#summercards

[kraftyenchantments]

A Simple Hello

Hello and welcome! I have been playing with the Bicycle Bouquet stamp set from Dare 2B Artzy and I have a fun new card to share with you today. To start my card, I stamped and colored the bicycle, flower bundle, 3 of the long flowers, two flower buckets all from the Bicycle Bouquet set and 1 butterfly from the Beautiful Inside stamp set. I colored everything using my Altenew Artists Markers…

[masstoreds]

暑中お見舞い申し上げます

[engbergeurovacay23]

Monday: Some Swimming, Mountain-Biking, and Hiking!

At around 10 a.m. on Monday morning, we arrived to a large swimming pool complex in Schladming, one of these great public places with indoor and outdoor slides and lap-swim lanes and kiddie pools.  It took a little while to figure out where we were supposed to park, and what our summercards included (or didn’t) in terms of fees we needed to pay, but once we all got our suits on and got to the pool, Eric proceeded to do a good lap-swim and the kids did lots of splashing and swimming and playing – and like “a hundred” rides down the slide. What Eric loved most was that the pool had a metal bottom, with some bumps for traction, and the sides were metal, too.  Eric thought it was radical and Cece thought it was somewhat creepy—because with the metal bottom, the underwater scene looked like the vastness of the deep.

After swimming, we went and parked the car at the parking garage  by the Planai ski area and then, Eric and Rowan went to get their bikes and full-body protection.  We had to go through several steps in order to get our gondola tickets and for Eric and Rowan to get different mountain-biking gondola tickets . . . and figure out what part of both was covered by our summercards.  Once we had it all sorted out (and I scratched my head about the apparent habit of travelers in these parts of just cutting in front of people in line or just standing almost literally on them), we all boarded the same gondola, all four of us plus the two bikes and we went up the mountain.  We made a rookie mistake of getting off at the halfway point.  Once outside, we were like, wait, this thing continues to go up, and so we got back on.

Once at the top, Cece and I explored “Hopsiland,” with the mascot of a rabbit, which was the play area and extensive kid-play infrastructure built out at the mountain top.  Cece and I checked out a lot of the play-spots, but her favorite was the zipline.  We decided we were going to hike down to the halfway point and then get apple strudel at the restaurant at the halfway gondola station.  We had noticed on a sign during our mistaken disembarkation from the gondola that they would have that. 

It was really confusing to me which trails were hiking trails and which were mountain-biking ones, though most of the mountain-biking ones were very obvious, not only for their physical features (berms and jumps) but also for the fact that this mountain-biking setting was super-duper busy, so we probably would’ve been smushed in short order if we’d actually tried walking on a mountain-biking trail.  So, because I couldn’t identify an actual hiking trail for Cece and me, we just took off down a ski  run, tramping through the wildflowers, but not really, because we decided to follow some car-tracks (probably tractor-tracks, actually). We got to a trail-junction and a gravel road, and took a left.  We encountered a tiny lake we’d seen from the gondola and then I noticed Eric had called me.  I called him back and he said he’d meet us at the mid-way restaurant.  Conveniently, this lake was kind of a popular stopping point and we saw other hikers (and Eric and Rowan sailing over us in the gondola overhead!), so I followed some other hikers and checked my All Trails app, and it became much clearer at that point which trails were exclusively for hiking. 

We got ourselves on a hiking trail—and you know what else we discovered?  All of those Austrian-flag spray-painted signs on trees and rocks, which we noticed at the Dachstein Glacier, are actually hiking trail markers--and it was super helpful once that fact was verified by Reddit and we confidently trucked on down the mountain!  Once we got to the midway gondola, we only had to wait about five minutes for Rowan and Eric to turn up.  They had had such a fun time! Eric was so excited by Rowan’s mountain-biking and his resilience and keep-on-truckin’ attitude. But, Rowan was thirsty! The mountain bikes did not have bottle cages, so we went over to the restaurant for our apple strudel, and Eric and Rowan both got very large waters.  And the apple strudels were gorgeous!  And the view from their whole-wall-sized windows was amazing!  Setting up right below us outside the window were nearly a dozen paragliders.  Eric helped me finish my apple strudel and then he went on his way down the mountain on his bike, because Rowan said he was too exhausted to ride more.  So, we sat there, as Rowan slowly, apply chunk by apple chunk, finished his strudel and we watched about 6 paragliders launch and sail across the valley.  It was amazing to see!

After watching the paragliders for a while and finishing his strudel, Rowan felt recharged and ready to ride down and meet Cece and me at the bottom; he rode down alone and had a great time, even though he said he had a little crash. Cece and I rode the gondola down and then, soon after, Rowan showed up and we returned his bike and walked again through the quaint village center.  For some reason, Rowan started to get very irritated with Cece –for walking and swinging her arms in a way that did not please him—so he became less pleasant to be around.  Within twenty minutes, Eric was back down too, and we went into the Billa grocery store to buy a few things to enhance our dinner, as we needed to use nearly everything we had in the fridge on Monday night to prepare to fly to Helsinki on Tuesday.  So, we bought an avocado (avocado toast, here we come!), some hummus, and Rowan was indulged by me buying him some sushi.

We got home and chatted with our host Christoph for a while, and Cece heart-eyed the cats she saw around our Airbnb’s yard. She was outside, eyeing them, for quite some time while I made dinner (and almost burned the leftover linguini on the induction stovetop; luckily Eric was inside while I was on the deck talking to Christoph!).  We all ate dinner – a real smorgasbord—and then Cece, Eric, and I went on a 2.5-mile walk along the river trail, while Rowan finished his book.  I accidentally let the kids stay up rather late again, because I was super preoccupied with packing, rather than haranguing them to go.to.bed!!!!  They did, though, and Eric and I got to bed at our usual, too-late, hour.

I want to mention before signing off that there are so many different kinds of tourists in Schladming, though we heard no other American voices and only a few British ones.  There were lots of tourists from Arab nations, it would appear, or perhaps they were tourists from throughout Europe, and Austria even, who were observant Muslims with regard to their dress.  What was a “new one” for us on this trip was that at Schladming we saw a really large group of Hasidic Jewish tourists from Israel—I am presuming.  The children in the group (and there were a lot of children) were wearing fluorescent green shirts (for the boys) and pink (for the girls) that said, in English on the front and Hebrew on the back, “Good Energy Schladming 2023.”  I was so curious what that tour was all about! For us, Schladming was pretty out of the way and a real “shot in the dark” in terms of a place to travel to, since all we knew about it was internet mentions of it as a great place to hike in Austria (which is totally was), but now that we’ve been, we know it’s very popular for good reason and is pretty easy to access for those coming from Munich, which is such a major international air-travel hub.

And, now, as I write this from the car en route to the Munich airport, we have about six days left on this adventure—all of which will be in Helsinki. I will write about our travel day in my next post, which included a one-hour pitstop in Salzburg, in the pouring rain!

[duncanstreetdesigns]

Hello Crafty Friends and Happy Tuesday! Today I'm sharing a bright and colorful card created using one of the images from @not_2_shabby_shop Critter Pops Stamp Set. This set is the June 2022 Stamp of the Month and has a matching die set too! #not2shabby #cardmakers #cardmakersofinstagram #cardmakersoftheusa #cardmakingideas #cardoftheday #handcraftedcards #handmadecards #summercards #instacute #papercrafts #papercrafters #papercraftersofinstagram #cardmakersforkindness #papercrafting #cardmakingisfun #craftingismytherapy (at Florida, USA) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfWj9Azr7uw/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[heids9584]

Ya'll knows what this means, right? #PaperCoakley #CricutProjects #PaperCrafting #CardMaking #MakingStuff #MakersGonnaMake #Hobbies #SummerCards https://www.instagram.com/p/CRIAkG0sZly/?utm_medium=tumblr

[hey-phantomia]

