossing Plates and Machine - Sizzix
Flowers - Unknown
Ticket Shape - Cricut
Mini Star Punch - Marvy

There's a NEW sheriff...!

Well, if it looks like I've been in a creative rut, you can pretty much count on the fact that I'm going to cough up something... a little.... country AND western! YEEEE HAW! And shor' as shootin', I did!




How's about a little old kitty cowgirl, gettin' her "sheriff-on!" Chasin' some hoodlums out of town with a BANG! That was today's inspiration for my contribution to this week's CPS 119 sketch!




Miss Kitty is about as shor' and sassy a "cowgirl" kitty/sheriff as you're gonna get! I got her from The Cat's Pajamas! They are the grooviest stamp company I've seen, right outta the good old Golden Gate of San Francisco, not far from where I call home! I was the proud and FORTUNATE beneficiary of this great stamp set that I got to choose after I became the lucky winner from CPS a few months back! I was brand spankin' new to "challenges" at the time, and I was DEE-lighted to get my hands on this baby! Believe it or not, I'd been playing around with some ideas to use this very set for this week's CPS challenge when I heard from the lovely and amazing Alma de la Rosa, the owner and purveyor of all things crafty, unique and fun at The Cat's Pajamas! She was SO kind and dear, after I sent her a sample of my work that I made for the CPS challenge immediately following the speedy shipment of my stamps...! She surprised me, in a wonderful way, by posting my card today and that just fired me up further, to do something with more of her stamps!


SO SORRY about the blur factor! I wanted you to see the detail shot of how I colored and paper pieced the back side of "Miss Kitty" but apparently my camera thought that the bottle of paint was far more interesting: at least you get the idea and hopefully not a headache! Doh!

I'm still carrying a strong torch for Basic Grey's "sugared" collection. Sometimes I use bits from the sample/cover art, where they feature small squares and rectangles of the patterns scaled down to show color and patterns.... These are awesome to make embellishments and use on cards! Again, sorry for the crappy photography. I was so excited I forgot to check the quality of the images... Remember, I'm an ARTIST not a photographer! :o)


Oh, goodness: Is that the most low-down and foreboding looking crew of P E N G U I N S....you ever saw? {Don't answer that! Just oogle at the cuteness of the images!} These guys are fun! Look at how the gesture of the drawings imply movement! I LOVE that! I can almost hear cartoon background music...! Don't worry, I won't input any lyrics... today.

And: the artsy shot. Makes me feel like I know what I'm doing.... if you can just forgive the blurry "action" shots! But hey, we had fun! Right? I sure hope so! Don't forget how much it rocks my world to hear from you! And if you think of it, go by Almas's blog, dancing in pajamas and say "howdy!" I'd be doubly honored if ya tell 'em I sent ya! Thanks, ya'll!

Supplies:

C/S - Stampin' Up! (except for mirrored - Bazzil)
P/D - Basic Grey
Stamps - THE CAT'S PAJAMAS!
Ink - Versa Fine, Staz-On and Stampin' Up!
Clearly Heavy Transparency - Hambly
Photo Corners - Canson
Twine - ?
Star Punch - McGill

Puppy dog TALES from the OLD WEST!

HowDEE, ya'll! And happy Tuesday! Here is my offering for Card Positioning Systems weekly sketch challenge #113! I am offering up a big-ol-slice-o-WESTERNY goodness and saying a big TEXAS (by way of California! Hee Hee) "thank you!" to the lovely folks from "The Cat's Pajamas" Rubber Stamps! I was the VERY lucky winner from the sketch #111 random drawing, where I got to choose a stamp set from their WIDE selection of images! You'll be shocked, if you are familiar with my blog, that I chose a very juicy WESTERN SET: "It's a Western Thing" #S-7510... It was tough to choose... But, tumblin' tumbleweeds, I was happy with my choice and the speed at which it made it's way into my mailbox! THANK YOU, "The Cat's Pajamas!" And thank you CPS!


It was real tough to find a home in my collection for these images... NOT! I love that old Puppy Dog Sheriff! "Ain't he...... {wait for it.....} the CAT'S PAJAMAS!" Ohhhhhhhh, I see it all so clearly now! What a fun set! What fun images! Oh, I'll be busy for a while!

Let me not forget the sketch of inspiration! This one was SO much fun! I really needed to play with all of this joyful papercrafting material and inspiration today, so YEAH!



I played and played and played, and I still found a way to get one of T!m's (can i just call him Tim now? YOU know who I mean when I say "T!m!" right!!!) FRAGMENTS, just to beef up some visual excitement!!!


Ohhhhh, geeze! There she goes!

Well! You knew I'd go there eventually!!! (Is that man photogenic, or what!!!) Yep! That's from the class I took a few weeks ago, and even though I FORGOT my camera, my darling friend Tracey snapped this for me: THANK YOU, TRACEY! I heart you so much!




Here's some materials credit:

C/S - S/U!
Vellum- S/U!
Watercolor wonder crayons and aqua brush - S/U!
Black Ink - Staz-on
Dye Ink - (Close to Cocoa) S/U!
ALL STAMPS - The Cat's Pajama's (THANK YOU, AGAIN!)
Twine - Yaley

So, there you have it! A little creative ju-ju for my mo-jo on a To-tu (Tuesday!) for you, you! (Yep, the gal's had too much jo-jo...) Bye now!