What a Weekend!

My mom came to visit this weekend and although it was short, we had quite a bit of fun. On Saturday we drove to Boise and went to several "craft-filled" yard sales (to my delight), the Boise Co-op (a healthy-eating grocery store alternative...with organic foods and environment-friendly products), and the Capital building. The pictures from the Capital building turned out so well, I HAD to share them with you! I can't believe what great weather we had! I hope you enjoy them (as well as the two cards I made this weekend).

Here's a view from the back/side of the capital building.

From the side...

From the front. (At first I couldn't get the full building in b/c there were so many people taking pictures in front of it. I finally got a really good picture when we came back out.)

I'll be honest, I can't remember who this is...but he's located across the street from the capital building.

 Another view from the front...

 Your first view once inside...

 Look at the beautiful dome! Notice the stars on the highest portion of the ceiling and the lovely spiral staircase leading up. :)

I was never much for politics...

 I was in awe of the marble detail around the entire building. Don't you think it's lovely?!

This statue is called "Winged Victory" and it's a replica of the "Nike of Samothrace" statue that was found in Greece. The only reason I know this is because I took a picture of the informative sign next to the statue... :)

 This is probably one of my favorite photos. I just love the symmetry and warm colors...

 And finally, the full view of the capital building.

As for the cards I made this weekend - they aren't anything spectacular. I bought so many new craft products over the weekend that I was dying to try them all out!

I made this card using Doodlebug Design's Glittered Cardstock Balloon Stickers and Cute Cuts Scalloped Circle. I added some string, faux stitching, and multi-colored sentiment to finish the look.

For this card, I used a Stampin' Up clear mount stamp set called "Countryside." It has a ton of cute farmyard/country images and although I've had it for several months, I haven't used it yet! I colored it in with regular colored pencils and then blended with Gamsol. 

I also wanted to mention the quality of the embossed sentiment. I just bought myself a new VersaMark ink pad, which (for you non-crafters out there) holds the embossing powder on to your stamped sentiment or image until it's heated. Anyways...I LOVE it! It was so worth the almost $8 I had to fork out for it! I can't believe the difference in the quality of the embossed image. In fact, I may have to include a side-by-side picture in my next post of an image using a low-budget embossing ink pad versus the VersaMark pad. 

(Note: I realize the white paper on this card is warped. I manipulated it too much in trying to decide what to do for this card and as a result this card seems a bit worn.)

Well, that's all for today. I'll try to keep you posted if anything new comes up!