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Adirondack Weekend

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Tracy and Bob have gone to the Adirondacks every September for years. This year Cathy and I decided to go along–not to backpack, but for a girls' weekend. We picked a great year to go. We dropped the guys off at the trailhead on Friday, and they took off for Mt. Marshall. Here they are, already to take off for their two day hike.

HikersBeforew

Cathy and I, however, did not rough it. We checked into the Ledge Rock Motel in Wilmington, just north of Lake Placid. We had a great view of Whiteface Mountain from our room where we enjoyed wine and cheese and crackers, talked, and read.

WhitefaceFriw

Friday night we drove into Lake Placid, ate at the Lake Placid Brewery and did some shopping. There was a great breakfast at the Lake Placid Diner on Saturday followed by more shopping in Lake Placid and Saranac Lake. We did get a little exercise walking  2.7 miles around Mirror Lake.

MirrorLake2w

The weather was fabulous and the foliage very near peak.

Stream2w

Saturday night we had a great meal at the pub at the Hungry Trout in Wilmington. Sunday turned out to be gray and rainy. Here's the view from our room on Sunday.

WhitefaceSunw

The hikers were wet and very tired when we picked them up.

HikersAfterw

But grateful for the cold beers we brought with us. All of us had a great time. I think this could be a new tradition!

Sketchfest Thursday

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It's the last day I can play along with Sketchfest at Caardvarks. We're picking up our friends at 6 am tomorrow to head up to Lake Placid for the weekend. I'm looking forward to it, but I've also enjoyed the challenges this week. I think I'll finish up when I come back even though it will be too late to post them on their blog. Here's today's sketch:

SketchfestThursday

And my take on it.

ThursdaySketch

Archivers square card; patterned paper: Papertrey Black & White Basics and Bitty Dots, Jillibean Soup; border sticker: Mrs. Grossman; brads: SEI; rub-0n: Making Memories, punches.

Sketchfest Wednesday

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Here's today's sketch from Caardvarks:

SketchfestWednesday

I decided to make another Christmas card since I know I'll need lots of those. This came together very quickly unlike the Embellish card in the previous post.

WedSketch

Textured card from stash; embossed paper by KI Memories Love, Elsie; patterned papers by Basic Grey; letter stickers by SEI, and one of my all-time favorite stickers. When I found this reindeer I bought several sets. I no longer have any idea who made them, and this is one of my last.

Embellish Polka-dot Challenge

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Polkadotparadise_challenge_layout_500-300x300

I knew right away that I would play along with this challenge from Embellish since I love this color combination and polka-dots have always been a favorite. I waited until my Papertrey package arrived this week with their new Orange Zest cardstock. This card turned out to be more problematic than usual. I tried lots of different things until I finally arrived at this:

PolkaDot

Cardstock: Papertrey Vintage Cream, Scarlet Jewel, Orange Zest, Summer Sunrise; patterned paper: Papertrey Autumn Abundance, Bitty Dots, and In Bloom; Cuttlebug embossing folder, EK border punch, Papertrey Scarlet Jewel twill, button from stash.

Road Trip Scrapbook Done

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Our road trip this summer is now documented in a scrapbook. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on, and it was really a lot of fun reliving our fabulous trip.

Coverw

Archiver's three-ring albums are my favorite, and I always buy a few when I am lucky enough to be near one of their stores. The fabric letter stickers are American Craft and the numbers from Making Memories.

TitleLOw

This page was lots of fun to do. I love this paper from Little Yellow Bicycle. It was amazing how many cities we passed through were on the map–including Hays, Kansas where I was born. We stopped there on our way home. It was the first time I'd been back since we left when I was in second grade!

BadlandsLOw

I did a two-page spread for nearly all of the 12 national parks and monuments we visited. For a couple of parks I actually ended up with three pages.

BryceLOw

After the 2-page layout, I had photo sheets from We R Memory Keepers where I could add extra photos. Bryce was one of the parks that warranted three pages, so you can see the title page for that park, too.

WildlifeLOw

Top3LOw

When I finished I had five filler pages I needed to do to keep the trip in chronological order. Above you see two of them.

YellostoneLakew

This was probably one of my favorite layouts, perhaps because I loved staying near Yellowstone Lake and had lots of great photos.

RoadTripSidew

Luckily it all fit into one album. It's big and heavy, but not too overwhelming for someone to look through.

 

Sketchfest Tuesday

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I'm really enjoying these sketches:

SketchfestTuesday

Here's my take on the Tuesday sketch:

Tis2

Cardstock: Papertrey Ink Silver Shimmer; patterned paper: unknown from Christmas scraps; stamp: Papertrey Signature Christmas; silver detail embossing powder, Krylon silver leafing pen, Marvy punches, circle Nestabilities.

CPS 134

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Here's my card for this week's sketch at CPS:

CPS134

The patterned paper is an old one from Carolee Creations that I found in my Christmas scraps. The glitter paper was also from my stash, and I have no idea where it came from. Circle dies by Nestabilities, punches by Marvy and  silver twine  from Paper Source.


