Winter tree

What could be a more embarrassing way to start a new (blog) year than to start it late?
Being away during the Christmas holidays, I somehow assumed that something like this might happen, but I thought I'd still have enough time between Christmas and New Year's to prepare something for the January Fadengrafik Challenge. And as I still have a couple of unused stitching projects in my stash, things should work out in the end...

Needless to say, they didn't. I did find this long forgotten Christmas tree among my unfinished projects that would fit to this month's "winter" theme, but I just couldn't come up with an idea of what to do with it. Finally, I grabbed my new winter/Christmas themed block of patterned papers yesterday, and started to play with different options. In the end, I picked a rather neutral background paper with an ornament of swirls and writings.

Matching the shimmering yarn and the blue pearls I added as I was stitching the tree, I added a layer of shimmering blue paper to the background of the main motif. As the tree itself still looked a little empty, I added a bunch of flower-shaped pearls right into the circles that supposedly represent the festive ornaments. I planned to place another one on top of the tree as well, but it turned out that a simple star is still best suited for this role.

When everything was almost done, I decided to add another layer of paper to make the card more interesting. I'm not sure whether it fits perfectly, but I thought the beige embossed paper would make a good transition between the stitched motif and the pattern in the background. Also, the embossed greenery slightly reminds me of a misteltoe.

And even though I had originally planned to place everything on a white card base, I realized that - since all the papers I used so far were somehoe cream/beige - I didn't like the shiny white in the background. I know it's just a couple of millimeters on each side, but still. As I was trying to find something more suitable, I found that this light blue cardbase could do the trick. 
As it was one of those card bases with a cutout in the front, I 'd need to cover up the inside, too, and to make sure it wouldn't be all too patterned and colourful, I decided to stick with the same beige embossed paper that I've already used on the outside.

A little contribution to the December collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.
A little contribution to the collection of hand-stitching at made with Blümchen.

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG with optional twist "trees"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- alphabet challengeblog: U for use stitching
- as you like it: ATG
- cardmania: baby it's cold outside
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: snow much fun
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas  with optional twist "something old" (stitched motif)
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative inspirations: Christmas
- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: ATG
- cutie pie challengeblog: add sparkle
- do-all kreatives: 2 entries
- bawion: winter colours
- everybody art: Christmas
- friendship challenge: ATG with optional twist "New year"
- fussy and fancy: Christmas/New year
- kreativtanten: ATG
- little red wagon: something new (new block of patterned papers)
- love to craft: ATG 
- my time to craft: something new (new block of patterned papers)
- pennys papertake: ATG
- 12 months of Christmas: ATG
- male room: blue
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- winter wonderland: snowtime
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG