The Sedona Area and Jerome

I'm heading  back to the US today for a scrapping and shopping weekend but thought I'd share another installment from our Arizona trip.

One of our day trips was a drive from Flagstaff to Sedona then to Jerome. Part of this drive was through the scenic Oak Creek Canyon.

Of course the Sedona area is known for the red sandstone formations.

They really are quite spectacular.

Sedona is also known for its spiritual energy  vortexes but I'm not sure I buy  into it.

I do think that it is a cute town in a beautiful setting of red hills.

Then we drove south through Cottonwood and Clarkdale then wound our way up a mountain to Jerome.

Jerome was a thriving copper mining town in the 1920's with a population of 15,000 but by the 1950's after the mines closed the population was reduced to 50.

Today Jerome is experiencing a resurgence due to tourism and has shops, art galleries,restaurants and bed and breakfasts.

It has been designated as a National Historic Site with many of abandoned buildings interspersed with refurbished buildings from its boom days.

It is a very eclectic mix of the old and new and definitely worth seeing.

More to come on Arizona soon.

Little Red Wagon #144 - Girlfriend Birthday Card

Time for another Little Red Wagon challenge.

This week Dee wants us to create a girlfriends birthday card.

I had an opportunity to borrow some Stampin' Up stamps from someone else's wagon to create this card:



Who doesn't need a birthday card for a girlfriend, so please play along by linking up your card over at Little Red Wagon.

We love to see what you create!

Apache Trail

Well I meant to post some more Arizona vacation highlights a little sooner but life sometimes gets in the way.

Anyway one of our first excursions was to drive the Apache Trail in the Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix.

There are some interesting stops along the way including Goldfield, a recreated mining town.

There is still an active gold mine here, although not mined regularly.

Brittany about to go into the gunfighter's saloon!

Another sight along the way is Canyon Lake. The surrounding area is very dry with scrubby underbrush.

The road turned to gravel along the way, not too bad here, well graded.

Now  here is a sharp turn!

And that is the trail down there, the well graded gravel changed to a very bumpy dirt road.

About 70 miles of dirt road  later we arrived at the Roosevelt Dam.

More of Arizona to come soon!

Little Red Wagon #143 - Chevrons

One of the hottest trends right now is the chevron.


I've seen them used in decorating, clothing and crafting.


So this week over at Little Red Wagon I would like you to use a chevron in your project.


I created a couple of quick and easy cards that feature a chevron:

If you can please play along and link up your creation over at Little Red Wagon,we love to see what you create!

Papertrey Ink Stamp-A-Faire

This past Saturday I crafted my day away at a Canadian version of PTI's Stamp-a-faire organized by my friend Dee.

She along with some friends made some cute tent and trailer table decorations  and each of us received a gable box filled with crafting goodness like washi tape, buttons, flowers and muffin cups to make  our own flowers.

The event was camp themed so I took crockpot franks and beans for our potluck lunch along with some s'more trail mix packets for each attendee.

Jeannie brought each of us these goodies:

Dee made s'more pops, yum!

Kathryn used jiffy pop containers in which to put her own popcorn. And you can also see some of the other goodies including sandwiches in camp appropriate ziplocs.

There were 15 of us , here's a look at a few of us.

We covered two tables in cards after our 14 hour cardmaking marathon!

I made 14 cards including some for future Little Red Wagon challenges but here's a few I can share now.

I did use mostly PTI products but this first card features Stampin' Up's Hello Doily stamp along with PTI's  Happy Hydrangea stamp set.



These two cards use some ribbon that Avril gave me after I admired it on her card, it goes perfectly with PTI's aqua mist cardstock.

This card is a direct lift of one I found on Pinterest and features use of the PTI butterfly die.

Jeannie gave me the inspiration for this card which uses PTI's Happy Hexagon stamp set.

It was an awesome event that I hope we repeat again soon! Thanks for organizing Dee!

Saguaro Cactus

One of the first things we saw when arriving in Phoenix was the Saguaro Cactus.

It is only found in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona, a small area of California and the State of Sonora in Mexico.

Saguaros can grow up to almost 100 feet tall but are very slow growing.

The first side arm can take up 70 years to develop.

The average lifespan of a cactus is 200 years.

It has white night blooming flowers in April to June then red coloured fruit that matures in late June.

The Saguaro blossom is the State Wildfower of Arizona.

The red fruit is highly edible and prized by the locals.

It is truly a remarkable plant!

Little Red Wagon #142- Package It Up

This week Regan is challenging us to reuse some scrappy packaging.

I decided to use some cardboard backing to create a tag which I then attached to a gift:



I used Everyday Button Bits from Papertrey as well as some Thrift Shoppe paper to put it together.

If you can, please join us over at Little Red Wagon, with your repurposed packaging. We love to see what you create!