Cards from Australia :)

I'm doing a "Seasons" card swap with Feronia and hers arrived this morning:

"Spring" and "Summer"....

..."Autumn" & "Winter".

Aren't they great?

I really like the paper she's used on the Spring and Autumn cards. I think this is Japanese paper, or "Washi". It's a lovely, pliable paper with deep gold embossing. It's often used in origami, but in Japanese papercrafts it's used to make 'quilted' cards, where squares of it are wrapped round pieces of foam and mounted into a pattern on the card to make a 'quilt'...I'll have to get mine finished pronto! I won't show them here till she's got them.

Meanwhile, here's a "Thank you" card I made for Sharon Duncan, re. the prize she sent me. I used Tim Holtz Distress Inkpads, which I'd bought in a sale a while ago and never got round to using much. These ones are Vintage Photo (edges) and Antique Linen (background).It was nice to make my own design and background etc. I must do more of that.

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Today is officially the longest day. Sunsets get earlier and earlier after today. Poo. I prefer the first half of the year, when all the summer is up ahead, all to look forward to, nights drawing out longer and longer. This solstice sort of feels like the hump of a hill; downhill from here, tumbling towards winter. Isn't it daft to think like that? I'm trying to push such hunches away and tell myself that this is the beginning of summer, not the end!