At it again

I haven't been able to contribute to the Fadengrafik Challenge lately as the pricking and stitching takes quite some time, and I just didn't seem to be able to slow down enough for a project like this. After having skipped a couple of DT tasks in the past months, however, my guilty conscience made me get crafty over the weekend. I took this month's pattern and started to plan my first pick-point card in a while. 

I thought I'd duplicate the embroidered border on a sheet of white cardboard, and place it on the top resp. the bottom of my card while using a digi as the focal point. I picked this cute little Bugaboo monster from my stash of pre-printed images. All I needed to do was cut it to the right size. With the rose, I was leaning towards using red as my main colour, meaning I picked a red background paper and a piece of patterned paper with hearts that would enhance the digi itself. The hearts aren't as visible as in my recent anniversary card, but I think they still set the tone for the card in the making. 

To get a break from pricking, I coloured the guy first with coloured pencils and glued the image onto the background paper. Only afterwards, I opened my box of yarns to find some matching threads for the stitched pattern. 

Since I felt like there's quite a lot of red in the card already, I opted for grey and silver yarns, with the exception of the middle swirl. Also, I think the grey shades match with the grey I used in the digi. I used metallic yarns for a bit of bling and added a few extra pearls/gems to make the embroidered pattern pop. 

Still, something didn't feel quite right. I'm not sure why, but I just didn't like the outcome. The digi was fine, and so where the swirls in the top and bottom part of my card, but it just didn't work for me. Something was off and I couldn't point at it, no matter what. On the other hand, I didn't want to create a new centerpiece, or stitch the pattern again in a different colour. (And honestly, I wouldn't have time for it either, meaning I'd have to skip yet another DT task.)

In a moment of frustration, I flipped the card in a 90 degree angle. And suddenly, the monster seemed to have enough space to breathe. I guess the height of the image came just too close to the stitched patterns as long as I had the card standing vertically. Once the card was in horizontal position, the digi had enough space in all directions, which I think took away all the tension in my creation. Who would have thought that such a small change can make such a difference?

A little contribution to the collection of hand-stitching at made with Blümchen.

challenges: 

- krafty chicks: all occasions

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: ATG
- allsorts challengeblog: any celebration, no birthday

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT
- crafty catz: ATG

- crafty gals corner: for the ladies
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper

- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: ATG

- fabnfunky: girly
- kreativtanten: fantasy

- love to craft: ATG 
- love to scrap: no rulz

- pennys papertake: ATG

- through the craftroom door: ATG

- wortartwednesday: ATG

- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG