Summer Solstice

Brightest Blessings

and a Blessed Litha

to all of my family and friends in the south

on this longest day of the year.

~ some imagery of past summer solstices celebrated .

Magical Yule Blessings to 

friends in the North

Some information about Summer Solstice

A Litha Prayer for the Earth

author unknown

"Great God, Father of the Earth,

Shine down on this, your strongest day.

Blessed Goddess who gave us Birth,

Bless us who honor your ancient way.

As Summer's light falls to the ground,

lending crops and trees it's power,

the Summer winds blow warm and round,

touching the corn silk and the flowers.

We give you thanks, our Mother Earth,

We praise you, fire of the Sun.

We dance this Solstice day with Mirth,

from dawns' first light 'till the day is done."

and some music for this sacred day

Mother Earth ATC swap- part 13

Another beautiful set of ATCs arrived today from Trine in the Netherlands,

Trines beautiful cards have her very heart and soul in them,
that is a picture of her gorgeous younger self.

Thank you Trine,

your cards are just lovely and thanks also for your extra stamps.

Last weekend I went to an Intaglio workshop
at the Grafton Art Club



The first prints are done with our simple drawings
etched into an aluminium plate

Then we worked them further , adding shading and highlights in multiple baths in the etching solution. I learned lots about intaglio and reaffirmed my love of printing.

It was great workshop

taught by the very lovely Rochelle Summerfield.

Mother Earth ATC swap- part 12

More fabulous ATCs have arrived

These gorgeous cards have been made by Lisa Dunn

Lisa is a fibre artist from Mississippi

and you can find out about Lisa at her blog

Wyrd Needles

and see some of her magic with fibres

at her flickr

These amazing ATCs

are made from layers of heavy fabric,

perhaps upholstery fabric,

(from one who admires but knows nothing about fabric arts)

They are so tactile and lovely.

These gorgeous atmospheric cards also arrived,

they have come from Toos

in the Netherlands,

Some of Toos's other works can be viewed at

deviantArt

These pretty cards have been made with a stamp

coloured pencils and collage

using scrap book and magazine papers.

I love the vintage feel of these cards

I am enjoying receiving everyone's cards here,

it is so nice to hold them and see them in real life.

Mother Earth ATC swap- part 11

We had 2 more packages arrive today from Canada,

These beautiful Mother Earth cards are made by

Julka Vlajic.

Julka has used stamps, distress inks,

tissue paper, gel medium, pearl paints and crayons.

These gorgeous ATCs have been done on light canvas

They are so bright and stunning

I have never seen any done on canvas before and I love them

The very talented Dawna Quinn

made these .

We also received from the lovely Helen Goulty in Ireland

my unusual shaped atc swaps.

This pretty ATC is made by Mary Larner

and called Friendship

Infinity

This gorgeous unusual shape ATC comes from Kalona

and last of all is this little card I made

for the very first ATC swap

at Rockpool Homeschool

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 10

A tribe of beautiful Earth Mothers
arrived here today
from the gorgeous and talented Mel-made,
just 5 or so hours down the road
from me in beautiful Elands, NSW.

Mel's package even smells divine
and her gorgeous cards are made
using acrylic paints, felt tip markers ,
inktense pencils and gel pens.


Thanks Mel for your lovely cards.


Accompanying them in our letterbox
was a lovely package from
Cindy Riordan in Mokena, IL, USA.


Cindy's lovely cards feature cute little girls
in animal dress ups


Cindy's cards are sweet and whimsical and adorable.
Thanks so much Cindy for joining our swap.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 9

Two more beautiful sets of Mother Earth ATCs
have arrived here.
I am really enjoying every one's
different versions of the same theme

These beautiful cards
have come from
Marie Austen in Canada

So pretty and delicate they are Marie.


These awesome drawn and stitched cards
are from Lidija
and have traveled all the way from Slovenia

I love Lidija's story book style of drawing

and her stitch work is amazing.

One of these days I might be able to drive my sewing machine but in the mean time I will just admire talented craftspeople who can do magic like this.

Thank you so much Marie and Lidija
for your lovely cards.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 8

2 more beautiful sets of cards have arrived
in the Mother Earth swapThese sparkling beauties
were made by Mary Montedonico
from Florida USA,
using acrylic paints, coloured pencils and glitter,
I love the tiny leaves.This lovely diverse floral set
uses many different materials
by Julie Shatwell from the USA
Her health in harmony card
opens up to reveal a busy little worker bee.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 7

Today's mail bought another set of
beautiful Artist Trading Cards.


These lovely cards have been made
using scrapbook paper, water colours,
pitt pens and sakura pens
by Patricia Gonzalez
and they come from Texas
so my young fellow is now looking in the atlas
and exploring Texas and Mexico.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 6

Wonderful artist trading cards
are arriving almost every day
at the moment with our
ATC closing date now passed
and today a package of absolutely beauty
arrived from Canada.


Barbara Dyrda
your gorgeous little turtle cards are very special.

I am loving everyone's different takes on this theme,
so much creativity and variety,
and they are all so gorgeous.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 5

Two more lots of beautiful Mother Earth cards arrived here today.


Monika Schmid from Brisbane sent
these gorgeous cards, and they have quirky Brisbane card holders.


They both arrived in gorgeous stenciled envelopes as well.


I am loving all of the gorgeous mail coming here


Lynn Kelman
sent her gorgeous cards from the UK


These are really lovely cards,
they remind me of religious icons.

I am feeling so lucky and honored
seeing all of these lovely hand made treasures in real life.

Mother Earth ATC swap - part 4

More fabulous ATC's arrived here today.

My boys had to get out the atlas today as the couldn't find Serbia on the globe and in typical homeschooler fashion that led us to read all we could about your beautiful part of Mother Earth Sonja Milojevic

Sonja's cards are really beautiful, they are made using recycled paper and plastic bags, she has also used paint and stitching and lovely shimmer and hand made paper as well and the gorgeous card with the green fish has some real tiny Serbian stones.

I love the feel of these cards,
they are so textural and just nice to hold.
I will have to ask her about her technique because I love them.


Mary Larner also sent along this beautiful extra card,
Thank you Mary it is gorgeous.


We also received these wonderful cards from
Anne Trudell
in Canada.


Anne has used collaged images combined
with beautiful thoughts,
artists paints, oil crayons, ink and aquarelles.