Friday, July 26, 2013

summer souvenir shadow box picture

YOU'RE INVITED!

to a BLOG POST SUMMER 
hoopla palooza 
VACATION VIEWING

when: whenever you want

where: wherever you want

what (to wear): whatever you want.

but may i suggest sweatpants and a ratty ole shirt or pj's, hair in rollers, spinach in teeth and legs that need shaven?

ok so are you ready?
 or do i have to wait til you get ready?

ok. i'll wait as long as you want.
nothing but the best at this party!
.........................................................doo de doo.....doo dee do....

oh yay!
you're ready.
here we go.

last month, my family and i went on a 2-week road trip.
we always take road trips.
it would be much much easier to fly, 
but my hubby hates to fly.

like he is deathly afraid to fly.

and now that there is someone actually named Captain Sum Ting Wong
i do not think we will ever fly. 
like ever.

anywho, our trips are always an adventure.   my hubby is totally the opposite of me as far as planning but he did tell me a coupla places he had in mind.

so off we went to another adventure, where an hour or 2 goes by and he asks me "did you remember to pack my _________?" 
it never fails.

anyway, check these out.
if you ever get a chance to check out the Gaylord Opry Resort hotel, you must. they have BOATS in there that take you on a river cruise. 
IN the hotel. 
oh yeah and there are waterfalls in it too.

and heck no we didn't stay there. 
we just drooled at all the rich people stuff.

lynchburg is the home of that famous whiskey. 
my hubby wanted to take the tour there.

he promised to take me to the 
first hobby lobby we saw on the road. 
even trade i think don't you?
we made another stop in Tennessee too.

what a quaint town. full of history. i liked it except my hubby made me walk over a humungously long bridge to get to the park. i whined til i saw Ms. Rita's italian icees. 
then i was fine.

next up was another car thing. 
a museum filled to the brink of cars.
zzzzz. but i suggested we take a boat ride in a dark cave first. it was cool i guess but had bad photo opportunities, unless you like to see black pics. i did however LOVE the gift shop there. who the heck knew i could buy a chevron burlap purse at a lost cave tourist stop? i shoulda taken a pic of it for you come to think of it. 
but i hogged it all to myself.
i may be outta sequence here with our stops 
but just roll with me.

we went to the Oprah show stomping ground city.
it was awesome.
the navy pier is SOOOO fun. restaurants, shops, rides for the kids, and oh yeah, funnel cakes. 
and giant ice cream cones that you can hug as you can see in the teeny tiny pic above.
'nuf said.

and the museum was killer too. 
very interactive. and educational, something we don't do enough of for the kids. or ourselves. duh!
downtown is just. plain. beautiful!

unlike the downtown here:
this stop was ok i guess. 
i was still trying to figure out 
why my hubby was so excited to be there.
then we headed back south again to this town:
ok so nashville downtown seemed like they had drunken saloon stories to tell that i wasn't interested in hearing but when we came across this 2-story candy shop, everything changed.
they must've had every kinda soda and candy ever made there! i not only have a problem with sugar, but with multi-colors too so i was a little gaga there and the check out girl thought i was weird taking a million pics. i almost told her i was a blogger but i got distracted when i saw the candy grasshopers and centipedes.

that's when i stopped taking pics.

we did stop at the grand ole opry to spy on famous people but darn it all there weren't any there at the moment.
then our last stop.
there's nothing like disney fireworks. 
in the pic it looks like a nuclear explosion.

but that hamburger i ate in the pic above and the friendly alligator made the trip worthwhile.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.snore snore snore. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HEY!
is that you snoring??!?!
oh goodness! sorry i took so much of your time
(man this is a flippin' llllloooonnngg post!)

lemme get to the bottom of this post 
and the main reason for your invitation. 

see, when you go to your summer vacation, 
pick up some souvenirs like this:



then stare at the pile and wonder what the heck you are gonna do with it all.

so do this:
take a shadow box frame.
and cut out a long rectangular piece of black cardstock paper. 
(this is what i had but any will do)
fold it as shown and stick some letters on it.
then grab all those vacation goodies and arrange them to your liking. and then,
put the frame back together with the banner inside so you end up with this:



now due to the time i spent writing this post, 
i'm gonna take a vacation straight to my bed.

oh yeah, thanks for coming over!!!
 zzzzzzzzzzzzzz






26 comments:

  1. WOWZA - that was quite a road trip! Now you need a vacation from the vacation! I love how you made the memory box too!

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    1. thank you Kim! it was quite the trip! and i plan to make one for a lot more summer vacations and put them together in our living room. it'll be fun to look at them thru the years :)

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  2. How fun! 2 weeks! and you all came back alive and well and no one killed each other! I'm impressed! Bet you're wondering where your 'prize' is, aren't you? haven't mailed it yet. Got busy working 2 jobs (uh, what happened to 'retired'??) but it's ready! Soon! Ur BBFF, Dona

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    1. that's hilarious when you say we all came back alive cuz i had to play referee more than a few times with my kid's quarreling :>P my hubby's crazy too he loves going all over the place and i just drag along. in fact we went away this week again! so please enjoy your retirement days and worry or work too hard my BBFF :>D

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  3. WOW!!! You sure traveled a lot of miles in two weeks ... better rest up now :) I love the shadow boxes ... you were so good about keeping little bits from each place! I love Tennessee and Kentucky ... we visit family there.

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    1. i LOVE tennessee and that was the first time i've been to KY. i had the shadow box pic in mind before we went on vacation so that helped me get the souvenirs-usually i just grab a postcard but putting this together was more fun. even my hubby liked it! LOL thanks so much Brenda! :)

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  4. Ok, well, travel craziness aside, that is a super cute idea for ANY kind of souvenier trip! I love it! I think the simple addition of the cardstock with the title makes a big difference! :) Stopping by from the Crafty Girl Linky Party.

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    1. that's the part that made it all come together Megan so i totally agree! thank you SO much for stopping by! :)

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  5. That sounded like an eventful road trip! You crammed a lot into two weeks...very impressive:) The shadow box is a great idea for displaying/remembering your family vacation!

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    1. crammed is right! even though my hubby hates to fly and i like it, it is pretty cool how we can stop and go when we want. thanks SO much for stopping here Sue :)

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  6. Wow! I absolutely love this shadow box! What an awesome idea. . .I'm pinning it now! Also, I love how you arranged all your photos in this post.

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    1. thank you SO much Laura! your comment made it worth the 99,000 hours i worked on it! LOL:>D

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  7. Wow! What a vaca!! I can only imagine how long this post took! It was so cool to see all of the tourist attractions!

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    1. i know it's cray cray isn't it? every summer we go on long road trips. this post took about the same amount of time putting it together-LOL but i know i'll appreciate it when i look back on what we did. i'm so happy i didn't bore you to death Michelle! heehee :)

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  8. Fun idea. I love to do travel collage journals. This would be a similar way to preserve vacation memories.

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    1. if travel collage journals are anything like scrapbooks i so wish i did them Tammy! cuz i love my scrapbooks when i did do them but that was waaay long ago and now i am too lazy/tired/lazy/lazy to do them. LOL thank you so much for stopping by! :)

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  9. Hi Lisa, Now that is some road trip!! My Mr. won't fly either & his work is busiest in summer.Two strikes! Love the idea of doing a shadow box for the mementos. I'm going to share this with a shout out tomorrow. Glad you made it & had some fun!!

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    1. YAHOO! now you got me shouting OUT! THANK YOU Theresa!!! i feel bad about the 2 strikes but at least that gives you time to blog?...i only say that cuz i did my posts before we left and i was a total maniac getting them together! :>O

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  10. That is some wonderful way to remember a vacation. I always plan on doing something like that but never do. I have one of these deep frames, too. I am featuring you in the new party tonight! Thanks for sharing. Pinned also. Linda
    Craftsalamode.com

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    1. YIPPEEEE! thank you thank you Linda!!! i SOOO appreciate it!
      i've seen big jars with souvenirs from Martha Stewart but what i had would not work in a jar so i did it this way! :)

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  11. I've been to Chicago, Indianapolis and Orlando - Chicago's my fave - but better then ALL of the above - and wow! you sure did hit the road! - I LOVE your shadow box idea. This would be wonderful for kids to do after they return home to boredom - and think of the fun they'd have collecting the little goodies like you did! Awesome!

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    1. i wish we coulda stayed longer in Chicago J but criminee the parking is so $$$ to do everyday plus eat and shop and shop and shop. heehee-just kidding anyhoo it was fun to gather the souvenirs. i tried to explain the project to my family but they were all "what?huh!?" at the time. next summer will be funner when we get the souvenirs. i only wish i did this a long time ago. years go by and i easily forget! :>P

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  12. What a great way to remember your summer! or any vacation, I LOVE IT!

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    1. thank you Tracey! you are too kind :>D i plan to do one every summer and make a wall of them :)

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  13. How did you get the souvenirs to stick in the shadow box? Did you glue them?

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    1. i have a pic up there where i taped them down. i didn't want to glue them because that would make it difficult to view the pieces in the future if i ever wanted to change it. thanks for stopping by Anna! :)

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here's wishing for a stuffed comment box... :>D