The next stop on the Papertrey "tour" is Mexico. When I think of Mexico, I think of bright colors, sunshine, and beach resorts–where "life is good"–at least for the tourists.
Papertrey Ink is hosting a series of four challenges to celebrate World Card Making Day. The first stop is Japan. I've had this Japanese handmade paper for years, and this was the perfect time to pull it out. The elegant branch from Life also reminds me of the Japanese watercolor flowers. There's a tiny dragonfly charm on the bow.
It's been awhile since I've had a chance to participate in this challenge. Yesterday, however, I got a package from 2Peas with a new embossing folder from Quickutz. This seemed like a perfect sketch for it.
Here's my take on it–another Christmas card:
Cardstock: Papertrey Ripe Avacado; Card: Paper Source; Ribbon and patterned paper: unknown from stash; Krylon gold leafing pen, Quickutz embossing folder.
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.
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.
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.
The weather was fabulous and the foliage very near peak.
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.
The hikers were wet and very tired when we picked them up.
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!
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:
And my take on it.
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.
Here's today's sketch from Caardvarks:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
This was probably one of my favorite layouts, perhaps because I loved staying near Yellowstone Lake and had lots of great photos.
Luckily it all fit into one album. It's big and heavy, but not too overwhelming for someone to look through.
I'm really enjoying these sketches:
Here's my take on the Tuesday sketch:
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.
Here's my card for this week's sketch at CPS:
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.
Here's today's sketch from Caardvarks:
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:
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.
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:
Papertrey cardstock and stamps; patterned paper Cosmos Cricket Boyfriend papers.
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:
And my card:
Cardstock: PTI Dark Chocolate, Pure Poppy; all other: Basic Grey Ambrosia; gem from stash.
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.
Stamps: JudiKins, Stamp Oasis, Papertrey Ink; Patterned papers: Papertrey Black & White Basics & Bitty Boxes, Cosmos Cricket Boyfriend.
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.)
And finally:
Stamps: Denami Designs, Papertrey Ink; ribbon and button from stash; Cuttlebug embossing folder.
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.
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.
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.
There were lots of folks swimming. It was a really nice day, but the water in the lake is still pretty cold.
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.
I love the reflection in his glasses.
It was a great way to say "good-bye" to summer.