Woof!

Today, I'd like to show a rather simple, colourful card that was part of the kids' corner at my exhibition. I found this adoable puppy on the internet and coloured it with colouring pencils. After that, I placed it on a matching background paper that resembles a blooming meadow.

To distinguish the motif, I used adhesive pads and additional layers of cardboard, on which I placed a decorative border with my newest punch. I think the cute little pawsteps go perfectly with the little fella :)

And even though the card is just as suitable for boys, it already found a new home with a little princess who is currently all into PWA Patrol.

Matching the flowers in the picture, a couple of hydrangea that are currently blooming everywhere. Even though they are not quite my favourite blooms, I must admit these strong violet and pink shades really impressed me. I don't think I've seen such strong colours of hydrangea before.

challenges:

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- C.R.A.F.T.: inspired by a film (PAW Patrol)
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "dies & punches"
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: boys/men
- everybody art: ATG
- friendship challenge: animals
- fussy and fancy: pamper your pets
- glitternsparkle: bright colours
- inspiration destination: ATG
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- morgans artworld: ATG
- my time to craft: down on the farm
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrap & craft: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: for the guys
- wordartwednesday: ATG

Birthday flowers

I uess I better take advantage of my not-learning-mood and finish another post for today.
This time, a card full of summer feelings that reflect in a bouquet of flowers (even though they were actually another exhibition card ;)). 
The flowers are stitched with regular cross-stitch yarn of different colours. To make the blooms a bit more visible, I softly coloured around them with coloured pencils. Additionally, I only used soft cream and beige paper for the background of my card. The swirly embossed paper in the back is another discovery I made in Wuppertal.

In some of the flowers,  placed tiny pearls that resemble the pollen.

A careful reader might notice it's a motif I use quite often compared to my other stitching motifs, for the simple reason that I think it is suitable for so many occasions. This time, as the silver sticker indicates, I made a birthday card for my stash. 

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

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: birthday
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft:  ATG
- brown sugar: celebrations
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- creative moments: ATG/birthday
- double D challenges: flowers
- everybody art: ATG
- friendship challenge: ATG
- fussy and fancy: flowers
- inspiration destination: ATG
- irishteddys: favourite motif
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- pile it on: animal/spring garden
- scrapping4fun: soft colours
- sunny day crafting: tic tac toe (flowers, pearls, sentiment)
- crazy challenge: birthday
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: stitching
- wortartwednesday: ATG

Starry, starry night

I'm not sure whether it's just me not being able to keep up with the calendar, but again, it's time to close a month and start another. And as always, with every new month comes a new FadengrafikChallenge. This time, we're having an "ATG" theme again, perfect for the first really hot days of the year. My inspiration comes in form of a zodiac card this time, and is another leftover of my exhibition collection that might be used as a birthday card and turned out to be very suitable guys' card for any occasion, too.

Rather unusually for me, I decided to stitch the main motif on coloured cardboard. I think it makes the golden yarn pop out really nicely, but it also turned out to be a horrible choice when I tried to find the perfect combination of papers for the card.

For the main background, I was determined to use another dark blue cadboard with traces of silver and gold. I found it during my December visit of Wuppertal, a perfect piece of paper for any sky, stars and/or universe-themed project. However, the two shades of dark blue seemed to be too dark alltogether.

In the end, I sacrifised a stripe of the background cardboard to make sure I could add an additional layer of shimmering cream/beige paper on the brown card base. Between the stitched image and the endless sky, I placed a layer of golden cardboard.

For some extra bling, I added a couple of gemstones to the libra motif, while I placed golden sticker letters in the lower part of the image instead of stitching the word. On the one hand, I think it gives more weight to the lower part than the stitching would, and on the other hand, I just have to start using up those stickers in my stash :)

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

More outer space inspiration: starry night above Radensko polje. I's amazing how bright the stars are once you leave the city behind, and I should probably do it moe often.

Starry or not, it's up to you now to link up your projects at the Fadengrafik Challenge. We take any theme this month, just make sure there's some stitching on what you create ;)

challenges: 

- 4 crafty chicks: birthday
- a bit more time to craft:  ATG
- gem of a challenge: boys/men
- as you like it: favourite reason to make cards (as I don't sell my cards, I make most of them just for fun - to try a new pattern, a new technique, new papers/embellishments... and to fill my stash of cards for different occasions in case I need them as a present or giveaway)
- basteltraum: men/boys
- brown sugar: celebrations
- city crafter: out of this world
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- everybody art: ATG
- friendship challenge: ATG
- inspiration destination: ATG
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- crazy challenge: birthday
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- tuesday throwdown: stitching
- wortartwednesday: ATG