Recently I #made some #invitation #cards for the #summer . Here‘s how they turned out ☺️ #craft #crafts #card #cardmaking #cardmakersforkindness #cardcrafting #craftingcards #handmade #invitationcard #invitationcards #summercard #summercards #summertime #craftart #crafty #die #diecuts #diecutting #cardmakingideas #invited #diy #handcrafted https://www.instagram.com/p/CQoZmpwMCLU/?utm_medium=tumblr

[huecompleteme]

The simply said collection is expanding with 6 golden yellow cards!! These are two of the new ones! A little fun fact is I keep a note on my phone with an endless list of ideas, it could be sayings like these ones, or illustration ideas, general holidays or events I want to make cards for... you name it, it’s probably on my list 😂. I’ve been wanting to expand the simply said line for a while and bring in other colours than pink, and I just adore how beautiful the colorplan paper from @gfsmithpapers is the texture, the brightness I just love it all and I hope you do too 🧡🧡 happy Wednesday!! • • • #simplysaid #buyirish #newcollection #yellowcards #allgoldeverything #summercards #irishgreetingcards #huecompleteme #caringtoshareyourbusiness #buyirishonline #snailmail #greetingcards #ptpalumni #prooftoproductalum #tsbcalum #cardmakersofinstagram #cardmaker #huecompleteme #dublindesign #dublinbusiness #shoplocaldublin (at Portobello, Dublin) https://www.instagram.com/p/COfttd5n1Go/?igshid=1gby7w1cstepx

[kitchensinkstamps]

A lovely day on the lake scene with Alpine Mountains. #kitchensinkstamps #kssmultistepstamps #cardsofinstagram #cardideas #cardmaker #cardsoninstagram #cardmaking #handmadecards #summercards #summerscene #snowymountains #lakescene #lakescenery #masculinecards https://www.instagram.com/p/CNfjRWPpF-_/?igshid=55rbav0ylydd

[mrdesignsva]

Coming Soon: Bee themed notecards! These sweet little cards are perfect for simple thank you cards. Also work great as gift tags to add to a present. See a set you love and want it now? Just send us a message. 😉 Lots of new cards, notecards, and gift card holders will be added to our shop soon. #MRDesignsVA #beecard #beecards #notecards #notecardset #notecards #greetingcards #summercards #beehives #handstampedcards #handstamped #blankcards #smallcards #gifttags https://www.instagram.com/p/CCCqwvVhAw7/?igshid=alj6qdlf5fpq

[adachimasato]

『Summer』 冷蔵庫のお酒が減りません。飲んでるのにな おかしい。 予想外に暑い日が早くやってきましたが、ひさしぶりに企画展に参加します。 原画の写真を撮り忘れていることに先ほど気がつきましたが夏らしい素敵な作品となりましたのでよろしけらば。 ーーーーーーーー ART HOUSE 企画「Summer Gurica展｣ ART HOUSE 2Fgallery 7/8(金)～7/12(火) 11:00～19:00　最終日17:00まで https://art-house.info そして2枚目はクソ暑いので床張りをあきらめて玄関の壁を塗りはじめまして。 今度はグリーン、涼しげでいい感じ。 #illustration #イラスト #arthouse #アートハウス堀江 #summercard #adachimasato #足立真人 (アートハウス) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfq_2brPlys/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kraftyenchantments]

Let's have a Water Adventure

Hello crafty friends and welcome back! I am so excited today to be able to share a fun new pop-up card I created with the Water Adventure stamp set from Dare 2B Artzy. This stamp features some adorable critters enjoying some outdoor adventures on the water. It has a cute raccoon on a jet ski, a squirrel riding on an inner tube and the most adorable parasailing bunny. The stamp set also includes…

[spotgirldesign]

Hello! Back at home and first on the list is to make happy summer enclosure cards to go with last week’s #etsy orders! Made with some of my stamps from @sweetstampshop #stamping #papercraft #sweetstampshop #summercards #etsyseller #etsyshop #packaging #enclosurecards #summerart https://www.instagram.com/p/BzqTfRKhfkh/?igshid=c8k2f3fpol0w

[engbergeurovacay23]

Sunday: Dachstein Glacier!

Sunday was a very full day for us, though it started with a little relaxing at home (well, the Airbnb) and then a jaunt over the Schladming so we could put a little charge in the Tesla. We didn't really need it, but Eric wanted to get a bit more in there. So, while the car was charging, we walked around Schladming a little bit --and it is a very cute "resort town," I guess you could call it. I am still kind of trying to get my head around this area. From what I gather, there are four main ski areas, but there is a bus that connects them all. Our Airbnb host Christoph said you can ski all four in one day. I am not sure how that would work, but I think he said you'd do just a few runs at each and then pop over to the next.

Anyway, the ski area in Schladming is called Planai (and this Wikipedia page explains the four ski areas pretty simply). So, in the summer, Planai sees a lot of mountain biking-and it is so bustling! So, on Sunday morning, we went to the bike rental shop so Eric and Rowan could look into getting bikes to downhill ride the next day. Cece keeps saying she wants to downhill, but I think she is still a little ways off from that, with her mountain-biking confidence (Eric thinks a year or so). Once we finished looking into the bike-rental situation, we walked back to our car, through the old-town-like Schladming center, and it was super cute, but not many places were open, since it was Sunday.

So, we had an 11:30 reservation for the Dachstein Glacier gondola (or, for those hip to Albuquerque lingo, tram). I, however, thought our reservation was at 11:45. So, we drove to the gondola check-point gate, where you have to show you have a reservation, and we went right through, and headed up a very windy road to the gondola's start. And it was an epic view from there, and very, very busy. There was a huge line for the gondola, but I quickly checked with the ticket window to see how, exactly, we were to board the gondola, what with our reservation PDF plus our summercards, and the woman said that since we were "late," to just go to the front of the line and tell her colleague we had an 11:30 booking. So, we did just this, and then, within 10 minutes, we were up, up, and away into the clouds towards Dachstein Glacier. While the gondola ride was much shorter than an Albuquerque tram ride, the views from the top were so insane -- like, mountains all around, clouds covering the whole top of the mountain in one moment, and whisked away the next, revealing bright sunshine and views of stoney mountains and green, lush patches of farmland and villages all over.

We'd brought extra layers up to the top of the mountain, so we got bundled up as best we could (honestly, some of the weaknesses in my packing strategy showed when it came time to prepare for cooler/colder weather). We walked a ways down a snowy hill, with lots of other sightseers, and to our right was a massive, wind-swept glacier, with very craggy and brutal looking sawtooth mountain peaks and ridges all around (which, if you zoomed in with you camera, you could see that people were on those, climbing). To the left was a huge glacial mound, covered by a white, massive tarp. That tarp covered the ice cave, which was an attraction at the top. After viewing some of the glacier from our snowy walk, when poor Cece got snow in her shoes and was miserable until we got hot chocolate a little while later, we went and got our tickets for the suspension bridge and ice cave. Both were really incredible and, if you are afraid of heights, the suspension bridge and "standing in midair" platform are not for you. After we waited our turn to get a family picture on the "standing in midair" platform, which had a better name than that, we then went into the ice cave. Not only was it an ice cave, but it had a bunch of beautiful ice sculptures in it, depicting various important features of Dachstein Glacier life, like animals and skiing and chair lifts and rescue helicopters. Eric was like, "wow, that's a great idea to put a bunch of ice sculptures in an ice cave." A better idea than the swans-with-necks-interlocking ice sculpture that we had at our wedding reception, I'd say -- it came as a part of the package we purchased ;)

Poor Cece was so miserable in the ice cave, but she toughed it out. As soon as we were done, the next piece of business was to go into the restaurant at the top and get some hot chocolate. But, getting anything in that restaurant, with as busy as it was at about 1 p.m., was an adventure in and of itself --with really incredible people-watching. Finally, we figured out the drill with sitting and ordering and waiting, and, before long, two gorgeous hot chocolates with several inches of whipped cream materialized--as did a cappuccino for me. We ordered some food as well; the kids got turkey schnitzel, which we thought was kind of necessary, since we are in Austria after all. On the agenda for Monday would be apply struedel.

