FLY HIGH! - National Aviation Day

And I say, Oh that I had wings like a dove! 

 I would fly away and be at rest…

Psalm 55: 6

Welcome to this week’s Cooking With Cricut / Paper CraftingWorld’s Weekly Challenge!  The theme for today is National Aviation Day – which is observed in the US on August 19 – to celebrate the history and development of aviation.  It coincides with the birthday of Orville Wright who, with his brother, Wilbur, made significant contributions to powered flight.  Our assignment for this week was to make a project indicative of that achievement.

Since early childhood, I have been quite fascinated with flying, often dreaming that I ‘could’!!  I had my first flight while in high school in the small Piper Comanche owned by a family friend.  Amazing!!

Later in the ‘70s, I would become a Flight Attendant for United Airlines for 5 years while my husband attended Seminary in the Chicago area.  On one of my flights, I had the Blue Angels Crew – never suspecting that many years later I would have another ‘connection’ to them!

Then one afternoon in the late ‘80s while on a drive in the country near Holland, MI, we happened upon someone giving Ultralight flights and I was allowed the Most Memorable Gift of going on a 45-minute flight along the Lake Michigan shore!!

Years later, while living in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had several opportunities to see the Blue Angels perform over the Bay during Fleet Week each October.  When my son graduated from the US Naval Academy in 2005, I witnessed their performance there over the Severn River where they flew low and close enough that one could almost ‘reach out and touch’ them!  What a thrill!

I made a ‘tent-type’ card as a tribute to the Wright Brothers and the Blue Angels – as a Thank You for their contribution to some of my most memorable life experiences.  I began with an 8.5” x 11” gray cardstock, folded in thirds, to fit a business-size envelope.

I used a photo of the Blue Angels from online, lightened it in PSE 10, printed it and mounted it on Navy Jewel Cardstock.  I used the Biplane file from the CWC/PCW ‘Aviator’ cutting file set and cut it from the same cardstock, adding touches of yellow.  (Navy and Yellow are the Blue Angels’ colors, in case you didn’t know…)  I used Scrabble letters that I printed (a Freebie from online), cut by hand and then adhered with small Pop-Dots.

The poem I included inside is one that I read several years ago and it’s one of my (many) favorites.  If you’d care for background information on it and the author, here is a link: http://www.skygod.com/quotes/highflight.html 

As another bit of trivia for you all -  I came across these innovatively clever hangers – shaped like airplanes – this week and thought I’d share the link with you – just FYI…    http://www.curbly.com/users/diy-maven/posts/9957-roundup-beautifully-unusual-hangers

Thanks for visiting me here today and allowing me to share some of the HIGH-lights of my life!  Now it’s your turn to make a project of some kind showcasing ‘Flight’ – and then link to CookingWithCricut.com -  Melin usually has a Freebie that you can snitch while you’re visiting her – for further inspiration -  Have a good week – Happy Flying!

NOTE:

This past weekend was the Taste of Summer Blog Hop over at CWC/PCW and I participated on Sunday with my ‘Miss You – CHERRY Much!’ easel card.  (See Sunday’s post here on my blog – or pop over to CWC/PCW and start at the beginning for each day -)  I had offered the Gift of 4 of my hand made cards to one random Commenter, using Random.org  -  So, it chose:   Emily C. -  !!  Congratulations!!  I will eMail you to discuss what colors you’d like and where I should mail them -