Wausau Mine Company

Well, since I've been so busy lately, I don't have any new projects to show you, but since my blog is about 'ANYTHING of creative interest to me', I wanted to show you some pictures of a very unique restaurant that my husband and I visited. It is located in Wausau, WI and is called the Wausau Mine Co. Apparently, Wausau is known for its mining history, so someone built this restaurant in honor of that history. The first two pictures show the outside of the restaurant (and me), it looks like a run-down old mine and there are rocks and some old mining vehicles/tools parked outside.

The windows are all slanted like this. Isn't it funky looking? Here is a beautiful mural on one of the walls.

It was hard to get good quality pictures of the inside, since it is so dark (like a real mine), but all the walls look like the inside of a cave and there are various 'mining scenes' set up throughout the restaurant. Here is one of just the legs of a miner up in the ceiling.

This is a scene of a mining tunnel and tracks.

A scene of a closed-off mine tunnel.

A close up picture of the wall.

I thought this was one of the more interesting scenes. It actually had dripping water down the side of the wall with a 'pond' beneath.

There are also numerous old photographs and artifacts throughout the building to study and learn more about the mining history of the area. But I didn't take any pictures of those. It was a very interesting place to stop and visit, and if your ever in the area, it'll be worth stopping at too!

Have a great day! Amy

A Naturally Vintage Birthday

I am busy, busy, busy! Between work, gardening, crafts, and family, I am feeling very overwhelmed. So in my quest to 'keep up', I made one card for four different challenges. And I wish I had a better picture of this card, because it is one of my favorites. It's so pretty in real life. I tried 25 different ways to photograph it, and this was the best I could do. Sorry. I think its the muted colors. I always struggle photographing soft colors. Any photographers out there who have any ideas?

Anyhow, onto my card. This card uses the sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers this week, and is for both the Crafty Secrets Challenge on PCP (Use Gingham on your card) and Splitcoaststampers (Make a Birthday Card), and my Shabby Chick's Blog Roll Challenge (Make a Nature Card). I used Crafty Secrets 'Garden Girls' and 'Bird Notes'. The Bird is mounted up on dimensionals. The card stock colors are White, Chocolate Chip, and Bordering Blue. The designer papers are SU! 'Parisian Breeze'.

Have a great day! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #15: "Easy as 1, 2, 3"

The Digital Tuesday Challenge this week is "Easy as 1, 2, 3":

create a card using one digital image, two designer papers, and 3 embellishments. The sponsor this week is 'The Character Cafe'. This image, 'Sk84 Brady', is from their store and you can find it here: http://sweeteez.com/ourdesigns.htm My two designer papers are from 'Me and My Big Ideas'. Card stock colors are white, black, Riding Hood Red, and River Rock. The three embellishments are black string, silver studs, and the Cuttlebug Star Die Cut. The image is colored with Copic Markers and the sentiment is computer generated. I also used the layout from this month's Sheetload of Cards Sketch.

If you'd like to play along with us this week simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you to the challenge. This week's randomly chosen winner will receive three digital images of their choice.

Have a great day! Amy

Popping Up to Say.....

Ugh, I'm so exhausted. My husband, children, and I all went to 'Lifefest' in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for three days. Its a Outdoor Christian Music Festival. We saw all the big names in the Christian Music Industry: Toby Mac, Barlow Girls, Leland, Cutlass, Skillet, etc. and a lot of really hard, acid-rock groups that I don't even remember the names of. My husband and son just love that type of music, whereas I'm more 'light rock'. Anyhow, we were up at 8:00 a.m. everyday, and never got to bed before 1:00 a.m. I rarely go to bed past 10:00 p.m., so I just feel terrible right now: like a truck ran me over. I even took a two hour nap when I came home, and I still feel physically sick. I started to think I was too old for rock concerts, but, then I remembered, I never liked them, even when I was a teenager. So it really has nothing to do with age. LOL! My husband is the type of concert-goer who loves to stand in the pit and bounce, scream his head off, and sing along. I, on the other hand, prefer to sit quietly and observe the concert in my nice comfy folding chair in the back. I even embarrassed him when I brought a tote along filled with Copic Markers and some digital images to color and everyone walking by wondered why this lady was just sitting there 'coloring' like a two year old. I said to my husband, 'Well now you know how I feel when you fall asleep at a Musical Theatre show!' LOL! Anyhow, I think it will be a long time before we try that again as a family. Especially since the whole thing cost us about $600 and I didn't even enjoy myself. I could have gone to 6 Broadway Musicals at that price! LOL!

