Why We Love Camping (?) :)

Is it Wedensday? NO! It's Thursday!
Anyone STILL messed up??

We went camping last weekend.
I have to admit-it has been over a year and a half.
It's fun, but there are a few factors that have to work out.
I have to ask off of work. (I work a day most weekends.)
It can't be beastly hot (I don't do hot camping).
And honestly, school has to be out OR there has to be a long weekend for me to feel like it is worth the effort.

So on the holiday weekend, we went camping.
The running joke.
Why is going to a little patch of land with a bunch of strangers (except my in-laws. They aren't strangers, just strange. LOL!) sleeping in a tent and getting really dirty fun?
It just is!

The kids had a blast!

So HERE is why camping is fun. :) Smith Style.
(By the way, we ALWAYS get a spot with electric-so we can plug in our fan, and heater, and charge our video games... you get the idea. :) )

Napping:

New Friends:
Old Friends:
Hangin' out:Fun Games:
Good Eats:
Campfires:
AND while we were gone camping, lil' man lost his FIRST tooth!!
And though they were just a MESS, I got them to stand together for a fun shot! :)
We were on an adventure... see the map in Gabriel's hands? He was leading the way. :)
The first night, Gavin could not sleep!
He had horrid allergy reaction. He has allergies, but he never needed medication before.
We left the campsite at 4:30am, went to Walmart (this is when I realize I am wearing PJ pants... oh well. All the cool kids are doin' it!)
And then we went home to sleep for a couple hours before heading back. (They lock ya out of the campground once you leave via gate-we also didn't want to wake everyone else up at 5:30am coming back.)
On the way back to the house, there was this BEAUTIFUL sunrise!

I thought this picture would be fun to show different affects.
I like to use Picnik.com
While trying to master photoshop is great, 99% of the time, this fits my needs.

So here is the original. I adjusted the exposure just a TAD:
Orton-ish
You can fade out an effect, so this is Orton-ish faded some to get some detail back in the foilage on the left:
Lomo-ish (more dramatic):
Vibrance: (pops the color without affecting the contrast as much)Vintage (1960's):
And a layout!
Loved that NYOBC at Scrapaganza how has kits with very current papers!
My challenge, use the Halloween paper line (My Mind's Eye) to make a non-Halloween page.
So this is what I did with 1/2 of the kit that I took (Kim has the other half!). :)
Instead of sewing, I just punched the holes...
Speaking of punches. :) I used a giant flower punch (which isn't that giant) a large flower punch, and the butterfly punch.
The ledger is actually a budget tablet/book. It is somewhat vintage. Maybe 20 years?
The buttons and things were LaDeDa by KI memories... I think I got them from a Studio Calico kit.
I traced the die cut shape from these Clear Scraps Die Cut acrylic (XL Deco) that I bought just to trace my own die cut shapes! I have used them several times as templates already!
It was a fun and easy LO to create!

I got some stamping layouts to show soon too!!
FINALLY getting done with some Suasen Designs product!
They are SO yummy-I am sorry I didn't get it done before!
I NEED deadlines!!!!

Be Blessed !!