Look up

Slowly falling back into crafting mood, I thought I'd create a card for my stash today. 
Unlike my usual projects, however, I decided to have some inspiration from my challenge-list. Long story short told, it looks a little quiet in blogland right now and as I was linking up my green decoupage box yesterday, I couldn't help but notice that the "Space" challenge over at the crafty chicks only had a handful of entries. 
What a perfect opportunity to realize a project I had mind since I had heard the news of the passing of Stephen Hawking this spring. Immediately, I thought it would look pretty to place one of his thoughts on space-ish background to create a piece of decoration or a simple card. Unable to find the right kind of background paper, I put the idea aside for a while.

Today, I took a block of purple, pink, blue and green background papers I've bought recently and picked one that might as well resemble a part of a colourful nebula somewhere in our universe. 
After placing it on a longitudinal card base, I printed out one of Hawking's wisdoms.

Once I figured out where to place it, I spread colourful star-shaped gemstones from my stash all over the background. And since stars weren't enough, I added another round of normal gemstones as well. 

For the quote, I've firstly chosen a purple background, but as it didn't seem to fit in the end, I changed my mind for a shimmering silver cardboard. To make it pop out a little more, I placed the cardboard on 3D pads.
The quote itself was appealing to me for its motivation and optimism, which would qualify the card for a number of different occasions. 

Considering all the beauty that is hidden out there, it's absolutely no wonder that throughout the centuries, great minds felt attracted by stars, celestial bodies, their relationships and secrets. Until today, whether it is for the purpose of "just looking" or systematic research, there's probably nothing as calming as a look up to the stars, alongside with the knowledge that everything is going to be OK, no matter the obstacles.

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

Sometimes, however, it is the moon who will steal the show with it's wonderful hide-and-seek performance. A bit shy at the beginning...

... the Lady in Red soon showed herself in full beauty during the last total lunar eclipse this July. 

I must have been a little naive thinking I'd be the only one waiting for her on the castle hill, but in the end, I was really surprised by the number of people who showed up to whitness the show - many of them bringing along blankets, chips and beer. 

Rising above the radio/TV tower with Mars tagging along...

Tons of pictures and a couple of nasty mosquito bites later - all kinds of lighting devices on my way back home...

... and a beautiful change of colours, slowly going back to its full luminosity.

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG with optional twist "space"
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- gem of a challenge: pink
- allsorts challengeblog: boys/men
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- everybody art: use a sentiment
- friendship challenge: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: boys
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- male room: birthday
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG