Autumn flowers

Today,  it's going to be a different kind of projct in my corner: a decorated piece of driftwood that I've picked up at the seaside last year. Despite immediately thinking how pretty it would be with a bunch of flowers that would create some kind of mixed media, I've kept it in my stash for more than a year before I finally took the time to figure out what this "bunch of flowers" should look like.
Needless to say, my try to do "some kind of mixed media" is rather simple and beginner-ish. And that being said, I decided to stick with basic embellishments from my cardmaking and jewelry stash only, which would be paper flowers and beads. 

My first challenge turned out to be figuring out my preferable colour for the flowers, meaning: what kind of "flower bunch" did I want at all? 
Since my idea was to create a decoration for mom, I had to find out what colour she prefers without actually asking her. I know that she finds violet shades depressing and didn't think she'd want to have blue flowers around either, so my main decision was to be made between pink/rose/purple and orange/yellow/red. Long story short told: after a "random" chitchat which led to mom's conclusion that the latter combination fits almost everywhere and would therefore be generally better for decorations, I knew my task. 

Taking out my box of yellow, orange and red paper flowers, I picked different shades and sizes of flowers, trying to align them between the cracks in the bark. Once that was done, I took out my jewelry boxes to look for matching beads.
Additionally, I punched a couple of leafs which I could place in between the blooming flowers in case the blooms and beads alone would look a little too boring.

Then, I first glued the flowers to te bark, making my way from one side of the wooden piece to the other. When this was done, I added the different beads to create a little distraction, followed by the leafs as the final touch. 

And then, I just kept adding beads until I thought I had enough of them: Big beads, tiny beads, brown beads, orange beads, beads in the cracks, beads atop of the flower petals, beads underneath the leafs.

The step-by-step process allowed me to slowly work my way towards the final image, which I didn't really have in mind yet when I started. Also, it gave me the chance to work with liquid glue which I normally don't use as I prefer duct tape for my paper projects. 

And finally, I thought this would be enough of everything. Not quite the mixed media I see from real masters of the craft, but still I fun thing to do way outside my comfort zone. And who knows, maybe, when I grow up, I'll dare to add more - a different approach, a different decoration, a different technique, a different result?

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

challenges: 
- 4 crafty chicks: ATG with a twist "happy fall"
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- allsorts challengeblog: autumn glory
- alphabet challengeblog: N for nature
- as you like it: favourite season (I really like every season as each of them brings certain joys to me, but as we're currently having fall, I'll just stick by this one - of course, this counts for warm autumn days with blue skies, colourful trees everywhere, and lots of things to harvest, by no means it includes the rainy, foggy days... even though they, too, have something magical, but usually, I'll just be cold, and not in the mood to leave my apartment at all ;) and probably, that's what makes fall so beautiful to me: the contradiction it brings with a beautiful goodbye, a colourful dying, an ever-present feeling of transience)
- C.R.A.F.T.: autumn
- craft-alnica: autumn colours
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "colours of autumn"
- crafty gals corner: ATG with a twist "fall"
- crafty sentiments: fall colours
- create and inspire: ATG
- creative moments: ATG with a twist "fall colours"
- cute card thursday: autumn
- everybody art: orange/brown
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- love to scrap: ATG
- modsquad: fall is in the air
- moving along with the times: autumn
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: autumn
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- pinspirational something different (different technique)
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG