Thank you Cards and scrapbooking.

These are two special cards made for a couple of very special people.  They are always just a message away when I need them and I wanted to say I appreciate them,

The scrap pages are of something I've been meaning to scrap for a good two years now.  I went to the aquarium and whilst it was enjoyable I wanted my pages to reflect that I felt uncomfortable with the small enclosures but highlight the gorgeous {wild} animals.

A rainbow of secrets

It's anything goes or somewhere over the rainbow, gold, lucky etc at Ikes world challenges this fortnight.  I'm excited to be back into things.  Of late I'd let things get to me and I was really stressed.  Things kept going wrong, vermin, broken washing machines, accounts to catch up on, optical, dental, drs appointments and people dying but for me I needed that time to process and today I finally understood.

I spoke to a guy at lipreading who is also a carer and we talked about how long things take to do, how isolating it can be but also how people judge you especially when you know something needs doing but you haven't had the chance to do it.  Part of me still feels lost, I'm hoping this changes once I am back into my crafting, but also I still feel tired {something I should be used to} and right now my bed feels like a comforter that a child carries with them.  I am so lucky I am still at the point where I can get a reasonable nights sleep but the days are long and difficult and coupled with a hearing loss I have and no doubt will struggle for ever.

Despite this {and no this isn't just a ramble} I've tried to still be there for my friends and I often find myself saying I won't say anything, your secrets safe with me.  I'm not and never have been a gossip, I look out for people but I'm not that interested in what they get up to, it just doesn't bother me.  We all have our lives to live and as far as I'm concerned should be left to it.  It's the secret safe with me that inspired me to use this "shhhhh" image from Ikes Art.  Whilst there are very few {Maybe one or two} people I can fully trust with all my secrets I am the keeper of many secrets, secrets I have never told another soul and won't ever tell another soul, these secrets are illusive like the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  My journaling reads: "Secrets are like the gold at the end of the rainbow, never to be seen on my lips."  I've used gelatos to make a rainbow background for the "shh" image and a distress marker for the journaling.  I've coloured the "shhh" image with my favourite medium...Coloursoft Pencils.

Embossing

It's an embossing challenge over at International Art and Soul so break out the embossing folders and crack open the embossing powder and see what springs to mind.

I've used both heat and dry embossing on this birthday card.  I've heat embossed the focal image, a stamp from Bee Crafty {Great delivery service, my stamps reached me in record time, wouldn't rate the customer service though as they failed to reply to me contacting them and well I admit I was disappointed that following the instructions on the stamps meant that the first one is now stained with ink that nothing will remove and is forever useless to use with clear or white embossing powder}, I do love the uniqueness of these stamps.

I've also popped some dry embossing on to the sides, as it's a stepper card, painted with H2O's.  These can be tricky to make and it took me several attempts before I got it right, however I recommend trying it with paper first and once you have the folds in the right place, keep that as a template.

Walls of Sadness

It's either an "anything goes" or "sentiment" challenge at:  Ike's World Challenges and I've chosen to use the "walls of sadness" image from Ike's Art to create a journal page.  I'm not sure the words constitute a sentiment so I suspect this is more of an "Anything Goes" piece.

Fancy Borders

It is a fancy borders challenge over at:  International Art and Soul, I've made an okayish thank you card using vellum, an embossing folder and some distress crayons.

The image is a Dragon kite from Ikes Art