Tropical

May already! With a new month just a weekend away, it's time for a new task over at Fadengrafik Challenge, and it's going to be an easy "ATG" this time. As summer is almost around the corner, I thought I'd create some sort of tropical feeling for my DT card. 
Again, it 's a recycling project: this time, I used the box of a home fragrance I purchased lately. It was a "just in case" purchase as my current scent hasn't run out yet, and it certainly doesn't belong to the category of necessary buys. It wasn't one of those "I'm going to recycle this" buys either, on the contrary: To be perfectly honest, it wasn't until I unwrapped it at home that I realized this beautiful tropical print on the side of the box. But then, I just had to cut it out carefully and do something with it. 

Since the cut-out is rather elongated, I had a bookmark in mind at first. However, I remembered I had some pre-stitched patterns in my stash. Eventually, a light yellow swirl matched the Tiare flower print and I could start to wonder about how to use them both on a card. 
In an attempt to fill the empty squares in the middle of the stitched motif (I didn't like the idea of using huge pearls or gems) I tried a couple of paper roses, and since I liked the result, I decided to stick by it.
One of the major problems turned out to be a product-related sentiment that was placed in the middle of the cut-out. If I wanted to cover it, I'd have to place the stitched swirl atop the Tiare print in a way that would almost completely cover the floral image. I could have turned the stitching a bit, but it seemed to look even weirder, so I let it be. 

Instead, I started going through my stash for some suitable background papers. The light blue polka dot cardboard is one I planned to use in another project of mine, but as it lay there on my table, it caught my attention, and I decided to try it for the card as well. 
I probably wouldn't pick it from my paper pile as I started to build my card around yellow shades, but on the other hand, the blue gives a nice (even though a bit unusual) contrast, while matching with the tiny bit of blue in the box cover. 
Next, I struggled with the background cardboards that would enhance the stitched piece as well as the cut-out, and since I didn't want to mix too many colours, I returned to the yellow tones I had planned to use initially. 

After some more thinking, I placed the two pieces onto each other in a way that makes it possible to see the Tiare, while I tried to make use of a white paper lace I've once gotten over at Scrapping4Fun to cover up the product print. 
The tiny piece of white paper was buried in my stash for ages as I just didn't seem to know what to do with it, but eventually, I managed to place it in a way that made sure the printed sentiment wouldn't be visible anymore. Considering it's my first use of paper lace, I'm quite satisfied with how it turned out in the end.  Only after gluing it onto the background, however, I realized the lace comes in multiple layers, meaning I could carefully separate them and keep one layer on the card, while others might become useful in some of my future projects - what a wonderful recycling surprise!

And even though the card was now technically done, I just had to add a couple of white pearls to bling up the stitching. Morning dew or a splash of seawater - you decide ;)

A little contribution to the April 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.


Some more lace creations that place themselves onto blue background just as they please...

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "wedding/anniversary"
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- a place to start: ATG
- as you like it: flowers or ribbon (flowers for me - they're so easy to use on various projects and seem to give this special extra to basically anything)
- basteltraum: flowers
- brown sugar: spring
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: brads, sequins or gems
- kreativtanten: ATG
- little red wagon: everything's coming up
- love to craft: ATG 
- moving along with the times: floral
- my time to craft: spring flowers
- pennys papertake: ATG
- pile it on: lots of layers/use scraps
- scrapping4fun: ladies
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: spots & stripes
- use your stuff: yarn/string/twine
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG