Purple and green

You may say what you want, but In my opinion purple and green don't really match. I've lately seen a couple of really wonderful cards with this combination, but I never thought I could do anything like that. Until I thought of crocuses.
I decided to stitch them with shimmering yarn in green and purple, coloured them with colouring pencils, and combined them with matching background paper.

Unfortunately, the shimmering isn't obvious on the photos, but it's quite strong in reality.

For the central stamens, I've chosen a couple of pearls instead of stitching.

Other embellishments include punched corners with pearls, green ribbon and butterflies, but apart from that I didn't want too much distraction from the main motif.

The green ribbon was meant to end up on one of my spring cards as soon as I saw it on the jam jars a lovely lady gave me for Christmas. I've said it before and I think I'll never change: I'm a hamster when it comes to crafting :)

However, Christmas is long gone and it's time to change seasons. Even though crocuses are out-grown by snowdrops and primroses, they are among the first spring flowers to show up from under the snow. With this spring/Easter/birthday card it's time to say: Spring is in the air :)

challenges:

- 4 crafty chicks: things with wings
- 613 avenue create: ATG + twist (birthday)
- allsorts challenge blog: purple
- allways something creative: birthday
- butterfly challenge: ribbon
- come and get it: lots of layers
- crafts and me: ribbon
- craft-alnica: hand-made flower
- cute card thursday: floral delight
- fabnfunky: ribbon and lace
- fairytale challenge blog: sewing
- fussy and fancy: tic tac toe (dry embossing, ribbon, pearls)
- ooh la la: something green
- papertake weekly: bingo (ribbon, gems, punches and punches, glitter, bloom)
- the pink elephant: ATG
- really reasonable ribbon: purple and green with ribbon
- inspiration destination: ATG
- city crafter: use it up (green ribbon)

Flags

Challenge #36 at scrapping4fun wants to see the colours of your country's flag.
After being featured in the Happy birthday challenge, I was asked if I wanted to prepare a little inspiration as a Guest Designer, and of course I wanted :) It's a great honour for me to be part of such a creative team, and it turned out to be a real challenge to me.

At first, to figure out which flag to choose. Since I was born and raised in Austria, but with Slovene roots, it was quite complicated for me as a child to figure out where I belong. Most of my childhood, being threatened and insulted on a regular basis due to Slovene language, I never felt welcome or wanted in Austria. Advice like "go back where you came from" wasn't really helpful because - I was already there.

It all made me feel more Slovene and less Austrian, even though I knew Slovenia only from visiting relatives during holidays. By the time I entered high school, I stopped thinking about things like nationality. When it came to sports, I was happy with Austrian results in skiing and ski-jumping, even though things were quite tense at times, especially prior to elections and anniversaries.

After high school, my wish was to study medicine, and as Austrian universities were overcrowded with German students, I diverted to Slovenia. I was surprised to see how the environment takes over your life: I do follow the news on both sides of the Alps, but the information one catches during the day - discussions, opinions, jokes, gossip - is connected with Slovenia. Needless to say that nobody comes close to Tina Maze or Peter Prevc ;)
Within a couple of years, I got so used to living here that when I go home for the holidays, I miss Ljubljana after a couple of days. I don't feel the hostility anymore, it's rather the everyday's routine I have established in Slovenia.
To be perfectly honest, one has to say that the situation in Austria changed rapidly during the past years. It's all about cooperation and connecting now, and makes it hard to believe what one person in politics can do if taken seriously.

In the end, I decided to make two cards. For both of them, I've chosen my favourite technique: paper embroidery.

The Austrian colours were easy: I stitched a heart with shimmering red yarn and combined it with white and red papers. In the end, I added a couple of rhinestones.

The Slovene colours were tricky: in my opinion red and blue don't match, so I really struggled with this one. I picked the polka-dot blue background paper and stitched two red hearts for the central motif. 

To create a transition between the two colours I stitched a silver ornament which I decorated with blue and white pearls. 

Finally I added flowers that would resemble the three golden stars on the Slovene coat of arms.

For comparison, here are my templates: 

Republic of Austria

Republic of Slovenia

 

You might ask: Do I have a flag? Yes.
Whenever I can, I visit cycling races to support Jani Brajkovič, and for this occasion I've bought a Slovene flag. It travelled with me all over Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy when I cheered for my boy and his team(s).
Later, I bought some more flags: an Asturian one for Chechu Rubiera, the sweetest guy you can ever meet, and a Texan one for Lance, who as cancer survivor probably played a big role in my decision to study medicine and brought me to cycling in first place, and turned out to be... Well, I still have to figure out that one...

My flags in action at the Tour de Romandie 2010 in Moudon, Switzerland

 

And the Slovene flag atop the Ljubljana castle on February 8th, Slovene cultural day or Prešeren Day, the anniversary of the poet's death.

challenges card 1:
- basteltanten: Herzenssache
- crafty sentiments: bling it on
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty cardmakers: love
- deep ocean challenges: love is all around
- fadengrafik challenge: Valentine's
- fairytale challengeblog: sewing
- fussy and fancy: all about love
- glitternsparkle: gems & glitter
- robyns fetish challengeblog: square cards
- inspiration destination: ATG
- jellypark challenges: love is in the air
- just inspirational challenges: love

challenges card 2:
- basteltanten: Herzenssache
- crafty sentiments: bling it on
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty cardmakers: love
- crafts 4 eternity: two's (two hearts)
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- deep ocean challenges: love is all around
- fadengrafik challenge: Valentine's
- fairytale challengeblog: sewing
- fussy and fancy: all about love
- glitternsparkle: gems & glitter
- robyns fetish challengeblog: square cards
- inspiration destination: ATG
- jellypark challenges: love is in the air
- just inspirational challenges: love

A touch of summer

I must have a problem with the way seasons come and go, what other explanation could there be for painting green bug-cards in the middle of winter? Well, maybe it's because bugaboo has such sweet digi stamps that I can't hold back ;)
For todays' card, I picked a scene with bugs on a flower, and coloured it with coloured pencils. I planned a card in blue shades mostly, but as the image turned out to be predominantly green, I decided to change the background papers, too. 

I used a green wrapping-paper with grass that matches with the central motif, and arranged a couple of butterflies to match the sketch at sweet sketch wednesday.

 

It results in a simple card that makes one dream of flowers, sunshine and laying in the grass.

challenges:

- sweet sketch wednesday
- crafty calendar: ATG
- cardz4guyz: kick back and relax
- creative fingers: ATG
- papertake weekly: ATG
- 4crafty chicks: hand coloured image
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- catch the bug: ATG

Love is in the air

I've coloured another image last night, and used it today for a Valentine's card. This time it's a bugaboo digi that I won at cheerful sketches last year. I coloured the young couple with coloured pencils and added tiny pearls on the girls' shirt to make it look like buttons. 

Even though I originally planned a blue polka-dot background, I later changed my mind completely. I picked a beige floral paper that I've bought years ago (literally!), and combined it with another beige/brown paper. The sketch is #252 from sketch saturday, and for the arrangement itself, I followed the 3-2-1 recipe challenge at catch the bug: 3 word sentiment, 2 flowers, 1 image.

I've chosen a short, simple sentiment, which I combined with a glitter heart. To decorate the corners, I decided to take some daisies - they fit the background in colours and style. Only later I realized that the upper flower is pretty huge, so I cut off the stem a little bit after taking the pictures.

To say which song inspired me is a hard one. The tune that currently runs in my apartment (apart from Swan Lake) is Ella Fitzgerald, but she is the Queen of jazz for a good reason - her magnificent voice sang so many wonderful songs that it's simply impossible for me to point out a single one. For the time being, it would be With a song in my heart for my calmer moments, and The very thought of you for when I need a little more swing.

challenges:

- catch the bug: January recipe challenge 3-2-1

- basteltanten: Herzenssache

- use your stuff: inspired by a song (Ella Fitzgerald)

- pinspirational: photo inspiration

- crafty sentiments: include a heart

- ABC challenge: C for cupid

- dreamvalley: Valentine's
- papertake weekly: ATG
- sketch saturday
- scrapping4fun: all about love

Little dragon

A quick card for Meljen's current challenge. It says "Team Spirit" and wants to see the colours of one's favourite team.
As I don't really have a favourite team, I decided to go for Ljubljana's Olimpija. I'm neither into basketball, nor ice-hockey, soccer or handball, but the green and white colours are perfect for the little dragon that I got from Meljen's Designs for my win at Just Inspirational Challenges last year. The dragon also happens to be the symbol both of Olimpija and the city of Ljubljana. Even though the dragon of Ljubljana was really evil, eating peoples' animals and children until he was defeated by Saint George, this one looks perfectly cute and absolutely harmless ;) 

For the card, I've chosen to follow sketch 216 from sketch saturday. The image turned out to be a little too big to add a banner of stars (or anything), so I only added a couple of butterflies which fit the digi. 

As I worked on the card, I've accidentaly torn the lower corner a little bit, so I covered it up with a flower and added some flowers on the other side, too.

I'm not sure whether it's true or not, but some people say Ljubljana would be the only city in the world to have a monument for the mothers in law - the Dragon bridge ;)

 

challenges:
- meljens design: team spirit
- sketch saturday: sketch 216
- robynsfetishchellengeblog: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: monster mash
- clear it out challenge: ATG

Fadengrafik-Challenge #2: Valentine's

As you might have noticed, the Fadengrafik-Challenge for February is online. This month's theme is "Valentine's Day", so you're welcome to show us whatever Valentine's Day, love, romance or *I like you* means to you. Enter your stitched card here to get a chance for winning some really cool prizes.
This is a little inspiration I prepared:

I stitched the red roses a long time ago, and coloured them with coloured pencils, but then I never used them. Now, I made a pretty simple card with it: basically I only added a stripe of red background paper with swirls and a couple of white pearls.

Love sometimes doesn't need lots of decorations, or even words. It's all about the actions we take in every days' life. After all, there are 364 days in a year next to February 14th ;)

challenges:

- ABC challenge: C for cupid
- pennys papercraft: ATG
- allsortschallenge: flower power
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- basteltanten: Herzenssache
- glitternsparkle: ATG
- that craft place: ATG
- C.R.A.F.T. challenge: Valentine's Day, love
- jellypark challenges: love is in the air
- robynsfetishchallengeblog: ATG

Swan Lake

Did I mention I love swans? I'm not sure what it is, but they do have a very special elegance, something truly majestic about their movements and looks. I like them when they're grey and fluffy, and I love them when they're grown up and glide on the water like some fairytale creatures. 

I like their long take-offs and spectacular landings. It sure isn't easy to get airborne with such a massive body and balance this weight!

Especially, I like to watch them when they take time to clean their feathers, i.e. give me opportunity for an extended photo-shooting.

Did I mention my most listened-to song as a child was "The Swan" by Camille Saint-Saëns? My sister used to play it on her violin countless times over a long period of time, and it still gives me goosebumps. Probably one of the sweetest melodies I know.

And did I mention I love Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilych Tschaikovsky? What a great piece on love, promises, magic and betrayal! I lately found myself watching it over and over. No wonder I got all excited when I saw the ballet is on the schedule of the Ljubljana Opera/Ballet in April. Yay! Above all, it's also a great background-music for crafting ;)
Personally, I prefer the happy-end version (of course) and while browsing through youtube I found two interpretations that are especially wonderful to me:

Swan Lake starring Yulia Makhalina & Igor Zelensky

Swan Lake starring Svetlana Zakharova & Roberto Bolle

With swans on my mind, I decided to make a white-in-white Valentine card. I stitched a heart with silver yarn and combined it with pearls. 

Chosing the background paper took me almost as long as the stitching, but in the end I picked the one with swirls. In the lower part of the card I placed a lace and flowers, combined with my newest punch and some more pearls. 

All these embellishments however made the upper part of the card look a little boring, so I decided to punch the edges and add some gemstones. I still didn't like the outcome though. In the end, it was the tiny silver sticker that satisfied me. 
Overall, the silver-white combination with glitter and pearls actually does remind me of the enchanted Swan Queen.

As the card turned out well and I have no more thoughts on it, my dilemma is now focused on Swan Lake itself: I simply can't decide which version of the above I like better. One has to say Svetlana's technique is superb, but Yulia is doing her job very well, too. And since I like certain scenes and music of both performances, I guess I'll just have to watch them both alternately.

challenges:

- deep ocean challengeblog: lace & pearls
- inspiration destination: ATG
- pennys papercraft: ATG
- allsortschallengeblog: flower power
- glitternsparkle: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: facets of crafting
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG
- creative fingers: ATG
- fairytale challengeblog: something with a heart
- crafty catz: stitching
- the ribbon girls: romance
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- that craft place: ATG
- allways something creative: glitter
- robynsfetishchallengeblog: ATG
- come and get it challenge: texture
- jellypark challenges: love is in the air
- C.R.A.F.T challenge: Valentine's Day
- ooh- la-la creations: once upon a time (Swan Lake)
- just inspirational challenges: love
- wedodoobadoo: romance
- bunny zoe crafts: hearts
- scrapping4fun: all about love