R for rainbow

Who is already counting the days until Christmas? Who has prepared everything already - written all the cards, decorated the house, baked all the cookies? Who is still procrastinating, or decided to keep it simple this year?

I must admit that I haven't paid much attention to the festive season during the past years. We have always done our share of card-making and decorating when we were kids, but once in University, I was usually just glad to have a couple of days off that I could spend at home doing nothing. I still like to create Christmas projects, I will have have fun in the snow and walk through the illuminated city, but I'm absolutely fine with spending Christmas day on the couch back home, or even behind my desk in my apartment. I assume "the circumstances" will not make it different from any other year to me, but I can imagine that for those who are used to having people around it may be more difficult to adapt. 

However, as hard as it may be to keep the distance to your dear ones, I find it even harder to believe that "the Rona" cares about whether there's a holiday coming up or not (or what time of day it is, for that matter). I'm sure technology can be used to safely catch up with those who matter, and focus on the true message of Christmas away from all the bling and a hundred necessities that don't rerally matter. 

There will be enough time for hugs once the numbers go down, but with healthcare systems all over the world being dangerously close to a breakdown, it's definitely NOT the time now. Give the frontline workers a break, and give yourself a break, too: a break from all the errands you don't have to do this year and all the chores you can skip because nobody will come over anyway (because, aren't we all just looking for an excuse to skip chores?). 

To bring a bit more colour in this cold and grey season, we have a perfect Rainbow theme over at the Alphabet challengeblog. 

I thought about creating a non-card project for the longest time: a rainbow pendant came to mind, a 3D rainbow made of God knows what which I'd combine with cotton clouds and crystal beads. I also went through my stash of jewelry supplies and contemplated about creating a rainbow bracelet.

However, I soon returned to papers and prepared a card. 

I was looking for a rainbow themed digi at first, but in the end, I decided to create the rainbow myself. Different ideas came and went, but I couldn't even make up the occasion, let alone the technique I'd like to use. In the end, I opted for a festive card and the rest just happened somehow.

The idea didn't come overnight, though. Rather than that, it came in creative flashes that slowly melted together. The combination of kraft and colourful papers was a major theme from the beginning, but I didn't quite know how to realize it. 

In the end, I tried a Christmas tree that would be made of tiny punched pieces of different colours in order to create the rainbow-ish transition. I found just the perfect heart-shaped punch in my drawer, and in a funny coincidence, the brown that comes after green (and technically isn't part of the rainbow), fits perfectly to create the trunk of the unusual Christmas tree.

However, the card took me way longer than expected. I went through my paper stash to find all the tiny leftovers because I really didn't want to punch straight into a big new sheet of paper. It's a perfect way of using up paper pieces that you just can't throw away, but the effect on your remaining paper stash will be absolutely non-existent. Also, I had to balance between using all colours of the rainbow to create the perfect transition and not pick too many colours because I'd be limited by the width of the kraft card base.

Starting at the top, I glued each heart to the kraft base, continuing from top to bottom. I did try the shape before gluing, but I decided to work without marking the rows with a pencil, which is why the hearts aren't all even and at the same distance. Also, if you look very closely, you'll see that the tree tends to lean a bit more to the right side of the card base. To finish off the card, I placed a golden star sticker atop the tree, as well as a Christmas greeting underneath. 

Surprisingly, I'm quite pleased with how everything turned out. In an unexpected turn, I especially like how interesting the 3D "flakes" look because it somehow never occured to me that the glued paper pieces would actually stand out on the card base. 

challenges: 

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- allsorts challengeblog: Christmas flowers/wreaths/trees

- crafters castle: ATG

- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG

- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- creative inspirations: Ho Ho Ho!
- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: ATG

- kreativtanten: ATG Christmas

- love to craft: ATG 
- morgans artworld: ATG

- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: Christmas
- 12 months of Christmas: optional theme "ATG"
- sketchy challenges: Christmas
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- use your stuff: mood board (Christmas, kraft/brown)
- vesela hiska: holiday season

- winter wonderland: ATG Christmas
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG