My First ATC Received from Another Artist, Compliments of Blissful ATC Swap

Hi Everyone!  It's here!  My first ATC I've ever received from another artist!!  It came from the super talented Angela of Sewloquacious!  She told me she was doing a slightly different variation of the "leaf" theme, which of course made me curious.  And as soon as I opened it up, I recognized it.  Do you?  Here it is:

You guessed it - Leif Ericson!!  As I just told Angela via e-mail, I recognized him immediately and remembered when we studied about him in school (way back in the dark ages)!!  It always inspires me greatly when I witness others "thinking outside the box" and this inspired me enough to learn more about the fine old Norseman!  Something I didn't realize that Angela shared with me is that October 9th is Leif Ericson Day in the United States!!  Leif was believed to have lived from 970 to 1020.  A Norse explorer, he was born in Iceland and is regarded as the first European to land in North America (excluding Greenland) nearly 500 years BEFORE Christopher Columbus!!  The script on the front is a poem written in Norwegian, called "Leiv Ericksson", and it's translated in English on the reverse of the ATC.  It reads:

"The depths of the mind are confusingly like the ocean depths.  You find only darkness and old wrecks.  What interests us is the going down and the coming back up, the variations of pressure, the variety of species at the top, the things drifting around that don't really belong there.  But it's the depths we like best, largely because of public attention.  People give us the thumbs up, and we go down.  For years I have tried to explain what it's like.  And every time I feel like Leif Ericson arriving on the northern edge of Newfoundland, speaking Old Norse to the natives.  No one understands a word.  Maybe he planned all along what he was going to say.  And then again, maybe he had no idea at all.  Maybe he thought he'd never reach land, how the whole thing was a terrible mistake."

Angela writes that both sides were printed on duck canvas; she then stitched it to cardboard, which she covered in memory book paper.  The images were printed on card stock; Angela cut them out and hand colored them (I'm afraid my photography doesn't do justice to the lovely antique teal shade she chose).  She then covered everything with Mod Podge.

Thank you SO MUCH Angela for this lovely ATC!!  And remember to check out Angela's fantastic blog at www.sewloquacious.blogspot.com!

Happy Creating Everyone!  Jan