Catching up

We had a great Fourth of July holiday.  I hope you enjoyed your day too.  My mother and I took the kids to the 4th of July Parade in town in the morning.  We ended up back at our house and the kids had fun swimming in the afternoon.  That evening we took the 3 older kids to see the town fireworks display.  The 2 littles stayed home with Daddy.  They were tired and don't like the loud noises.

at the parade

Riley being patriotic

playing in the pool

Gigi

waiting for the fireworks

My poor attempt at photographing the fireworks.



This week I had a couple of really quiet days because ALL of my kids went to stay with Grandparents!  This rarely if ever happens.  They were split between two sets of grandparents.  Two of the kids came home today but the other 3 are still gone!!  Crazy! ha

I did find time to make a card and a layout but I haven't taken photographs of them to share.  Soon.



Tomorrow is my hubby's birthday and we are having a party for him here at the house with a cookout and swimming in the pool if the weather cooperates.  Today he found an old stereo that he just had to have that has a working 8 track player.  He is now on the hunt for 8 tracks!!  lol  Anyone have any they want to send to him??!! LOL

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Live Out Loud!

Saturday my sister celebrated her 50th birthday and during this last year she has had several major changes in her life. It is like she was once a caterpillar and now she has now finally turned into a butterfly. And while it isn't my place to discuss her life, I have to comment a little because the way she is now grabbing life with both hands has inspired me to make this card for her.
My card is called Live Out Loud. And that is certainly what she is doing now and I love it!!

It is a bit difficult to get a good photo through acetate.

To begin I pulled out my most favorite scrapping tool....my Ultimate Tool and I also pulled out the Ultimate Advanced Construction Techniques DVD. If I am ever stumped on what to make, I just get out this DVD and I am always inspired to make something wonderful.  I know I say this all the time but honestly it is really the truth!!

I used a red piece of patterned paper for my example.

This time I decided to make a simple Stepper card. I started with a pieced of yellow card stock that measured 6" x 9". I got out my boxer board and put it on my Ultimate Tool. (You do not have to use the Ultimate tool or a Boxer board to make a Stepper card but it certainly makes it quick and easy when you do)

This shows the mountain and valley folds.

I worked on the inches side of the Boxer board. On the Ultimate Tool, the true measurements run down the handle side of the board so you will want to butt the short side of the paper against the handle side. Then you will score the paper at 2", 4", 5 1/2", 7" and finally at 8".

You should score on the patterned side of your paper and fold over and then back. This stretches the paper so that your paper doesn't tear along your score lines. You will then fold the card back and forth into mountains and valleys.

I colored an image of Lottie, Humphrey's sister in bright bold colors with my Spectrum Noir markers. These bold colors remind me of the bold life my sister is now living. After coloring the Humphrey's Corner - Birthday Girl stamp, I fussy cut the image out.  (perfect stamp - right?!)

I used some double sided adhesive squares to adhere the image to the middle "mountain".  I was so lucky to find in my stash a piece of printed acetate that was perfect for this project. It had a perfectly sized, perfectly printed circular sentiment. Don't you just love when a plan comes together?! lol

After I trimmed it a tiny bit, I used double sided tape to adhere it to the back of the tallest mountain fold. Then I pulled it over my image and adhered it the same way to the front of the card. I pulled out some complimentary patterned paper and after cutting it to fit, I adhered it over the front and back panels to hide where I attached the acetate.

All that was left to do to finish was to add some decorative ribbon tape and a flower. What do you think?? Do you like it as much as I do?? I sure hope you do and I hope she likes it too.

Are you guys ready for the 4th of July holiday tomorrow (US folks obviously)?  I am taking my kids to the parade in the morning, having a holiday cookout at our house with some swimming in the pool and then going to see fireworks at night.  I can't wait and neither can my children!!   They love spending the 4th of July in Oklahoma.   What are your plans for tomorrow??  Want to share?

Have a safe and happy holiday!!

Where did I go?!