Sketchfest Monday plus 2

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Here's today's sketch from Caardvarks:

SketchfestMonday

I started by choosing a couple of papers from Studio Calico's Cotillion kit. I hand cut the scallop from the Anna Griffin paper and chose a piece of Papertrey Enchanted Evening to set it off. Then while hunting through my stash for something entirely different, I came upon this old, old sticker set that had just the right colors, so here it is, a totally unexpected result:

Dream

I also made a card for the 2 Sketches 4 You site, but didn't finish it in time to post it on their blog. It's a thank you note for friends who invited us to spend some time in their exquisite gardens.

Thanks24U

All Papertrey except for the gingham ribbon from my stash. I love the Everyday Button Bits stamps. I almost didn't order them, but am surely glad I did.

Here is another card from that set for a young man's upcoming birthday:

EnjoytheRide

Papertrey cardstock and stamps; patterned paper Cosmos Cricket Boyfriend papers.

Sketchfest Sunday

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CaardVarks is having a weeklong Sketch Fest. I won't be able to complete all the challenges since we're off to the Adirondacks on Friday, but hope to do the earlier ones this week. Here is one for Sunday:

SketchfestSunday

And my card:

SundaySketchCV

Cardstock: PTI Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy; all other: Basic Grey Ambrosia; gem from stash.

Three for Moxie Fab

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The most recent Moxie Fab challenge was to create a paper crafted project that incorporated an image of a household object. It inspired me to pull out some favorite stamps that I've had for a very long time.

Type3

Stamps: JudiKins, Stamp Oasis, Papertrey Ink; Patterned papers: Papertrey Black & White Basics & Bitty Boxes, Cosmos Cricket Boyfriend.

TypeInside 

These typwriter key stickers (unknown) seemed like the perfect choice for the inside message. (There's a black border around all of the red paper, though it doesn't show up here.)

PubSign


And finally:

Thanks

Stamps: Denami Designs, Papertrey Ink; ribbon and button from stash; Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Good-bye to Summer

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Labor Day always seems to signal the unofficial end of summer. Even though neither of us returns to work this year, it still had that "end of summer" feel to it. We had great weather and took good advantage of it. Saturday we went to a picnic at Pete and Arlene's. Arlene and Shaun had just celebrated their birthdays so sparklers were in order.

ArleneShaunw

I love Pete and Arlene's fire pit on their deck. If we had a bit more room on our patio, I'd seriously consider buying one.

FirePitw

On Sunday, Tracy and I drove to Chimney Bluffs on Lake Ontario. Neither of us had ever been there before. The trail goes along the rocky shoreline, then heads up to the top of the cliffs so you are looking down on the lake.

ChimneyBluffs10w

ChimBlSunflarew

ChimneyBluffs3w

There were lots of folks swimming. It was a really nice day, but the water in the lake is still pretty cold.

ChimneyBluffs9w

ChimneyBluffs4w

Gullw

After our hike, Matt met us at The Bayside Pub for dinner. We'd never been there before and I'd definitely go back. It's a very casual place, but the setting and the food are both great.

Bayside1w

Mattw

I love the reflection in his glasses.

Bayside3w

It was a great way to say "good-bye" to summer.

Moxie Fab Stamping Challenge

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Once I use a Christmas stamp for my holiday cards, I often sell it or give it away. For some reason I held on to this Magenta stamp which I still love after many years. Here's a card for the Moxie Fab Challenge:

Christmas1

I stamped the image on Kraft cardstock and added some color with my Prisma colored pencils. Cardstock is from Papertrey:  Scarlet Jewel and Deep Avacado. The ribbon is from my stash, and the message stamp is Savvy stamps. Both layers are lined with a Krylon gold leafing pen.

CPS 132 and Moxie Fab

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Another two challenge card: a very untraditional Christmas card for the Moxie Fab stamping challenge based on this week's CPS Sketch. There's a fair amount of bling on this card that doesn't show up as well in a photograph as in real life.

Christmas2R

Stamps: Hero Arts and savvy stamps; cardstock: Papertrey, silver twine: Paper Source, patterned paper: KI Memories, jewels: unknown from stash.

Cards for Kate

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Jennifer McGuire is hosting a Cards for Kate drive to help cheer a family whose little girl has been diagnosed with brain cancer. I'd participate no matter what, but my mom died from a brain tumor over 40 years ago, so this has special meaning to me. I'm sending cards for each member of the family but here are two that I've never posted. I haven't used either of these stamps in so long. I don't have a reason to create cards for kids very often, but I held on to some of my favorites when I sold off a lot of stamps a few years ago.

Ducky
Patterned paper:  Crate Paper and Papertrey, Cardstock and button: Papertrey, ribbon: Paper Source, stamp:  Mostly Animals, Nestabilities and Copic markers.

Cake
Stamp: Uptown Stamps, cardstock and button: Papertrey, ribbon: Impress Stamps, Cuttlebug embossing folder, Copic markers and glitter pen, and Stickles.

CPS 131

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I have a new 6X6 paper pad of the Cosmos Cricket Boyfriend papers that I was dying to try. Here's my take on this week's sketch at CPS.

CPS131

Cosmos Cricket pp; cardstock, twine, button, message stamp all Papertrey Ink; October Afternoon journaling spot, EK Success border punch, and Creek Bank twill.