August exchange cards

The August exchange theme is "make your own background".  I dry embossed the green background paper, and then sanded it.  I used a white core paper.  Then I cut the round background, then the scallop, and stamped the car on a couple of different papers.  First the green, then the dotted, and then white.  I think it's pretty self-evident that I used the green as the base for the car.  I used copic markers to color the head-lights etc.  The dotted paper was a little tricky since I couldn't really see the stamped image.  Since the car was the same on both sides, I was able to stamp on the white back of the paper, cut it out and layer it.  I just cut away the parts that I didn't want out of the polka dot.  I then stamped the same image on white, and cut out the license plate and the window.  I stamped inside the plate.  I put the window on the back first, then the polka dot, and then the plate.  I layered the scallop on the black background and used dimensional stickers to raise the car.  Then I stamped the "Happy Birthday" and cut them into a banner shape and backed it with black, and finished it off with a brad to anchor it on the front.   I then stamped the inside verse on white so it would show up.  I actually liked how this card turned out.
This weekend was our family reunion.  I think we picked the hottest day of the year for it. They held it at the Minidoka County Fair Grounds, and it was nice.  My family had the breakfast, and we cooked scrambled eggs with either ham or sausage in them, regular pancakes and sourdough pancakes with chokecherry syrup, strawberry/rhubarb syrup, or maple syrup.  Fruit and drinks.  Jeff did all the eggs and the regular pancakes.  It kept me busy just mixing eggs up and trying to keep them from running all over the grill and down the legs.  All in all, I thought it turned out pretty well.  They let the kids make things out of duct tape: wallets, ties, rockets, purses, hair bows...pretty clever.  On Saturday morning they had a couple of rocket launchers that used an air compressor.  The kids had alot of fun with that.
Leslie and Dale stayed with us, and we really enjoyed their company.