Day 209, Thursday, July 28

I had to go back to work today and that makes me sad!  So, I had to find something to photograph that makes me happy!  And these buttons really make me happy!  I have been collecting them, here and there and I don't know what I am going to do with them for sure...but I love to look at them and run my fingers through the container! lol

Day 208, Wednesday, July 27

Nikki had an open house tonight and we made these three cards.  We used new products from the latest Stampin' Up catalog and mini summer catty.  It was so much fun to stamp with Nikki.  She hasn't had any workshops for a long time...she just had a new baby in June!

Day 207, Tuesday, July 26

Peyton and I went to Lakeview Museum to see the Moneyville exhibit.  He was very interested in the $1,000,000 stack of $1 bills....just kept walking around it.  I think he was trying to figure out how to get in the block!  He said it was being heavily guarded!  lol  We also went to Chuck E Cheese to play skee ball for a while.  Today was the last day we get to spend together for the summer.  He said it was the best day ever!  Love you, Peyton!

Day 206, Monday, July 25

This is something I just hate to see every year.  When the street department starts painting the school cross walks...it means I am going to have to go back to work soon...like this thursday! 

Day 205, Sunday, July 24

The "Hospitality Basket" is sitting on my lap in the car.  We always take this Longaberger Medium Market basket on our "road trips".  We fill it up with the snacks we like and take it with us everywhere.

Day 204, Saturday, July 23

Today, we went to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway!  We wanted to go to the museum, but as we were walking in the door, there was a special grounds tour today.  It was an extra $15 each, but we got to see so much more!  We are standing on the track in front of the "pole" and behind the "yard of bricks".  We also got to see gasoline alley, the media room where the drivers and owners are interviewed before and after the race, the garages, the media room where there are 350 seats for reporters to watch and report the race activities, the infield hospital, where the drivers park their $1,000,000 motor coaches and we rode around the track on a bus!  It was an awesome experience!

Summer Card Camp, Week 3

I created these cards following the Summer Card Camp colors and sketches.  I bought a 6x6 Bo Bunny pad at Archiver's at the Mall of America last week.  The paper was exactly the colors that I needed!

I created this card using a sketch from Page Maps. I follow alot of Becky Fleck's layouts.  This is the flatest card I have ever made...but I liked it.  It is a birthday card that one of the guys in my family will be seeing in the future! 

I used Jennifer's card as the sketch for this card.  Still using the same papers.  I stamped the background with a script stamp, ink all the paper, embossed the little banner, added a crocheted flower, button and twine and a few velumn butterflies.  This is a sympathy card.  I don't like to make them when I need them...I just have a few on hand...just in case.

I followed Kristina's lead with this card.  Still using the same paper pad.  Embossed the words, added glossy accents to the clocks and a little bit of baker's twine.  Another guy birthday card.

I cut the red frame with my Cricut using the George rectangle using the siloutte feature.  It is adhered to an acetate sheet and pop dotted to stand above the clock and happy birthday frame.  I punched the brown paper with the stamp edge punch and added a striped piece at the bottom.

I followed one of the sketches for this week, just inking, stamping and adding the baker's twine and butterflies.

Another sketch from this week...but I made it a rectangle card instead of square.  My parents just bought a house and this card says Congratulations on your new home.  This paper pad had one sheet that had this door on it.  I added a key hole and key from Tim Holtz products.

And finally on friday's during the Summer Card Camp, we are giving 6 different color combos to work from.  I liked the purple, green, grey and white together and I saw this card in a Creating Keepsakes magazine...so I made an anniversary card.

I have one more week of card camp.  I should have finished all the cards this week...but being on vacation last week and the loss of our Gizzy has put me a bit behind.  I will finish the cards next week...I love the color combo for the 4th week!  It reminds me of the ocean and I have a few stamps that will work for some bright summer cards!  So watch for them next week!

Day 203, Friday, July 22

We drove to Indianapolis today for Jim's company trip.  This year, Morton Buildings is hosting the employee trip at the Sheraton downtown Indy.  We checked into the hotel and proceeded to the shopping.  We stopped at Archiver's in Southport first....then off the Edinburgh to the Nike Outlet.  We have visited this store many times in the past 10 years or so.  Anytime we are within 30 miles...the car just goes there like a magnet!  Jim did find 3 shirts, a pair of black tennis shorts and some socks.  He had a big smile on his face!  Now he just has to clean out a few shirts from his closet.

Day 202, Thursday, July 21

Stacie went to Grandpa and Grandma Smith's with the "check" today.  Grandpa has been sending in the Publisher's Clearinghouse papers in Grandma's name all year long.  So, Stacie thought it would be fun to surprise them with a big "check" today.  We went to the front door with balloons and the check and I took pictures like they always do on the commerical.  You can see how hard Grandpa was laughing.  He thought it was real at first because Grandma answered the door and pulled the check in before she let us in!  We were laughing for a long time today...it was great.

Day 201, Wednesday, July 20

I think today was the best day that I had all summer!  I got to spend the day with my BFF Cindy!  We broke out the Tim Holtz supplies and worked on the 12 Tags of Christmas from 2007.  I know it is July, but there are great techniques to be learned from working on these tags and Tim is the master of those techniques.  It was so much fun to get inky all day long.  Bonus...Stacie came over at lunch time and ate with us and chatted with us for a while!  Love you, babygirl!

Day 200, Tuesday, July 19

These animals make me so happy!  I bought them at the Zoo when we went to the Africa exhibit in June 2009.  They sit on my shelf, just above my head in my scrap cave!  I just see them and I smile!

Day 199, Monday, July 18

Peyton spent the day with me.  I gave him the Star Wars Lego set that we got on vacation for him.  He HAD to sit and put it together right away.  It took him about 45 minutes to complete the "vehicle" and all the mini figures.  We were really busy today!  We went to McDonald's to eat lunch, played skee ball at Chuck E Cheese and went to see the Cars 2 movie!

Day 198, Sunday, July 17

I made two thank you cards today.  One is for our Vet, Dr. Jess and his staff.  The other one is for the staff at Aboard the Ark.  They all took excellent care of Gizzy for us...ALWAYS!  Dr. Jess was so kind and caring when we got the diagnosis of bladder cancer.  He worked very hard to give us all the options for our little guy.  The staff at Aboard the Ark always took great care of Gizmo when we left him for vacation or even a weekend.  We can't thank them enough!

Day 197, Saturday, July 16

Happy Birthday, Aly!  Today is Aly's 19th birthday.  She is in Myrtle Beach with her family on vacation.  (wish I was at the beach!)  Anyway, hope you have a great day, niece!

Day 196, Friday, July 15

We went to the Hot Air Balloon Glow at 3 Sisters Park in Chillicothe, tonight.  I just love to watch the balloons fill up with air and float off into the sky!  We saw a few lift off, but most were already gone by the time we got to the park.  They chase them down, load them up and bring them back to the field and fill them with hot air again.  When most are ready, they hit the propane all at once and make the balloons "glow" in the night sky!  It was a nice evening to watch the balloons!

Day 195, Thursday, July 14

We got a phone call at 6:30 a.m., this morning. Our little furbaby, Gizmo, passed away during the night.  He was at the kennel and they had called us yesterday.  Dr. Jess examined him and put him on some antibotic and antiacid, thinking he would eat better.  Little Giz, had bladder cancer and we knew it wasn't going to be long before we had to put him down.  This picture is from last June, before he was sick.  He always wanted his harness on, to the point of which, he would bring it to me after his bath!  If you look real close...you can see the tip of his tongue.  He always licked his chops and drove us crazy with licking!  He would sit and stare at us for hours, but when I got the camera out, he always looked away. 

Rest in peace, our sweet little boy!

Day 194, Wednesday, July 13

We stopped at the Sculpture Park today!  This is such an inspiring park.  There are many little paths and groves throughout this park and there are lots of different art pieces in each one.  This is the largest in the center of the park.  It is a fountain, too!  The top of the cherry has a "shower head" on it and it sprays water over the cherry and bowl of the spoon.  It was a beautiful day for a walk in the park!

Day 193, Tuesday, July 12

Welcome to the Mall of America Lego display!  This transformer is standing on top of the Lego store.  If you look real close, you can see Jim standing on the back side of the figure on level 3 of the mall.  This and all the other figures on top of the store, are made out of Lego bricks...normal size bricks.  We walked all over the mall.  It is .57 miles around one level.  There is an amuzement park in the center with several roller coasters.  Today, we ate lunch at Wolfgang Puck's Express.  Yesterday, we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp!

Day 192, Monday, July 11

Today we visited Elmwood, Wisconsin.  Jim's dad grew up here and his Grandma Smith lived here for many years.  We stopped and took pictures of several of the relatives houses.  This is Sailer's Meat shop.  They have all kinds of processed meats.  They moved to this new location from the old one on main street.  The last weekend in July is "UFO Days" in Elmwood.  Many years ago, there were UFO's sighted over the quarry. I am standing between two little green men!

Day 191, Sunday, July 10

Today we left at 8 a.m., for vacation.  Our first stop was in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  Jim's Aunt Margie lived in this house on the corner of Pitt and Cresent.  His Grandpa Gardner lived in a house on Pitt St.  We also stopped across the bridge where he fished on the banks of the Chippewa River when he was in junior high.  He remembers catching sturgeon from this river bed.  It was fun to see where his relatives lived.  Tomorrow, we are planning to go to Elmwood, where his Grandma Smith lived.

Day 190, Saturday, July 9

I have been wanting to make a camera strap cover for my Canon Rebel every since I bought it.  I saw the covers on Becky Higgins blog...she was giving one away as a gift from a friend who makes them and sells them on esty.  I made mine this afternoon in about 45 minutes.  It took me longer to get the sewing machine out and plugged it!  It has some padding in it so it doesn't hurt my neck anymore!  I am happy!

Day 189, Friday, July 8

Today was the final launch of the Space Shuttle program, Atlantis.  I am borrowing this picture from my friend, Kelly, who lives in Florida near NASA.  She took her children Kara and Colin to the beach to watch the shuttle launch.  If you look really close...just above Colin's head and to the left, you can see the "flash" of the shuttle.  Thanks, Kelly for loaning me this picture!  I just love how Kara is holding Colin's hand...leading him to watch the launch!

Additional Color Challenge and Mojo Monday Sketch!

The Summer Card Camp has 6 additional color challenges on friday.  I picked the last color combo for this card.  I colored the image using ink and my water brush.  The cupcake stamp was an acrylic one and all the paper except for the card base, came from my scraps.  I have placed a challenge on myself to use only the pattern paper scraps that I have to create these cards!  I also used the sketch from Mojo Monday.  If you are looking for a sketch...Mojo Monday's are always great!

I couldn't resist using the same color combo as Kristina for this card.  As I was combing through my scraps, I found these papers and had to use them, too!

Day 189, Thursday, July 7

Peyton, Jordan and I went to Monkey Joe's today!  There are about 10 different bouncers in the building.  They charge $8.00 a person to "jump".  Peyton and Jordan jumped until they couldn't jump anymore.  This is the opening to the race track.  There are 2 lanes and each side is the same.  All of the bouncers have some sort of slide at the end.  We went to Chuck E Cheese for lunch and played skee ball for about 2 hours!  Their arms have to be sore tonight!

