Family Weekend

Hi there! We had a really fun-filled weekend, we got to visit with my mom, who lives in South Carolina, go to a wedding and travel to Meta MO to visit my great-great aunt. I think I put more miles on my car this past weekend than I have in the past 2 months...

My mom and her husband haven't been up from SC in a couple of years so we did have a good time getting to catch up with them. They came up for her step-son's wedding which was last Saturday. We had a good time there. It was an outdoor wedding and the trees and flowers were in full bloom and the temperature was great! Then on Sunday we traveled to Meta, which is about 30 min from Jefferson City. It was a 2 - 3 hour ride in each direction. We had such a good time visiting with Aunt Camilla, you would never guess she was almost 90 by the way she acts. She is still very active on her property and in her church. We went looking for mushrooms, but didn't find any...Danny found lots of turkey feathers and a turtle shell that he got to take to school for show and tell. Here is a picture of all of us...

Camilla has the most wonderful lilac and wisteria growing around her property so I made her a lilac thank you card for the great visit.

I did the Faux Linen technique for this card to give it a wonderful aged look...I love this swirled pattern from the Prints Designer Series Paper from SU! and decided to use the Always Artichoke to mat my image and Certain Celery to accent the card. I stamped my image first onto the glossy cardstock then sanded vertically and horizontally. I took alot of color off as well adding my linen look. After I wiped the dust away I ran my Creamy Caramel inkpad all over the image and then buffed it with a paper towel. I really like how this Styled Silver Hodgepodge Harware looks and really wanted to incorporate it into my card, so I went looking through my retired sets and came across this from the Designer Label set, that originally came with the label punch. I didn't like the look of just brads holding the label on so I punched a hole in the middle of my ribbon and put the brad through it. Then I attached the brads to the card and finally tied my knots. I'm really liking how this card came out! I hope Camilla likes it as much as I do!!

• Stamps: Blossoms Abound, Designer Label
• Inks: Elegant Eggplant, Almost Amethyst, Mellow Moss, Always Artichoke, Creamy Caramel
• Papers: Pale Plum, Glossy White, Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke DS, Certain Celery DS
• Accessories: Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware, Mellow Moss Taffeta Ribbon, Sanding Blocks