Still kicking!

Yes, I'm still here - still traveling and crafting!  Since my last post, I have traveled to France (Nice, Lyon, Tours/chateaux, Paris) with side trips to Monaco and Belgium (Brussels, Bruges) in 2015.  This summer I toured northern England - the Lake District, Hadrian's Wall, and the east coast from Holy Island, Alnwick (where I visited with my cousin who lives in Edlingham), Durham, Robin Hood's Bay, then across to Stonegrave and Ripon where we met up with our friends Ann and Robert - we stayed with them in 2010 on our UK visit to England and Scotland! Photos posted soon ...

Wish You Were Here swap

I created this postcard for the Yahoo group "All Things Tim" - Wish You Were Here swap.  I used Salty Ocean and Peacock Feathers Distress inks for the background and Vintage Photo for the edges.  The background behind the word Voyage is Peeled Paint and Vintage Photo.  The stamps are from Classics #1 by Stampers Anonymous and the heart is Tim's Movers and Shapers Mini Hearts die covered with Barn Door ink and his washi tape.  The photo is from my trip to Italy a few years ago (where I still have not finished uploading my photos to this blog!).  I can't wait to see what other post cards I will get in return!

Faux Glass Flowers

My friends and I stayed at our family cottage last weekend and stamped! We did manage to find time for a boat ride and when it got too hot, we jumped in the lake for a nice swim. I demoed this project shown above - Faux Glass Flowers - using the plastic packaging material my Tim Holtz supplies came in (mostly embossing folders).  I cut the flowers out using a Tim Holtz die (what else?!) and then dabbed alcohol ink in various colors on the flowers.  I then dabbed a little alcohol on the flowers to get that stained glass effect - the ink spreads away from the alcohol.  A little black acrylic paint on the edges finishes the flowers.  I used my heat gun to shape the petals. I'll finish these with a decorative brad from my stash at home.

Florence

June 27, 2012
Betty and I arrived in Florence and naturally got lost as soon as we exited the train station on the wrong side!  It was so hot (100+) that by the time we got to Hotel Alessandra I was ready to pass out!  Our first stop was to buy the Florence Card which allowed us to skip the long lines at the Uffizi Gallery and free rides on city buses.  It is only a few minutes walk from our hotel to the Uffizi and the Ponte Vecchio so off we went!  Next to the art gallery is the Piazza della Signoria with an amazing collection of statuary, including a copy of Michelangelo's David.

   



We then walked across the Ponte Vecchio, found a place to eat (I was not impressed with the food here) and then walked back to the hotel via Friends Pub where we stopped for a nightcap at an Irish pub of course!

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio at night

Friends Pub

Borgo SS Apostoli where Hotel Alessandra is located

Last day in Rome :(

June 27, 2012
Day 5:  Last day in Rome (insert frowny face here!)  Borghese Gallery, Piazza della Popolo, Spanish Steps, Capuchin Crypt, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Trevi Fountain.  If you are going to the Borghese Gallery, you MUST have a reservation before you go as it is usually sold out during the summer.  Betty and I took a bus to where I thought the gallery was located but no....I only had 1/2 the name of the stop right and we ended up near the British Embassy about a 10 minute walk away!  That doesn't seem like much time but when you don't know where you are and have a specific entrance time you can't miss, you start to panic!  We asked the guards at the embassy where we were and how to get to where we wanted to go, thinking that naturally they spoke english...but they were Italian soldiers and only spoke some english but it was enough for us to get on our way. (odd, wot?)

Overlooking the "Twins" and St. Peter's Basilica

Piazza della Popolo with Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Santa Maria in Montesanto (the "Twins") and Ramesses II obelisk

One of the things that I wanted to in Rome was to find the sculptures and fountains that were in the movie "Angels and Demons".  Santa Maria del Popolo is located in this piazza and has several Bernini sculptures shown in the movie - naturally, the church was closed when we got there and wouldn't open for another 4 hours.  We continued on our walking journey past the Spanish Steps to another church named Santa Maria (della Immacolata Concezione) where there are Capuchin Crypts below that have bones displayed as art.  We then walked to another church in the movie, Santa Maria della Vittoria, to find Bernini's Ecstasy of Saint Teresa.  We finished the day at the Trevi Fountain where we each made a wish of course!

Spanish Steps

Ecstasy of Saint Teresa

Trevi Fountain at dusk just as the lights came on!

Rome continued..... Vatican City

June 26, 2012
Day 4:  Vatican City, Castel Sant'Angelo, Cistine Chapel, Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica.  I always thought that the Cistine Chapel was located in St. Peter's Basilica - nope - it is in a different building with the Vatican Museums in between!  Another piece of amazing religious art NOT in St. Peter's is the Last Supper.  That is located in a little church in Milan...who knew?!  We finished the day by visiting Santa Maria Maddalena, the church directly across the piazza from our hotel.  This was one of my favorite churches! We had dinner outside in the piazza; bad pizza but good conversation with fellow guests from Melbourne.

We walked to Vatican City through Old Rome - beautiful but hot!

The bridge of angels to the Castel Sant'Angelo

One of the angels on the bridge

A fragment of a fresco in the Vatican Museums

A sculpture in the Vatican Museums

Michaelangelo's Pieta in St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

Baldacchino in St. Peter's

Swiss Guard

St. Peter's Basilica

Santa Maria Maddalena - this church is located directly across from our hotel...our morning view at breakfast!

I lit a candle for my mom here.

My trip to Italy!

My cousin Betty and I spent hours researching this trip to Italy since we were traveling on our own.  We decided to see Rome, Florence, Venice, and finished in Milan with side trips to Sienna, Pisa, San Gimignano, and Lake Como.

June 23, 2012

Day 1:  We had an 8 hour lay over in Philadelphia (our flight out of Binghamton changed for no apparent reason!) and then another lay over in Frankfurt, Germany (where I realised that I lost my credit card in Philly!). There were very strict customs officials in Frankfurt and we assumed there would be the same in Rome since that airport had a few "incidents" in the past.....but no....we just walked off the plane and through the airport without stopping for customs or anything! How bizarre!  We had a limo drive us to our hotel, the Relais Maddalena.  No fuss, no muss - that is the way to go after the loooong day of traveling! Our hotel is located 1 block from the Pantheon - how cool is that?!

June 24, 2012

Day 2:  Arrive in Rome. Pantheon, Piazza Navona and the Fountain of 4 Rivers, churches Sant'Agnese in Agone, Basilica San'Agostino and San Luigi dei Francese.

Pantheon

June 25, 2012
Day 3:  Colosseum, Roman Forum, church San Nicola in Carcere (exterior columns embedded in facade are from 192 BC Temples of Judo, Spes, and Janus), Temples of Hercules and Portunus, Santa Maria in Cosmedin (Mouth of Truth), Ponte Fabricio.  Many of the temples survived because they were converted into churches.



Betty and I at the Colosseum

The Roman Forum - Temple of Vesta (left) and the Temple of Julius Caesar (right)



Temple of Hercules



Ponte Fabricio - oldest surviving bridge in Rome (62 BC)



Time flies

I was just thinking about this weekend's Stamping at the Lake 2 when I realized that my post about last year's event was 2 posts ago!  Doh!  I did get to Italy with my cousin and yes, I will post some pictures here....eventually!

Yes, I am still here!

Right - so much for adding content to this blog in a timely manner! I do have more stamping projects to add but I am really busy here at work so that will have to wait just a wee bit longer.

I have another vacation planned...I am finally going to Italy! I so can't wait!

Stamping at the Lake

I had a few friends over for a day/weekend stamping at the Lake. I kicked my poor dad out for the night since I needed his bed and then a few of the ladies couldn't come and no one slept in his bed anyways! At least he had a nice breakfast out with my sister and her family. We all worked on projects that we each brought and then on Sunday with only 3 of us left, we certainly went to town on creating with whatever we had brought with us.... I came home with 11 cards of varying folds and techniques. Thank you ladies for making this such a fun weekend!

My contribution was an ATC (Artist Trading Card - same size as a baseball trading card) and a telescoping card. Both were basically copied from other artists whose blogs I follow from a Yahoo group called All Things Tim (as in Tim Holtz!). The ATC was basically copied from the blog Creative Expressions. Carol provided step by step instructions that even I could follow! I tried to use grungepaper as she suggested but did not get a very good impression from the embossing folder so I used a very heavy weight card stock instead. The second project that I brought had the ladies blessing me right and left! It was a telescoping card that I basically copied from Shelly Hickox and her blog Stamptramp. This is one of my favorite blogs to follow!

closed...opened...I used a variety of Tim Holtz products as well as coordinating stuff from other companies such as the friend stamp from Paperbag Studios and the gear die from Spellbinders called Sprightly Sprockets. The Tim Holtz products included acrylic paint daubers, stamps, and the big Weathered Clock die.

A different style of a telescoping card can be found on Holly McMillen's blog Toy's Haven - another example for me to try to re-create!

Cards for Dad

These are the cards that I gave my dad for Father's Day and for his birthday this year. Usually he gets a 2 for 1 deal since his birthday is a few days after Father's Day but since I had the second one already made, I thought he would enjoy it too. The stamps are by PaperArtsy, Stampin' Up and Hero Arts. The filmstrip and mini staples are Tim Holtz products. I used double sided tape to adhere the film strip but it didn't stick! I'll have to try using glue dots next time. The sentiment and advert are popped up with 3d dots and the gentleman who looks like Derek Jeter is embossed in black.

The filmstrip is also a Tim Holtz product made by Sizzix. The photos are from my friends and family (I used my grandfather and cousin on an earlier ATC) and the gears is an embossing folder for the Cuttlebug. This second card I created for a shoebox project at the May 2011 CNY gathering in Syracuse. I am thinking of using a variation of the first card for my shoebox at the next stamping day in August!

Here are some ATC's that I have created for swaps at different stamping events...

These are my first attempts at Steampunk - think Victorian age merges with the mechanical age - almost science fiction! The stamps I used came from Viva Las Vegas Stamps and PaperArtsy and the gears are punched using Stampin' Up's Cog punch.

This one I was inspired by a blog post by Tim Holtz of a display of cards having the most vibrant colors on them! The ATC in real life is much more vibrant than this scan shows. The heart on her bag and the clock face are covered with Aeleen's Paper Glaze to give them some shine and dimension. The stamps I used are from Stampotique, Viva Las Vegas, and Stampers Anonymous. I would like to do more cards using this inspiration - fun!

Funerary Art

I have no idea why I have such a fascination for funerary art but when I am on vacation, one of my must stops is to a cemetary! I have been to cemetaries in Austin Texas, Lewes Delaware, Boston, Philadelphia and throughout Ireland, England and Scotland.

This is Melrose Abbey located south of Edinburgh, Scotland. Robert the Bruce's heart is supposedly buried here.

These stones are located behind a Templar Church.

My favorite cemetary to visit was in Edinburgh. Greyfriars Kirkyard is the most haunted place in Edinburgh but I did not get to witness that first hand - maybe the drizzle kept the spirits inside!

How would like to have these monuments built right up against your house?!!

The last of Scotland :(

So much for updating my blog on a timely basis! Betty is really into knitting and aquired quite a lot of hand spun yarn. This is Shilasdair, the Skye Yarn Company on the Isle of Skye - what a remote but beautiful setting! We drove there via this one lane road where it widened periodically so you could pull over to let the oncoming car through.

We continued on to Dunvegan Castle to see the Fairy Flag and the lovely gardens. Dunvegan Castle is the oldest continuously inhabited castle in Scotland and the Fairy Flag is rumoured to protect the Clan MacLeod in times of war. Clansmen who had a photo of the flag in their wallets in both world wars all came home safely. The exterior of the castle was under extensive renovation so my photos did not do it justice but I did great shots of the gardens!

We stopped at Talisker's to taste some whiskey.....too nasty for me. On our way out, we had to stop in the middle of the road because there was a bunch of sheep crossing the road. Betty got out to help herd them by not letting them go up the road. What fun!

We tried to take the ferry across to the mainland but we didn't have reservations (didn't know we needed them!) so we had to backtrack and therefore we missed seeing the west coast of Scotland. We drove past beautiful lochs though that we would have missed so it all worked out. This is Loch Garry, then we stopped again while driving through Glen Coe. Actually, we could have stopped every 10 minutes since there were so many photo opportunities!

We continued on through the Rannoch Moor, past Loch Lomand and ended up in Helensburgh for our last 2 nights. We stopped at Hill House designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh who is all about Arts and Crafts style of art, architecture and furniture. We flew out of Glasgow and eventually made our way home. There is still quite a bit of the country I haven't seen so some day I would like to go back!