Crafty Cardmakers #81 Our Final Challenge for 2012 – Inspired by a Song

I think I went a little mad at Crafty Cardmakers with our current and final challenge for 2012. I was sitting, as you do, at the pc and listening to music and Jim Croce’s ‘Time In A Bottle’ started playing and as I listened to the words it reminded me of all the Christmasses past when I had so many family around me, and of all the happy times and just what it would mean to me to be able to save time in a bottle to spend when, where or with whom I like. So I thought it would make a great final challenge for this year.

I would like you to click the link above for a listen, or read the lyrics below, and see if they can inspire you to create something a bit different to the normal Christmas challenges for this time of year. You could go with the entire sentiment of the song, pick out phrases, maybe make a scrapbook LO, something time related? I am sure you get the idea.

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

Anyhow, I am in desperate need of a clock for my front room as I broke mine whilst packing to move, and have been so busy since I got here that I hadn’t had time to make one so this seemed the perfect excuse to get down and dirty and see what I could come up with.

I caved in and purchased a couple more PanPastel colours!!! I couldn’t help myself, since my experiment with the pure turquoise I was a goner, so I went for the Magenta, Violet, and Phtalo Blue too!

I started off by blending the PanPastels onto the clock base, until I was happy with the colour and then I placed a Tattered Angels Glimmer mask over the centre and used various TA Glimmer Mists to spray to leave the buttefly pattern on the clock base. Before I removed the mask I used a small paintbrush and removed the spray nozzle from some other TA Glimmer Mists and used it to paint the patterns inside the butterfly. The edges of the clock were stamped with various parts of a swirl stamp, and the sentiment was printed onto safmat, and is one of the phrases in the lyrics of the song.

I finished it off with a small floral embellishment on one corner.

This is my gift to me, along with the PanPastels (naughty Witch!)

I have to say that I originally did this on a bracket shaped clock, and I had it almost as I wanted it, but decided that the edges needed something a little extra, maybe some embossing. It was at that point I got really angry with myself as I overdid the embossing powder and it looked awful. There really was no way to rescue it so I attempted to trim the embossed part away but that made it look worse, so several hours of work ended up in the BIN!!!! Never has the phrase ‘there never seems to be enough time’ seemed quite so appropriate, lol

I am sorry that you cannot see the gorgeous shimmer on the butterfly and surrounding it, but the light conditions are not good, particularly as I now have a 6 foot tree blocking the natural light in my lounge and there is virtually no natural light in my other rooms!

I would love for you to show me what you can create over at Crafty Cardmakers and we have a fabulous prize offered by our lovely Kim which I am sure you will have a great deal of enjoyment using. So come on over and see if you would like to join in the fun.

I am entering this into the following challenges:-

Craft My Life – All Crafts Challenge #3

Crafty Bloggers – #6 Anything Goes

Di’s Digi Designs – Anything But a Card Christmas Creation

Glitter N Sparkle Challenge Blog – #10 Use Some Metal (My clock hands are metal!)

Great Impressions – December Challenge Anything Goes

Love To Create – #45 Anything Goes

PanPastel – #48 Song or Carol Title

Sugar Creek Hollow – #41 Stencils and Masks

Stamp Your Life – #1 Anything Goes

Stamps & Fun=Creativity – #129 No Christmas Card

Stamptacular Sunday – #193 Anything But A Card