Close to the end...and close to the edge

Obviously by the title you can see that i have been unsuccessful in my attempts to lift myself out of depression thus far; in fact i seem to be spiralling further downwards. The question remains, how close am i to the edge, and what happens when i fall off?

Spending ban wise i am still doing ok. I had my April takeaway last week, and, aside from still wanting that trolley, i have kept my bank balance relatively ok. It could be better...but it could be worse.

Before i get to the crafting, i wanted to share something i forgot in the last post. This is my sewing machine

The reason for this is a combination of being afraid my fingers will end up being stitched if i use an electric machine, and the simple reason that i love vintage! 

I've done another two cupcakes on my second stitch, so have five more to go before the backstitch.

Papercraft wise i have been relatively busy, so the rest of this post will be pic-heavy.

This is for my older brother's birthday. First thing i did was to cut out a typewriter and telephone from my movers and shapers die. Well actually, the first thing i did was get annoyed that when i bought this stuff from Hobbycraft, including the Big Shot, nobody had the foresight to tell me that i needed a magnetic base tray. Still, improvisation is the core of any crafter, so i eventually figured out the right amount of card i needed to add to my sandwich for it to cut through. I used black and silver ink to colour them, and a gold strip for the buttons. The background is Madam Payraud, inked with faded burlap. Then i couldn't help but draw attention to his age by getting some grungeboard and inking the number with gold and the arrows with chipped sapphire. Sorry Carl! I have made it up to you by making some pirate badges.

This one is for my dad's birthday. I cut a sign out, embossed it with circles and distressed it with tattered rose and weathered wood. The post was brown ink and interference green perfect pearls. The background is from the pebble stack. I felt it was still missing something, so i cut a chipboard swirl and inked it with chipped sapphire and interference green so it looks like vines on the post. I then added two metal brads from Manmade embellishments, and two cactus like flowers to hide the edges of the brads. The letters are Tim Holtz dodads.

The second card is for fathers day. I used black ink and evergreen bough on the die-cut camera, perfect sparkle to highlight certain aspects, and crackle glazed the whole thing. The vellum quote is from quotable noteables. You can't see it clearly in the pic, but i used Madam Payraud behind the vellum; a script for the words part, and some bugs for the picture part. The card background is from the Chickadee paper stack. I then cut out some vintage pics, and stuck them to some Tim Holtz film ribbon. Finally i made a little charm with some black and gold beads and a camera charm.

I also made my second tag (i love tags!). I haven't got any blending solution and am obviously on the spending ban, so i distress inked the tag in chipped sapphire and then threw some water droplets onto it, before drying with a hairdryer. I then stamped images in black, and went over the lady in chipped sapphire. I added some gems into the hair and one for the eye. The heart is grungeboard, i used tea dye on the wings then diluted it with perfect pearl and crackle glazed it. The heart is raspberry sparkle, and the crown i had in my stash. I coloured the butterfly using interference green and sparkle, and added some flowers from Wild Orchid crafts. 

Now, the title of this post is close to the end, and to the edge. Obviously the edge part is about my depression, but rest assured the close to the end part isn't. That is about my book! I am aiming to get this finished by the end of May at the latest, but it may be even quicker than that. I have also finally come up with a title for it.

I'm really hoping that the next post will be more positive, but i can't promise this. There is no easy fix when you are feeling like this. It takes time, and a little patience, so i hope you will bear with me.

Thanks to everyone who reads this

Emma

Spending ban episode count: 23/118