A Monocromatic Card and Some Vacation Pictures (Milan)

Hello everyone, it's the start of a new Allsorts challenge and it's Liz' turn to host. For her optional theme she chose "Monochromatic". I love monochromatic color schemes. As always, if the theme isn't for you then there is the "Anything Goes" option. We love to see all your crafty makes up to 5 per entrant. This time there are 2 prizes from the Allsorts prize box, an A5 stamp set and A6 stamp and stencil. 

I'm also sharing part of my vacation pictures below... I'm afraid it turned into a photo- heavy post.

To make my card I used Salvaged Patina Distress ink to make an inky (smooshed) background. Then I chose Tracy Evans large stamp set Daisy Elegance. This set is retired from Aall and Create and unfortunately one of the harder to find sets. This stamp is large and I only used a portion of it for the card. Most of the wording is part of the set, the only separate thing is the quote "Cherish the little things" which is part of another Tracy Evans stamp set.

I added die cut butterflies made with Penny Black die set Soaring. Glitter was added to the flower centers. I made my own colored cardstock by inking a piece of white neenah paper using the same ink, then mounted this onto a white card base.

I am entering this card here:

• A Perfect Time To Craft - AG
• Beautiful Blossoms - Flowers
• Crafting from the Art Challenge - AG
• Crafts Galore Encore - AG
• Crafty Catz - AG
• Cut It Up - Something with wings
• Craft Rocket Challenges - Not Square
• DL.Art Linky Challenge - AG
• Double D - Watercolor (my background)
• Dragonfly Dreams - Use Die Cuts
• Fab n' Funky - Pink, yellow or blue
• Let's Craft & Create Challenge - AG 
• Lil Patch of Crafty Friends - AG
• Moving along with the Times - Butterflies
• Paper Rock Scissors - Paper and/or scissors
• Pearly Sparkles Challenge - Butterflies
• Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Feminine
• Sweet Stampin - Things with Wings
• The Paper Funday - AG
• Triple B - Blooms, Butterflies or Birds
• We Love Stamping - All Creatures Great and Small
• Word Art Wednesday - AG

Coming soon!!!

And going on right now: Discount code for Allsorts challenge participants AllsortsBD17 from AALL and Create provides a 15% discount valid from 1st May through 31st May and available on all items in their store plus free shipping on orders over £39.99 (PS: Unfortunately I am not sure if Free Shipping offer is only for UK...)

We had an absolutely wonderful time overseas visiting family and more. This time I decided to book a flight to Milan (instead of the usual Munich) to visit the area for a few days and then take the train from Milan directly to my sister's town just north of Munich. We took way too many pictures (as usual!) and I couldn't decide what to share so that means I will share some today  (Milan) and some in future posts.

We only had a few days in Northern Italy but we checked most things off of my "to visit" list.

As tired as we were after arriving in Milan, we still decided to walk to the Duomo on that first evening. It was a 30 minute walk from our hotel but it felt good after sitting for the long overnight flight. 

On the left side of the Duomo (below) is Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, a shopping center with lots of high end shops. We did check that out as well. The architecture was impressive but we didn't go to Milan to shop so we didn't really spend a lot of time there.

Instead I saw the castle through the other end of the shopping center and and we walked over there.

The next day we had tickets for the Duomo (which I purchased directly from the site), including the rooftop terraces and St. Charles Crypt. Sadly we didn't realize St. Charles Crypt closed at 5pm and missed that. 

It's hard to tell but there is a life- size statue on each one of the spires. The golden statue in the center was very hard to photograph.

Milan business district in the distance. 

Loved the tile floor inside the Duomo.

We had tickets to see the "Last Supper" mural at Basilica Santa Maria delle Grazie painted by Leonardo Da Vinci... I had also purchased these tickets directly from their site but as they sell out quickly I had to purchase them about 4 months in advance, acutally I purchased these before I had booked the flight. I read that these tickets are really hard to get. Right now they are all sold out until end of August and at some point they will open up ticket sales for the following 3 months (Sept/Oct./Nov.) It's a bit confusing and you pretty much have to know when they release the tickets for sale so you can get them as soon as they open up. Google helped me a lot! Thought I'd share that bit of info in case some of you might want to see this too. 

The mural is inside the rectory of the basilica below.

Tickets to the Last Supper have to be validated 30 minutes before your time slot so after validating we had time to explore the courtyard and gift shop.

I was surprised that we were allowed to take pictures of the mural.

We strolled through Parco Sempione which stretches from Castello Sforzesco to Arco Della Pace. My husband wanted to see the arch up close and luckily the rainclouds had moved on so we enjoyed a walk through this park. I had no idea that we'd find Monk Parakeets in this park. That was a nice surprise but they were hard to photograph and easier heard than seen.

This is the best picture we took of the parakeet. They are pretty much the color of the leaves. 

Lots of turtles and a view of Castello Sforzesco in the background.

The castle through the arch and my husband was happy we made the walk.

Everything  of interest to us was located in/near Milan's historic city center so it was easy to get around on foot from our hotel. A few more snapshots below...

Loved that the Wisteria was blooming!

 These tiny city cars were everywhere!! I had not seen this Fiat model before this trip. 

In my next post I will share some pictures from our daytrip to Varenna on Lake Como which was very easy to reach by train. I plan to share those pictures in my next "Garden Party" post (on May 14th). Varenna is a very small town so there won't be this many pictures (I hope!!)

Thanks so much for visiting!! And hope to see you at the Allsorts challenge blog too! Remember, the challenge runs for 2 weeks!