CraftyEngineer

Texas Tuesday - sending a big ol' Texas Hug.

It's Texas Tuesday. I haven't played along with this challenge in months. The 1st and 3rd Tuesdays always snuck up on me... yeah, that's my excuse and I'm sticking with it! :)

Here's my Texas Tuesday creation... I love this little bird. I thought he'd look more interesting flocked. Does he? I dunno. Just a fun, little guy that looks like he's trying to give a great big ol' Texas Hug!

Be sure to check out Mark, Betty, Tina and Danielle's blogs for their Texas Tuesday creations.

Have a great Texas Tuesday!

Texas Tuesday - Little Dude.

It's time again for Texas Tuesday! Feel free to play along - just leave a comment or send me an email and we'll get you hooked in for the next round. We (the Texas Tuesday Team) create something inspired by this great state of ours every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.

I have to admit... I'm thinking I'm not doing this challenge justice. Here's my problem. When most people think of Texas... they think of cowboy boots, horses, yeehaw, howdy and all that. Me. Not so much. I've been in this great state since I was 11. And when I was moving down here from Canada, one of my childhood friends asked me if I knew how to ride a horse and if I was going to ride a horse to go to school. Ah, innocence. It's something, isn't it?

Problem is I've never thought of Texas as the cowboy, boot-sootin', country place... and I grew up in a small Texas town and my brother even helped out the Debonaires for 8 years (local C/W band - do you know them?). So, what do I think of when I think of Texas. I dunno. Still working on that. Hence, why I am struggling with this challenge.

So what did I make for Texas Tuesday? Well, a card with a cowboy and a horse on it, of course. Sigh.

supplies: images and ribbon by A Muse Artstamps; cuttlebug embossing folder; signo gel pen; foam tape - card size 4 bar; paper by A Muse, Stampin' Up!, and LCI papers

There you have it. The good thing is that this challenge is making me "work" ... I'll figure out what inspires me here in this great state I call home. (right now - it would be a card showing me cutting down all the BLEEPING cedar (juniper) trees in a 100 mile radius of me - it wouldn't be pretty. If you're not from here... google cedar fever texas and you'll see... awful, awful stuff).

Happy Texas Tuesday! Check out the Texas crew and see what they have to say:

Libby

Mark

Betty

Tina

Jennifer

Karen

Danielle

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! May 2011 bring you much laughter and may you get to create something every day!

We spent Christmas in Puerto Rico. It was a great trip. We hiked the El Yunque rainforest, boated out to a bioluminenscent lagoon, beached, pooled, spa'ed, and even experienced a 5.4 magnitude Earthquake on Christmas Eve!

This was our view from our hotel room.

We were surprised at how large and metropolitian Puerto Rico is.

Anyway, today is the first Texas Tuesday for 2011. I think I must have left my "inspiration" and "mojo" in PR because it took me MANY trys to get something I could be happy posting. And then I'm not even sure about this. Ah well. Here it is:

 

It's a cold, rainy day here in Central Texas and not optimal for card photo taking, for sure! Anyway, I used the Texas punch here with the 3 Texas colors. The howdy is from Lizzie Anne Stamps. It is hard to tell but the card is a panel card (embossed inset). I got a bunch of these 4 bar panel cards for dirt cheap at a local printer. Love 'em!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day and a wonderful start to 2011. Be sure to check out the rest of the gang:

Libby

Mark

Betty

Tina

Jennifer

Karen

Danielle

It's Texas Tuesday!

It's Texas Tuesday again! Create something inspired by something to do with Texas... I live pretty close to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  It's such a beautiful place to visit. And Lady Bird did so much to make our state a pretty place. When I saw this stamp down at Stamp Antonio, I knew I had to get it.

Here's my card and my color palette is pink and gray. Two of my not-used-very-often colors!

 

Check out the rest of the team:

Libby

Mark

Betty

Tina

Jennifer

Karen

Danielle

Have a great day!

Texas Tuesday - Texas, Our Texas!

It's Texas Tuesday time!

Mark, owner of Deadbeat Designs, and fellow Texan challenged all us Texas fans to make a card with one of his newest stamps! He's so smart - he sent us this complimentary stamp weeks ago! I had so many ideas and never time to try them out. In true me style, I scurried around last night and made my card! :)

I really wanted to use his stamp in my attempts to be continue to learn to be more CAS (clean and simple). I think I pulled it off. This card start to finish was less than 10 minutes! Gotta love that!

I used the navy A Muse notes (such a go to color for me!) The "greetings from" is an A Muse stamp that says "greetings from Seattle". The main image and the Texas are Deadbeat Designs.

I love Mark's new image. The background is our state song: Texas, Our Texas. Love that.

Thanks Mark for the great stamp and awesome challenge.

Be sure to check out the rest of the team to see what they've done with this same image:

Libby

Jennifer

Mark

Shannan

Betty

Tina

Linda

If you'd like to join us, send me an email!

Texas Tuesday - Longhorns, of course.

Well it's time again for Texas Tuesday. I've been absent the last couple of times because the days are just getting away from me. But I got this one done early and here it is.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of the Texas Longhorns. Not are they my alma mater but also the mascot of our town. Yeah, okay so I live in my college town. :p

But everything around here is longhorn-y. And I love it.

Both of these stamps are by Deadbeat Designs and Mark, the owner & illustrator is part of this little Texas Group.

Be sure to check out my fellow Texans today for more Texas inspiration: Libby, Jennifer, Mark, Shannan, Betty, and Tina! If you'd like to join us, drop me a line!

Hook 'em Horns!

Texas Tuesday - cheating? maybe...

1. I missed Texas Tuesday 2 weeks ago... It was the Last Day of School EVE and my head was spinning off. My apologies to my Texas friends and to all of you!

2. I *almost* missed today's edition... um, due to lack of whatthehecktodo :)

So, here's how the story goes...

You know the word association game? Well, I asked my 8 year-old (he *just* turned 8 last week... I need to show you the invites! ;)) what is the first thing he thinks about when I said the word "Texas" (secretly hoping his answer would be "LONGHORNS", of course! but um, no.). His response Wakeboarding. HUH? WHAT? Oh I get it. Sorta.

We bought a boat last week. Yeah, it's been in the works for OVER A YEAR. By works I mean we've looked, we've shopped, we've said no a bunch of times and then a couple of weeks ago... BAM. The right boat, the right situation, etc. etc. and we have a boat. It's a good thing my inlaws live on a lake ;) So, this past weekend, my 8 yr old, tried his hand (and face!) at wakeboarding behind our boat. It was his first time and he ate a bunch of water and is now ready to go out again!

So, what does this have to do with Texas Tuesdays? Texas Tuesday is supposed to be some creation that is inspired by our great state of Texas. Well, Texas to me is about HOT. It's about no Spring and no Fall and being at the lake from Easter to Thanksgiving and if we're lucky on Christmas Day, too. It's about margaritas and boats and swimming and bbq and LIVE MUSIC and flip flops and yes, wildflowers, too. So, my creation below is a LEAP, I know but I hope that you can see how my inspiration came about and that it "fits" the Texas Tuesday model. It probably doesn't but I'm gonna say it does! Until I talk to Libby... :)

all images and papers by A Muse Artstamps

Okay, I hope you've enjoyed my Texas Tuesday. Be sure to check out the other Texans:

Libby

Betty

Mark Jetton (of Deadbeat Designs!)

Tina

Y'all come back, ye hear... ha ha ha... just had to say something Texan.

Texas Tuesday - A Texas Wedding

Welcome to another edition of Texas Tuesday! Every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month, some of my fabulous Texas friends and I are participating in Texas Tuesday. More about that later...

About 10 days ago, I got an order to make 280 wedding invites in a short amount of time. The bride wanted a wildflower theme. She told me about this "red" bluebonnet she had seen somewhere online. After some research I found the one she was talking about. Turns out it is a hybrid developed by that school over there in College Station, who shall remain nameless ;). The bride then found these beautiful bridesmaid's dresses in pink and our bluebonnet turned PINK!

This design is made with Shimmer Champagne paper for the pocket fold (accucut die) and envelopes. The mats are A Muse Shimmer Couture in Pink and Pink Damask. The "Texas" part of this entire design is Mark's (of Deadbeat Designs!) bluebonnets. I, now, own every size of his bluebonnet stamps! Thanks for such  speedy service Mark!

And then the front...

I kept the design simple for two reasons:

1) time to get it done (a week-ish!)

2) 280 of every piece... that's a lot of hands on work! 

Okay, I hope you've enjoyed my Texas Tuesday. Be sure to check out the other Texans:

Libby

Shannan

Linda

Betty

Mark Jetton (of Deadbeat Designs!)

Do you want to play along? Libby is doing a roundup on her blog right here.

Texas Tuesday - teacher appreciation style

Welcome to Texas Tuesday! Texas Tuesday is a fun little thing that my fellow-Austinite, fellow-engineer, and fellow-stamper, Libby has created. It's a day where a few of us Texans make a card that is inspired by something here in the great big ol' state of Texas! We'll be posting every 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the Month. I'm going try to keep up!

Well, in addition to Texas Tuesday, it's Day 2 of Teacher Appreciation Week... and that means Jennie, Lori, and I have some more stuff to share.

Whew - so, something Texas-y, something teacher gift-y... right. Got it!

You know what's coming next, right?

My first post about Texas HAS TO BE ABOUT THE LONGHORNS, right? For goodness sake, I'm  "texaslonghorns" on Splitcoaststampers.com (that was before craftyengineer came to fruition!)

Living in Austin, Texas, I know *so* many teachers that are longhorn fans. So giving this gift won't be hard. :) I made a few of these to give to my son's librarian and a couple of other teachers.

Just like yesterday, this is a set of notes (not all my gifts are notes, I promise!). The set contains 8  3x3 notes and envelopes in a clear box (clearbags.com). I tied the whole thing with a longhorn ribbon that my bff gave me a while back!

The lined paper is by A Muse (love that stuff!), longhorn is by Mark of Deadbeat Designs (love his Texas stuff!) and the sentiment "a little note" is by A Muse. FYI, if you're looking for burnt orange ink... Stampin' Up's really rust is a pretty close match. I need to seriously reink mine!

So, HOOK 'EM HORNS!

Now, for Texas Tuesday, please visit my Texas girls:

Libby

Shannan

Linda

Betty

Mark Jetton (of Deadbeat Designs!)

To continue the Teacher Tag and find more teacher gift ideas, please visit my A Muse pals:

Jennie

Lori

See you tomorrow for more Teacher Tag!