Challenge 81 at Crafty Cardmakers

Hi everyone!

Our new challenge over at Crafty Cardmakers is to take inspiration from the song lyrics of  'Time In A Bottle' written and performed by Jim Croce 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dO1rMeYnOmM

If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you

If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

If I had a box just for wishes
And dreams that had never come true
The box would be empty
Except for the memory
Of how they were answered by you

But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with

I was pondering the time of year, and how Christmas evokes so many memories of times past and this song came into my head. I expect we have all lost someone, parent, brother, sister, etc. who we remember at this time of the year so the song seemed really poignant. It was especially so for me this year as I had to move from my home of 54 years into a dinky little bungalow, and as yet I have no memories formed here, and as Christmas approaches I have been dwelling a lot on the past. However, I don't want you to feel maudlin so take inspiration from the song's theme, or from the lyrics. There are a lot of words mentioned in the song, that you could use to inspire something creative. Or you could create something to show us what you would do if you could save time in a bottle and spend it doing your favourite thing, or with your best friend, lover, child etc. A scrapbook page of memories perhaps, or something more practical relating to time. You can choose one of the words in the lyrics and create a theme around it.

Have a good read through and see what you can impress us with. I will be honest and tell you some of the team were not too keen on the idea, until they started thinking about it, so please don't just pass us by and not bother, have a good old think and see what you can come up with. There are so many Christmas card challenges at the moment, and this will be a nice deviation from those, you also have a whole month to think of something. So when you are all Christmased out and want to do something a bit different you can join us with your creation. Please remember to tell us in your post how the song's lyrics have inspired what you come up with. 

Go on we dare you!

As this is a month long challenge the whole team will be voting on whose entries they want to win or take out top spots, if there are enough entrants we may have a Top Ten instead of a Top Five.

We are sponsored by our lovely teamie Kim Reygate. As Kim told me 'I have been lucky enough to work with some fantastic companies during this last year, both teaching and making samples and most of whom are represented in the prize, so I would be more than happy to donate them to Crafty Cardmakers', represented in the list are Clarity, HobbyArt, Sir Stampalot, Stampcraft and Woodware, some of whom will be sponsoring us in 2013, so watch this space!

The items in the prize are Items from the top of the photo
Blue Magic stamp
2 Embossing Folders
2 Butterfly Stamps
Fluffy Stuff
2 ColorBox Queues
ColourBox Moulding Mat
Magnolia Stamp
Petal Stamps

We are also sponsored as usual by Milk Coffee Stamps with their usual prize of 5 digi images of the winner's choice.
  

MILK COFFEE DIGITAL STAMPS
Cute Digis for Cute Creations

Milk Coffee Stamps is a digital image shop specialising in cute and girly images. We provide high quality digital images with high resolution so you could resize at a big enough size for your project. We have many different image styles; sophisticated lady, cute girl, whimsical image, cute stuff, fairytale creature, and many other varied themes so they can fit many different crafting styles.

So after all that waffling, it's over to the team to hopefully inspire you. They have worked hard on this so please do stop by their blogs and leave them some love!

 

   
We won't be back now until 7th January, so all of us at Crafty Cardmakers want to thank you for your continued involvement in our challenges and to wish all of you out there a very Merry Christmas or Bright Yule and a healthy, happy and hopefully prosperous New Year. See you in 2013







So, here is my take on the challenge! 
I have taken the whole song as inspiration and taken the route of living life to the full, grabbing happiness where you can and enjoying everything!

I have made a wallhanging using one of my favourite sayings 'Live well, Laugh often, Love much'. 2012 has been a very sad and challenging year for me personally but already 2013 is looking good! So this has become my new mantra!!

I have crackled the background using acrylic paint and PVA glue, the flowers are made using a Marianne die as are the leaves. All the colouring is distress inks.

Now, why not pop over to the Challenge to see what inspiration my fab teamies have come up with? The challenge runs for a month this time so you have longer to play along!

Thanks for looking, off now to finish some last minute Christmas card making......not much time for blogging at the moment but hopefully will get back to it once Christmas is out the way!!!

Cheers, Sharon x