Travels...

Hello, hello!

How are we all?!  I'm sorry I've been away so long, but I have a fairly reasonable excuse... :)  I started a new job on Monday and isn't it always the way that everything else gets super busy at the same time?!  My DOH had a lot of admin bits that he needed doing this week too (it's not that I'd left them until now, it's that they cropped up this week just because I was busier than usual!) so in actual fact I've been going to work for a rest!!  I still have a pile of washing to do too...I need a fairy!  ;)

I'm just scraping in for the deadline for this one!  I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the winners at Catered Crop for last month's birthday card challenge with this card.  That means I get to join the fabulous DT as a Guest Designer for this months' challenge!  Whoop whoop!  The challenge this time is 'Safe Travels'.  

I'm not going to lie, when I saw this theme I thought 'this is definitely going to be a challenge!' because I don't have anything in my stash that's particularly travel-related.  But that's when things get interesting, right?!  So I had a little brainstorm and started thinking of things that are related to travel, which I like because you end up coming up with something that's less obvious than the theme.  My first thoughts were of maps and forms of transport, that sort of thing...but then I thought more about the emotional side of travel.  To travel means to leave the place you are in and head off somewhere new - which is exciting and can be sad all at the same time!  There's also a sense of freedom associated with taking yourself out of your familiar surroundings and knowing that you can go anywhere you want...I think that's fantastic!!  So, I went along these lines...  Then things got a bit profound - I think it's been one of those weeks!  I was thinking about how all of us are on a great big journey every day - the journey of life.  As Darnell tells us at the end of every one of her amazing posts - Life Is Too Short.  It's certainly too short to be doing something you hate - we should enjoy everything, no matter how small and change the things we don't like - simple right?!!

So, I know I got a bit off track with the whole travel thing, but those are the thoughts it invoked in me, so there!!

Anyway, enough babbling...the card...

I chose the Distress Ink colours - Broken China and Crushed Olive - because they remind me of when you look at an image of the globe - green for land and blue for ocean.  Again, maybe another tenuous link, but it's a link all the same!  I really like this sentiment - I think it's just perfect :)

I'm also entering this card for the current CAS-ual Fridays challenge which is '2 Shades of Grey' - I'm so glad they didn't go with 50!  ;)  They've updated the rules over there so you should definitely check it out if you haven't already :)

Thank you so much for coming back to see me after my absence!  ;)

Supplies
Card:      Paper Mill Direct - White, Black, Grey, Sky Grey
Stamps: Clear Impressions - Cherry Blossom
Ink:        Ranger - Perfect Medium; Distress Ink - Broken China, Crushed Olive
Other:    WOW! - Ebony e/p; pearls