Sall the Crafty Baker

Its a blue Christmas over at  Ike's World Challenges  and I loved colouring up this Pixie.

I've struggled for the last couple of weeks.  I needed a change, well a break really from things that were going wrong, everything keeps breaking down or needs replacing and I've just struggled a little to keep on top of things.  I've also been trying to deal with the emotional side of not returning to lipreading next term.  They have changed the location and it's just too far and would cost too much for me to get there.  I'm going to miss the people a lot and I'm scared that the confidence I've found in the last term will be lost.  This morning despite everything that's been going on I was desperate for a change and so we went to Exmouth just for an hour.  Granted a bit of a trek just for an hour but it helped.  I was very well behaved with the camera and these are the only photos I took.

It's floral fortnight over at  International Art & Soul .  I have had a dabble with the dylusions paint lately and this card was created using those, a mask and texture paste.

There are a lot of "hello" notelet cards to share with you today.  I fell in love with both the images and fascinating facts about places around the world so I've continued to use those images for these cards as well as some others.

Welcome to my final destination on this world tour of Cultures.  I'm stopping off in Australia and I'm sad that this journey has come to an end.  I've chosen to look at the Culture of the Aboriginal Australians and it has taught me that: Religion involves Dream Time, Totem Poles, Ghosts of the Dead and Spirits who control the natural world Aboriginals are famous across the world for their art Walpiri is an Aboriginal Language Dyribal is an almost extinct Language {this horrifies me, all language is precious} The Northern Territories speak a kind of English called Kriol

When I saw the photo inspiration I had an instant thought of snow leopards in the mountainous background. I was drawn to the colour of the mountain and I couldn’t let go of it. Then recently when printing images to use on cards I came across this leopard face and knew I was going to turn it into a snow leopard. What I didn’t know was how I was going to make this creation or what it would turn out like. As the weeks passed I still couldn’t get to grips with what I was going to do despite having coloured it. Then it came to me, I’ve struggled recently with a long term health issue and although I’m good at dismissing it mainly because for over 30 years there was no formal diagnosis and no treatment but also because I was and am scared of the reaction I got and will get from others.  In a fit of bravery, believe me it was a fit I don’t do this often if ever and I surely don’t think it will do any lasting good I tweeted something that was on my mind, However, I am going to...

It's for the men fortnight at  International Art & Soul .  I have created this birthday card using a silhouette image.  The basicness of this card demonstrates how far cards are from my comfort zone.

Wow part five of my travels already!  This time I'm starting in America and heading up through Alaska to the Artic Circle. In America I looked specifically at Native Americans and learnt that: Native Americans are often called American Indians The Sequia tree is named after the Cherokee leader Sequoyah Many Native American words have been absorbed into English, Chia, Chilli, Chocolate, Coyote and Poncho Native Americans served in WW1 Sioux was adopted by the French from the Lakota people I love learning about other cultures and recently have become slightly obsessed in watching Life Below Zero and seeing how they survive in the Artic Circle so I have learnt that: The Inuits are also called Inuk There are three groups called:  Inughuit, Tunmitt and Ka laallit  Rubbing noses is a form of kissing Their diet is predominately meat and fish They travel on dog sledges and Qajaqs