Look up

Slowly falling back into crafting mood, I thought I'd create a card for my stash today. 
Unlike my usual projects, however, I decided to have some inspiration from my challenge-list. Long story short told, it looks a little quiet in blogland right now and as I was linking up my green decoupage box yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that the "Space" challenge over at the crafty chicks only had a handful of entries. 
What a perfect opportunity to realize a project I had mind since I had heard the news of the passing of Stephen Hawking this spring. Immediately, I thought it would look pretty to place one of his thoughts on space-ish background to create a piece of decoration or a simple card. Unable to find the right kind of background paper, I put the idea aside for a while.

Today, I took a block of purple, pink, blue and green background papers I've bought recently and picked one that might as well resemble a part of a colourful nebula somewhere in our universe. 
After placing it on a longitudinal card base, I printed out one of Hawking's wisdoms.

Once I figured out where to place it, I spread colourful star-shaped gemstones from my stash all over the background. And since stars weren't enough, I added another round of normal gemstones as well. 

For the quote, I've firstly chosen a purple background, but as it didn't seem to fit in the end, I changed my mind for a shimmering silver cardboard. To make it pop out a little more, I placed the cardboard on 3D pads.
The quote itself was appealing to me for its motivation and optimism, which would qualify the card for a number of different occasions. 

Considering all the beauty that is hidden out there, it's absolutely no wonder that throughout the centuries, great minds felt attracted by stars, celestial bodies, their relationships and secrets. Until today, whether it is for the purpose of "just looking" or systematic research, there's probably nothing as calming as a look up to the stars, alongside with the knowledge that everything is going to be OK, no matter the obstacles.

A little contribution to the August collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

Sometimes, however, it is the moon who will steal the show with it's wonderful hide-and-seek performance. A bit shy at the beginning...

... the Lady in Red soon showed herself in full beauty during the last total lunar eclipse this July. 

I must have been a little naive thinking I'd be the only one waiting for her on the castle hill, but in the end, I was really surprised by the number of people who showed up to whitness the show - many of them bringing along blankets, chips and beer. 

Rising above the radio/TV tower with Mars tagging along...

Tons of pictures and a couple of nasty mosquito bites later - all kinds of lighting devices on my way back home...

... and a beautiful change of colours, slowly going back to its full luminosity.

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG with optional twist "space"
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- gem of a challenge: pink
- allsorts challengeblog: boys/men
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- everybody art: use a sentiment
- friendship challenge: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: boys
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- male room: birthday
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

A box of greenery

When I gave my reindeer-themed donation box to my friend as a Christmas present, I couldn't help but get my hands on his old box that was falling apart already. I knew I would one day recycle it into something useful, but somehow, the day never came. 
For one part, I never really took the time to start crafting, and for the other, even if I had a spare moment, I just couldn't get myself into crafting mood for some strange reason - a fact that can be easily confirmed by my recent blog inactivity. 
Anyway, the box in my storage was still waiting for my attention until I've found some bright coloured jungle napkins which I thought might go with what I had in mind. But what did I have in mind actually? Not much, to be honest. The only thing I knew for sure was that I'd have to use darker colours this time due to ink stains in the wood. And as I've finally settled for a dark brown interior, I thought the jungle napkin with some brown accents might complement it nicely.

After removing the clasps and some proper sanding, the exerior of the box looked much better, however, I decided to stick with the dark brown for the inside as those stains just wouldn't go away.

Once the interior was done in a way that covered all but one nasty black ink spot, I painted the outside of the box white in order to cover it with the napkin once the paint was dry. 

Unlike my usual gluing of pedantically cut out details, however, I decided to go for the full napkin this time. Because, obviously, one wouldn't be able to cut things out from this vivid pattern, and maybe even because after a while of inactivity, I needed a crafting challenge. 
To prevent desaster with tearing and wrinkles, I actually started my project by watching a couple of youtube tutorials. Turns out I'm far from the masterpieces that some can create using napkin decoupage, but apart from a tear in one of the corners I actually managed to finish my piece without major incidents. No major wrinkles either.

Since I've thrown away the old worthless clasps, I now had two options with my box bottom and lid: use them as they are (two individual boxes for open storage) or dismantle another box in my stash to re-use its clasps. Obviously, the other box would then be without clasps, too... 

Long story short told, I found a box that would be quite useful without its lid, and screwed its clasps on my little jungle box.

In the end, I'm not sure what will be hiding under the foliage, or even if I'll keep the box at all. I do like it somehow, but maybe there's just a little too much jungle? On the other hand, I'm still not quite through with cleaning up my room and among the things that need to be tidied up, there might as well be some items that will need a storage place.

Peekaboo. I've never worked with so much colour on the inside, but I might use this approach in my future projects as it really gives an interesting "extra".

A little contribution to the August collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

Another kind of greenery - a strip of nature reserve by the Vrbsko jezero/Wörthersee...

... and a lovely swan family on their morning swim.

Not as elegant as mom yet, but working on it :)

challenges:
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty gals corner: tropical colours
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- creative moments: ATG
- friendship challenge: ATG
- kreativtanten: summer
- love to craft: ATG 
- pile it on: new technique (napkin decoupage with whole napkins)
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG

Ahoy!

Is it only me or does a project sometimes look unfinished, no matter what?
The card that is introducing a new "ATG" challenge over at the Fadengrafik Challenge is one I've created ages ago. Literally, ages ago. 

I thought it would be a nice, energetic summer card with a nautical background and a simple blue swirl that might resemble a knot, or just an abstract ornament. However, while the background itself might be compatible with many summer ideas, it didn't seem to fit the "knot" I had in mind. 
Was it just too plain to match with the sea horses, ankers and shells? I added a couple of rhinstones to balance things out, with little to no success. 
Was it because of the strange central shapes that I sewed with red thread for the reason of contrast? I had no desire to tear the stitching apart and eventually put the card aside only to completely forget about it.

As I'm currently establishing a little order in my apartment, I found my box of unfinished things again, and at this point, something needed to be done. As I also found a a leftover punched white flower that I've decorated with a rhinestone one day, I thought about trying an unusual merger before throwing the flower away, because what could one possible do with a single punched rhinestone-flower?

To my surprise, however, I liked the unconventional result. I have no idea how and why a flower would complement a wannabe-nautical scenery, but after colouring the strange red shapes with colour pencils, I somehow felt like the card might be finished after all. 

Certainly still not one of my favourites, but at least, finished enough to be removed from the unfinished-things-box.

A little contribution to the July collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.
A little contribution to the collection of hand-stitching at made with Blümchen.

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: summer time/holidays
- cardmania: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- create and inspire: ATG
- creative moments: ATG
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrap & craft: summer
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: stitching real or faux
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG