Cruise to the Mexican Riviera

We recently went on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. We visited Acapulco, Zihuatenejo/Ixtapa, Puerta Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. Puerta Vallarta and Cabo were the nicest. Acapulco was too big, and the merchants would not stop harrassing you to buy something. I didn't take a lot of pictures because it seems like we were always busy. We went on the trip with Dan's sisters and their husbands and Dan's cousin and wife. We did enjoy cruise life- good food, nice spa, great entertainment. We went on the Norwegian Star. Having a balcony was great. All of our rooms were next to each other, so we could talk balcony to balcony. I was hit with Montezuma's Revenge or something on our travel day home. Let's just say that Matt's bucket came in handy that day more times than I care to remember!
I was disappointed in that I never saw the cute little things I was hoping to find for art projects anywhere. All of the merchants sold pretty much the same merchandise from town to town. I was able to get some nice sterling silver bracelets and earrings, but otherwise, didn't buy many souvenirs.

ATC Fun

Another ATC made with fabric painted by Cindy Powell, and embellished with beads received in swaps. I had fun using my new sewing machine, a Viking Sapphire 850. It makes sewing a breeze!

I love the colorful fabrics created using ideas from Sherrill Kahn's Creative Embellishments book. Sherrill gave me permission to host swaps and challenges using inspiration from her book which is much appreciated!

More Creative Embellishment-inspired ATCs

These ATCs were also inpired by Sherrill Kahn's great book, Creative Embellishments. The bottom ATC uses fabric made by Cindy Powell, and the other fabric was created in Cindy's home studio in Sandy, UT. All of the beads in the ATCs posted were received in bead swaps last year and were made by a variety of wonderful artists. I thank Cindy and each bead artist for helping in the inspiration of these fabric ATCs.

Inspired by Creative Embellishments

Here are four ATCs inspired by Sherrill Kahn's book, Creative Embellishments. We are doing these in the Arttechniquesatc group and The Latest Trends in Mixed Media group. We were to incorporate painted and stamped fabric or paper foundations with wrapped pipe cleaners and handmade beads.