Summer Card Camp, Thursday, Sketch Challenge

Today is sketch challenge thursday!  Kristina posted a video with a card sketch.  After viewing her video...I am using the wrong colors!  (I guess I will just blame it on my computer, because they didn't look like her card at all in the samples!)  Anyway, I liked the sketch and used the scraps that were laying on my desk from the previous card.  (Sometimes it is good not to clean up your mess from the day before!)  If I have time tonight, I will come back with a card in the RIGHT colors for this week!

Week 2 Color Combo Summer Card Camp 2011

I made this card for the Week 2 Color Combo.  The flowers started out white, like Jennifer Mcguire suggested in the video this week.  Just like she said...the flowers looked a little, well, icky, until they were dry.  I just tapped my ink pad on my craft sheet, sprayed with water and soaked up the watery ink with the flowers.  Then I sprayed them with perfect pearls mist and hit them with the heat gun.  They were a lot of fun to make...but I was very messy!  I will use this technique again!  I used a sketch from Becky Flecks, Page Maps 2.

More cards from Summer Card Camp!

 I chose the same color combo as Kristina did.  I loved her card....so I pretty much copied her layout.  I did use my cuttlebug to emboss the clocks and gears on the kraft cardstock.  I replaced the scallop punch down the side with the stamp edge and a gear instead of the heart in the opening.  I was trying to make a more masculine card for some birthdays that I have coming up.

I had these papers left from making the above card.  I used Krsitina's sketch and made another card.  I used an old happy birthday background stamp from Stampin' Up! on the kraft cardstock.

Day 187, Wednesday, July 6

Stacie was off today.  She called and asked me to go have lunch with her.  She wanted to go to eat somewhere in Peoria, as she wanted to stop at Fresh Market.  I have never been to this store before...so I said I would go with her.  I had a coupon for 10% that I had been saving since last October when we went to the Women's Lifestyle Show.  We ate lunch at Red Lobster and stopped at Fresh Market.  This is not your average grocery store.  I hope to visit again soon!

Day 186, Tuesday, July 5

I was very busy today!  And ended the afternoon with Peyton.  Stacie stopped buy with a couple of gifts for Peyton she had bought on vacation.  We played a few games...farkle is one of our favorites right now.  Here is Peyton, shaking the heck out of the cup of 6 dice...trying to get the biggest score!

Day 185, Monday, July 4

Happy 4th of July!  We didn't do a whole lot today.  Did some errands and starting getting ready for vacation.  We went out to the golf course to watch the fireworks that were set off in the stadium.  We couldn't see the ground works, of course, but we didn't miss any of the aerials!  This was my favorite of the pictures I took tonight.  Love the white inside and the blue flecks exploding all around the outer edge!

Day 184, Sunday, July 3

I made 4th of July cupcake wrappers and star toppers for Stacie for her cupcakes.  She made white strawberry filled cupcakes with cream cheese frosting to take to a party today.  She asked me to make the wrappers and toppers for her.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  (guess I will be making more...like Halloween for sure!)

Day 183, Saturday, July 2

I bought Day Lillies at Wal-Mart the other day.  Jim got them planted in the ground tonight.  It has been so hot the last few days...it was too hot to dig the holes.  We put 3 groups in the flower beds on the side of the house.  I hope they do well!

Day, 182, Friday, July 1

I created this layout for a challenge.  Our Project 365 group created a set of "rules" to follow to create a layout to celebrate our half way point for this year.  I have been taking a "Picture Of The Day" for 2 1/2 years now!  We had to use the following on our layout:

Theme:  Family
Color Palette: Pink, Purple & Green
Pattern:  Stripes (patterned paper)
Title:  Must be a "Banner"
Journaling:  "Bullet" Points - all lower case
Pictures:  1 large 4x4 and 3 smaller ones 2x2
Embellishments:  1 Cricut Cut, Flower(s) & Eyelets

I met all but one...I used 4 2x2 pics...but I had to because there are 4 "Smith" siblings....I couldn't leave one off! lol