Moody Christmas

It's a rather unplanned post from me today, but I've created a rather unplanned card that I'd like to show you. Its main motif is a traditional St. Nicholas song, which I found in an old book of Christmas customs. 

The little musical sheet seemed perfect to be featured in one of my crafting projects, so I cut it out and glued it onto dark blue card board. Then, I began to look for matching papers in my stash. I soon found a dark blue paper with snowflakes and stars, but the piece was a bit too small to place onto a white card base. I began searching for a brown paper that would match the huge snowflake in the lower corner, with no avail - all the browns I could find were either too ocher or too chocolaty.

I extended my search beyond monochrome papers, even though I doubted that I could combine the prominent Christmas pattern with any other pattern. However, I got lucky in the end. Now, I could give half of my crafting supplies away to the one that makes the perfect guess, but I doubt that I'd have to part with anything. Truth is, the sandy crumbs that I placed onto the card base as well as behind the Christmas carol are just that: sandy crumbs! I found a beach-themed patterned paper that goes perfectly with snowflakes in a  winter night. Who'd have thought!

Once that was done, I added a bit of extra bling by placing a metal star right next to the Nicholas song. I fixated it with a tiny thread which I turned into a ribbon. I cut the ends to random lengths that would hide bits of the text, but I think anything shorter wouldn't give the effect I wanted. 

Overall, I think the recycling project turned out quite nice. I really like the dark, moody theme that emerged - not the typical Christmas atmosphere maybe, but given that it's pitch black before 5 pm, the dark starry sky isn't even that far from the truth.

In the end, I'll show you some hats the snow created on leftover dandelions. They look like little gnomes to me and were such a fun sight on my walk through the winter wonderland.

challenges: 

- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "any holiday" 
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- a place to start: ATG with optional twist "blue Christmas"

- cardz4guyz: shades of brown

- cards4galz: snow time

- crafty calendar: Christmas
- crafty catz: ATG
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper

- creative inspirations: Christmas time

- everybody art: blue & white

- fabnfunky: ATG Christmas
- friendship challenge: Christmas

- kreativtanten: atypical Christmas colours

- little red wagon: let it snow

- love to craft: ATG 

- pennys papertake: ATG

- 12 months of Christmas: optional theme "ATG Christmas"

- through the craftroom door: ATG

- winter wonderland: ATG Christmas

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