N for navy blue

As I have re-opened my crafting corner after a long health-related absence, I decided to take it to the next level and apply for a DT spot over at the Alphabet challenge. I do believe that I'm fit enough for a regular commitment and hope to get along well with the creative crew, but I also have to admit that I selfishly believe that a pending obligation is what is going to keep me peeking into my stash every once in a while :)

Long story short, I'm in for the newest challenge over at the Alphabet challengeblog and we're at the letter "N", meaning it's time to show us your "navy blue" projects. 

I must admit I was a little bit confused by the theme at first. I do create with shades of blue, but navy is quite dark to me and I rarely use it in my creations. Also, I didn't know what exactly I'd like to work with. Of course, paper came to mind, but I didn't find lots of navy blue supplies in my paper stash, except for the remains of dark blue cardboard. I have a variety of dark blue beads so I thought about creating a piece of jewelry, or maybe napkin decoupage in combination with dark blue acrylic paint. In the end, I did what I usually do in this case – I went to bed. 

Upon waking up in the morning, I knew exactly what I wanted: a sympathy card with a stitched silver cross on white cardboard, a navy blue background, and a couple of paper flowers to complete the scene. 

However, I soon realized the remains of navy blue cardboard were too small for what I had in mind, and since I didn't have another one in stock I had to go paper shopping first. And even though I needed this one sheet only, I returned home with a bunch of goodies – ooops!

Among everything else, I got myself quite a few navy blue papers, and the one with the prominent floral pattern turned out to be such a lovely find that I simply HAD to use it, even though it meant I'd have to come up with an entirely new project.

Entirely new? Not exactly. I did stick with the sympathy theme because I believe those sad cards don't always have to be black and white. In fact, they don't even need to be (too) sad – I like to incorporate a little colour or a not-so-sad motif/pattern for a sense of comfort during a hard time of saying goodbye.

I've chosen a part of the paper that would fit nicely on a white card base and added a piece of navy blue cardboard to the background. This way, the tiny strip of card base that is still visible looks like it is part of the pattern itself.

Once that was done, it took me quite some time to figure out how to finish my card. I've been looking for a matching quote, but I soon realized that any long(er) text would probably interfere with the background.

I decided to print a simple "sympathy" message, but I just couldn't find the right font for it. Everything was too bold, too thin, too curvy, too blah... Until I just started picking random fonts to see whether I'd find anything suitable – and I did. I've already forgotten the name of this one, but I think it's a perfect match for the flower doodles. 

To make it stand out a little, I placed it onto another strip of navy blue cardboard, which elevates it from the rest of the card. 

I might have wanted to place a couple of pearls here and there as I always do, but I held myself back this time since I came to the conclusion that the card doesn't need any kind of bling. Just a calming combination of white and navy blue.

challenges: 

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- cardz4guyz: CAS
- crafty catz: ATG

- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- everybody art: monochrome

- love to craft: ATG 
- morgans artworld: ATG
- pennys papertake: ATG
- sketchy challenges: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG