The Outlawz Greeting Card In Flight Challenge

Hey, Peeps! This week at The Outlawz Greeting Card Challenge we are looking for "an astronaut, hot air balloons, air planes, helicopters, balloons, or showing appreciation for a service man or woman" for our "In Flight" challenge. I think everybody should be able to find something in this challenge to make, don't you?

Luckily for us, this month's sponsors also have fabulous images. They are:



















Before I get to today's card I want to mention a couple of things. One is that I seem to have caught a cold. Will wonders never cease? This means that I may be MIA for blog comments for a couple of days. All I really want to do is crawl back into bed. But I will get to everybody's blogs ASAP, I promise. The other thing is that I am so glad we got to go out to dinner Saturday night before I caught this blasted thing, because I was able to really enjoy my meal that night.

For my foodie fans, let me just say that we had a spectacular meal. We went to Wright's at The Biltmore in Scottsdale for dinner. Love how they've changed the menu there--the chef has taken traditional dishes and given them each a great twist. And to add to that: you can get a small or a large portion of each dish. That makes it easy to have an appetizer, a main course and a dessert without getting overstuffed. Plus they have a wonderful wine list, with lots of great wines by the glass.

I have to say that we didn't get our meal underway until an hour after our 6:30 reservation. Too funny, that, because our dinner partners called to say they were running a little late, since they had to do some car shuffling, and would be about 15 minutes late. Ah, no problem, Gary and I each got a glass of wine to sip until the other couple arrived. Well, 6:45 came and went. It was now about 6:55 and Gary received a call from Chad asking where we were. Gary said that we were sitting at our table waiting for them to arrive. Apparently, they went to The Phoenician instead of The Biltmore, and were wondering why they couldn't find us at any of the restaurants there! Chad said he thought the valet barely got his car parked before he had to retrieve it for them! So they got to Wright's about 7:10, which was a pretty fast recovery. (Don't tell anybody, but I think he was speeding!)

Anyway, I ordered the salmon rillette for an appetizer and it was so lip-smacking good that I didn't even share with anyone! Just a delicious spread of smoked wild salmon, sea salt capers, egg, creme fraiche, chive and caviar for the toast points they served with it. I could have made a meal of that by itself! Gary opted for beef tartar, served with quail egg yolk, horseradish aioli, grain mustard and capers. He loved it! Following that was a dainty portion of a yummy chef's palate cleanser, and I couldn't tell you all of the ingredients, but it was sooo good! I do know it had creme fraiche and chorizo in it, with some tiny greens.

Then Gary and I each had lobster thermidor for the main course. Wow, lovely roasted lobster, lobster jus, served on a sage bechamel brulee. So spectacular! The only thing I was not crazy about was the romanesco. It tasted like broccoli, but had the texture of raw cauliflower, making it a bit difficult to eat--and it cooled off way too rapidly. I was wondering if it had been a tad under-cooked. However, the lobster was so wonderful that I was still happy with my entree.

And for dessert, Gary had the pumpkin souffle, which I tasted, and it was fabulous. But my chocolate souffle was even better. Ooooh, tasty! We left Wright's pleasantly full and very, very happy! This was our second visit there, and both times the meals were superb--so, if you are in the Phoenix area, I can highly recommend a visit to Wright's. Just remember, it is really dark in The Biltmore area, and you have to keep driving a long way to get to it, so don't give up and turn around before you get there!

Well, I'd best get this card recipe recited so I can go lie down and rest. I am really not feeling well, but I'll take two aspirin, and I'll be better in the morning.

I chose a Squigglefly image: Birthday Balloon Boy, by Cheryl Alger for my card--this is going to be a birthday card for one of the three males in my family who have November birthdays. My sentiment come from Create with TLC. I selected my DP from Basic Grey What's Up collection, and co-ordinated that with DCWV CS. I added VersaMagic chalk inks to the edges of my DP, and distressed my DP with my Zutter Distrezz-It-All. I used a lot of dimensional adhesive on this card. My die cuts were created with these dies: Memory Box Ticket, Large Hot Air Balloon, and Small Hot Air Balloon; La-La Land Crafts Hot Air Balloon; Cheery Lynn Lace Corner Deco B; and Spellbinders Classic Rectangle. Lace and ribbon from my stash were also added to my design.

I colored this image with Copics: C0, E000, E00, E11, E31, E35, YR20, YG91, YG93, YG95, YG97, BG93, BG96, R02, R05, R08. I added a bit of white gel pen for accents.

I am entering this card into the following:

Basic Grey Anything Goes
Penny's Paper-Crafty Birthday Challenge
The Paper Shelter Anything Goes Challenge

Will be looking forward to all the creations you add to our challenge!