Michigan adventures

I have two cards for your viewing pleasure today which meet four more challenges:

At SU-Only Challenges, A Place to Share Stampin' Up! Only Creations, Robin and the team asked to see our favorite stamp sets, and at Stamping 411 we were challenged to use the new In Color combination Pool Party, Island Indigo, and Calypso Coral.  When I placed my first order from the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog, I was pretty sure Up, Up, and Away would be a favorite stamp set, since I have so many memories of ballooning with my parents.  This is the first time I've used it, I may have been a little carried away by the fun little cloud and bird elements, but I was really excited that stamping the basket under the balloon with two different stamps was so easy to line up using clear-mount stamps!  There's always a stamp-a-majig for that reason, but it's one more piece to clean and put away, you know?  But, really, my favorite stamp set is Perfectly Penned, with the four calligraphic sentiments.  This one may replace the long-loved and well-used Sincere Sentiments.

Clean&Simple Stamping, in combination with CAS-ual Fridays, have offered up a 2-in-1 sketch challenge, and Pals Paper Arts have a Dress for Success recipe of 1 piece of designer series paper, 1 punch and 1 sentiment.  I combined them for this card:

I used some Paisley Petals designer series paper on Tangerine Tango card stock and added a strip of Not Quite Navy punched with the fabulous new Lace Ribbon Border punch. Still having fun with the Up, Up, and Away set, this little sentiment reminds me of my friend Dawne, who moved away from Michigan many years ago, but usually returns each August to attend the county 4H fair.  Her work schedule this year didn't allow for vacation this week, so I took this picture for her when Tom and I went for our traditional fair-food dinner Friday evening:

 I didn't have the now-trendy fried pickle, because I've had them before, but I did try a new fried pick-a-stick - choose up to four items (from a large variety), and the booth operators will stack them on a stick, batter them and deep fry the whole kebab - I chose onions, mushroom, ham, and cheddar cheese.  yum.  We also passed on the elephant ears, but only because we were at Magic Fest in Colon last weekend, where they offered rabbit ears!  hahaha

To round out our Michigan adventures, we browsed garage sales Saturday afternoon along US12.  I know we 'borrowed" this idea from some other highway, but can't seem to locate the original just now.  I picked up this lovely treasure:

$30 for a turn-of-the-century record cabinet that used to belong to a music teacher from Lansing.  At least, that's the story his granddaughter told me, along with some stories about his driving antics as a 90-year-old.

It looks great in my craft room, holding 12x12 designer series papers!