Scenes from the Cascade Scenic Highway

After the eagle/vulture encounter we tooled down a side road.

While we were waiting for a car to pass, I

really liked the flowers and the wood thing going on.

So....

 At the end of this dirt road was a campground

surrounded by lava rocks.

Lots and lots of lava rocks.

 The lava goes on for literally miles.

 And then unbeknownst to us, we were climbing

and we came around the bend and 

SHAZAM!

Snow crusted trees on a  mountain at 6,000 feet more or less. 

The temp also dropped from 60-30 like that.

It looked soooo pretty.

 There are 12 lakes around this drive.

Some you had to really look for.

 Of course, we're all excited about snow on the ground, it started snowing.

 Snowflakes on my lens.

 A curvy road to show all the snow that still hanging around.

 More eagles

We ended up in Bend, Oregon, and went to the Mill that

we were told is a must.

Stores, lots of stores, we went into REI (sells recreational

equipment) and I never

heard of them so we had to look after all we re-cre-ate.

And had coffee.

Elevation Mountain High

Heading from Nevada/Arizona we took

to the Dixie National Forest  between Cedar City and 

Long Valley Junction - mountains.

The beautiful snowcapped mountains.

And we're wearing shorts - summertime clothes.

 and alas, we encountered real snow.

As in snowing, and sticking to the roads
and some poor person in a ditch.

 It was really pretty and a bit dicey

as Tom never drove the rig in snow before.

This was also happening on the second day of MAY.

We also changed time zones again.

 And here is the depth....

 We made it safely down the mountain.

And now we know - the rig is alright in the snow.

However, we did breathe a bit easier when we reached the bottom 

and there was no more snow.

Stamping, Stamps, Stamping

I'm beginning to love stamps and Studio Calico

started a new thing and this month I was

able to pick between 2 stamp packages prior to receiving the kit

and I picked this one.

And once again, I used most all of them

several times.

 I found it seems to make more of an impact using

them all - several times and adds

a cool background layer - I got this idea from Kitty Scrapper.

If you haven't seen her stuff - look her up.

She's fun.

I did get carried away a bit with the snowflakes.

Okay a lot carried away.

In my defense I live in Florida so seriously how often will

I get to to use it.

Of course what's snowflakes without a bit of sparkle

and shine - not to mention different colors.

 Got some layers going on - don't layers make you swoon.

And that little stamped kitty is a whimsical twist.

 I also used the stamp to put a border around the page it kindof
looks like my sewing so.....

it sort of worked out well and it was

really an afterthought.

Studio Calico.

Sequins and Snowflakes

Yes indeed.

I don't get much call for snowflakes in Florida so

its fun to roll with it and finally use my snowflake die cut.

 The photos cracked me up right away.

Back to the page - I tried to stamp dots in a circle with white ink.

NO go.

I then tried same stamp with acrylic paint.

Still NO go.

I even put glitter on the ink/paint stamped images.

Way NO go.

:|

I therefore broke out the modeling paste and a negative of the snowflake.

Wa-la - GO go.

Because snowflakes and glitter wasn't enough.

SEQUINS.

Scattered about. However, by the time you get to 

gluing and your fingers are all sticky

it doesn't look scattered anymore.

But put it all together and shazam.

Winter page.

All basic grey, except for some cosmo cricket and bo bunny.

She totally cracks me up.

Loves her veggies.

Poor snowman's nose is nipped.

Continuing in the snow theme

because I think its cool - no pun intended - though

I live in Florida and am slightly baffled that

people actually live in snow. 

Although I'm a PA girl I've been in Florida a long time.

I love this photo, Cavin's face. 

Determined.

The unknown rider that I think is Quintin

because of the clothes.

And it was a lot of snow. 

I have photos of that too and they're coming soon.

Studio Calico and Simple Stories layered.

I love layers.

Couldn't help the snowflakes.

And hearts.

And its colorful.

JillyArt journal

And here it is....

My son's girl is not only an amazing photographer

and pretty

and a great mom 

she also draws.

I'm hoping it'll rub off on me. bwahahaha! How annoying that she's so talented and I'm totally jealous. 

She didn't get back to me on the title so I took the liberty. And I think it fits. I also went old school with foam stamps and it appears that I need to practice maybe. Or not. It kinda fits.

And now the pages. I added some colors and tags and buttons.

Mists and a Tim Holtz mask that I had forever and some avacado bag mesh.

Tried some stamping and had some issues where some white paint actually saved the day.

I had a great time smooshing and swishing.

Watercolors are very forgiving and I used a spider stencil, fern stamp and the flower stamps and some swirls.

I thought the white clever and pasted some snowflakes down and just smeared some color over them. Sort of an embossed look.

Tim Holtz gear masks, and love the drips. Don't the make you swoon. And of course the Tim Holtz die cut houses with a map stamp overtop.

I used some modeling paste and another stencil.And one of those gold doilies.

Another stencil with the bird cages that I really adore because its not perfect. And those clouds look better in the photo than in person. Maybe Jill can do something about them. I didn't let robin's red breast dry enough before I turned the page.

My bad.

More stamps and stencils.

Used these paintable butterflies with some gear mask and added some snowflakes and sequins. The swirls are all mine. 

More stencils and stamps and a cute Martha Stewart doily. 

And the back I added some stamps and a touch of white paint.

I'm hoping to get it out to her and I'm hoping she actually uses it and sends me photos so that I can update you with how it REALLY turned out in the end.

I'm really excited.