Oregon



I can't believe I haven't posted since the 21st of June!  Sorry to be so lame!  I was on vacation as you know and then I drove our RV to Oklahoma.  And then this week has been really busy.  But I think that now I am back on track.  I haven't scrapped anything to share with you today but I do have a couple of photos of my vacation etc that might tide you over until tomorrow when I will share my newest project from Crafter's Companion.  And if I get super scrappy today maybe I will have something else to share too. ha

Our friends, Mike and Holly

Bergstrom Vineyard

Gorgeous view of Oregon

We had a great time in Oregon with our friends, Mike and Holly and their dog, Frank.  Frank had his own travel blog going while we were gone so everyday we had to find something fun for Frank to be photographed doing.  It was very funny.  You can check out his blog HERE if you are interested. 

Frank



I took 3 kids, 3 dogs, my brother and a bird on the trip to Oklahoma in the RV.  It went amazingly smoothly.   We left at 6:30am and drove all day.  We spent the night at the Santa Rosa RV park in Santa Rosa, New Mexico.  We made pretty good time because normally I wouldn't make it into Santa Rosa until about 9pm but we were there by 8pm. 

We got up early the next day and drove on into Oklahoma.  We got to the house and just relaxed.  The kids immediately got out their video games and started playing!  lol  

My sister's Daughter in law, Rachel and my sister, Jody the birthday girl



My sister's 50th birthday was yesterday on the 30th.  We had a nice girl's day out on Friday the 29th.  We went out to lunch, got our nails done and did a little "birthday" shopping.  She spent her actually birthday with friends out of town but yesterday we hosted her birthday party here.  Tons of friends and food.  It was a great day and she seemed to really have a great time.

Poor Georgia



Saturday my hubby and my 2 little kids flew in to join us.  And yesterday 2 kids went to my mom's to day and two kids went to my hubby's parents house to stay.  Poor Georgia had to stay with mommy and daddy.   I guess 4 year olds are more work for grandparents.  lol

So now we are back to today.   My dd and I are just hanging out here at the house today.  Hubby has to work so we won't talk to him until tonight.  Are you thrilled with my update?!  lol



Crafter's Companion USA Challenge blog has a new Anything Goes challenge going on this month and you can win a $30 gift card to the Crafter's Companion Store.  All you have to do is make a project with a CC stamp!!  Anything.  So let's see those entries!  And there is a stamp set giveaway this week too so go leave a comment and try to win.  The stamp is one of the newest releases from Sheena Douglass' A little Bit Scenic stamp collection.



Stop back by tomorrow and check out my project.

Thanks for stopping by today. 

Thursday is for Wine Tasting

Today we went to five wineries. The wineries were so gorgeous. They were mostly on hillsides with fabulous views. We took snacks and had a picnic at Sokol Blosser vineyard.

We just got back home and plan to go back out to eat pizza at a local pizzeria tonight. Yum!

We saw some deer outside our patio and Frank (the dog) was very interested! lol

Yesterday, Holly and I found a sweet little market that made homemade pies. We bought a forest berry pie. We had to wait for it to come out of the oven. It was to die for! We came home from dinner at Recipe restaurant and had a slice. Dinner was yummy and reasonably priced.

We are thinking of going into Portland tomorrow. We have had great weather the last two days but I think rain is in our future. I'm sure we will still have fun. Wish us luck.

Photo of house

Here's a photo of the house we are staying at in Oregon.

Still testing

Hi! I'm in sunny (currently) Oregon! I am trying out a blogger app for my iPad so please bear with me. I am going to be so excited if this works because I usually can't blog with my iPad.

We are staying in a beautiful house in Newberg. Yesterday it rained off and on but it wasn't that bad. We had a nice day. We went out to eat lunch at Tina's restaurant which was yummy. Then we went to two wineries. The first one was Argyle. They are one of the few wineries that do sparkling wine. They were lovely, the wine was lovely and so was the tasting room. Next we went Ponzi winery They had some nice Pinot Blanc and Pinot noir.

We did some shopping and then went back home and watched the basketball finals. We are for the Thunder and unfortunately they lost the game. Boo. We grilled steaks for dinner.

Today it is sunny and we have been enjoying our coffee outside this morning. I think today will be a relaxing day. Not sure of our plans yet but we do plan to go out to dinner tonight.

If this works, I will try to post a bit of a travel blog this week. Okay, I'm off now to get more coffee.

Testing

Testing blogger App