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Happy Mail

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I celebrated my birthday while I was in California at Sarah and Adam's. My favorite treat there comes from Nothing But Bundt cakes. We bought four mini ones, and one was free because it was my birthday. They are so yummy. I wish we had one here, but it's probably for the best.

BDCakew

When I got home, I found this pile of birthday cards waiting in the mail. What fun to open them all up at the same time. On the top, you can see a beautiful photo card from my Team-up Thursday partner, Nancy.

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Also in the mail was this fabulous envelope and bookmark from Cheri:

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This beautiful photo card from Deb:

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And then on Wednesday, I received an amazing card and a box of goodies from Lorraine:

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I'm in love with these Prima flowers and butterflies. You'll be seeing some of this show up on cards very soon! Thanks Cheri, Deb, and Lorraine! I am blessed by my many blogging relationships, and this happy mail is "above and beyond!"

 

Vacation Recap

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Warning this is a long post and there are a lot of photos!

We've been home just a week, and it's time for a vacation recap. I've finally been through all the photos once and chosen those I think I might want to print. I deleted a few, but must go back again and get rid of all the duplicates. Yesterday I managed to edit the ones you'll see here.

We were gone nearly 3 weeks. I took over 1100 photos, we drove through four states (Tracy drove clear across the country, but I flew from NY to Colorado), we visited three national parks, four sets of friends and family. I read five books, but sadly missed meeting up with three blogging friends I hoped to meet. Aside from serious pain issues, it was a great vacation. As some of you know, I had surgery in early March and was left with some serious, undiagnosed, and untreatable pain which made walking very difficult. It went on for 10 weeks, and really impacted my lifestyle, and sadly, our vacation. Miraculously, the day we left to come home it disappeared, and I've now been painfree for a little over a week. I have new appreciation for chronic pain, and don't know how you get accustomed to it. I never did, and I was worried that this would be a lifetime affliction. The surgeon has now diagnosed it as an impacted fibroid, but the truth is none of us are quite sure what it was. But yeah, it's gone!

So, on to vacation. We started in Denver where Matt has taken a new job, which thankfully, he seems to love. We found him an apartment, but weren't there to help him move in, but our friends did. I'm still waiting to see photos! But here's the apartment building. He's on the fourth floor and on a clear day, can see the mountains.

M'sAptw

He's just two blocks from the Denver Botanic Gardens where we spend a couple of hours one afternoon.

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When we left Denver, we drove to Santa Fe and spent an afternoon in the downtown area and visiting a fabulous photography gallery. We were here ten years ago, and would love to spend more time again.

SantaFew

Tracy much prefers state roads to interstate highways, so on our way to Phoenix to visit family we took the long way and got to see El Morro National Monument where Native Americans and pioneers left their marks on the rocks. The earliest are petroglyphs, but I was amazed at this beautiful script carved into the rock.

MorroNMw

And we drove around the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Parks:

PaintedDesertw

In Phoenix, we visited Tracy's brother, here with his beautiful daughter, Lena. I was terrible about getting photos of family and friends. Not like me, I'm blaming it on the pain, but I'm so sorry I don't have better photos. (Or in some cases, any.)

Scott&Lenaw

We also got a chance to visit Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright's western home. Thanks to Deb, I also did a little shopping at Scrapbooks, Etc. and sent myself a box of scrapping goodies which I can't find locally.

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From Phoenix, we drove to Tucson. We'd never been here before, but had a lovely time. We visited Saguaro National Park . . .

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the absolutely fabulous Desert Museum . . .

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Tohono Chul . . .

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the beautiful San Xavier Mission . . .

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and the fabulous Center for Creative Photography as well as having dinner with old book group friends from Rochester.

On our way to California to visit Sarah and Adam, we stopped for a day at the Joshua Tree National Park,

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Spent a night at Morro Bay:

MorroBayw

And visited San Simeon, William Hearst's castle on a hill overlooking the Pacific. The gardens and walkways were my favorite part.

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But this shot of the indoor pool, gives you a better idea of the ornate and elaborate house.

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And finally, we ended up with Sarah and Adam for five restful days of family visiting. I did get a great family photo here (and you'll see it later), but I love this one of Sarah and her dog, Sadie.

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If you made it to the end, you deserve a treat!

Project 64: Asparagus

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This is my second post today. For the Papertrey Ink Blog Hop, scroll down one post.

Project64

This week's color at Project 64 was asparagus. Of course I had to photograph the vegetable since roasted asparagus is probably my favorite vegetable.

Asparagusw

And then I have two photos from the Denver Botanic Gardens. All three plants have asparagus green leaves.

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Heleborus

 

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Peony

You can find a  lot of photographic inspiration on the Project 64 blog.

 

Papertrey May Blog Hop

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Bloghoplogo

For the second month in a row, I came close to missing the Papertrey Blog Hop–one of my favorite events each month. Fortunately, last night I realized and had enough time to complete a card set for this month's challenge to create with flower images. On Monday, my May PTI order arrived, so I was happy to break open the Year of the Flower Collection set. I love these smaller versions and know I'll be using this set often.

BlogHopSet
MorningGlories

SweetPeas

LilyoftheValley

All three cards are just the same except for the focal image and the color of the doily mat. It was interesting to me to see how different the focal images looked as I changed the color of the mat. The Morning Glories looked best with Ripe Avocado, the Sweet Peas with a Bazzill scrap from my file, and the Lily of the Valley with a Simply Chartreuse mat. The cards are pre-made, I think from Paper Source and the narrow green ribbon is also from Paper Source. The focal images were stamped on Vintage Cream and colored with Prismacolor pencils. The dies are both Papertrey:  Limitless Layers and Doily Details. I'm in need of several note cards for thank you notes so I'll probably use these myself.

If you're looking for card-making inspiration, this blog hop is always a good place to look!

CASE Study Challenge

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I'm in need of quite a few cards for June birthdays. One of the recipients is a singer, so when I saw the featured card on the CASE Study blog, I knew I wanted to play along. Here is the card by Sarah Martina Parker:

CASE

Sarah excels at these shabby vintage cards, but it's not a natural for me. I am, however, pretty pleased with the card I came up with, and I think my friend will like it, too.

WishBigCASE

I've been admiring the double bows Melissa Philips and Debbie Olsen make, so I thought I'd try my hand at one, and I knew I wanted to use this pretty Prima flower I picked up in Phoenix, thanks to Deb's recommendation of a scrapbook store. All the rest of the products are Papertrey Ink:  Hibiscus Burst cardstock and ribbon; Background Basics: Sheet Music, and Tiny Tags stamps and die; Vintage Cream and True Black cardstock.

I'm still doing catch-up after our long trip. I'll soon be around to all your blogs which I read (even though I didn't comment) while I was on the road, but haven't managed to get to this week. The next few days look a little less hectic. It's all been good, but it's been busy!!

 

Project 64: Cerulean Blue

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  Project64

Time is definitely getting away from me this week. There's been so much to do and so many appointments/obligations on the calendar since we got back. Last week's color for Project 64 was Cerulean Blue. I found two good examples on our trip.

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This beautiful blue jar was at the Denver Botanical Gardens.

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Sarah bought this gorgeous dish in a Guatamalan shop in Boston the year she went to B.U. It's prominently displayed on their shelves. I'll be back tomorrow or Monday with the next color:  asparagus green.

CR84FN Color Challenge

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A very quick post since this challenge ends in just a few hours. I love red and yellow, but I could certainly tell I've been away from my crafting table for a few weeks. This is at least the fourth version of this card! Here's the color inspiration from CR84FN:

CR84FN28+Graphic

And my card:

AllStar

Cardstock: Pure Poppy (PTI); Patterned Paper: Circa 1934 (Cosmo Cricket); Star & Banner dies: PTI; Stamps: Just the Ticket (PTI); Twine: Jeweler's Natural (Michaels); Chamomile Tea Ink for distressing (PTI)

There's lots to share from our three week trip, so I'll be back again soon with photos of the cool places we got to visit!

Project 64: Tumbleweed

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I sure hope Typepad comes out with an iPad app soon. There’s no way to alternate text with photos on the iPhone app I’m using now. I’ll be home to post this week’s color, but here are my tumbleweed shots. By chance, we were in the desert this week, so finding tumbleweed was not a problem. The real tumbleweed was found at the Painted Desert, and the rest of the photos were taken at the Desert Museum in Tucson.

Project 64: Tumbleweed

Project 64: Tumbleweed

Project 64: Tumbleweed

Project 64: Tumbleweed

Project 64: Tumbleweed

The Rossie Albums

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I didn't have time to create my page for the One Little Word tag book before I left on vacation. But the big accomplishment this month was finishing Sarah's Rossie Album. I finished Matt's last month, but ended up moving all the photos from one album to another. I bought two-up albums for these projects, but I don't like the way the pages lay in the post-bound album. I can't find another 8X8 ring album that works, although I ordered on that didn't work!

I had the very best day care any mother could want. Rossie (a variation of her last name) is still a wonderful friend to all of us. Both kids worked for her when they were in middle school. She paid them a nominal fee, and it kept them in day care for a couple extra years. Moving up through the ranks from baby to toddler to little kid to big kid was a rite of passage in her house. Almost no one left once they'd come through the door, so both Sarah and Matt had the same friends for years and years. Sarah is still in contact with one of them, and when I run into any of the parents or the kids around town, it's like a little family reunion.

Rossie took lots and lots of photos during the year. At her annual Christmas party she would hang a packet of them for each parent on her dining room wall. One of her favorite things to do was to find a really goofy photo to put on the top of Matt's pile, in hopes of making me squirm. 🙂 Thus the photo of French fries in Matt's nose. He laughed when he got to that photo, and told us that Rossie told him he could try ketchup on the fries or stick them up his nose! She knew he's never try the ketchup. I wanted my kids to have these albums of their time with Rossie. Matt took his with him, and Sarah will have gotten hers by the time this posts. Here are a few photos of the two albums.

SarahCover

SarahTitlePg

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You always had two birthday parties, one at Rossie's and one at our house.

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Rossie's captions were always a big hit!

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Sarah3

Still friends today.

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Sarah and Rossie at her wedding.

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Journaling

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The last page of Matt's album with a few extras that I didn't have room for.

Since most of the photos were 5X3 I had to cut 4X6 mats for them. Sarah's album uses coordinated papers from Scenic Route, and Matt's are from SEI.

Road Trip Layout

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Here's a layout I did for the Scrap-Mart blog this month. I really like how it came out. It was nice to work with just two photos instead of trying to fit four or more on the page as I have been with My Home album.

RoadTrip3

I started out with the beautiful new paper from Emma's Shoppe by Crate Paper, and used both sides of it for my layout. I die cut and embossed a panel from Spellbinders' Creative Book Pages as a mat for the photos and embellishments. Then I stitched a piece of the floral paper and cut a rickrack border with the checks. The car was cut with my Slice (Animal Cracker's cartridge) with two SEI brads for headlights. I needed a tiny title and the Silhouette came in handy again. The strip on the misted journaling tag is the negative piece from one edge of the Creative Book Page die, and the flowers are from Lifestyle Crafts (Quickutz) Spring Blooms die. The ribbons and buttons are from my stash. The yellow cardstock is American Craft's "Butter."

Project 64: Violet Red

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This is my fourth attempt to post from my iPad. I knew it might be tricky, and indeed it is. There's an app for the iPhone (which I'm using now, but no Typepad app for the iPad. Writing a post isn't the problem. It's getting photos up that are sized appropriately.

All the photos for this week's color were taken at the Denver Botanic Garden, just a few blocks from Matt's new apartment. He found a great one, but can't move in until Friday. We're leaving tomorrow morning for Santa Fe, and will be at Tracy's brother's in Phoenix by Friday.

Project 64: Violet Red

Project 64: Violet Red

Project 64: Violet Red

Project 64: Violet Red

Happy Birthday, Marti!

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Today is Deb's mother's birthday! (Hi, Marti!) I'm a proud member of Team Teal, a blogging and personal support group as Marti battles her cancer. My mom also fought cancer, though of a very different kind.

TeamTeal

Although I sent Marti a totally different card, I thought I'd post a card I made for Scrap-Mart from the new pennant dies by Spellbinders.

HBPennantCard

Creating a card from the Lacey Pennants wasn't as hard as I thought it might be. I used a two-sided paper from American Crafts, so the inside matches the smaller pennant on the front cut and embossed with the Nested Pennants. The sentiment is from the Just Right "Happy Everything" set which has ended up being a very versatile set. All the other elements are from my stash.

Make-It Monday

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Make-itMonday

One last challenge before I leave for vacation. I've always loved the hand-drawn frames Nicole Heady does on so many of her cards, but I've never been very successful at it. After watching her video, I found it's easier than I thought.

SoSweet

This tulip image from the Friendship Jar Spring Fillers set was the image that pushed me over the edge and put the stamp set in my cart. But this is the first time I've used it. I love the way it looks on its own without the jar. I don't make one layer cards that often, but I think that might change. The tulips were colored with Copic markers, and the sentiment is from Signature Greetings. You can find the other entries for this challenge here.

Color Challenge

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I've been lurking on the CR84FN Color Challenge site for a few weeks, but finally got around to creating a card. I love this combination of red, aqua, and white.

CR84FN25+Graphic

The first thing I did was take a look at the most recent Studio Calico kit, and found two perfect papers, one by Studio Calico and one from Emma's Shoppe by Crate Paper. The strawberry paper then dictated which stamps I used. I was surprised to discover that the only strawberry stamp I own is part of Papertrey Ink's Vintage Picnic set. It's one of my favorites, and it's been awhile since it's seen some love. I also cased Heather's design which you can see on the CR84FN site as well.

CR84FN4.26

I colored the strawberries with a combination of Copic markers and Faber-Castell Artist pens. The strawberries are so tiny, the artist pens were much easier to use on the leaves than the Copics. I also used the artist pens to enhance the picnic basket and added two brads to the handles. I cut out five sets of strawberries and layered them into the basket after adhering it to the Lacey Circle I cut from the B side of the Studio Calico paper. The ribbon and button are from Papertrey as is the Tiny Tag. I just love the Tiny Tag set. It's the perfect size for tying to a bow.

 

Project 64: Pacific Blue

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Project64

I wasn't too hopeful about finding much Pacific Blue this week, but actually there was a lot more than I expected and I never had to leave the house.

  Wk16 pacific blue copy

Books

CameraStropw

OMT

ThisToThat 

They were all right here in my studio. Who knew? Just another reason why I like this challenge—it encourages me to look more carefully everywhere.

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be on the road, and I'm hoping to continue to participate. I've never tried to post from an iPad and the photos will definitely be SOOC. If need be, I'll do a catch-up post when I get home. Tracy and Matt rolled out of here a day late due to major car repairs on the way to Denver. Matt's new job starts on Monday. I'll be joining them on Thursday.

U-Haulw