Abstract ATCs

Frank left for Wales again early this morning and for once it was sunny outside. Unfortunately the sun was streaming through my window to such an extent that I couldn't get back to sleep again. I decided to get up and get a cup of tea instead of just lying there!

Here is my abstract ATC for the swap on CCSwaps. The colours don't seem to have come out well on the scan but it gives a general idea of what it looks like. Hopefully I will get these and the ABR ATCs finished today and then I need to work on some backgrounds for Pea's swap! Then it will be time for some more scrapbooking I think!

Hanging ATCs

I finished Harry Potter on Monday evening! What a fabulous book. It tied up some loose ends and had some nice twists to it.

Anyway, back to some stamping! I decided to have a go at Adrienne's Hanging ATC swap. It is ages since I had used the alcohol inks that I have here so thought I would start with those as a background.


I used the brown collection of Caramel, Ginger and Latte with just a little of the gold added. I tried to keep a lot of the white background showing as I wanted to overstamp with a brown image.I am not very good at getting a good image with photo stamps but decided to give it a try and I used three of the images from the Brick Artishapes sheet of Chapel Road Artstamps. The ink was sepia and I finally got three fairly good images that I could use.

I then added some brown raffia which I attached using eyelets and my new Crop-A-Dile, and then a fringe and something to hang them by.


Now to get back to the Anything but Rubber swap.

Harry Potter

I cannot imagine getting much of anything done today! I have even asked Katie to cook me dinner tonight! I have read just over 400 pages and have 200 left to go. I decided to take a bit of a break to check emails but after lunch I will read some more!

Anything but Rubber ATC

I started this last night while I was waiting for my husband to get back from Wales and Katie to get back from the Harry Potter book launch in Milton Keynes.

Frank was stuck on the motorway just outside Wales as many of the roads were cut off due to flooding. He was stationary from 6pm until just after midnight, when the police, who had opened up a gap in the central reservation in order to turn the cars around, got to where Frank was. I went to bed after Katie had told me about the party, which was around 1am and Frank finally got home around 3.15am.

I started the ATC and then as I was on my own, decided to finish it. One down, eight more to go! I don't think they will all be identical but as similar as I can make them.


The picture on the left is after laying down the pale blue wash for the background.

The right hand picture now has the yellow added to give the cala lily some colour.









The left hand picture here has had the green added to the leaves and to the flower and the final picture on the right has had brown accents added and the ATC has been matted onto some gold paper and then put onto cardstock.

I used watercolour paper for this so that the twinkling H2Os would give a proper watercolour effect.

Croatia

We have been back from our weeks holiday in Croatia almost two weeks now! It was really quiet and relaxing with beautiful weather. We stayed on a small island (one of the Elafiti islands) called Sipan and our hotel was a converted olive oil factory.

Hotel Sipan

The population of the village we were in was 300 and that is the most populated of the villages on any of the islands. Cars are allowed on Sipan and there is a car ferry that goes from Dubrovnik to Sudarad (village on the other side of the island) each day. Lots of people use wheelbarrows to carry stuff, so if you get off the ferry with luggage and you are being met by someone from your hotel, they will meet you with a wheelbarrow!

We went into Dubrovnik one day and walked to the old town (one hour walk, up hill and then down again in hot sun at about midday - foolish or what??) but it was well worth it. We went down this little alley lined with shops and then at the bottom we entered this huge courtyard which was spectacular.


We could have spent much longer there but needed to get back to the ferry as they only run a couple of times a day!



There was no swimming pool at the hotel but the Adriatic sea was literally a few metres from the front door of the hotel and it was crystal clear, so swimming in it was not a problem.

Here are some other photos of our holiday!

These are views from our bedroom window. It is looking over the harbour and you can see how green and undeveloped the island is.

And here is a picture of my husband, Frank. He is sitting on the hotel terrace, reading a book and waiting for his beer to arrive. There was no problem with the sun as the terrace is covered with plants which offer natural shading.






And here is a picture of one of the old buildings in the village. We think it was an old chapel as there are pews and evidence of an alter there, but it may well be used as the schoolroom now.

Holiday from work

I am now into my third week of the school summer holiday and Katie has just got home from her 5 week tour of Europe. Lizzie is in Turkey and flies home in 5 days time and Frank is in Wales, working for Welsh Water.

I am trying to catch up with some of the scrapbook pages that I wanted to do, to document our Anniversary last year. We went to Paris for 3 days!

This year we are going to see Lord of the Rings, the musical, in London on our anniversary. All four of us are going as it will be the last chance we get to do anything as a complete family until Christmas as Katie flies out to Purdue University in Indiana, USA on 13th August to begin her year of study abroad.

It is now half past midnight and time I retired to bed. Maybe I will have another go at this tomorrow and even post some pictures (maybe!)