Anyone For an Anything Goes Challenge

Today a new challenge is starting over at Here Come The Boys, it's everyone's favourite... Anything Goes - as long as it's for a Man or Boy, that is!

Very sadly a work friend of ours died last week - at only 49 and five weeks after being diagnosed with cancer; he will be sorely missed as he was the most cheerful guy you could meet.  I made this card for Adam, and his lovely wife Jenny to keep as a memento - not, I'm sure, that she will need it.  I made sure it has a real "masculine" feel, as Adam would have hated a "sissy" card :-)

I used lovely embossed pearl card, and patterned paper, both from my favourite "special" paper stockist Starfish Lane. The black card is from my stash, as are the gros grain ribbon and the brads (the smaller ones have a black glittery finish, I wish I could remember where they're from!

Papertake Weekly has Old, New, Borrowed, Blue as their theme, I'm going with Old (stash), That Craft Place has Ribbon, so I'm in there too and Cards for Men has a Bingo theme; I've used "Dry Embossing (paper), Metal or Charm (Brads), Die Cut or Punch" the panels are cut and embossed with Mpress Curved Rectangle Dies.

The sentiment is one I made on the computer, you can grab it here with my best wishes.  Click on the image to open it before saving to your computer to maintain the quality of the image - it will be available on my Freebies page too. It is printed on linen card, just because it gives a nice finish, I distressed the edges with silver ink to soften the effect a little.

The inside of the card is finished with more of the patterned paper (though not the embossed, it was my last bit and I've got plans for it, lol) and another computer generated sentiment, feel free to grab that too, if you want, don't forget to click on it to open before saving.  More of my lovely glittery brads to finish. Paper Pretties has a Monochrome challenge, I'm definitely in there, lol, Addicted to Stamps has Lots of Layers, so I'm in there too, while Bizzy Becs has Anything Goes - and I've managed to keep the number of challenges I've entered to six... so I'm in there too :-)

Well that's about it for my card, it's pretty CAS really.  I hope you get a chance to check out my Teamies inspiration, nice and varied - and all "For the Boys", so it just goes to show making those masculine cards is not that hard - so hopefully we'll see you in the challenge too :-) 
As you may (or may not) know, our son Matt works in the same industry as us; he also worked with Adam frequently; Adam delivered and installed swimming pools, Jenny drove the Escort vehicle for him.  Matt came to the funeral with us, it was good that he was able to come in a wheelchair to show his respect for a man who was just a "great bloke".  It also gave us a bit of a wake up call re Matt's recuperation - he had his foot elevated for the entire time we were out, but not higher than his heart... the next day his foot was bright red and really quite swollen;  A timely reminder that he is not out of the woods yet!
It's looking better today, he can wash it now; it's strange how fabulous the little things feel when you've been denied them for a while, lol.
Matt and Elaine spent the day "doing" for themselves today, we popped over to visit and kept the babies awake (I know, I know "if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem", but they weren't quite asleep and soooo cute and smiley they just HAD to have a cuddle)
Hopefully I'll get some crafting time this week, I do have a hospital appointment for my Mum, and babysitting while Matt goes to the Plastic Surgeon and it is tax time  - but I'm sure I can slip in a bit of a crafty fix, lol.
Until next time, Happy Crafting, Donna