Challenging life

Hello there

The challenge entry version

Today's little entry for my blog is indeed about challenging life. Some of you will read that to mean that you need to challenge life and all the difficult times it can present us with. Others of you will read that as that my life is challenging at the moment. That's fine. The both meanings are relevant in this context but it's also linked to the fact that I entered a blog challenge over on The Crafty Network's blog.

Entries for the challenge had to be emailed by midnight last night i.e Wednesday September 12th 2012. I only finally decided to make something at 9p.m. This isn't an ideal situation for creating pretty stuff when you've been up since 5. At work for eight hours from 6a.m. It also doesn't help to have had issues to deal with at home. I felt that I had to commit to entering though. May Flaum has recently discussed this very issue recently, in that we often have to fight for our right to craft, so to speak. We all have things in our lives which pull us away from crafting but if you really enjoy it, you need to make some sacrifices along the way to enable you to do it. For many of us, that involves lack of sleep! Find a hidden drive within you to keep your muse flowing and you'll reap the benefits without a doubt.

I finally emailed a photo of the card at 11p.m. I could barely keep my eyes open and I was keeping Chris up, as he's sleeping in my craft room/guest room because he has bronchitis. He was useful for helping me with some awkward glueing though, as I couldn't leave sections to dry as I would normally do.

I firstly embossed white card with my new and much loved 'Bloom dots' folder and rounded the edges. I then did the same to a black piece of card. The flowers were created on my Cricut using Flower Shoppe cartridge- scallop4 cut at 2cm. The swirly frame was cut using Ornamental Iron2 - lace2 cut at 4cm. I then put some self-adhesive gems in the flower hearts. I used Pinflair glue gel to raise the various sections off the base, as that creates shadows, forming more black to tie in with the theme 'Black and White' of the challenge.
The finishing touch at the time was machine sewing around the edge of the card blank. I am annoyed that the holes at the top aren't straight- this was my second attempt too but at the time, I didn't have the energy or time to try again, so I had to run with it as it was. I didn't do a sentiment for exactly the same reason.

Final version

This morning I've fiddled with it some more. I sprayed some Perfect Pearls Mists - perfect pearl, all over the card. I added some more gems to the swirly section and created the sentiment tag. I'm surprised at how much I like it, as normally I love colour. I also decorated the envelope with some black paint and a stencil created by the swirly die-cut.

If you see the other entries for the challenge, you'll see that I don't stand a chance of winning but that's ok. I am proud that I entered and with a project that I'm happy with (although I'm happier with the final version than I am with the entered version).

Take care out there and keep crafting as much as you can!