Bienvenue...

hi all!

i can NOT believe i am THIS freakin hot in the middle of APRIL!  ree-donk-ulous!  i had to put my hair up.  in april!  sheesh!  pezza is out in the sprinkler in the backyard!

we did our first trip of the season in the camper this weekend - wow was i out of practice!  the drive up went smoother than usual.  on the way i asked hubby if he had put the turquoise box in the truck from his garage...nope.  so, pit stop for toiletries and the eggs i forgot.   arrived just before dark which makes set up FAR easier.  after set up we realized i also forgot ALL of the towels AND the pillows.  AND we had no hot water.  BUT we were determined to have a good trip and we all went to bed happy.  and then made a trip to target and home depot first thing the next morning!

the rv park we went to was outside of Lancaster PA - amish country.  i fell in LOVE with the area - i am slightly obsessed with farms.  i desperately want an old house with a huge barn and other out buildings but these farms!  HUGE i mean HUGE farms with gigantic barns and three silos.  what the heck do you put in 3 silos???  love love love it!  we spent saturday in strasburg at the railway - so so cool.  if you live in this area and you haven't been there you should go.  they restore antique steam engines and run them along with antique rail cars.  we toured the humongous workshop with all sorts of engines being restored and Thomas the tank engine was even in there for his annual maintenance so pezza got to take a picture with him and even go inside the cab!  we road a mini steam engine as well as a full sized one.  then we went around the railroad museum - AWESOME.  tons of model railroads set up and lots to play with - pezza was in heaven!  i'll have a few pics at the end of this post.

i do have a project to share with you:

i made this to hang in our foyer

bienvenue means welcome.  it is done on a piece of MDF with some wood trim - both from home depot.  the wood trim is painted with gesso and then Silks.  i did a few different things for the background papers.  before i cut the left side into thirds i stamped it with a fleur de lis stamp from the Just Rite Bon Voyage set i got from terri at stamps alive.  then i cut it into thirds and stamped again with a fleur de lis stamp from La Blanche using versamark and frantage aged copper embossing enamel and shabby white embossing enamel - LOVE the whole frantage line!

on the right side i started with some beautiful paper from Creative Imaginations.  i added some fleur de lis images using a creative imaginations existencil and more Silks like I used on the wood trim.  i added more frantage to the bottom corner and then adhered all 4 pieces to the MDF and hid the seams with some copper german scrap - great stuff!

I cut the large fleur de lis out of a cereal box using a sizzix die.  i painted over it with gesso, stamped it with my exclusive cobblestone background stamp and let it dry.  then i added two colors of Luminarte Primary Elements mixed with gum arabic and water.  it accentuates the stamped texture and of course adds gorgeous shimmer.  to make it stand out i traced around the edges a few times with a black pen.  i printed the words from my computer - so easy!

and now a pic of pezza and thomas - i will be editing the rest and posting a few more later this week!

seriously...how cool is THAT?!