owl card and our weekend

I played along this week with the challenge over on American Crafts blog and here is the graduation card I put together for my cousin:

The patterned paper and letter stickers are from American Crafts. The eyes, beak and feet are all made from American Crafts Thickers--letters. I'll show you how below. (I saw and owl similar to this in a Stampin' Up magazine a while back.)

These are the punches you will need. The circle punch is 1.75", but something close will do. The half inch circle punch on the end was used to punch the brown cardstock for the eyes. The white and black parts of the eyes were the "periods" from white vinyl thickers and black fabric thickers. But any white/black thickers will do. The small ticket punch was used on the green paper to make the hat (forgot to include that in the picture). The bottom part of the hat is about 1.5x0.5" and then I notched the top two corners with the punch (but you could just use your scissors). The top piece of the hat is 1.75"x a small sliver (didn't measure) and then I rounded the corners with scissors. To make the tassle, I tied a knot toward one end of the ribbon and then frayed the end with scissors. (You can click on the picture to make it larger.) For the beak and feet, I showed you which vinyl thickers I used and drew black lines where I cut. After I assembled most of the owl, I put him on with dimensionals, then I put the feet up under him just a tad. I hope I explained that well. Feel free to leave me a comment if you have any questions and I will be sure and respond.

Sunday-Monday we went on our second camping trip as a family (Faith did not get sick, thank goodness). We went to Folsom Lake which usually only takes us a half hour to get to. But because we went to a campground on the other side of the lake, it took us 1.5 hours to get to--the only spot available on a holiday weekend. Tim's brother, Doug, jet-skiied across from the side of the lake nearest our house and Tim took the girls on a ride. So fun!!

The girls spent most of the afternoon playing near the shore in the raft while Seth and I napped and then played in the dirt. Dirt really does taste good to boys I think.

On our way home Seth was not a happy camper in his car seat. We stopped at the American River for awhile and threw some rocks. Seth still was not happy when we hopped back in the car, but at least it gave us a sanity break. Oh the joys of long car rides with infants . . .

Hope you had a fabulous holiday weekend!