When it is sunrise in Australia>>>>it is sunset in another part of the world.

This is going to be a long post. I have been competing in a challenge over at Soul Scrappers where we were sent a bundle of goodies with which to create a layout.   Here is my layout:

This is what I received in the post from the challenge organiser from the USA.

And this letter. "I hope you find my challenge challenging (yes it was).  I would LOVE to SEE the most BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS, you have EVER seen thru your travels or just being around your home town.(I did not have any sunset photos but I had amazing sunrises taken on my recent holiday - hence the title of my post and layout)".  Included goodies were:

1. playing card diamond
2. sunset quote
3. 4x3 embossed white cardstock
4. 3 black seagulls
5. 4" gold  circle
6. yellow/orange tissue paper
7. red and yellow (4) triangles
8. 6" of ribbon
9. metallic gold streamers

Here is how I went about creating my layout.

1. The most challenging for me - those gold streamers.  The first thing I did was iron them, yes you heard me right, iron them.  They had travelled from USA and were just a mess.  Now as I was ironing them I was thinking 'how am I going to use them?"  Well, the thought came to me about my machine embroidery days.  Why not get some water soluble Solvy and stitch them.  At this stage I cut the ribbon into strips to use with gold streamers and then okay why not use the tissue paper as well.  (Now I did test with some tissue paper I had to see if it would stand up to water - it did - so I pushed on with my idea).  This is a photo of them all between 2 sheets of Solvy.
   
2. To the sewing machine I headed.   I used whatever threads/bobbins that I had close and matched somewhat the colours I was using.   I machined a grid with straight stitches and zig zag stitch. Here is the result (put on a background colour so you can see grid clearly)
   
3. Then, give it all a wash in water with fingers crossed at this stage that it would all come together. Some of the colour from tissue paper ran in this step. Then put over line to dry. This is the finished stitching. 
   
4. Now to assemble onto layout - I did tear a piece of blue cardstock to resemble sky and then stitched the finished stitching onto background cardstock and trimmed.
5. Bottom left you can see that I have coloured white dotted cardstock and quote I received. A small amendment - I added and sunrise.
6. The playing card I covered with blue cardstock and left the 10 showing - my journaling shows 10 reasons to love a sunset/sunrise. I added a tassel of left over pieces of gold streamers that somehow ended up on the floor or where cut of when I trimmed the sides.
7. I then place the triangles and sew lines on them so that I could do some further journaling of my title. Birds where added.  This is a close up of some of the elements on the page.
   

Was it a challenge - YES, made me thing right outside the box to use all the 'goodies' I was sent. It was fun to go back to my creative machine embroidery days and incorporate this in the layout.

Now, my 10 reasons to love a sunset/sunrise:

1. Colours (how can you not be inspired by the colours)
2. Clouds (the create the patterns that catch the colours)
3. Breathtaking - I certainly had my breath taken away by the sunsets I saw at Corindi Beach.
4. Nature at its best - clear skies/dark skies, quietness.
5. Spectacular - no one sunset/sunrise the same
6. Inspiring - they can lift your spirits and you can find time for personal contemplation
7. It's free - I grabbed a cup and tea to watch this sunrise - no one at the door to charge you entry fee.
8. Calming -
9. They can slow down time. You naturally want to go slow and appreciate the beauty you see.
10. Helps you appreciate life's gifts.

Thank you for looking.   May you find a sunset/sunrise to inspire you.   I once saw a quote - author unknown.  "If have never met a sunrise/sunset that I did not like."  So true.  Margaret.