Oh Mona, Where Art Thou?

I'm on vacation!  :)  Well, sort of.  I am in Alberta at my parent's farm, but am doing a little work of course, as CHA is fast approaching.

SO much to share...

Let's start with the stamp releases this week at CHF:

Streams of Living by Thomas Kinkade

There are some fabulous samples here in the CHF Gallery.

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And a very handsome Elvis is in da house!

This Elvis is from the '69 comeback tour when I think he was at his most handsome.  *vavooooom*  Sorry, can't help it.  It's not work to do the art selection on this line let me tell you!  *giggles*  I was a peripheral Elvis fan before we released this line, but now, I'm hooked.  I bought a double disk set to listen to on the way home from Montana and it was so much fun to listen to!  Anyway, I digress... I did have a chance to create with this image before leaving for my holidays.

The Original Elvis image was stamped with Jet Black Archival (Ranger) on Simply Smooth cardstock (CHF) and colored with some very light shades of Copic markers.  He needed some bling so I added Cinnamon Stickles to the Elvis name at the top and brown Swarovski crystals to the bottom of the image.

The base layer was stamped with the Diamond Plate backgrounder, then the Original flourishes sentiment from the Mona Lisa Moments set called Big Inspiration and the from the Beautiful set were stamped in bronze and black ink.  The Elvis panel is popped up on foam squares.

Be sure to check out the fun gallery that the CHF chicks created for this release!

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Here are some pics of my drive down to Montana.  I love to drive, but I REALLY love to drive in Big Sky Country.  It is the most relaxing and wonderful experience.  It took about 6.5 hours to get down to Cornish Heritage Farms, but the time just flew by like nothing at all.

I also had to stop and take a picture of a few grain elevators.  They are a landmark of my childhood and are disappearing every year. 

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On Tuesday I had the absolute pleasure of visiting my favorite stamp store in Calgary - Paper Pastimes.  Carole, the owner, has such an amazing eye for quality and unique products - it's just fun to spend a few hours combing the store looking for treasures.  It is a true stamper's stamp store, so if you ever have a chance, make sure you stop in to say hello.  You won't leave empty handed!

If you are planning on being in Calgary on the August long weekend you have to come by Paper Pastimes and visit me!  I will be holding free demonstrations at the store on Friday evening and all day Saturday.  It's going to be a hoot!  Stay tuned for a more detailed schedule.

Well, the sun is shining and the sky is blue, so I need to get outside.  :)