Road Trip USA Blog Hop

Today's hop is all about traveling this great country of ours and all the crafty projects are inspired by that travel theme.

We've got a bit of everything for you today, so be sure to stop by each blog and leave a little love in the form of a comment. One comment will be chosen from all those left on the hop by June 30th for a Stampin' Up prize pack and the winner will be announced on next month's hop. 

http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/scrapsbygracie/

You should have arrived here from CONNIE's blog, but if  you just stumbled across my blog please start at THERESA's blog. Now on with my project. I created a layout of my upcoming bus trip to NY to visit friends.  I originally was going to fly, but found a bus ticket cheaper. I decided to use October Afternoon Plane Ticket Double Sided 12 x 12 patterned paper. I found the bus online and colored it with Spectrum Noir Essentials Professional Colored Pencils. The Trip, sight seeing glasses, pack your bags, and On the Road Again are all Sticko Travel stickers. The camera and ticket are October Afternoon Travel Girl Chip 'n Stick. The big city strip I cut from Little Yellow Bicycle Decorative Edge 6 x 6 Cardstock. The I Heart New York and Statue of Liberty cut-outs are from Miss Kate Cuttables. The Adventure sticker is from a sticker set that I bought from Scrapbooking for Less as is the paper and chipboard stickers, but I can't remember the name of the collection.The enjoy the journey washi tape strip is a Recollections collection. I decided to add a copy of my itinerary.

close-up of the layout without the itinerary

close-up of ticket chipboard

close-up of sight-seeing glasses sticker

I hope you enjoyed my layout! I'm going to visit friends this Sunday, June 19 and will be back Friday, June 24. I haven't seen them in about 5 years and decided to go somewhere special for my 40th birthday coming up. I will be taking lots of pictures while I'm gone and will be scrapping them later. Now, you're off to LISA's blog and I'm sure she has something great to share! Have a great weekend with your husbands & father's! Thanks for hopping with us! Here's the line-up in case you get lost:

Theresa http://scrapsbygracie.blogspot.com

Sharon http://piece-ofheart.blogspot.com

Alicia http://goldengoddessdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kim http://www.katydidcards.com

Connie http://conniecancrop.blogspot.com

Amanda http://salnclts76.blogspot.com -- YOU ARE HERE

Lisa http://lisaslittlerascals.blogspot.com -- GO NEXT

Anna http://grumpygrandmacreations.blogspot.com/

Jearise http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

CADC DT http://cardadaychallenge.blogspot.com

Father's Day Cards

I used the above sketch from Mojo Monday to make the following card for my dad for Father's Day. The card base is an Recollections A2 card. The brown paper and the circle paper are both from Studio Calico Lemon Lush 6 x 6 Paper Pad. The Happy Father's Day stamped image and the tools images are part of Hey Mr. stamp set from Waffle Flower and I used VersaFine Onyx Black Pigment Ink on both. The ribbon is Martha Stewart Crafts.

I used some more of the same stamp set from Waffle Flower and used the same ink again on the inside.

I made the following card for my stepdad who just started playing baseball again. His team is (New Bern) Orioles is why I decided to go with orange paper. The card base is Recollections A2 card as before. The baseball PP I cut from a 12 x 12 Recollections Baseball paper. The stickers are from Recollections Dimensional Baseball Stickers set. The orange paper is from Colorbok 12 x 12 Pimary Pizzazz Textured Cardstock Pad. 

Please join me later for a Road Trip Blog Hop!

Balloons Make the Day...

I used the sketch above from UNITY {show & tell} to make this card. The challenge ended at noon today and another challenge started.

I used a 5.75" x 8.75" envelope as my pattern to cut out the card base so I'm sure the card will fit in the envelope. The card base is K&Company Que Sera Sera Designer Paper, I won the blue paper that I cut in strips from Girls, Giggles, Glitter, & Glue- it's a private group as is the Unity group, but you can request to join both groups. Whenever you follow a sketch posted by Unity, you have to use one of their stamp sets. I used Evelyn Girl. I colored in the balloons and Evelyn Girl with Spectrum Noir Essentials Professional Colored Pencils. I used VersaFine Onyx Black Pigment ink to stamp the sentiment and the image. I added a piece of the K&Company Que Sera Sera Designer Paper for the base of the sentiment and used a pair of decorative scissors to make it look frilly. The heart is a Simple Stories DIY Boutique Decorative Brad. I love following sketches when I make cards, because I make them a lot faster. I'm not sure if I will keep this card or use it in a swap coming up. I have a few other projects that I have made recently that I need to blog about and may not get to those until next week. I have a busy weekend ahead with work at TJ Maxx and church. TFL!