Planes, Trucks and Automobiles…and a Caardvarks Guest Designer!

Planes, trucks and automobiles have been on my mind lately.

We need to take a plane to Laramie, Wyoming to check out houses.

A large truck will soon be hauling all our belongings cross country.

On August 1, the three of us will get in our car and drive approximately 1,600 miles to our new home.

So when I got the assignment to create a “window” card as a guest designer for the new Caardvarks Challenge, I immediately thought of planes and automobiles. I was a little nervous...not just because this is my first guest designer gig, ever...but also because I haven’t made many window cards. In fact, I wasn’t even really sure what constituted a window card…like…does it have to have an actual opening?

One night when I couldn’t sleep, my thoughts went to…naturally, what else…card crafting. I was actually thinking about ‘change of address’ cards and…we’ll, it all sort of evolved from there.

I know I’m not the first (nor will I be the last) to work the car concept, but I envisioned a car, specifically the back of a car…as it drives down our street and away from our home and friends…taking us to our new adventure.

I decided to base my card on my husband’s Mini Clubman. First, I took this photo of the back of his car.

After downloading the photo into my computer, I printed it and then enlarged it to the size I wanted. I cut out the image and used it as my template. My husband saw me working on the card and advised me… the clubman’s back doors swing open vs. opening upwards. So I changed my layout and I must say, I like it a lot better this way.

I cut and pieced contrasting accent pieces (just like on his car) and the bumper, etc. I wrapped foil around brads to “create” the side view mirrors and more brads and buttons for the tail and break lights. I embossed a piece of cardstock using the Cuttlebug faux leather template to create car seats.

I decided to add some silly characters wearing silly eye patches…to protect the innocent…looking back as the car heads off towards points West...notice the license plate?

Since we don’t yet have an address in Wyoming, I decided to adapt a verse or two from Pure Prairie League’s “Two Lane Highway” since it pretty much describes how torn I’m feeling these days.

I hadn’t intended to decorate the back of the card, which is actually the front of the car, but I guess I got carried away. Note those crazy characters again, this time looking forward to their new adventure!

This is too time consuming to use as an actual change of address card but I do plan to keep the template for use in the future...I had so much fun creating this card!