At the sea

What could be better than a day or two at the seaside, especially in this hot summer time?
In my last crafting projects, I decided to revive a stitching pattern that I've used two years ago. The maritime card with a sailboat and lots of bling meant quite a lot of work back then, but when it was done it was all worth it. 
Last week, I decided to stitch the boat again. However, I wanted to avoid creating an exact copy of my last card - even though I've used exactly the same yarns. Therefore, obviously, the details would have to make the difference. 
I picked more flowers than last time, focusing on light blue, cream and even green shades. Additionally, I searched through my stash of pearls and gemstones for something suitable. 

When the stitching was done, I coloured the seaside motif with coloured pencils.

Then, I arranged the flowers on a blank card, just to imagine how it would all look like in the end.

And while blossoms would cover two corners of my card, I decided to leave the other two empty, except for a shimmering snail shell underneath the waves.

When it came to the background paper however, I soon realized I had nothing in my stash that would fit to the dominating pastel shades. After trying everything from maritime themed papers, to fantasy prints with a touch of flowers, the one last thing I had in mind was everything but maritime/summer themed: a bunch of blue, beige and silver Christmas papers. 
And somewhere among snowflakes and winter trees, I found a light blue paper with tiny silver sprinkles that would go fine to the image itself, and to the embellishments as well.

Once the paper task was done, I could finally glue everything together and set my fantasy free while adding blue and white pearls of different sizes. I even added some silver gems and stars from a collection of Christmas embellishments.

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

As we have just entered August, this card should also be an invitation to our newest Fadengrafik Challenge. We have an "ATG" theme this month, meaning you make link up any of your projects given they have some kind of paper embroidery on them. 
In need for more maritime feeling? Always good for a short break: lovely little Piran.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "monochrome"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- basteltraum: colour challenge
- brown sugar: ATG
- C.R.A.F.T.: summer
- come and get it: summertime
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative inspirations: ATG
- creative moments: Summer
- cute card thursday: ATG
- everybody art: summer
- friendship challenge: summer, sunshine, beach & sea
- fussy and fancy: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- ooh la la: ATG
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: bon voyage/vacation
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open DT challenge: ATG