I started this card last night while I was waiting to leave for the Buffalo Airport to pick up Sarah and Adam. Even in the summer, the plane managed to be late, so we didn't get home until nearly 1 am. A little past my bedtime, so I finished it up this morning as they slept in. Lots of layers here, but I like the effect.

Interesting that the two reds seem different on Typepad, when in fact, they are a perfect match IRL; both are Papertrey Ink pure poppy. The spiral design is also from Papertrey, but the black grid is a small piece of Paper Loft  from my scrap drawer. Stamps are all Papertrey.

Looking forward to some family time this week until Sarah and Adam leave to meet friends in the Adirondacks on Friday.

The first is this week's Card-a-licious-25 Challenge to use flowers, ribbon, and a journaling tag. I based my card on a card I found on Lisette Gibbons blog.

While I was away I received some new Papertrey Ink stamps which I was eager to play with. The first one is a lift of Nicole Heady's card when she introduced the stamp set.

And the last is using the new made-for-buttons stamp set: Everyday Button Bits. I loved the messages included with this set, but I know I'll enjoy playing with the images as well. I found the October Afternoon paper pad at a great scrapbook store in California and knew the paper would be great with cherry stamp.

It was good to get back to some crafting after a long time away from it. There's so much I'm looking forward to making.

We’ve been home for a little over a week now . . . sort of. The week we returned Tracy’s family rented a cottage at Conesus Lake. His brother from Arizona was here, and we had a family only celebration of Ellie’s 80th birthday, so we were at the lake almost every day. Luckily, the weather was better than it has been here.

Our trip was, in a word, FABULOUS! Truly, it could not have been better. We had nearly perfect weather, and nothing we planned was a disappointment. In fact, nearly all the sights were more interesting and breathtaking than we imagined. Take The Badlands, for example. I didn’t have any high expectations about The Badlands, but I was totally taken aback by its stark beauty and the amount of wildlife we saw.

I’ve managed to sort through the 1800 photos on my computer and narrow them down to a little under 400. The thought of editing and cropping them is a bit overwhelming so that’s one reason I’ve neglected the blog since I got back. I did think that I would post from the road, but our days were so full that all I did in the evening was upload my photos from the cameras and keep a daily journal. I’m seven weeks behind with my Project 365, but the photos are there and I’ll catch up eventually. Here are the stats on the trip: