We also meandered through the Garden of the Gods

What a beautiful ride and you need to add this to your list.

I was thinking flowers and stuff and

imagine my surprise when it's rocks and trees and grass.

When you get to the gift shop/welcome center you can get a map

that shows all the cool places in the garden.

 And mountains that are beautiful on non-threatening roads.

 The weather was still bi-polar but I love the different looks.

 How cool would it have been to discover this.

I mean it's really cool rocks but what made someone think to make

this a beautiful garden of rocks.

 Every corner has an amazing view.

 I think this is my favorite.

 There are trails you can walk and you can climb rocks 

if you so desire. 

There were quite a few people out and about.

How cool is that face.

Looks Italian.

We loved all the twists and turns.. 

 and surprises.

The trails were open and people were out and about.

I do have a lot more pictures if you were wondering.

It can't be helped.

The Road to Pike's Peak

This is the entrance and of course there's a fee.

And you don't get a map till you get to the visitors/gift store.

They had good coffee.

BUT THE VIEWS ARE BREATHTAKING.

L👀K

 We get to Site 13 and that is as far as one can go by car.

Conveniently, there's a shuttle that will take you the rest of the way.

Well.........

we didn't take the shuttle.

 One might asKwhy?

A couple of reasons for sure...

1. I HATE HEIGHTS

2. I HATE THOSE ROADS

3. WE WERE BOTH FEELING THE ALTITUDE BY THEN

we were about 12,000 feet.

 We did find bigfoot though.

  Of course, these were my favorite death defying windy roads

with hair pin turns and knuckleheads that try to push you to go faster.

 The view out to the valley was amazing and if I looked straight out I was good.

 More or less.

 The weather kept spinning on a dime.

And then the storm started moving in and you could

see the rain lines and actually at some

point we were above the clouds.

And then of course the ride down is as much fun as the ride up.

It started innocently enough - A tag's evolution

Actually it did, I was fooling around with my new TH oxide sprays (peacock feathers, mustard seed, abandoned coral, cracked pistachio and picked raspberry) spraying the tag in my sketchers shoebox to keep the spray down to a mild roar. I must have skipped a step or two because the sprays were like spritz and weren't melding together, so I took a paintbrush and straightened that out.

I'll be needing to review those videos again.

So on the left, I hand wrote "keep it simple" because I thought it went well with the snarky phrase at the bottom which totally summed up how I was attacking the tag.

WELL....I decided that what I wrote wasn't bold enough, so with supreme confidence I tried to go over the writing with a sharpie.
           It didn't go well and basically it turned into a big black blob that worked its way into a smear.

Enter more ephemera because when you have a big black blob that needs covering up what better way than to add more stuff.

I have a stash of precut dies (so I don't have to break it out every time) and sometimes I get lucky when the colors work out. So I kept adding and couldn't seem to stop and I especially couldn't stop until the big black blob was fixed.

Can you really have too much stuff on a tag.
   Um Nope.

I have a couple of albums going on...

Mostly because I've been playing with watercolors, Tim Holtz inks,

sprays, crayons, and oxides oh my...

However, I was dabbling in this album before I binge watched

Tim and decided that I had to have his product.

But I digress.

Saw this photo of our beautiful granddaughter and I was like

SO WHEN DID SHE GET TALLER

and more grown up.

When did that happen?

Obviously, when I wasn't looking.

This is my "Wonder" album - mixed media artist album

from Michael's, I think.

I created some pages uses watercolors, sprays and dylusions

that you may have seen some previews here.

Anyway the rainbow drips did the trick, add a TH sentiment

with a doily and and inked up butterfly from

messing the TH inks.

Love how it turned out.

I'm totally hooked on the Tim Holtz Tags

Say Tim Holtz Tags 3-times FAST.

LOL.

These were so much fun to make.

Fortunately, my pal Holli has a ton of TH stamps and we had

a great time at her place making these tags.

These were stamped on regular watercolor paper by Canson.

(sorry Tim) I'm hoarding yours LOL.

Anyway, after watching his demos (using Ranger products)

I jumped in and found that regular watercolor paper 

 doesn't flow as well as the Ranger products.

Once I put oxide inks on the Canson watercolor paper

 I couldn't mush it around.

The ink stayed right where I put it turning out bold and bright 

and no matter how much water I used I couldn't

diffuse the ink and make it softer.

 I was bummed at first that it didn't work

like the demos 

 DOH.....

However, it was fun - and I think I'll continue to use both products

now that I know what's what 

because I like what I get from both.
 

TN-Pages and this album is complete

It appears I need to create a new album as this one

is chock full of goodies and quite thick.

I also rearranged some pages so my bad if you're seeing reruns.

I love these tags I made and had no good reason why they

couldn't be included. 

Creating these tags has been a lot of fun and

you'll see more no doubt.

 I changed up using colored cardstock because well while

white is fun - I was bored so here we are.

I love how they turned out.

 I didn't overthink things - I know shocked me too

but it was soooooo FUN and liberating. 

On the Louisville Slugger page I had at first made smaller

photos but decided big was better, so I fussy cut

the smaller photos and popped them in the title - and the extra bat.

I handmade the baseball - I know such as stretch for my talents. LOL.

I handdrew the flower under hello - and fussy cut those flowers.

I also managed to use EVERY SINGLE license plate and state

embellies on these pages - and I have like 6 USA state sticker packets

mostly thanks to my pal Holli.

 Love how the pages turned out it was fun stamping,

fussycutting and digging through

my pile of alphas for the titles and premade embellies.

Love using the premade watercolor papers I made using TH

inks, crayons and markers. They make such pretty embellies like the

flowers in Run for the Roses page.

I rolled with that too.

I'm really happy with this album - it is quite thick

and I feel it's getting too cumbersome.

I'm debating whether to roll with a "real" premade TN

but I get so aggravated because once you use one thin pop dot

the book blossoms even more - 

even one thin photo on many pages it plumps up so 

dimension makes things worse...

So.....decisions decisions.

Studio Calico, Bo Bunny, Tim Holtz

x

The Battle of the Bridge

Also could be known as the Battle of Green River, Battle of Munsford

lots of battles happening around here.

 This is now a preserve that protects a couple hundred acres of land.

This is the Woodson's house.

 Sadly, I couldn't go in, but I love these farm houses.

They are soooo cool.

 Info board.

The trails were closed and there are a few monuments 

on private grounds.

 It was a battle to cut off supplies Union supplies as

the bridge was actually railroad tracks.

 Both conferate and Union soldiers camped on their farm.

 The Woodson's house may or may not have been in the Underground RR.

It was a beautiful setting.

The battleline was 500 ft from the front door. 

 Evidently a Brigader General on the Union side decided

to stomp his way to Munsford without order.

It was a three day battle.

The Union eventually surrendered to the Confederates.

TN - New pages in the album

I've been lazy, lackadaisial, and laidback.

My bad. 

In the meantime.

I love where this traveler's notebook is going. 

The different sizes, papers and style.

Got some TH going on here - been crushing on his stuff

since I spent a couple hundred hours watching

his videos.

The tag is a heritage pix from back in the day.

Makes me swoon.

 The blue tag the back of the tag for the one above

with the journalin. Not too much

because I have scrapped that photo before, but

I find it fun using my heritage pix rather than Tim's paperdolls.

I can just seen my family losing their minds

trying to figure who in the family that paperdoll might be.

On second thought it could be FUN.

LOL.

That PL card is an old Studio Calico that came in the 

kits, and the bird is cleverly covering up the year 2016.

I believe I'm whining about COVID-19 on the back.

I am whining on the back of the PL card.

Everyone is whining LOL.

Anywhoo, using an envelop to scrap about roasting,

watching tv and having a cup - outside.

Back of the envelope had to have something on it.

 I love envelopes.

And another PL card from Studio Calico with another

clever cover up for the year.

 The PL card needed a back so there that is,

and playing cribbage with dad.

Not a lot of journaling because I yacked about it 

in a lot of other places.

Using up lots of stash and odds and ends.

Love it.