Pictures as promised

I am reaching the end of my American holiday and have had a fantastic time. I have this weekend and then I head back Monday night. Canada was amazing, we did niagara falls for a day taking the maid of the mist into it, then we went on to Toronto which was a lovely city. So clean and it felt really safe. We took the bus tour which we were able to use the whole week which was handy. We went to the Royal Ontario Museum - a natural history Museum, the Shoe Museum, the Science Museum, Casa Loma - an interesting Castle, the CN Tower, hit a baseball game which was good fun and of course many places to eat and drink. We also followed the PATH which is a connection under alot of Downtown between different shops and hotels etc so you can walk the PATH where there are loads of eateries and little shops so you would never need to go out in the open. We took it as a fun way home from the Eden Centre - a big shopping mall.

As for my artwork, not done much more, done a little more stitching on the baby sampler and mainly been busy writing postcards although bought some great cute notecards too. So below is the card I made, making use of the spring papers I bought cheap. The animals are fun.

Then here is the ATC i made which I had fun making, the butterflies from the paper were fun so I had a little play with them.

I might do a bit more art play as I bought some halloween papers today for a dollar. I also drew and coloured a petite doll whilst I was travelling to Canada but I will chat about that when back in the UK and can upload photo's easier.

Butterflies

I do think Butterflies are awesome which is why I always get involved in swaps which include butterflies because I know I will always get an idea to run with. This time I made use of a giant poster I got from a newspaper which had lots of butterflies on them and what they actually were. So my ATC's this time round are nice to look at and educational as well :)

It seems like Sunday always end up being an Art day as Sam heads back to Swindon in the afternoon so I can completely free time with no thought about work which allow me to be creative. I just need to get myself in the habit of being creative in the week as well. I also did a journal page which I will post when I remember

I did as I said

and actually did some art yesterday. It was hard at first as I wanted to but didn't feel motivated and wasn't sure it would look right but once I got into it, it was all good. I first created an ATC from butterfly images for an image lottery on one of my ATC groups. I loved the colours of the butterflies and i did something a bit different but putting them on top of eachother to make it more of a 3d card but loved the effect. I just wasn't so sure about the background once I had done it, my card seemed bland but the couple of stickers I added made it look better.
Then using the scraps from making my ATC I created a journal page which looks like someones head with no face. Its odd but I liked the effect. It almost has a bit of a punk rocker look to it :)

Pats fab package

Pat sent me though a fab package which had some many great bits in it that I still have not explored it all but want to do it when I really have time so that if I become inspired, I totally have the time to follow that inspiration. It was a mixture of my scavenger swap pack, my grab bag win and my yak pack win and she certainly spolied me. A nice big tin for altering, some stickers, paints, embellishments, images, ATC backgrounds and so much more. One big piece was a really big butterfly stamp which I just immediately wanted to use and thus the page above was born chatting about my great package. I liek the way the butterfly prints turned out as its like the butterfly is flying across the page.

ATC'S

Last night I finally got some time to myself to do some ATC's which is good because i have a few I need to get done so it's all helping. Its been busy busy of recent. Anyway so I created this butterfly one for the butterfly swap I am hosting. I bought a butterfly punch and just started punching some out in colours and then the inspiration came - I like the idea it makes me think of the fun there is with butterflies flying!
My swap is going well, sign up has closed and I have 24 players at the moment including myself. So far I have had about 5/6 people's ATC's but alot of people have updated me saying they are in the post.
Its been so fun of recent - so much post coming through what with this swap, winning the WTA on the blind swaps yahoo group I joined and having penpals and such - my mailbox has never been so happy and it gives me great joy getting home of an evening and having fun packages to open and see what great stuff has come through!

This ATC is for the blind swap groups March Image competition, you make an ATC based on an image (which was the girl) and then everyone who creates one gets a number, random number wins all the ATC's. I like what I have done with this ATC but am unsure whether to add anything more to it - I am going with the image she is a geisha, considerations are putting something in her hand (many people have done this so am not keen) or putting words either side saying Geisha Girl. Anyone's opinion?


This one I just made off the cuff having looked through some of the things I have been receiving from my WTA round. The Background is printed from an images CD that lovely Pat sent me, then I put the words on that I had been sent. The ticket bit in the words made me think of the many admit one token people had sent me in a variety of colours and I thought the Blue tickets would go best as some of the words are in Blue!!! I did a few other little bits but they are WIP's so still working on them but hoping to do some tonight after I have been to the gym!