Christmas ornaments 2.0

Another stitched Christmas card, one to invite you to play along in our last Fadengrafik Challenge of 2015. In December, we'd like to see your Christmas-related projects of any kind, given they include some paper embroidery.
I've prepared the card a while ago, which seemed to be a good choice as I always seem to be late on everything. At least when I have exams coming up, and a head full of crafting ideas that want to be realized. Could someone add more hours to the day, please?

Well, without further whining, here is my card for the challenge:

I've stitched the floral swirls with ornaments with regular cross-stitch yarn, replaced the stitched poinsettia with a 3D sticker and - had no further idea about how to finish the project.
The blank space next to the embroidery was just too huge to leave it empty, but on the other hand, nothing I tried seemed to fit (tries included, among others: vintage images, golden stickers, stars, snowflakes, pearls...). 
I guess this must be called a crafters' Christmas worries syndrome :)

In the end, I decided to go with another 3D sticker, one in form of a Christmas tag on which I placed a golden sticker saying "Merry Christmas". On the tag itself, I placed a tiny brown bow. Turns out the card looks pretty simple in comparison to the nerves it cost me.

challenges:
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- C.R.A.F.T.: winter
- clear it out: Christmas & glitter
- come and get it: ATG with a sentiment
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- crafty sentiments: Christmas decorations
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- creative fingers: ATG
- fabnfunky: Christmas
- fussy and fancy: words
- glitternsparkle: include a bow
- inspiration destination: ATG
- pennys papercraft: something old from your stash (3D stickers)
- robyns fetish: use some yellow and brown
- mod squad: Christmas floral
- everybody art: branch or leaf
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- winter wonderland: add some sparkle and bling
- wordart wednesday: ATG
- pile it on: red and green
- papertake weekly: colour theme (red & green), technique (glitter it up), product theme (bauble shaped)

Christmas ornament

Another quick post, this time featuring a simple festive card. 
Actually, it's a card that I had made a while back, but after a while I realized the original ribbon was fraying. I planned to replace the bow with another one, but never managed to do so due to other crafting projects. Last week however, I decided to go through my to-do stash again and realized it would be about time to get some things done.

The rest remained as it was: a vintage image of angels cut out in a circular form and placed on 3D pads to resemble a Christmas ornament. For a little bling, I added a golden border to the image and a couple of stars on the embossed background. 

challenges:
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- gem of a challenge: inspired by a Christmas song (Rajske strune, a Slovene Christmas classic)
- C.R.A.F.T.: winter
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty catz: masculine
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- crafty sentiments: Christmas decorations
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- creative fingers: ATG
- cute card thursday: fairies and angels
- fabnfunky: Christmas
- fairytale challengeblog: Christmas without red and green
- glitternsparkle: include a bow
- holly jolly christmas challenge: embossing
- inspiration destination: ATG
- pennys papercraft: something old from your stash (card)
- christmas challenge: outdoor scene
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- winter wonderland: add some sparkle and bling
- wordart wednesday: ATG

Kopanj - Radensko polje

A little autumn-leftover that has been on my to-be-posted list for quite a while but never made it online due to other projects on my mind: an afternoon trip to a lovely place that brings back memories of childhood days at my great-grandparents. 

It has been ages - literally - since I last time went up Kopanj hill. The 70 m high mix of limestone and dolomite is a unique elevation in the Karst field of Radensko polje and home to a parish church, a rectory and a tiny primary school.

Given it's a rather small hill it doesn't take long to reach te top, however there are still a couple of possible ways that offer different sights of the villages beyond, namely Velika Račna to the south and Mala Račna to the east. 

Along the way, Stations of the Cross

Verses of France Prešeren engraved to benches on the roadside. The poet has spent part of his childhood at his uncle, the parish priest, before he started his school career.

Finally, the lovely little parish church dedicated to the Assumption of Mary. It's bright interior holds a copy of Assumption of Mary by Anton Cebej as the main altar piece and an old gothic Madonna on the left side of the altar area.

On the front side of the rectory, a remembrance to the famous resident

On the back side, somebody prepared everything for winter

Further north, a plateau gives an opportunity to rest before it goes downhill again

Next on the way: Mary's Spring. A lovely little source of cold water that was remodeled to a well with a statue of Mother Mary and is said to have healing powers. I'm not sure whether it's true or not, but a sip of cold water sure is a wonderful thing after some exercise.
The plastic flowers all over are not my thing, but well... At least they show the place is taken care of.

A view as far as the Alps

Back at mom's aunt: We are two fluffy kittens, we are super cute and we want some love :)

That was supposed to be my place on the bench. As soon as I spreaded out the old sweaters however, kitty took possession.

A spot of colour

Contemplation

A lap full of cats and a kitty kiss :)

Last view towards lovely Kopanj

And autumn skies above the Alps

Conclusion: a nice escape to a beautiful spot of nature. It's good to go back to something familiar sometimes and find out that stable smell isn't the worst of all :)
I probably should be doing this more often.

Red fantasy

Without beating around long, today's card features the same background paper that I've recently used in my red & white Christmas star, only this time it's a little more visible. 

I've again used red shimmering yarn with white pearls and red rhinestones to add a little bling to the stitched pattern. 

As the red is quite dominant, I needed something to place in the right upper corner of the card, but nothing came to mind. 

Flowers? Nah. 

A sentiment? Hmmm. 

A sticker? No. 

Whatever I tried just didn't seem to fit, so I put the card aside and kept wondering. Until...

Yesterday evening, I suddenly thought of butterflies! I decided to punch four of them to match the butterfly challenge, and decorated each with a tiny red gemstone. 

A good solution after all?

I'm still not quite sure, but it's probably due to the butterflies that the red & white card loses a bit of its association with Christmas and can be used for other occasions, too. On the other hand, the white quartett doesn't interfer with Christmas either and will not be disturbing even if the card ends up wishing happy holidays.

challenges:

- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist (A2, Christmas & birthday & encouragement & thinking of you & thank you, red & white)

- butterfly challenge: butterflies + Q for quadruple

- crafting from the heart: ATG

- crafty cardmakers: winter birthday

- crafty sentiments: ATG

- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: things with wings

- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge2: ATG as long as it's Christmas

- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper

- creative fingers: ATG

- deep ocean: white and one other colour (red)

- inspiration destination: ATG

- pennys papercraft: ATG

- wordartwednesday: ATG

Blue poinsettias

Another stitched card, another Christmas motif. 
This time, I created a card featuring  a border of poinsettias and an image of birds at a birdbath that I once found at the graphicsfairy collection of vintage prints. 

Against my original plan, I used untraditional blue Christmas shades to stitch the winter motif, and finished it by adding a couple of pearls to the blossoms. As I used blue cardboard for the card, I didn't need any coloured background paper. Instead, I decided to use a tiny silver sticker to surround the stitched paper and add a little bling to the card.

Matching the card, nature decided to turn white today :) 
It's rather wet sleet than the fluffy white snow I'd love to see, but the cold temperatures sure mean it's time to bring the winter wardrobe out of the closet. 

challenges: 
- abc christmas challenge: W for wild thing
- alphabet challenge: T for Tis the season
- brown sugar: ATG
- city crafter: colour inspiration
- clear it out: white + one colour (blue)
- crafting from the heart: ATG
- crafty calendar: sparkle, bling & embellish
- crafty catz: shades of blue
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: things with wings
- craftyhazelnutschrstmaschallenge2: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- creative fingers: ATG
- deep ocean: white and one other colour blue)
- fairytale challengeblog: Christmas without red/green
- inspiration destination: ATG
- morgans artworld: monochrome
- pennys papertake: ATG
- pile it on: any holiday/celebration (Christmas)
- throug the craftroom door: ATG
- winter wonderland: 1 image, 2 papers, 3 embellishments (stitching, pearls, sticker)
- 12 months of Christmas: sparkle, sparkle everywhere
- wordartwednesday: ATG