Shrine Circus

Our neighbors gave us some free tickets to the Shrine Circus, so Tom and I spent a nice afternoon with Nick, Jess, & Neal at the circus.

We wanted a picture with a clown, but they were too creepy to talk to--even though we knew they were Altoona area Shriners.  We're just not clown fans.

Jess with some circus snacks:

Nick enjoying the show at his ringside seat.

Hula-hooping unicyclists.  I don't believe these were the infamous Ridge Riders though.

Neal & Jess

The trapeze artist lost some of his star quality when immediately after his peformance he donned his Coke bottle glasses and helped tear down the netting.  As soon as this job was done, he changed into the same black outfits as the other "roadies" and performed odd jobs around the ring.

Happy Birthday, Tom!

The elephants were our favorite act.

Jess thought she was at an international soccer event.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Jess & I at a Mardi Gras parade in 1998, during the time we lived in the New Orleans area.

Pool Scene H2H challenge

This week's H2H challenge was to create a scene using at least three different stamps.

I made this pool scene with Paper Lantern (lanterns); Play Day (boy and sentiment); Adorning Corners (waves); and Surf's Up (surf board).  The background is the B-side to one of the Fanfare papers, and the water is Pacifica CS.  The yellow CS is Sunny Yellow.  The surfboard has clear sparkles along its length, and the flowers and lanterns all have pearl embellishments.  I used dimensional adhesive on the little boy.  If this looks a little familiar, I made a similar card in July 09, but I think the lanterns, which weren't available then, work great.

Vacation Postcard Layout

I made this layout for the beginning of my gulf coast vacation scrapbook.  The B&T papers are from CTMH's Passages and Vintage Travel paper packs.  I included small photos from highlights of our trip and described the photos by location in a postcard.  I like the vintage look.

I folded the map papers into thirds to look more like a real map and distressed the folds with ink.  I added photo corners to each picture to give it an older look.  Both the map papers and cocoa mat on each page were edge distressed with water.

 Lots of CTMH stamp sets (current and retired) were used.  Here's the list:

Posterboard Alphabet (title--stamped on postage stamped paper from Vintage Travel)

Vintage Postcard (all postcards, vacation definition, Express Post. postmark, East River postmark)

Neighborhood (car)

Postmarked (large postmark under calendar)

Live Inspired ("Explore," "Journey," and "Dream")

Take a Picture (camera & "A Picture if Worth a Thousand Words"

Relax ("Relax" and "Life's a journey, not a destination")

Hang Ten ("Beach")

Legendary Moments ("Carpe Diem" and fleur de lis)

Moments in Time (calendar)

Pensacola Beach Layout (H2H Scrapbook Challenge)

I tried the H2H scrapbooking challenge for the first time.  The layout was simple, but it turned out perfect for the few pictures I had.  I used the reverse side of the CTMH Wings paperpack--a totally different look than the front side, for a very "beachy" color palette.

Here's page one (in a horrible photo--sorry for the lighting).  The shells, palm tree, and sandcastle are cut from my cricut.  I think it's the second time I've used that thing, and the other time was for the shells too.  The top paragraph of the journaling tells what we did on our day trip to Pensacola.  The second paragraph are Jimmy Buffett lyrics to Frank and Lola.  (The song is about Pensacola and we ate at Frank & Lola's restaurant in Buffett's hotel (left pic).)

Here's page 2 up close.  I used my favorite alphabet, CTMH's Delightful Alphabet for "Pensacola Beach."

Here is the challenge's sketch of the layout:

Happy Mardi Gras card / H2H challenge

This week's H2H challenge was to use gypsy, creme brulee & black.

They reminded me of New Orleans and Mardi Gras (which is this coming Tuesday), so I added a little green and came up with this Mardi Gras Card:

I'm not sure exactly what happened with the upload of this picture, but the card is actually square.  Also, the gypsy cs looks blue in the photo, but it really is gypsy.  The background creme brulee cs is tone-on-tone stamped with small fleur-de-lis images CTMH's Legendary Moments stamp set.  The large fleur-de-lis on the bottom left is also from this set.  The fence and moon & star (representing the crescent city) are all from CTMH's Fright Night stamp set.  (I'm always proud of myself when I find an alternative use for a holiday set--this one was a Halloween stamp set.)  The umbrella is from the Springtime stamp set, and I paperpieced the top and added bling, some old sassy strands, and one of the punched out fleur-de-lis from the background edge punches (by EK Success).  The small green B&T paper strip at the bottom is from the Lucky paper pack.  Here's a look at the inside of the card:  I used CTMH's small Friendship alphabet and Be Yourself stamp sets.

  TFL! and Laissez les bon temp rouler!

Attention: Email Scammers

Attention email scammers:  Don't waste your time!  I've received lots and lots of emails trying to scam me via my CTMH business lately, and I'm not falling for it!

Easter Card from Antique Postcard

I made this Easter card using two antique postcards (the bunny & the sentiment), paper from Wild Asparagas, Tim Holtz tissue tape, CTMH's Intrinsic Backgrounds stamp, ribbon, paper flowers, crocheted flowers, and mini pearls.  TFL!

Mojo Monday 179

I made this card for the Mojo Monday challenge #179.

I ink distressed everything with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink, and I ran the CS square through my crimper.

*B&T paper: Wild Asparagus
*CS:  CTMH
*Bling & brads: CTMH
*Tim Holtz Tissue Tape
*Scalloped circle:  Spellbinders
     Nestabilities die

*Flower:  Tim Holtz Sizzix die, "Tattered Flowers"
*Sentiment: from "Wonderful Friend" stamp set by CTMH
*Newspaper stamp:  Stampers   Anonymous

National Margarita Day February 22 & H2H Challenge

This card is perfect for today for two purposes:  (1) National Margarita Day, which is tomorrow, February 22; and (2) this week's Heart2Heart Challenge.  This week's challenge was "Cold." --what better than an on-the-rocks margarita to represent that?!  The photo is one I took on our recent vacation.  I was enjoying this margarita in Frank & Lola's restaurant at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Beach Hotel in Pensacola, Florida.  I think the colors work great with CTMH's Miracle papers.  I stamped right on the photo with an image from the Live Inspired stamp set.  The sentiment is from the Daydream stamp set.  I edge distressed the sentiment with water, then added some prisma glitter to the edges.  I also added just a bit of prisma glitter to the salt around the glass, although it's hard to see in the photo.  The bling in the lower right is leftover from a CTMH connections club set.

Happy Birthday, Nick!









H2H Challenge: Stamp Kissing

The latest Heart 2 Heart Challenge is to use the technique called "stamp kissing."  Instructions can be found on the H2H blog.  Here's what I came up with:

I used the stamp kissing technique on the cupcake paper to add the stars.  The cupcake is from the CTMH Cupcake Sprinkles stamp set, the whale is from the new Down by the Sea set, and "Happy Birthday" is from Say It in Style.  I had to do some masking for the "Have a Whale of a Time" because the sentiment (also part of the Down by the Sea set) said "HavING a Whale of a time" so I masked off the "ing" and stamped, then re-masked everthing except an "e" and added it.  The B&T paper is from the Miracle CTMH paper set.

"Happy Birthday" and the whale are raised on dimensional adhesive.  There are tiny pearl embellishments on the whale, the cupcake paper, and the candle flame.

A few last pics from Vacation:

Pat O'Briens Hurricane

Our last stop before the long drive home was New Orleans and the French Quarter.  This view is from our hotel balcony, looking up Toulouse Street, toward Esplanade.

More Vacation!

Looks like snow, but actually it's the white sand beaches of Gulf Island National Seashore (Gulf of Mexico on the left and Pensacola Bay on the right).

 
 
 
 
   

 
 
 
 

Some driftwood I liked the look of:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lulu's!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After leaving the beaches of Alabama and Florida, we headed to Biloxi for a night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  This is our room.  We had a great view!

Vacation!

A few pics from the first couple days of our vacation:

The Mississippi Bridge at Memphis

 

A cool bridge in Mobile.



And finally, Orange Beach.