Anneke's Attempts - The AA of crafting...

For some reason I'm finding it hard to blog lately. I always feel I want to write alongside my cards, rather than just post a picture and say which challenge(s) I want to enter them in. That would seem so cold and heartless, and crafting is anything but.

So I have entered the odd card straight from facebook, just upload the picture, post the link, done.

I had thought I would do the same with this one. It was a bit rushed this morning, knowing we would be going out for the day, and wanting to get it done as the challenge finishes tonight, and I do want to support Emma in the challenges she sets up. So I got the card done, to send along with a couple of others a s a thank you, but for this challenge, to post via facebook you need to be a member of a particular group, which I wasn't yet. I requested the membership and then had to leave, without being able to post.

Well, would you believe it, tonight facebook won't let me on... So here I am. Perhaps the universe is gently hinting that I should be using my blog more.

Well, having said all that, I will have to hurry, or I will still miss the deadline. So, as mentioned before, I would like to enter this card in to Emma's Crafty Challenge. This month we were asked to follow a sketch, which I tried to do as closely as possible, even looking at colours and shades and such. I am very pleased with the results. I made an effort to use the goodies I was sent by the friend the card was for, and used some of the new stuff I ordered just last week. It's amazing what a boost all this new stash has given me to get going again. I had been too ill to be able to for a while, and eventhough I had recovered, I wasn't quite getting back to the card-making like before. Well, it seems I am now!

Recently I had my very first order of cards, and more keep coming in. I am so flattered at this, especially as customers tend to give me a lot of freedom to be creative. This must mean they like what I do, surely. It also means I can use the opportunity to fit in with a few challenges. This is one of those cards.

I was inspired by the idea of making your own paper flowers, and had seen a few different techniques which I wanted to put to the test.

Crafty Calender Challenge of 'Flowers in Bloom' seems a perfect challenge to enter for this.

There's also Craft Your Days Away with their Bingo Card. I always find those difficult, I must say, but this time it worked out well on the diagonal from left top to right bottom: flowers, ribbon/lace, and gems. In this card they just formed a natural part of the build-up.

And on a completely different, and very summery note, the Allsorts Challenge is focussed around 'ice cream colours' which appear abundantly on this card as well.

So I would like to enter these three challenges, and keep my fingers crossed the teams like my work. Do you? Please leave me your comments, I love to read what you think.

Today is my husband's 50th birthday - a very special day. So I made him this special card.

He is very much into cars, posh ones and vintage ones alike. So I thought I'd wink at his age by adding the contrast between the two types of car. The top image is decoupage, and I used silicone glue so that I could shape the paper to mimic the car shape. That doesn't show up very well on the photograph. It says 'Abraham' on the car. Over here there is an expression used for men at the age of fifty. For some reason they get called Abraham and are assumed now to know where Abraham gets the mustard (don't ask, I don't know). Women at fifty are Sarah's - nothing to do with mustard in their case, that much I do know.

The little milestone in the decoupage picture says 50.

The man in the car happens to have an amazing likeness to the love of my life. I just had to use this image, it was perfect for him.

The ribbon is glued on the front, and then lifts to the inside to keep the tag there. On the tag it explains he has a surprise to come. It gives him the option either to keep the tag and be patient, or to hand back the tag and find out what the surprise will be.

Also the base card from Hunky Dory not only has the vintage car, which he thought may well be a Rolls Royce (much appreciated!), it also has a faint reproduction of a street map. He reckoned it was Paris, as it has the Seine on it, and wondered if this is a hint towards the surprise... It suits him, though, in any case, as he is a geographer. Through a turn of circumstances he had never been able to use his training in his work, and has turned to teaching in the last couple of years, which has taken him back to the subject he truely loves. It has brought him to life again. Well, they do say life begins at fifty! 

He is most definitely the special man in my life. So I'd like to enter the card in two challenges around this theme: Lexi's Creations and Love to Create Challenge. Here come the boys happen to have an anything goes challenge on, so that's a perfect one to enter as well.

Wish me luck!

I hope the teams like this card as much as my hubby did when I handed it to him just after midnight, as his birthday started. He had a great big smile from ear to ear for ages as he just kept looking at it.

Always love to read your comments!