DCD July sketch challenge (not for all ages)

One of my co-workers retired at the end of the school year and today we celebrated with food and trivia. It was a fun time. I used the sketch from the Die Cuttin Divas July challenge to create his card. There is "potty humor" involved and I hope it doesn't offend you. 

The paper is from my stash and the stamp is an "edgy" stamp from Unity. There is some foam tape under the sentiment and the image for some dimension. The only new thing on the card are the stamps, all the rest is stash stuff. I cut the card, base and envelope on my Cricut Explore. The circle is from My Creative Time.

Happy 4th - Celebrate with Fireworks at BBTB2

Today's hostess at BBTB2, Caroline, picked the theme of Fireworks for this week's challenge. Very appropriate considering today is the 4th of July, or Independence Day here in the states. There have been fireworks going off in my neighborhood for days already, and I'm sure they will continue long after the holiday is over.

My card this week was made from 2 Cricut Image sets, Stand and Salute and Photo Booth Props. I took a little departure from my norm this week and used Bazzill card stock for the base of my card. It's really thick and I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to cut it as far as settings go. It's hard to change when you get used to something. The glitter paper is Recollections and the white is scrap.

There is some foam tape under the hat and the firework to add some dimension.

I hope everyone has a safe holiday and a great week. Come join us with your creation and be sure to add some fireworks. We love to see what you create!

Bab's Babes - part 2

Day two was kind of a wash for me. It was our first day at sea and I got sea-sick. The day started pretty well but took a bad turn mid morning (apparently for quite a few people besides me, according to the captain). I did get a few pictures but spent most of the day in bed. Should have put my sea bands on a bit earlier I guess.

The third day we docked in Ketchikan early in the morning. Several of us had tickets to a lumberjack show which turned out to be pretty fun. The weather was great so nobody froze, another plus.

View from ship

Town Map

Lumberjack show

Splitting logs

Bullseye

High cutting

It's a rabbit

When he finished the "rabbit" (see the face), he turned it over and cut some more and it ended up being a little stool they gave to a little boy in the audience.

After the show we headed out to explore the town. Several of us stayed together for a bit then split up and we did our own things.

Totems at the end of a walkway

There are many, many totems and totem poles in Alaska (in case you weren't aware). There are newer ones and some really cool older ones. Size range is impressive as well. This is one of the first we encountered on our walk around the town.

 The flowers were blooming everywhere we went. Be prepared for many more flower pictures.

Gorgeous flowers

 I ventured into a small museum they had in town and here are a couple of the exhibits.

Newer totem poles

Part of a very old totem pole

For some reason this picture reminded me of our little group

Statue on the dock

We weren't there very long and were back on board sailing for dinner. It was a great first day off the ship!

Bab's Babes - A wonderful gift part 1

Heads up - this post is not craft related. There may be several on the same topic.

I'll explain the nickname later on in the story, but for now will start from the beginning.

I've been a part of a book group for the last 12+ years. It's been around longer than that, but that's how long I've been a part of it. People have come and gone over the years, but there has been a core group of us that have stuck together almost every Wednesday night for all that time. Barbara started about the same time I did. She had retired from banking and was working at a law firm. She was wonderful, funny, told great stories and was very generous. She loved us and we her.

 As you can probably tell by the "was", she passed away rather unexpectedly last August. Even more unexpectedly she left provision for all 6 of us to go on vacation together. She always gave me a hard time about not having a passport telling me I never knew when I would need it. I have one now.

When we sat down to decide where to go it seemed a pretty easy choice, Alaska was the destination. We began our journey right after we got out of school for the summer and spent 12 days traveling together. We took tons of pictures and had some great experiences. I am going to chronicle a few of them here so we can look back and remember. It's mostly for the special group of women I went with, but please enjoy the pictures and stories and go with us if you want.

Our first flight was to Toronto. That was crazy. We had to get off the plane, run through the airport (almost literally - we had very little time), get our luggage, check it back in, go through customs and get back on the SAME PLANE! There are no pictures of this part as there was no time. We were all pretty irritated at that point. The rest of the trip to Vancouver was uneventful. 

View from hotel straight out

We landed and took a crazy cab ride downtown to our hotel. There were a couple of times I was afraid we wouldn't make it. Our cab driver was filling out forms as he was driving down the road. They have these weird lanes that are closed to parking after a certain time and change to driving lanes. NOT everyone had moved and there were some close calls. It was unnerving to say the least.

The view to the left

My roomie - D and I left the hotel at 10 p.m. to find something to eat. We found a cool hot dog stand on a corner not too far from the hotel and ate a hot dog. They tasted really good. My son requested Canadian money as one of his souvenirs, which I got in change from the vendor.It was 1 a.m. our time so we should have been exhausted but we were too excited to sleep. We watched some of the kids coming out to party and walked around a bit.

The next morning we found a place called Scoozis for breakfast. It was definitely a different experience. Some of the things we ate were great, some weren't what we expected. Overall it was a fun experience. The other part of my son's trip request was that I go to a Tim Horton's which was accomplished that morning. I got coffee even though we had just finished breakfast. 

D and I decided to walk to the pier instead of waiting for the transport. I'm glad we did since we had a chance to experience some more of the city and got some cool pictures.

Hotel

bike lane

YWCA

Flowers by pier

Pier

If you've ever been on a cruise you know the boarding process can be lengthy and a tad annoying. This was no different. At least there were cookies ;-)

Ship - home for 7 days

We set sail a bit later than planned due to them having to load a back-up generator onto the ship. We had the lovely emergency drill and got to meet some of the people who had cabins in our area of the ship.

Inward passage

This was taken later in the evening. This was about how dark it got at night. It was very strange that it didn't get totally dark most of the time we were awake. 

lots of logs in the water

More to come...

Gemini "twins" at BBTB2

I am hosting this week at BBTB2. The theme for the week is Gemini "twins" and we are challenging you do to something with 2 of something on it. I  chose these adorable owls from the Hoot and Holler image set. The thought bubble is from...wait for it...the Thought Bubbles image set (who could have predicted that one? - (sarcasm)).

All of the paper is from my go to Recollections packs. Some people find it doesn't work well for them, but it's my favorite smooth cardstock. I used a black fine tipped Cricut pen for the writing. Join us with your own "twin" creations.

Patriotism at FCCB

 Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge!

Challenge #279-Patriotism
Create a project that features Patriotism for any country.

This Weeks Sponsor

Bugaboo Stamps

The prize is 7 digital stamps!

To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used. If you use a Cricut Explore machine, at least one cut must be from the Cricut catalog of images.

Here is my project- 

I used this adorably funny Stella image from Bugaboo stamps that you can find here. The flag is actually from Miss Kate's Cuttables. The card base was created with Cricut basic shapes and the star embossing folder is a Cuttlebug folder.

I put the rest of the sentiment on the inside of the card on top of some washi. I hope you come join us for some patriotic fun!

Garden Theme at BBTB2

Melanie is our hostess this week at Bitten By the Bug 2 and she chose a fun Garden Themed challenge for the week. I didn't notice until I went to post my card that we had used the same cut. Interesting how the same thing can turn out looking so different. One of the great things about the Cricut!

 

Both this adorable gnome and the flowers came from the Freshly Picked image set. I used Recollections card stock and a couple of Cuttlebug folders for the embossing. I decided to "stitch" around the fence, not sure that was a great plan. There is some Wink of Stella on a few of the swirls but it's not showing at all in the picture. 

Have some fun this week and create your own Garden!