Aqua and Brown

One of my driving forces in starting this blog was to get involved with the huge, expanding and dynamic network of creative people out there by entering some of my handcrafted greetings cards in online paper crafting challenges.  This weekend I decided to take the leap and enter my first one.  Having spent a while looking for friendly, approachable and encouraging sites and challenges, I settled upon this month's Crafter's Companion Challenge.  My reason for choosing it for my first foray was that the theme of the challenge was a somewhat unusual colour combination (aqua and brown) that I had just really enjoyed using to make both a Mother's Day card, which one of my friends sent to his mother last weekend, and a birthday card for a very good friend in Australia.  The latter is the one that I have entered for the challenge, although both appear in the "Latest Card Makes" slideshow on my blog.



The mermaid topper, which is from Lili of the Valley, was the starting point for the card design.  I love her gentle but knowing femininity.  I bet she never has a bad hair day despite spending so much time exposed to the elements!  Her sweet natured poise very much reminds me of the recipient of the card.  Having selected the mermaid, I then enjoyed trawling through my stash and finding suitably co-ordinating papers, ribbons and embellishments.  It was one of those great card-making moments when I didn't have a particular plan in mind but it all came together very naturally.  Looking at it now, just a day or so after entrusting it in the post, I can see where it could be improved - inking around the edge of the backing paper for a start - but it still makes me smile.  I hope it evokes the same response when it arrives on the other side of the world.