Dragons or dinosaurs

Please don't ask me what I was thinking when I picked "Dragons or dinosaurs" as the task for the current Alphabet challenge, because I honestly have no idea. 

Looking back, I thought it would be nice if I could challenge myself with a masculine dragon card. As I expected this specific theme could be a challenge to many of you, I decided to add the dinosaur-option to make it a bit easier. However, once the theme was set, I just couldn't find the proper masculine dragon digi. 

Next on my list was this fantastic TP dragon freebie - however, the whole toilet paper hoarding thing is almost forgotten by now and I couldn't wrap my head around this image either. I began to lean towards a fun project for kids featuring a cute little dragon, but it didn't really resonate with me either. 

For the record: yes, it was me who has chosen the dragon theme. And yes, I had no idea what to do. Time for an emergency exit!

In my despair I began to explore dinosaurs. Again, I began looking for digis and stuff in my stash. I found a cute scrapbook paper featuring dinosaurs, which would be a perfect match for a children's birthday card. But somehow, I didn't feel like creating a card. As I searched some more, I remembered a specific napkin I had: a pair of dinosaurs in a desert-like scenery. 

Slowly but surely, things began to fall into place: mom has saved some flower pots from the trash recently, and I have already reserved some for my plants. However, I didn't like the colours and planned to upcycle them some time in future. As I needed to come up with a dinosaur project soon, I figured I might as well use some napkin decoupage on one of the pots.

I covered the weird mud-yellow base with several layers of white acryllic paint, and cut the motifs from the napkin: a pair of dinosaurs, as well as some cacti and stones. Once I decided on where to place the cut-outs, I glued them on the pot using a mat varnish. 

Naturally, I made sure to seal the most important motif first, meaning I created a rather ughly tear in one of the dino's comb before I realized it was one of those napkins that are especially nasty to work with: super thin stuff that is ripping at every opportunity. Not to mention the wrinkles!

Nevertheless, I managed to decorate the pot without further accidents, leaving the varnish to dry overnight. Next day, I added a couple more layers to make sure the decoupage will sustain scratches and else. 

And somehow, I think my little Yucca palm fits quite well to the world of dinosaurs. 

challenges:

- krafty chicks: CAS

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT
- craft-alnica: animals

- crafty calendar: masculine
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "cute as you like"
- crafty sentiments: ATG

- friendship challenge: wild animals

- love to craft: ATG 

- path of positivity: change your environment (I'm changing my micro-environment currently by adding plants to my apartment. It's not that bad yet, but I think we can talk about "more than the average number" of plants here. As I still try to present them in an orderly manner, I find myself looking for pots, swapping pots or creating "new" pots by upcycling old ones - which again is a change for the actual environment as usable things don't end up at the landfill.)

- through the craftroom door: ATG

- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG