March 19th Mid-Week Post

 Hey Y'all!

Hope you are having a good week.

Our weather has been great for early Spring, 70's to 80's (F) in the daytime with plenty of sun. 50's-60's at night. And the March wind is still blowing.

Our Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo (HLSR) is winding down on March 22.

This year's event has had some controversies.

To quote the Houston Chronicle Editorial:

"The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the city’s signature event. Nearly 100 years old, it’s our brand, as legible to the world as the cattle brands of Charles Goodnight or King Ranch once were to early Texans.

That brand is looking tarnished these days.

Last week, the rodeo did damage control after a slew of bad headlines and online chatter. After footage of a fight circulated, the rodeo increased security. After revealing getups garnered social media attention, it updated the dress code. That’s on top of the injured steer that had to be euthanized after a steer wrestling event. And the cringeworthy drama involving County Judge Lina Hidalgo that led to a petty back and forth between her and the rodeo leadership."

Now, I'm about as far away to being a country/western fan as you can get. I don't own any of the clothing (hat, boots, etc.), can't even remember the last time I rode a horse, and I've definitely been-there-done-that with HLSR since I began going in 1973 the handful of times I've gone.

BUT, I want it to thrive.

It's a BFD for the Houston area and for many of my friends.

(In fact, our new across-the-street neighbor has volunteered at the rodeo for decades, his father was a founding member of The Black Cowboy Trail Riders.)

So I hope they get past this and do better in the future.

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Today I have 3 different cards made with 2 Stamplorations cover plate dies. I think it's my first use of either of these dies, even though I've had them for a good long minute. I've been experimenting with ways to make multiple cards at one sitting to save me time. I've always been a one-card-at-a-time-each-one-unique kind of card maker, but this year will be different with the move. There are a lot more detailed (and harder) applications of this die, but I've gone with as simple as possible.

For this card, I sized a Bow Arts Etsy Abstract clip art image in PSE and printed it out. Then I die cut it with Stamplorations Zen Doodled Birthday Gifts cover plate. I layered it onto a black base mat and die cut the Stamplorations sentiment with scrap white card.

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For my next card, I used the same dies and different papers from the same collection. But I changed it up slightly. I cut the cover plate die out of white card and layered that onto the clip art image base mat. I outlined the sentiment die with a Sakura metallic glitter gel pen.

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For my 3rd card, I used Stamplorations Zen-Doodled Birthday Cake cover plate die, cutting it out of another great Bow Arts clip art image from the same collection. After layering that onto a base of checkered DCWV designer paper, I added back a few of the pieces and then colored in some spots with Sakura metallic glitter gel pens. Then I cut the sentiment die out of black scrap card.

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Well, that's it for me this time.

Thanks so much for the visit!

I hope you have a great rest of the week and weekend ahead.

SeeYa next time!

XOX