Take me dancing

Not that I've ever dealt much with the sewing machine (except for the handicraft classes at school), but I decided to make a dress anyway some time ago. 
Of course, I couldn't possible create it with fabric, but as the vast majority of my exhibition cards would be stitched ones, I wanted  to have at least a few on which I'd present differennt techniques. Among all techniques that came to mind, iris folding is one that is both flat (must-be characteristic for cards that are on display behind glass frames), and still gives a very unique result overall.

After some consideration, I picked the scheme of an elegant dress from my stash. I decided to work on it with a quite simple colour combination, using a red splash-patterned gift wrapping paper and a swirly embossed background paper in a very soft beige. 

As an iris folding card requires an aperture for the motif, I decided to use one of those tri-fold card bases that come with  an oval opening at the front. 
Of course, I would be working on the dess-shaped aperture in the embossed sheet, but the additional opening in the background made sure the overlapping paper stripes wouldn't pile up on the card itself. The tri-fold base, once glued together,  would cover up the iris folding nicely once the card was done, and at the same time, a tiny strip of the red background would give a frame to the embossed background paper.

Most importantly, I would get rid of at least one of those card bases that keep sittting in my stash for years. I've no idea why I bought them and no use for them either. Or maybe I should just start making more of thoe iris folding cards...

Anyway, once the dress was done, I decided to decorate the upper part with two tiny gemstones.

And as the card still looked a little too empty, I added another 3 gemstones in two opposite corners, and voilà - the dress is ready just in time for a Valentine's date.

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

And as red is such a vibrant colour, it is of course useful not only for cards, but also for traffic signs. Still, I'm not quite sure what this one is supposed to mean :)

challenges:
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "love"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- allsorts challengeblog: love is in the air
- brown sugar: Valentines day
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty calendar: 2 or more layers
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "love is in the air"
- crafty gals corner: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative inspirations: love
- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: love
- deep ocean: love is all around
- everybody art: circle/square
- friendship challenge: party
- inspiration destination: ATG with optional twist "embossing"
- little red wagon: shades of red
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: love
- my time to craft: love is all we need
- path of positivity: shades of red
- pennys papertake: ATG
- pile it on: 3D embellishments (gemstones)
- scrapping4fun: love
- crazy challenge: love
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: love/Valentines
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG