Retirement-Thank you

Shortly, I'll be saying Thank you to my long-time mentor who is off to his well deserved retirement. I have been lucky to be on his side in the outpatients' department in the last couple of years and absorb his wonderful way of dealing with patients.
A way full of understanding and compassion, without patronizing the ones looking for advice.
A way that shows that Oncology isn't always meant to be sad or depressing - in fact, those hours have always been most uplifting to me and probably got me through the boring theory without greater damage to my goals or loss of motivation :)
The patients I got to know were extraordinary in many ways. There, too, were tears and disbelief and looking for options when there were none. Appointments that were made but not kept. But above all, there were patients proving that there is life, laughter and hope beyond the diagnosis.

For the goodbye, I prepared a little something that includes a stitched card in soft blue and silver shades, combined with a couple of pearls. Actually, I cheated a little bit with the card as I've stitched it a while ago. I only put it together now. Funny how I know that preparing things in advance saves lots of time & nerves when it comes to crafting, and with exams it's always last-minute panic :)

I love this pattern as it looks very elegant, however it was hard to find a matching centerpiece. In the end, I decided to go for punched butterflies which I decorated with some more pearls - after all, there are still many dreams to catch once you leave your job behind ;)

Unfortunately, as there's rain outside I can't get proper light conditions for the photos, so the ones here are not exactly how the card looks in reality.

As I've never made a retirement card before, I decided not to go for a personal or funny card in my first try. With all the blue however it might look like a baby card :) Or a spring/Easter one?

challenges:
- basteltanten: ATG
- basteltraum: Easter
- the pink elephant: photo inspiration
- papertake weekly: a cut above (punched butterflies)
- craft-alnica: wings
- fadengrafik challenge: calling for spring
- handmadechallenge: ATG
- abc challenge: F for festive

Spring-Easter

It's time for a new challenge at scrapping4fun, one that says "Spring-Easter". So, your task for the next two weeks is to create anything inspired by either of it and play along ;)
I've been asked again to be guest designer (thanks, ladies!), and here's a simple Easter card I prepared:

I guess I won't be making many of them this year due to lack of time, but I just had to try this cute bunny I got from scribblesdesign last month at the Path of Positivity challenge. Isn't it a funny guy, popping right out of the coloured Easter egg? :)

I coloured the image with coloured pencils and combined it with some bright background papers: a grassy one with flowers and butterflies, and a pastel one with a tiny floral pattern.
For the arrangement, I used the sketch from cheerfulsketches, which means I used a strip of green paper that I decorated with a rainbow of punched flowers with pearls. 

In the end, I added a sentiment saying "Happy Easter" on a punched orange oval, which might resemble an Easter egg.

Another quick paper-project I finished lately: for some floral touch in my apartment, I turned a glass of baby food into a little vase for the snowdrops from castle hill. After removing the original label with warm water and detergent, I wrapped the glass with a stripe of the yellow paper. On the top of it, I glued a punched border and covered it with a yellow ribbon. However, I found it a bit inconvenient to flex cardboard around the glass - you'll have a lot less trouble by using regularly thin paper when recycling your baby food glasses. 

 

challenges:
- cheerfulsketcheschallenge

- dreamvalley challenges: Easter

- creative card crew: Easter critters

- crafty sentiments: spring colours

- papertake weekly: happy... anything

- fairytale challengeblog: flower power

- allsorts challenge: flowers & pearls

- allways something creative: Easter

Serendipity in purple and white

The March challenge at Path of Positivity is looking for serendipity. What would that be?
Mr. Google says something like:

• finding something good without looking for it
• the effect by which someone stumbles upon something truly wonderful, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated
• the art of making happy discoveries

So, it's basically about finding some unexpected happiness or something dear you weren't looking for. I'm not sure whether happy discoveries are art or coincidence, but I guess a big part depends on what makes you happy in first place.
I for myself, often happen to find unexpected wonders in the small things, and in the big one called Mother Nature that provides them all. Some - like beautiful sunsets, or the sight of a squirrel - are to be admired, others - like flowers, or four leaf clovers - you can even take home and create your own little bouquet of happiness.

We also used to do lots of crafting with flowers, leaves, branches and berries when I was a child, and it gave me just as much fun as playing with "real" toys. Even better - while toys stay the same all the time (well, until they break ;)), nature changes from season to season, from week to week. And still, it's full of surprises.
It is now obvious that spring has arrived, the temperatures are rising (at last!) and the spring flowers are blooming. As I *should* be learning, the only ones I've seen were those in front of our apartment building though. However, since mom and my sister came to visit me during the weekend, we took the time and went up to the castle. Halfway on the castle hill, a spectacular view opened up: snowdrops and crocuses as far as one can see!

I remember walking through snowdrops in my great-grandparents' place when I was a child, but looking at this field of blooming flowers, I must say: it looks like I haven't seen real spring in years! Isn't it a stunning view? It didn't give me anything "material" (apart from a bouquet of snowdrops), and it's not that I couldn't live without it, but I sure would miss something if I hadn't seen it.
Could it be serendipity that made us take this path to reach the castle?

The other side of castle hill

Usually, I take one of the routes that start in the city center when I walk up to the Ljubljana castle. It doesn't take long till you are on your own, in a green oasis in the middle of the city. A quick walk during the day gives you everything you need: great views and new discoveries, a healthy rise of blood pressure and a gasping for air that reminds you of your non-existent fitness :)
A little away from the crowds of tourists, lies the Šance area of the hill. It is easy accessable through an avenue and represents what was once located inside the castle walls. However, these fortifications are long gone now, and their remains were transformed to a lovely promenade by Jože Plečnik.

It's a great place to explore bridges and stairs...

 

 ...and enjoy the views, sometimes as far as to the Alps with Triglav

 

Some more stairs in the old city center

And today's bonus: find the squirrel ;)

Sympathy & park Tivoli stroll

Just a short post to show a simple black-and-white creation.
The picture of a blooming tree is from an old calendar, I wanted to use it on a sympathy card ages ago, and fixed it on the card, but I never managed to finish the project.

Now, I decided to finish it following the sketch at freshlymadesketches. 

I decided to flip the sketch and placed a white ribbon in the lower part of the card and used a punched butterfly instead of the bow. 

To make sure it's not lonely, I placed another small butterfly on the picture and decorated both with pearls. I also placed some pearls on the places where the ribbon comes out from the inside of the card. 

To cover up the ribbon from the inside, I used an embossed paper and a punched black border. I thought of decorating it with pearls, too, but decided it would be too much glitter for a sympathy card. 

Instead, it became a simple sympathy card with many white accents and not too much black as the occasion itself is sad enough.

This would also be time to finally say goodbye to winter with one last set of photos of the classical black and white scenery. 

 

As 2015 is the 150th birth anniversary of Maks Fabiani, the great architect whose influence is visible in Ljubljana, park Tivoli holds a beautiful photo-exhibition of Art Noveau buildings in Ljubljana and its surroundings.

The work of genius Jože Plečnik can be seen all over the city, too. One of his laterns in the Tivoli promenade.

Lonely dancers in front of Tivoli castle

 

And view from atop the stairs to the promenade, city center in the background

challenges:

- freshlymadesketches
- C.R.A.F.T.: get well/sympathy/sorry
- crafty catz: dies/punches
- come and get it: emboss it

Calling for spring

New month, new task at the Fadengrafik Challenge: We are calling for spring.
Here is a little inspiration I prepared for you:

The wonderful image of the two bluetits on a branch is from an old postcard. They seem to have so much fun on the blooming apple tree!

I decided to create a matching outside with a stitched swirl that I decorated with white and pink flowers to resemble the apple blossoms. As the card looked a little boring, I added pearls and a silver sticker, and painted some foliage. 

To cover up the stitching and gluing on the inside of the card, I used some embossed paper. I hope I managed to make an acceptable spring-card in the end ;)

Now, it's up to you - show us whatever reminds you of spring. You can upload up to 3 creations and there is no limit except that of using Fadengrafik on your project. Happy crafting!

By the way, did you know bluetits are actually scavengers? They especially like to peck at the eyes. Boy, do I have talent to kill anything remotely romantic or lovely! :)

challenges:
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- alphabet challenge blog: A for apples
- allways something creative: spring
- creative fingers: ATG
- come and get it: emboss it
- creaine challenges: fadengrafik
- glitternsparkle: ATG
- mod squad: spring
- crafty catz: dies/punches
- crafts4eternity: emboss it
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- city crafter: use it up (image)
- craft-alnica: handmade flower
- crafty calendar: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: ATG
- deep ocean: furry friends
- inspiration destination: ATG
- jellypark challenges: one for the mums
- ooh la la: add some green
- that craft place: mother's day/ATG
- we do dobadoo: spring/green
- the ribbon girls: add flowers
- creative ladybirds: ATG