Photo Friday- Tractor Art

Can you believe that summer is almost over?!  Where did the time go?  All of our summer camps are over, we have one week left of swimming lessons, and we only have three more weeks and then school will be starting!  I'm ready and not ready for that at the same time.  We are trying to get as much in as we can these last few weeks before summer break is over. 

I'm not ready to post the rest of our vacation yet. The truth is I've been enjoying some good books and haven't been sorting through my photos!  That's what summer is for isn't it?  I do have a couple of photos to share today though. My parents are looking for a photo to hang in their living room and I thought maybe I could take one that they would like. Why buy art when you can create your own, right?  These are two photos I took while we visited them. I normally don't do a lot of editing but since these may or may not be hung on a wall I wanted to make them a little more artistic. So here are two of my favorite tractors photos with a few different edits of each. I hope you like them and thanks for stopping. 

Photo Friday- Zoomed in at the Zoo

I know I promised more pictures from our Black Hills adventure this week but I took way more photos than I thought!  I have a lot to go through. I'll try to get more up next week. So today I'm sharing some zoo pictures that I took last week. I try to challenge myself when I go to the zoo to get different shots because I have a LOT of zoo pictures. This trip I decided to only take my 55-300mm lens. I knew I'd be able to get up close and personal with a few animals.  I also knew this lens wouldn't be great for the aquarium (I tried and failed so maybe next time). Here are my favorites and I hope you'll enjoy this zoomed in zoo trip. Thanks for stopping!

Wednesday Weekly- Wood Veneer, Washi, and Banners Oh My!

I'm back today with another weekly layout and this one might just be my favorite of all of the ones I've done. I'm a HUGE fan of this color combination (aqua, pale yellow, and pink). I've used this color combination on 12x12 layouts too with various shades of those colors and it always works.  I also had fun with embellishments on this spread. Wood veneer, washi tape, and some banners can really go a long way. Let me show you what I did.

I stamped my date and then added some washi, a gem, and some wood veneer pieces. This really helps my title card stand out.  I always try to create some visual triangles on my PL spreads with the embellishments I use. If you look closely you'll see that there is wood veneer in three different places, camera washi tape with a pink gem in three places, and aqua asterisk thickers in three places.  There are also a couple more visual triangles. Can you find them?  Creating the visual triangle helps your eyes go around the page and having a couple of them on these weekly layouts adds some interest too. 

Last week I shared some ombré stamping and this week I did the same thing on this layout. Repeating the hello stamp without reinking was a fun way to add a little interest to this card. 

I just LOVE this camera washi tape!  I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more of this. These gems work great to fill in the 'flash' and add a bit of sparkle. 

Here is an embellishment cluster I created with wood veneer, washi, and a banner from my Camelot Studio Calico kit. I love the cards in the kits but the embellishments were really what I wanted to get them for. These kits are filled with trendy embellishments and it's fun to try new things and see if I like them or not. Wood veneer, washi, and banners are some of my new go to supplies. 

This filler card is one of my favorites!  The main card is from the Camelot SC kit. I cut the cross-stitch heart from a card from the Cut & Paste Mini Kit and distressed the edges. I love the little bit of dimension that gives it. Adding the banner, washi, and thicker asterisk ties this card in with the rest of the layout. 

One last little card that I altered.  More washi, a banner, and another asterisk take this card from cute to fabulous!  I love how these simple supplies really dress up the page. 

I hope you enjoyed today's Wednesday Weekly. Thanks for stopping!

Supplies:

• Project Life- Cut & Paste Mini Kit, journaling pen (03-black), plastics (Design A and D)
• Studio Calico PL Camelot kit
• stamps- Basic Grey (Hello), Provo Craft
• ink- Memento (Tuxedo Black)
• tools- Creative Memories (Circle Cutter), Close to My Heart (Edge Distresser), Stampin' Up! (banner punch)
• misc- Recollections (washi tape), Basic Grey (Hipster Wood Die Cuts), thread

Photo Friday- Black Hills Vacation Part 1

We just got back from our Black Hills vacation and boy did we have a great time!  I grew up in the Black Hills and love going back every year. I really miss the hills and all of the activities there are to do there. I almost always end up wanting to move back and this year the boys said they wanted to move there too. We got quite a few activities in and had a great time visiting my parents and brother and his family. I took a lot of photos so I'm dividing our vacation into two posts. This week I'm sharing my iPhone photos. There were a few times that I didn't want to carry my DSLR along (like going down 300 feet into a cave!) so my iPhone saved the day. Have I mentioned how much I love that little camera?!  So here is part 1 of our Black Hills vacation!

One of the first things we did was go to Devils Tower in Wyoming. I had never been there before so that was a treat. It is awesome and gorgeous!  I'll have more pictures of this from my other camera but here are a couple to tide you over until next week. The first was taken as we were driving away and the second was taken using panoramic mode.  I don't often use that feature but with that view I couldn't pass it up!

 

  

The next day we went to the Sitting Bull Crystal Caverns. I hadn't been in a cave since I was 6 or 7 so this also was a first of sorts for the whole family. We had to go 300 feet down into the cave and it was chilly!  It was well worth all the steps and the cold though.  It was hard to imagine that two boys found the cave when they were 9 or so while they were just out exploring in the 1930's. I can't imagine if my boys had found a cave like that!  People sure were adventurous back then. With my husband just having hip surgery not that many months ago he stayed out with our youngest and walked the nature trail. That was gorgeous also. The path wasn't very obvious so it almost felt like we were exploring in the hills just like those two boys from long ago.  It was a fun time. 

                                  

                                  

     

    

                      

We recently watched one of my favorite movies, Dances With Wolves, as a family and I knew that we wanted to see something from the making of the movie on our trip.  We found just the thing at the Fort Hays Old West Town. Here they have the Fort Hays building that was on the set of Dances With Wolves!  It was so awesome to stand right where Kevin Costner stood in the movie and see the bullet hole in the window.  The boys also got to help make a rope. It was a great afternoon. 

                                  

                                  

                                  

 

    

Our trip wouldn't have been complete without a few photos taken of the prairie. I just love the wide open space. The first is my parents 'backyard' and the other two photos were taken as we drove down the interstate. 

    

   

Stay tuned for next week where I'll share a few more photos of our amazing trip. I'll leave you with my cute little boys. A couple of shots at my parents and one of their new haircuts done just today (nothing to do with our vacation but my parents will want to see). Thanks for stopping!