25 February, 2022

Polka dot angel

Did you know there are around 400 words in the Oxford English Dictionary that start with the letter "X", while about 120 of them are actually being used in everyday language according to lexico.com? I learned the hard way when I had to pick a theme for the upcoming challenge at the Alphabet challenge blog. As I wanted to make sure the word prompt will give you a bit of creative freedom, I opted for "Xanthic", which defines as follows: "of, relating to, or tending toward a yellow colour".
Meaning, you can play along in the Alphabet wheel this fortnight as long as you feature something yellow on your project - just make sure that yellow is the main colour of your project (or at least a prominent accent), not a single tiny yellow dot, if you know what I mean.
For my DT creation, I thought I'd feature some spring flowers. Daffodils and crocuses came to mind, but in the end, I decided to make something completely different. I took this lovely embroidery pattern of an angel from my stash and pricked a piece of white cardboard accordingly. Then, I used a yellow yarn for the dress, which I complemented with white for the wings, as well as light yellow for the face and gold for the halo. 
Once the stitching was done, I placed the little angel onto a layer of yellow cardboard. For the background of the card, I used a yellow polka dot paper. To round up the card, I decided to add a few embellishments: at first, I added a couple of paper flowers and a golden sticker that goes in the top left corner. To enhance the polka dots, I then added a couple of pearls in colours that match the colour scheme of the card: yellow, white, light green and brown.
The lower right corner may seem to be forgotten, but I left it empty intentionally because the card has no recipient yet. In case a sentiment (or a name) will be needed, I'll be able to add it in that corner. On the other hand, I like the card as it is now so I might as well leave the card as it is now.
For the moment, I'll just hope that the little angel can spread his wings and bring a sense of safety to those who need it most while being faced with war and destruction. And maybe, even a bit of commom sense to grown up men who behave worse than any toddler having a temper tantrum?

challenges:
- krafty chicks: all occasions
- as you like it: favourite occasion (I mostly create "just because" cards since I believe you don't always need an official occasion to let somebody know that you're thinking of them. They also give me the greatest artistic freedom because I can pick whatever motif/colour/style I feel like creating in that particular moment.)
- cards4galz: things with wings
- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "add flowers"
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- little red wagon: make it stitched
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19 February, 2022

White stars

I can't remember the last time I walked through a winter forest, admiring the first spring flowers. Partly, I still need to distribute my daily time and energy wisely in order to not overstrain myself. On the other hand, I just prefer to stay away from people - more so now as the restrictions loosen or don't seem to be followed in the first place. This one technically wasn't a walk either, just a drive on a forest road with mom, but we stopped at the sight of snow roses. Many of them are in full bloom already, and look like white stars on the bald forest floor. 
Between sunshine and clouds, I managed to pick a couple of buds that we later dropped off at mom's elderly aunt. The forest isn't far away from her home, but since she isn't able to get there anymore, I allowed myself to bring a bit of spring in her direction. The only little vase she had available is one with winter ornaments, but since they're almost covered with greenery, it doesn't disturb the overall image. 
A contribution to the Friday Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen.
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11 February, 2022

Winter

Welcome to a rather long post from me today, and in order to keep it as compact as possible, let's get straight to the point by saying: Winter is here!
Not the actual season though, as the first spring flowers are already in full bloom. No, "Winter" is our theme at the Alphabet challenge blog this fortnight. For my DT inspiration I prepared a little photo album, but let's start at the beginning...

A family friend has lost her dog in a stupid car accident in the end of last fall, and naturally she was devastated. We don't visit as often as we used to due to health and family issues on both sides, but we would go for short walks every now and then with her furry companion. On one of those walks in the beginning of last year, I managed to get a couple of nice pictures of her dog, which I intended to turn into an album at some point. I've never created anything like that before, so I postponed over and over again. With Christmas approaching, I thought I might give it a try at last and create a Christmas present, a booklet featuring the best shots for her to have as a rememberance of that beautiful winter day we had together. The ideas I had in my mind were still very vague - until she called one day to say the dog was gone. The gift was never meant to be a memory of a lost dog, but here we go. 
I began to prepare everything I'd need, selecting the pictures and the papers that would go with them. Once that was done, I needed to come up with a way to print the photos. With a very spirited dog, most of the pictures needed to be cut and/or cropped, which would be quite inconvenient  to be printed at the local photographer. Instead, once I figured out the ideal size of each picture, I decided to make a quick pre-print on scrap paper using my home printer. I then made a few more adjustments, and later printed the pictures on photo-paper that came with the printer. I never thought I'd use those sheets and almost threw them away recently. Yay for all the crafting hamsters who believe everything *might* be useful one day!
Once the printing was done, I cut each photo to the right size, and started placing them onto different sheets of patterned paper. Most of them come from a winter collection (which matches the walk through winter wonderland), but I've also added some random sheets from my stash. 
There are 12 album pages in total, and I won't go into detail about every single one as the pictures speak for themselves. What they all have in comon is that I decided to present the photo as an eye-catcher, meaning the background papers would be mostly pastel shades with minimal pattern. Among the dog shots I'd place a few landscapes to fully sum up the beautiful sunny day. As you see, most of the photos are in original colour, but I edited some to be black & white, which seemed suitable for the last picture especially.
The album starts with an excited dog face and ends with the two walking towards the afternoon sun. Between are different scenes of him playing in the snow, running around or just waiting for the next command (which he wouldn't follow anyway). 
I contemplated adding embellishments for quite some time: a few silver stickers here, a punched border there, maybe a couple of pearls, a piece of lace or ribbon, a wooden snowflake or a few paper flowers... In the end, I decided to go without. On the one hand, I was afraid of making the album too thick and difficult to handle, on the other hand, I didn't want to take attention from the main motif(s). The only shimmer I incorporated can be found on the background papers in form of glitter snowflakes and silver swirls - enough to melt with the shiny snow in the pictures, but still discreet enough to blend in with the scenery.

Once I was done, I struggled to get the optimal light conditions to document my project. I did the best I could on a relatively sunny winter day, to no avail. This is the best I could come up with, but let me tell you that in reality the album is really bright with white and blue shades that are not leaning towards a cold, blue-ish pallete. 
In the very end, I wrapped the album already as I meant to stop by her house, only to learn that our friend ended up in the ER due to a bad fall & fracture. Fortunately, she managed to alert family, but she had to spend quite some time in the hospital meaning I couldn't deliver the gift personally due to visitor restrictions. However, I managed to drop the album off at the reception who organised for the album to be brought to her room. Later, I learned it arrived safely, and I was more than happy to hear the gift was well received.  

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- a place to start: ATG with optional twist "add a critter"
- as you like it: true love or fabulous friendship (apart from creations I do just for fun, I'll mostly design for friends & family as I feel like it gives me a broader spectrum of motifs to work with. Love is too often reduced to red roses and hearts, while crafting for friends gives me more artistic freedom to work around their favourite things and patsimes.)
- love to craft: ATG 
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