Spooky

Another quick card, one of the last leftovers from my sping exhibition. This time, I'll clean up the children's section with a Halloween card. 
In an attempt to create something fun and cute, I used one of Bugaboo's wonderful digis. For something that's not on the menu every day, I've picked this bunch of friendly looking monsters that stopped by for a party. As always, I coloured it with colouring pencils.

To make the image pop out from the white background, I used red background paper and a couple of triangular paper leftovers which I decorated with golden stickers.

To distinguish the white background from the card base, I added another layer of cardboard, this time in yellow.  

Aren't those guys simply adorable?

As there was still plenty of empty space on the card, I decided to add a little note in the right lower corner. However, since I'm not really into Halloween, I thought the silver sticker should say "Happy birthday" instead. 
Apart from my personal attitude to the event, my decision has a very practical reason: it makes the card suitable any time of the year, for any little guy or girl who is fascinated by monsters.

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

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "masculine card"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: Halloween
- allsorts challengeblog: Halloween
- cardz4guyz: Halloween
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty calendar: Halloween
- crafty cardmakers: spooky
- crafty catz: ATG
- creative inspirations: autumn/Halloween
- creative moments: ATG/birthday
- deep ocean: Halloween
- friendship challenge: autumn/Halloween
- inspiration destination: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- love to scrap: frightfully fun
- morgans artworld: ATG
- my time to craft: Halloween
- pennys papertake: ATG
- pile it on: fantasy
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Autumn at its best

Another long-term project that I managed to finish lately, however, this time it should not be entirely my fault. 
During my first visit to Erlangen, I managed to find a fantastic bead shop and stocked up with supplies accordingly. Among my new possessions were beads for a brown "hedgehodg" necklace featuring dagger beads and rocailles. However, as I've never worked with dagger beads before, I didn't quite know how many I'd need. Also, as they'd be charged per piece amd I wanted to avoid bankruptcy, I decided to take a certain amount of beads to see how far that would get me - if necessary, I could always come back for more later.
However, I turned out to be so busy in and out of hospital that I never really started beading until I was home. Of course, when I ran out of beads, coming back for more was not an option and all I could do was put the necklace aside and hope that maybe I'd get the chance to visit Erlangen again. When I did, of course, one of my first ways led me to the bead shop. Again, I only started beading when I was home, but this time, the amount of beads was sufficient. 

For the necklace itself, I've chosen a simple spiral string technique that featured rocailles only in the original pattern. However, I replaced one bead with a dagger in each row, creating a prominent swirl in the necklace.  

In the back part of my creation, I decided to follow the original plan - partly because I didn't want to have daggers all around my neck and partly to keep the material costs low. 

 In the end, I glued the ends into silver closing plugs and added a lobster clasp.

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

Due to the fact that my second Erlangen experience turned out to be a *little* strange, I can't help but be reminded of it every time I see the necklace. Based on its shimmering brown shades, it might as well remind me of the most beautiful autumn one can imagine...

A little contribution to the gallery of sky images at Raumfee.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- creative inspirations: autumn/Halloween
- creative moments: ATG/birthday
- everybody art: small gifts
- friendship challenge: autumn/Halloween
- glitternsparkle: autumn
- inspiration destination: ATG 
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: autumn
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: autumn colours
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- pinspirational
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Something sweet

Today, I'll leave paper crafting for a change and present a wood decoupage project I've done a while ago. Actually, I've purchased this box in a pair ages ago and always knew I'd use it someday, but somehow, I never came across the right napkin. 
Finally, when I came across a fun one with tiny party-themed motifs, I knew exactly it coud be used on a plain white background and still look nice - just what I've been looking for all this time.

Needless to say, the most time-consuming part of my crafting was cutting those tiny elements from the napkin. Once this was done, I used ivory paint for the box and applied the cut-outs with a matt lacquer. 

Thanks to the tiny pictures, I could combine the same motifs on each side of the box without repeating myself, making sure each sides looks different.

In the end, the only question was what to do with the box itself. For a while, it served as a decoration on my shoe rack, but with the time, I thought I'd have to find a better purpose. 
The task was quickly solved by mom, who always makes sure I take something to eat with me every time I visit. As my "food parcel" always contains something sweet (preferrable something she remembers I like), my little box is now filled with those super yummi Kinder Schoko Bons I can never get enough of :)

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

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- creative moments: ATG/birthday
- everybody art: small gifts
- inspiration destination: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- pennys papertake: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG