Possibilities {Path of Positivity Challenge #17}

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Greetings to my SWEET followers, and to Sue (Graceful Greyhounds) and Lynn (my newest google followers!) Thank you for dropping by. 

This month I am "guest designing" for the Path of Positivity Challenge which lasts from August 4 until August 31, when voting will take place. 

The POSSIBILITIES theme is Perfect Timing for me! These past 2 months I have made several lifestyle changes and some difficult decisions to allow new possibilities into my life.

The sponsors and prizes for this challenge are:

• Two images (or three if you use a TSB image on your creation) from The Stamping Boutique, our guest sponsors this month, for the post or project that the DT deems most inspiring of the bunch.
• Three digital images from Ike's Art for a person chosen in a random draw based on all entrants.
• One digital image from Creative Bug Digital Stamps for each person chosen as a DT Delight.

There will also  be:

• One digital designer paper (made to order in a few different ways) from Décosse's Dynamite Doodles for one lucky voter who leaves a comment.
• One digital sentiment for every single person who enters the challenge.

Today I have two card shares using the same image:

This month's PoP sponsor is The Stamping Boutique. They designed this wonderful "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line) to remind us that --

we all need to escape the towers of our existence from time to time, 

* and *

to renew our appreciation of what is right in our own backyards. 

The past two months I've been doing just that, 

and falling in love all over again with the beauty of my "little existence".

Possibilities

What are they? They all mean something different to each of us, and depending on our outlook, we might view them as cumbersome. I try to view Possibilities (and/or challenges) as something which might make me a better individual.

Sometimes it can be overwhelming - so many opportunities and possibilities - which one is the right one?

At the end of a recent Twilight Zone program a man responded to his accusing and angry son, "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

Possibilities - when it comes to relationships, we sometimes take things too personally and become defensive or harbor unhealthy feelings. But the truth is - the Real Possibility is - that the person we are most concerned about is dealing with some harsh issues in their own way. Of course, the same is true for ourselves. We can only do our best, and not allow old and negative feelings, or reinforced past behavior patterns, to dictate what we should or should not do.

The "Possibility" exists that other people are having a bad day, or perhaps they don't know how to properly communicate, or maybe they only know how to lash out, rather than think before they speak. Perhaps my "hurt feelings" are nothing more than the result of another person's not being able to interact and behave in a healthy manner. THESE POSSIBILITIES open new doors, and allow us to make choices on how to go forward.

Like the man from the Twilight Zone quote above... the son felt that his father did not love him, did not approve of him, did not care about him, because the father never spoke his feelings aloud. However, the father was always there for his son, helping to pick up pieces, helping his son make good choices... but the son took the lack of verbally-skilled communications to mean that his father did not care, and did not love him. Hence the father's response:  "I don't have the words, but it doesn't mean I don't have the feelings".

So my wish for all of us is:

• to embrace the Possibilities in our lives, 
• try always to do our best in Recognizing the Possibilities, 
• to realize that others may or may not encourage us in our adventure. 
• to journey in Life, seeing all the Possibilities we can, 
• to recognize that we are not "locked in a tower" (as my cards show). Those Towers are largely of our own making.

Do you have any Towers you can Escape in order to better see The Wondrous Possibilities in your Life?

Here my easel card is closed (The fairy loves the light coming from the window of the tower as well as the moon!)

Now the card is open, to view just the sentiment. 

To see my tutorial for how to use parts of an artist's image (digital masking) to create a cohesively themed card, please click here.

The dolphins are a retired Spellbinders die, (popped up) and covered with SNS embossing powder.
The clouds and moon were printed a second time, cut out, and popped up to create the "stop" for the easel. The frolicking dolphins are "flipped" in the bottom panel to create visual interest (notice the moon also faces a different direction). To see how to use the artist's images to create a theme, please visit my tutorial here.

(see? possibilities even reveal themselves in our card art) (giggle) 

A Close Up:

 Fully Opened:

Same image, but colored with more green tones in the ocean and layered on an apricot colored background:

The sand-textured tower is created with Mudd Puddles (it's the first time I used this product and it really is VERY user friendly). The "netting ribbon" was applied by hand stitching through the yellow layer. Shells are adhered with 3D Crystal Lacquer. (I was pleasantly surprised by how quickly this dried in our oh-so-humid environment!)

Size A8 card with identical sentiment:

Products:

• The Stamping Boutique "Escape the Tower" image (from their Enchantment Line)
• Computer-generated sentiment
• Embossing Folder (Cuttlebug 5x7)
• Spellbinders: Grand Decorative Labels One LF-018, Scalloped Labels One S4-375, Grand Labels One LF-161, Labels One S4-161, Labels Twenty-Five S5-077, Dolphin (retired)
• Copic Markers
• Brilliance Inks
• Adirondack Inks
• SNS Silver Lighting EP, SNS Mediterranean Star EP
• Ribbon(fiber?), Shells,
• Adhesives: Mudd Puddles, 3D Crystal Lacquer, Aileen's Quick Dry, Dimensionals, Stitching

Delightful Challenges I am playing in:

1. Scribbles Designs Challenges - #19  Sea-Sand-Surf (both cards are sea related) 8/20
2. Sister Act Card Challenges - #68 Anything Goes 8/6
3. Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge - #119   Words (use words as part of your card front) 8/7+
4. Fairy Tale Challenges - #97 Summer-Beach-Sea 8/7? 14?
5. Creative Corner - #Aug 1 - Something Summer (Beachy theme) 8/7
6. Craft for the Craic - #7 A Craft Item I Have Never Used Before (Mudd Puddles, the fibrous ribbon which is stitched in place, and 3D Crystal Lacquer) 9/1
7. A Gem Of A Challenge - #125 Embossing (Yellow card has Mediterranean Star EP, and has yellow dry embossing with two different folders - one on the large panel, and another on the smaller layer behind the image)(Easel card has wet embossed dolphins with Silver Lightning EP). 8/14
8. Crafting at the Weekend - #4 Anything Goes 8/30
9. Inkspirational Challenges - #62 Use Markers or Pencils (Copic Markers used in all images on  both cards, and around both sentiments) 8/14
10. Artistic Inspirations Challenges - #103 Anything Goes 8/10

Thanks for stopping by today!
hugs,