Christmas stitching #2

Another stitched Christmas card, made in same way than the previous -  I used a golden pickpoint ornament with pearls and glued it on Christmas background paper.

A simple festive couple

- fadengrafikchallenge: Santa on the way

- borduurkaartenblog: Christmas pattern

- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: Christmas

- robynsfetishchallengeblog: stitching real or faux

Autumn colours

I guess by now it looks like I do nothing but stitching 24/7. Truth is I do, but after I put out my pickpoint stuff and searched through my patterns, I just can't stop. So many things I want to do, and so little time :) And did I ever mention I love pickpoint cards? I do. A lot.

Today's card

I made it tonight, stitching with orange colours that float into one another. As the pattern leaves an empty space in the middle of the flower/star ornament, I'll probably place a sentiment there once I'll need the card.
To complete the stitching, I added a few beige and silver pearls and glued it to an orange background paper with poppies. Even though that would be summer flowers, the orange of the card reminds me of something that fits this time of year perfectly: Hokkaido pumpkin soup with cream - one of the best things autumn has to offer, and definitely one of my favourites in the kitchen :)

- craftalnica: autumn colours

- alphabetchallengeblog: S for stitching

- ladybugcrafts: autumn and/or Halloween

- basteltantenchallengeblog: autumn/Halloween

- robynsfetishchallengeblog: stitching real or faux

Christmas stitching

Even though Christmas is still far away, I a Christmas card lately. I used one of the stitched items I've done a while ago and put it on a Christmas-patterned background paper.
The swirl is stitched in brown tones that flow into each other, and decorated with red and champagne pearls. The card is pretty simple, and not too "full", but I think it doesn't even need much more addings.

- fadengrafikchallenge: Santa on the way

- borduurkaartenblog: Christmas pattern

- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: Christmas

- robynsfetishchellengeblog: stitching real or faux

Best wishes

Tonight, I made a simple card with a new pickpoint pattern. As it reminds me of butterflies, I stitched it with yellow yarn and decided to use a matching background paper with daisies. To match the sketch at tuesdaymorningsketches, I added a simple punched border, a few flowers and an inscription saying "Best wishes". The soft pastel shades make sure the card can be used for several different occasions.

- tuesdaymorningsketches

- alphabetchallengeblog: S for stitching

- craftysentiments: use a sentiment

-modsquadchallenge: it's my favorite - pickpoint

Trick or treat

I'm not really into the Halloween hype and never really understood it.
But, as there are many Halloween-themed challenges running I thought I'd give it a try. Instead of pumpkins, ghosts and black cats however, I decided to use this seductive witch I found lately, and make a Halloween card that would not look all too halloween-ish.
For the arrangement, I used the sketch that was given for October's cheerfulsketcheschallenge.
For the card, I used the orange and black combination, but apart from that I decided to keep it simple - patterned papers, a stitched swirl and a few pearls. In the end, I added a two-layered flower saying "trick or treat". I punched the lower layer from orange paper and painted the upper one with coloured pencils.

I now see that the heart-shaped punch in the background is not quite as visible as I thought it would be, but nevertheless I think the card is not too bad. It could even be used as a simple male card - I'm sure this sexy lady on the moon could put a spell on any guy she meets ;)

Challenges:

- cheerfulsketcheschallenge

- pennyschallenges: polka dots & pearls
- cardz4guyz: Halloween
- thepinkelephantchallenge: trick or treat
- cutecardthursday: trick or treat
- fabnfunkychallenges: in stitches
- fussyandfancychallenge: orange & black
- papertakeweekly: black & white & ...
- alphabetchallengeblog: S for stitching
- chocolatecoffeecards: for boys
- glitternsparklechallengeblog: use some orange
- dreamvalleychallenges: Halloween
- ladybugcrafts: autumn and/or halloween
- justinspirationalchallenges: fall
- crafts4eternity: Halloween
- catchthebugblog: October Bingo challenge (black & orange, witch, player's choice - stitching)
- basteltantenchallengeblog: Herbst/Halloween
- tuesdaythrowdown: Halloween colors

After the storm

After the storm comes a huge temperature drop and a cold, but lovely awakening.

The morning sky is clear, and the thoughts are clean.

After the storm the sun shines again and gives you warmth for another day.

Happy birthday

I started this 3D easel card a really long time ago, but didn't like the outcome at first.
Now, I decided to remodel it a little bit. It remained an easel card with roses and stitched corners, but I changed the bottom part from another (pretty huge) stitched ornament to a simple sign saying "Happy birthday". The card looks a lot easier now, and the roses are the only center of attention.

The main motif with the flowers is a 5-layer piece that I printed and cut out with nail scissors and stanley knife. I sure have too much time on my own, I guess :) Or maybe I'm just too over-detailed? Anway I never really liked those 3D stickers you buy and just glue to your card, it doesn't seem handmade enough to me.

The card enters following challenges:

- cardz4guyz: easel card

- craftalnica: autumn colours

- jellyparkchallenges: autumn/fall

- OLLCB: inspired by nature

- pennyschallenges: anything goes

My pink dilemma

I thought I would never come up with an idea for the current cheerfulsketcheschallenge. Not that it's difficult (at least not like last time), but I'm not quite good with multi-layer cards.
I thought I wouldn't come up with anything useful for the craftalnica challenge either. Not that I have a problem with fund raising or anything cancer-related, but it sometimes seems to me that every October, everybody becomes obsessed with breasts. And when people push too much, I retreat.

And in October, people do push. All of sudden, people feel an urge to write something about breast cancer, which of course leads to a flood of semi-informative articles and interviews everywhere - and every time I start reading, I have to stop a couple of times and shake my head because I expect journalists to do some research (their job, that is!) before publishing doubtful or even false information. Don't even think you've done something useful just because you wrote something about breast cancer, no matter how untrue. On the opposite - you create an unnecessary mystery about cancer and confuse people with wrong/contradictory information. And of course, there are the bad, bad doctors and the bad pharmaceutic industry that kills us all. Seriously. Do you really think cancer survival rates in the last 50 years improved because of tea, sunshine and positive thoughts?

If I may provoke a little more, it may even seem sexist or discriminating to talk about "women with breast cancer" all month long - in fact, about 1% of breast cancer patients are male and the lifetime-risk for a man to be diagnosed is about 1 in 1000 according to www.breastcancer.org.

If I may provoke even more, why does breast cancer awareness get so much attention? OK, it is the leading type of cancer in women, affecting about 1 in 8 women. But, there are far more tumours out there, tumours that are much more difficult to discover as they have no screening tests, and only cause symptoms when it's about too late. Tumours that kill you within months, or even weeks after being diagnosed. Why not a little more awareness for those? Because they have nothing to do with boobs?

Even among the most common cancers, many are deadlier than breast cancer: lung, liver, colorectal and stomach cancer take many more lives that breast cancer according to the WHO, and yet I have the feeling they get way less attention.

Lung cancer kills three times more people than breast cancer, why is lung cancer awareness not as present as breast cancer awareness? Why would it be considered unacceptably careless if a woman said "I don't need mammography because it won't happen to me", and on the other hand we don't mind someone saying the same thing while lighting a cigarette?

And why scaring people of cancer anyway?

Fear might be something that makes you see a doctor, but mostly, after reading the usual stuff in the usual media, the thing that crosses my mind is, "I wouldn't want to be a newly diagnosed patient or someone currently fighting cancer, who comes across this depressing bullshit."
Fact is that cancer is the #1 cause of death in developed countries, and #2 in developing countries. At the same time, another fact is that more and more patients SURVIVE.
The drama that some try to create about (breast) cancer by linking it with death is not only useless but also tasteless. How about encouragement, optimism and support? Why write about cancer and say that almost half of the patients die? Why not write that more than half of them survive? Of course it depends on the type of tumour, too, but looking at all cancers, by now overall survival beats mortality. Most patients with breast cancer survive, too, especially in the developed world.

Oh well, it looks like my vicious side has the controls today :)

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a positive, optimistic attitude and whatever will help one facing the fight, but it's good to keep in mind that "awareness" and "fundraising" should not be confused with self-promotion and making profit with things coloured in pink.
I think Dr. Michele Berman sums up my pink dilemma pretty well, and the world-saving video says it all ;) www.celebritydiagnosis.com/2011/11/is-there-pink-ribbon-fatigue

Anyway, here's the card I made tonight. As pink is not really my colour, I preferred light shades and lots of white. A few hearts and roses carry positive thoughts, while the center of the card remains the pink ribbon - symbol of the fight against breast cancer. The wish of the ladies at craftalnica is to give the cards away to Europa Donna Slovenia.

 

All in all, the card meets criteria for the following challenges:
- cheerfulsketcheschallenge
- craftalnica
- pinkelephantchallenge
- fussyandfancychallenge
- papertakeweekly
- fabnfunkychallenge
- anything goes with a twist
- alphabetchallengeblog

Now off to clean up the pink mess I made while choosing papers, ribbons and details :)

 

 

On the side note... Not that I have only bad things to say about cancer-related readings. Not at all. Last year, I came across a fantastic book by Siddharta Mukherjee: The Emperor of All Maladies.  

In fact, it was so capturing that I read it within 2 days nights. Just the right amount of interesting facts and a positive message overall. Absolutely recommendable and worth reading. A big part of the book covers breast cancer, too. And not speaking English should be no excuse - it's also available in Slovene ;)

Puzzle(d) pieces

Even though I haven't been round here much, that doesn't necessarily mean I've been lazy. Not all the time, anyway. In fact, I've stitched some new pickpoint patterns and decorated them with pearls.

I have no idea yet about how I will use them, especially not the violet one, but the others seem to be siutable for Christmas cards. Time will tell ;)

Salzburg

I decided to use the last days of September to visit my little sister in Salzburg, to try her delicious Japanese cuisine.

Even though we usually spend time at home, chatting and watching videos, I decided to make it a bit more tourist-ish this time, with lots of walking, and of course taking pictures. As the weather was nice, we went through the city center with the cathedral and the Festspielhaus ...

 

... fought our way through crowds of tourists in the Getreidegasse with its famous signboards, and the even more famous house in which Mozart was born.

 There are also many nicely decorated shop windows (with very "nice" prices, too ;))

I didn't make it to the Mönchsberg or Kapuzinerberg to catch the city's panorama from above, but, I had a walk through the Mirabell gardens, which I usually pass by. You can meet all sorts of stone creatures there.

Many of the flowers are being prepared for winter already, while butterflies are enjoying the warm autumn sun on the remaining blossoms.

Traditionally, I also visited one of my crafting paradises, Self made, and was surprised about the bill that came. Even after all this time I can never understand how buying "just a few beads" can add up so much in the end :) However my other crafting paradise, Bead Box, was still closed as I wanted to stop by one morning. It was probably for the best, if not for me at least for my wallet :)

 

Then, it was time to head "home" to Ljubljana again. One last view of the beautiful Gastein valley.

Oh and just a short note for the guys before I'm finished: just because I'm a petite girl with blue eyes DOESN'T mean you have to stalk me for my number for hours, or offer me money for anything. By NO means you're allowed to touch me or to kiss me. Just keep your filthy hands to yourself for God's sake!