After eating and warming up, we got back on the gondola and went down. We did a 2-ish mile hike over to a hut/cafe/stereotypically-Austrian-mountain-looking edifice that was the turn-around point (for us, that is). The hike itself was very exciting: we saw (and ate) wild strawberries, rock slides (not happening when we were there, though), a snowy-ice overhang thing, precarious narrow paths -- and oh, so much more. Rowan was talking such a big game about wanting to hike back up to the very top and that he and daddy "could do it," but man, that kind of hiking is what you see in climbing magazines by people sponsored by the North Face or whatever. You make a mistake on a hike like that, and it would be your last.

After we got back to where our hike started, we saw that there was an amazing playground at the gondola's base (they are crazy about these high-mountain playgrounds here! They really are a sight to behold and even had a goats-and-chickens petting zoo). We spent quite a while there, and then drove down to our Airbnb. Now, it was time for Rowan to be in misery--his headache was back! We got back, he took a shower, and read on his bed for hours. (I am writing this on Monday and I can tell you, happily, he had no headaches today, so I hope we are on the other side of this!). We had a pretty relaxed evening around the Airbnb, with dinner, and then a walk by the river here, back toward Schladming. Such a nice path it was!

One thing I forgot to mention about the restaurant was that it was also very confusing figuring out how to pay. Once someone appeared to take our money, he also offered the kids handfuls of candy, which I mentioned yesterday. I mentioned how gross this candy was (in Eric's and my opinion), but the whole giving-out-of-gross-candy-to-foreigners situation still makes me chuckle, especially the cheerfulness of the man doling it out.

More tomorrow about our day at Planai! I will say, after having been at a ski area in Ax-les-Thermes, France, this Austrian ski/mountain-biking situation seems vastly superior to where we were in France (not to disparage that too much, though, because we still had a great time!) -- and everyone's been much friendlier here ;) I mean, because of a combination of weather in and the (small) size of that town in France and the more insular/French-people-only sort of vibe there, I think that the Schladming area is just more bustling and perky, so if you're looking for a ski or mountain bike Euro destination, I'd say Schladming would be a great pick!

[duncanstreetdesigns]

Hello Crafty Friends! Today starts a new bi-weekly challenge round at the Polkadoodles Digi Choosday Challenge Blog. Today I'm sharing my card created using Vacation Winnie from the Special Moments Collection. Please join us at the Challenge: https://digichoosday.blogspot.com/ #polkadoodles #digistamp #digitalstamps #cardmakers #cardmakersofinstagram #cardmakersoftheusa #cardmakingideas #cardoftheday #handcraftedcards #handmadecards #summercards #instacute #papercrafts #papercrafters #papercraftersofinstagram #cardmakersforkindness #papercrafting #cardmakingisfun #craftingismytherapy #sssmchallenge (at Florida, USA) https://www.instagram.com/p/CfWYgwLAqcx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[todopapel]

If this doesn’t scream Beautiful Summer at you, I don’t know what will! 🍋 These gorgeous and colorful cards were created by Dawn @dawnsing and they are absolutely perfect for the season. Lemonade anyone? BiG #shoutout 🙌🏼 🍋💗🍋💗🍋💗🍋💗🍋💗🍋 @todopapeldotcom @todo.papel.inspiration . . . . . . . #summerishere #summercrafts #craftingsummer #snailmaillove #snailmail #sendmoremail #paperlove #penpals #craftersofinstagram #scrapbook #hanmadeembellishments #happymail #cardmaking #scrapbooking #summercards #igcrafts #handcrafted #paper crafts #paper crafting #instacrafty #handmadecards #madeforsnailmail #snailmailcommunity #craftingcommunity #happymailideas #paperembellishments (at Chester, New York) https://www.instagram.com/p/BzKz1HXJ6XL/?igshid=1qjzezvoji8qi

[taakodrawing]

アマビエチャレンジ夏バージョン！

炎暑や疫病にも負けないようにこの夏を乗り越えましょう！