Green or gold

Better late than never, here's my DT creation for the current Alphabet challenge. We're looking forward to seeing your projects featuring "green or gold" this fortnight. 

After much consideration, I've opted for gold to create a simple Christmas card. The theme comes handy as we'd like to see your Christmas projects over at the Fadengrafik challenge - you know, the guys who want to see your stitched projects every month. I used a stitching pattern which depicts a simple nativity scene and stitched with brown and gold threads. 

To enhance the main motif, I placed it on a piece od dark brown cardboard. I used a kraft card base to add another shade of brown, and searched my stash for a matching background paper. I was looking for something calm and almost invisible, but not too boring. Meaning: I wanted to have a pattern that wouldn't interfere with the stitching. I've tried different versions of snowflakes, stars, and winter trees, but nothing seemed to work. 

In the end, I discovered this piece of beige paper featuring glossy snowflakes. The snowflakes are rather small but still visible and create an impression of blurred polka dots in the background. 

Unfortunately, it turned out that they show quite poorly in the photos, but in reality the gloss effect is actually very pretty. Upon shifting the card, the snowflakes can be seen a little better, but the shimmer is still much better in reality. I had a bit of issues with the lighting when taking my photos, too, so the card isn't actually as dark and cold as it seems. Rather, it's a warm combination of brown and beige shades - the lower picture comes pretty close to the real thing.

Fun fact: due to the amount of brown shades I used, I had a little moment of scare when uploading my DT work. For whatever reason, I began to think our theme said "green or brown" once my project was done, meaning I freaked out a little when I went to the DT blog and I started to read the challenge theme as "green". I had no green in my card, and there was no way to conceal my mistake by creating a project with green within practically no time! Only a few seconds later it hit me that the theme continues with "or gold" and that I do, in fact, have gold in my card. Phew!

Once the confusion got sorted out, I could finally focus on getting ready for my summer rehabilitation. I might be quite busy during the next few weeks, but I'll check on your creations every now and then - just make sure you get the colours right to avoid issues with your blood pressure ;)

And since I can't get away from brown today... a bit of winter preparations. 

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

challenges: 

- a bit more time to craft: ATG

- as you like it: favourite way to add stitching (I like to do real stitching on my cards and I'll use it to create a main focal point in my crafting projects. It might be a scenery like this, but I'll also bling up stitched ornaments with pearls & beads to create an eye-catcher. I prefer real stitching over anything else because it's a way of relaxation to me. On the other hand, the process of creating a stitched card takes much longer than any other technique I use, meaning I *might* claim anything not using a needle and a thread isn't stitching at all. This being said, I'll normally give my stitched cards to special people who I know will appreciate the time and effort I put into creating them.)

- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT

- crafters castle: Christmas in July

- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: for the boys
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas with optional twist "snowflakes"
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper

- creative moments: ATG
- cute card thursday: ATG

- everybody art: ATG

- friendship challenge: squares

- love to craft: ATG 

- pennys papertake: ATG

- 12 months of Christmas: optional theme "Christmas in July"
- through the craftroom door: ATG

- winter wonderland: Christmas music/songs (it's as corny as it can be, but I'll go with "Silent night" here - just a simple nativity scene with no embellishments, no bling, no bright colours. Even the snow falls silently. And honestly: is it even Christmas without that classic?)
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG