T for traffic

One year gone, another one on the horizon. It's my turn to host the first challenge of the year over at the Alphabet challengeblog and it will be my task to pick the winners, too.

For the letter T, I thought I'd not pick the traditional "trees", "teal" or "things with wings". Instead, I opted for a bit of a brain tease with a "traffic" theme. I hope it won't be too much of a challenge, and there's really no need to be afraid as you can create any project you wish using anything traffic related: vehicles, traffic scenes and signs, traditional vs. "green" forms of transportation... Set your fantasy free and show us what comes to your mind when you think of traffic! 

I for my part knew from the very beginning that I'd like to work with one particular digi. It's the digi of a truck by scribbles designs which I received as a prize over at the Path of Positivity ages ago, and I decided to embed it onto a CAS card. I like the combination of heavy machinery and the load of hearts, and think it makes a perfect masculine Valentine's card, or even a New Year's card with a twist. And I certainly hope the new year will be generous with everything good!

I coloured the motif with coloured pencils as usual, using two different shades of red for the hearts. However, the card seemed a bit too empty and I couldn't figure out how to resolve the issue without adding elements that would disturb the main scene. I thought of a sentiment or a corner embellishment, but nothing seemed to work the way I wanted. I tried heart-shaped gemstones that should match the hearts in the truck, but they caused way too much distraction with their bling.

Not knowing what to do, I just put the card aside for a while. I already figured out I'd like to place the image on a kraft card base, and suddenly I remembered the colourful hearts I used for my rainbow themed Christmas tree. I wondered whether I could punch two hearts in two different shades of red - and they turned out to be the perfect solution! Not too large, not too small, and visibly two different colours (unlike the colouring). 

But the card was still a bit too empty. 

Finally, I retreived traces of black coloured pencil from a sharpener and carefully blurred them underneath the truck to make sure the vehicle and its load don't just float in the air. It helped a lot to complete the scene, but I also added a few dots here and there to turn the grey/black stain into some kind of gravel road. 

In the end, I hope the card clearly brings across the "Loads of love" message. Honestly, it seems a bit as if the hearts have been dumped in the middle of nowhere, rather than unloaded at somebody's front door :)

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG

- a bit more time to craft: ATG

- crafty sentiments: ATG

- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: ATG

- path of positivity: rejoice (I will not go with a single big bold positive thing here, since I believe that joy/happiness consists of all the beautiful things along the way, no matter how small - just like there have been good moments in 2020 if you look very closely: moments of self-reflection, loads of time to work on things you thought you'd never have the time to, slowing down a bit in this crazy world. I must admit I was losing it at certain points, but then again there were those tiny things that kept me going one step at the time. Also, did you realize how many people found relief in their pets? And if our domesticated roommates aren't the definition of unconditional joy/love, I don't know what is! 

Still, I hope that 2021 will be generous with joy for everyone. After all, we have a vaccine on the horizon and more of them to come and that alone should be a reason to throw a party (sometime later once everyone is safe and things get back to normal:))

- pennys papertake: ATG

- through the craftroom door: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG