A Taste of Mexico..

Here I am using the Molcajete, a mortar and pestle made
from lava rock. The traditional sauce made in it is also
called Molcajete sauce. I took an excursion from the ship
in Mazatlan where we did a walking tour of the old town
then went and had a cooking lesson, after which we got
to eat lunch using the sauce and guacamole we made,
it was delicious.
I have to say though that it takes a lot of muscle to use
that thing, which is why I had to stand up to do it :)

Here is a different taste of Mexico, my cabin mate Michelle

and I had a great time wandering around Puerto Vallarta,
but ended up at Senor Frogs for lunch.
This was my first experience here and I have to say it was
definitely different. The food was not great but our
non-alcoholic Pina Coladas really made up for it.
Never having been to Mexico  before I found out an
interesting fact. All the waiters at the restaurants there do
not get paid by the restaurant, they only get money from
tips the customers leave.
This of course explains why we had so many wait staff looking after us.

Flight of Creativity...

this was the name of our Mega project with Tim on the
cruise last week. I finished it off at home this afternoon,
I really like it but it is lost on my husband :(

I did as much as I could in class, there were lots of layers
involved in this project, as well as working with Beeswax
and inks. Most of the decorating, positioning and
embellishing is what I saved to do at home. I have never
done anything like this before and it was a lot of fun.

I am pretty sure that everyone who did this project ended

up with something completely different. Tim provided us
with the basics to start then gave us all lots of different
things to use as embellishments,
a lot of Heidi Swapp products, and also lots of ideas.

It was tricky trying to take a photo of this, mostly due to
reflections from the glass and the mirror. This was the
best one but it is laying down so you cannot see the
effect of the dangling chandelier cyrstals as well as
when it is upright.
Tim really stressed about layers and different depths when
we were making this. It really does look much better when
it is upright, promise :0

Goodies galore !!

So today I finally got around to sorting my stuff out.

This is a photo of all the goodies we were given last
week on the cruise. Some of them were to add to
projects we made, others were just a gift. It is not
very visible in the photo but in our first class we were
given a Ranger Travel pack of things we needed in

class. As well as the blending tool which did not fit
in the bag we had Jet Black Archival ink pad, a
Ranger scraping tool, Brushed Courduroy Distress ink,
Heirloom Gold Perfect Pearls, Pitch Black Paint Dabber,
Rock Candy Distress crackle paint, Rock Candy stickles,
small bottle of Glossy Accents, small bottle of Multi Medium

by Claudine Hellmuth, an Inkssentials Opaque white pen
and later on a Black Glaze pen. How great was all that !!
and it was all inside the small vinyl bag with the string
on at the back of the picture.

We got a lot of Heidi Swapp stuff, Halloween stuff from
Cosmo Cricket, 2 packs of Grungeboard - including the
mega Alphabet pack. A Glue Glider Pro and refill was
given out at our first class also.

As if getting all that and the classes was not enough,
on the last day at our Farewell Reception we were all
given a custom made stamp that was the cruise logo
that Tim designed, it fits exactly into the tiny little suitcase
that it came in.

So now all I have to do is finish 3 out of my 6 projects, lol !

Hola Amigos !!

Yes I am back home with my new friend Senor Bones !
he came all the way from Puerto Vallarta, he is a
Day of the Dead figure.

Had a great time on the cruise, making art and new friends.
We had rough seas trying to sail around a tropical storm
around Cabo, the ship had to change it's itinerary for that
so we stopped there on the way back. Lost a lot of people
from our classes that day due to seasickness,
thank goodness I was taking the Bonine pills.

Well when I have finished my fabulous projects I will post
them, will probably be posting a picture of all the goodies
we were given when I get round to sorting out my piles of stuff !

Off I go..

on my Artful Voyage to Mexico. Well I will be leaving
this afternoon to fly to Los Angeles and tomorrow I will
be getting on the boat. Excited and nervous at the same
time, did not sleep a wink last night. Looking forward
to doing some fantastic art and making new friends.
Will report when I get back :)

Sneaky peek...

So here are the 3 different ATC's that I made to swap on
my cruise. This is the first time I have made any so I am
not sure what to expect from the others. I have heard
people are making 160 or so to trade, I have made 70
and that was plenty enough for me.
In case you do not know, an ATC is an Artists Trading Card.

The 2 rules are that it has to be 3 1/2" x 2 1/2" in size and
they cannot be sold only traded, apart from that anything goes.

I have heard that Tim Holtz himself will be trading with us
on Sunday evening, how cool is that !

Happy October...

So in just over a week this is where I will be, soo exciting,

and nerve wracking all at the same time. I have not cruised

before and I am sharing a room with someone I have not

met but we have been e-mailing each other. I am really

looking forward to learning lots of new techniques and
taking time to be creative. I have even made some ATC
cards to swap, I know some of ladies on the cruise have
made lots of them, I am up to about 50 at the moment.
This afternoon I decided to try and make a few more
but I will definitely be done after those.