Fleur De Lis Swap - "Prince of France" ATC

I joined another great swap on the Arty Oz group. The swaps in this group amaze me and even though some of got theirs and I haven't as yet (mail takes a while to the middle of Qld) I know I will be getting some great returns.

I love the Fleur de Lis and often use it in various forms in my artwork. I looked up the history of the Fleur de Lis for this swap and found it very interesting - here is some of it and what I based my ATC on. Thanks to Wikipedia for the info and here is the link for the full history that is well worth a read - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleur_de_lis.

It is an enduring symbol of France, but, being regarded most notably as the emblem of the monarchy, was not adopted officially by any of the French republics. On the contrary, as Spain is a constitutional monarchy, the fleur-de-lis symbol is associated with the Spanish King Juan Carlos I (of French dynasty origin) and the Kingdom of Spain.

In the reign of King Louis IX (St. Louis) of France the three petals of the flower were said to represent faith, wisdom and chivalry, and to be a sign of divine favour bestowed on France.[14] During the next century, the 14th, the tradition of Trinity symbolism was established in France, and then spread elsewhere.

More Creating Time!

Now that swimming season is over, and the kids are only doing some training - instead of bulk training, carnivals and club nights - my creating life is starting to appear from behind the fog.

Isn't it weird how you get out of the habit of creating, and then find it a struggle to make whatever you are working on to go together in a nice composition or finding that right element. I'm sure I've forgotten half of the things I own in the craft room!

Anyway these pictures are my attempt in Gail's Chipboard Tag Book. Her theme is "Birds" and I found it a real challenge. I had to buy images online and other elements to make it work. You would think with a room full of stuff I would be able to do this theme. The image I ended up using was from an old fashioned paper I bought at Susannah House, in The Rocks in Sydney at the end of last year. If you ever get a chance to visit this historic building - do it - it was fantastic.

Great blog

I came across this great blog this evening. Beautiful work.

http://creativeswaps.blogspot.com/