Onto my card for today. I actually made this one several weeks ago for a Featured Stamper Challenge on Splitcoastampers. The Featured Stamper was Dawn Lusk and here is her original card: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/1142855?cat=500+ppuser=19913 I kept the same layout, but changed everything else. My image is 'Just Nutty' from Clear Dollar Stamps and it says 'Happy Birthday' inside. The squirrel was colored with Prismacolored Pencils and Gamosol and is popped up on dimensionals. The paper is DCWV 'The Green Stack'. Card stock colors are So Saffron, Going Grey, White, and Close to Cocoa.

Have a great day. I think it will be awhile before I am physically recovered from my latest adventure. I'm working non-stop for the next three days. When it rains it pours! LOL! Amy

Digital Tuesday Challenge #14 'Sweet Birthdays'

This week's Digital Tuesday Challenge is to use anything 'sweet' with a birthday theme on your card or project. Well, I think Strawberries are pretty sweet, so I used this 'sweet' image from Digital Stamp Oasis called 'Sammy Squirrel Eats Strawberries'. The inside of the card says 'Happy Birthday' so that it qualifies for the challenge. LOL!



To make my card, I started with a 5 1/2 by 11 piece of 'Garden Green' card stock. I then layered Real Red and White over, and over again. One of the white panels was embossed with the Cuttlebug Embossing Folder 'Swiss Dots', and the designer paper panel is Stampin Up!. The strawberry image I pulled off another card that someone sent me in the mail (yes, I do that. I often break apart other hand made cards that I receive and remake new cards with them. Recycle, reuse!) so I have no idea what image it is, but I know its Stampin Up!. The Designer Paper Panel, the main image panel, the strawberry, and the green part of the strawberry are all mounted up on dimensionals. The image is colored with Copic Markers and I used a white gel pen to highlight the strawberries. The tag is a Cuttlebug Die.



If you'd like to purchase this image, simply click on the Digital Stamp Oasis Blinkie in my sidebar and it will take you to the Etsy Store. If you'd like to play along with this challenge, simply click on the Digital Tuesday Challenge Blinkie for further instructions. This week's sponsor is My Grafico. You can find their images here: http://www.mygrafico.com/stamps/cat_95.html One lucky randomly chosen winner will receive 1 set of digi stamps of their choice. I hope you play along! Have a great day! Amy

An Anniversary Sketch

Hello everyone in blog world! I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth of July! I worked in the morning, and in the afternoon I had to cook something for church and then had a few moments to myself to quickly whip up a sun dress, then in the evening we went to the Fireworks. Nothing too exciting this year.

I made this card for last week's sketch challenge on Splitcoaststampers. The images are all Inkadinkado Inchie Stamps from two different sets: 'One Plus One = Love', and 'Heartful of Love'. I put Stickles on the images so it is very sparkly in real life. All the squares were made with a Cuttlebug Die. The card stock colors are White, Black, and Pink Pirouette. The designer paper is DCWV 'All Dressed Up Stack'. Organza ribbon and a charm were added for embellishment.

Have a great day! Amy

Enjoy Your Day!

For those of you who are not in retail like I am and can enjoy a four day holiday weekend, today's post is for you! Enjoy your day! I made this card for the My Favorite Things Challenge on Splitcoaststampers: "Paper Piecing". I paper pieced her skirt and top with the designer papers from DCWV 'The Pet Stack'. I just love how the skirt turned out....don't you? The centers dots are actually sparkly and raised in real life, the camera just doesn't show it. The rest of the designer papers in the background are also from the same stack, and the card stock colors are White, Chocolate Chip, Wild Wasabi, and Tempting Turquoise. The sentiment is retired Stampin Up! 'Riveting'. The image is from 'Gone to the Dogs'.

My next two cards were for the MFT sketch challenge but I didn't use MFT stamps, I used a $1.00 clear acrylic stamp purchased from JoAnne's Fabrics and Crafts. The paper is all from DCWV 'The Summer Stack'. Card stock colors are White, Night of Navy and Wild Wasabi for the first card, and White and So Saffron for the second card. I send birthday cards to everyone in my church and I got two calls yesterday from the church secretary who gave me the names of two little girls whose names weren't on my list so I missed their birthdays. So I whipped these cards up quick to send them to them so that they will know they were not forgotten.

Well have a Happy Fourth of July everyone. I work tomorrow, but I'm happy about it because I get paid time and half! Yippee! It will be interesting to see if were busy or not. I can't imagine many people wanting to shop in a fabric store on the 4th of July. Maybe we'll actually have time to straighten up the store for a change! We have a huge sale going on all weekend and yesterday was the first day of our sale, so we were VERY busy, and I was on the cash register all day....so you can just imagine how stressed I was. But I must admit, I'm getting better at it all the time.

Have a great day! I'm going outside to enjoy some sunshine for the first time in a week! Its been cold and cloudy for so long I thought I'd never see the sun again. Amy