The last of these hit the post office today, June 18, so for some, they are going to be a bit late. Oh well, can't be helped. I mean it's not like I'm sitting around doing nothing all day long, right? Between Gene and his knee and memory problems and me with my hip problems I'm a busy girl this year. So much so, that there won't be a cookie book for 2024. We have two surgeries coming up later this Summer. I'm planning a Halloween something or other, and something will go out for Christmas, but I can't add on a book. It's a bit too much to hope for. Ok, enough about the future...
June 20th at 3:50pm marks the Summer Solstice this year. This week, with temps in the 90's, it's clear that someone has turned on the Summer switch. I suppose it's right on time.
I started these in February with the hope that it would help me embrace Summer more than my usual loathing of it. It didn't. I tried, but nope. Still hate it. I picked an underwater theme for no particular reason other than its beach season. The coral reef started off as blank white paper. I applied ink and paint, and various stamps and sprays to make it look like coral. I took photos along the way and asked several people if they could tell me what it was. Sue's husband Jim got it right, so that told me I had done enough to make it look like what I was after. I added the grid elements because it's still a planner page, so needed something appropriate for that purpose. Crabs, fish, sand dollars, plants all come together to give it that under the sea feel. I sprayed on some white and some sparkle and stamped some darker sandy elements to keep it even more real. Happy Summer and Don't be Crabby, well, that's for me, really. I had to keep reminding myself not to hate summer in order to get these things done on time. While I still hate it (did I mention that?) the sentiment kept me smiling.
The beach chair and beach ball show up on the back side where the bookmark is found in a pocket. You have to pull it out and flip the school of fish over to find 'Hello Summertime' on the front of the bookmark. The photos are not that great. They look better in person.
