30 December, 2022

Thank you

Hello and welcome to what will probably be my last post of the year. We're having a new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog, and our theme this fortnight is "Thank you". I think it's a fantastic match for the tradition of drawing the balance at the end of the year, and I hope that when you look back at 2022, you can find many things to be thankful for. 

I for myself have the feeling that this year has flown by like no other. I managed to make some progress in certain areas, but I feel like I'm forever stuck in others, and since I'm still not able to catch up with my life, it's more like going from one day to another without a knowing what will be around the corner. And I see that while not making plans is a wonderful fantasy when it comes to holidays or a limited time off, not being able to plan things can be quite disturbing in everyday life when you simply don't know how you're going to feel two days from now. 
Anyway, while I'm still far from any predictable routine, I try to keep myself busy with smaller tasks like crafting. Being on a DT certainly helps as you "have" to produce something every now and then, and for my "Thank you" project, I had indeed planned out everything. I didn't have the final concept of what I'd like to do, but I had a couple of ideas and I thought I'd just sit down and see which one attracts me most. The problem being: I kind of missed my crafting day. See, I was certain that I had another day to go in the week after Christmas, and this day would be my day to get crafty. However, when I awoke to what I thought would be my crafting day, I realized that I'd have to upload my DT project within a couple of hours. Where did the time go, and how I could spend the entire week thinking I'd still have a day to spare - I have no idea! 
What I knew was that my best option was checking if I can find some unfinished projects in my stash. Otherwise, I'd just have to admit defeat and skip the challenge. Luckily, I found this half-finished mini card in my project pile: I have cut the image of golden blooms ages ago from an album cover, and I decided to glue it onto a golden background paper for a bit more bling. I then used 3D adhesive pads to place everything on one of those 9 x 9 cm card bases that are suitable to add to a bouquet or a chocolate box. Once that was done, the half-finished card ended up in my stash. 
With the time running out, I've re-discovered this tiny card, and I decided to bring it to life. I didn't want to print a "Thank you" sentiment because I thought another layer of paper would take attention away from the golden blooms. Instead, I created a single word of thanks by placing golden stickers directly onto the card. They are a nice match to the golden elementst of my card, however, due to bad lighting conditions the photos don't do them justice. I hope you still have an idea of how the card looks in real life: bright, white, with green watercolour-like foliage and golden accents.
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16 December, 2022

Snow

Hello and welcome to another challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. We have arrived at the letter "S" today, and matching the winter season, we'd like to see "Snow" on your projects. Remember, you can link up any kind of creations as long as they feature some form of snow.
For my DT card, I opted for a quick & easy holiday card. The background paper with snowflakes in different shades of blue comes from a magazin of the Czech railways. It was part of one of their winter ads last year, and I knew I'd like to incorporate it in my crafting as soon as I saw it.
Last week, I finally got to use it: I placed those beautiful snowflakes on top of a blue sheet of paper and then glued everything onto a slimline card base. After that, I printed a simple sentiment saying "Happy holidays", and cut a piece of silver paper to go with it. I then placed the winter wishes where the railway logo used to be (which is why it's placed in such a weird position - not in the center, not in the corner). Since I made a tear in the right upper corner of the sentiment white cutting, I had to cover that part somehow. I found some white plastic snowflakes in my stash, which seemed to be the perfect solution. To make the snowflakes look a bit more planned, I placed some of them onto my card as well. 
Since it still looked a bit empty and flat, I added a couple of pearls in white, blue, and grey. I think they really do bring the card together alongside the 3D snowflakes.
That's about it from me, I thought I'd make some errands today but somehow ended up in bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day, and as I heard we might be getting a load of snow. In the meantime, don't forget to visit my DT peers to check out what they have prepared for you, and I'm sure you'll be able to draw some inspiration for your own crafting. 

challenges:
- krafty chicks: CAS
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "up in the sky"
- a place to start: ATG with optional twist "happy holidays"
- as you like it: ATG Christmas
- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG
- craft-alnica: 15-minute NY card
- crafty calendar: ATG
- crafty gals corner: tis the season
- craftyhazelnutschristmaschallenge: ATG as long as it's Christmas (optional twist "quick & easy")
- creative crafty uncles: Christmas and/or Happy New Year
- creative moments: ATG with optional twist "Christmas/winter celebrations"
- fabnfunky: last-minute Christmas
- friendship challenge: Christmas time
- intaas: winter
- kreativtanten: Christmas slimline 
- make my monday: winter card, not Christmas
- morgans artworld: ATG
- moving along with the times: Christmas
- my time to craft: other December celebrations (New Year)
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: Christmas
- 12 months of Christmas: ATG with optional twist "patterned paper"
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02 December, 2022

Reduce (make it CAS)

Hello and welcome to another task of the Alphabet challenge, I'm your host tonight and I'll be picking the winners, too, so you're more than welcome to play along. To make sure you have plenty of creative freedom, I've chosen a rather simple "Reduce" theme, which can also be translated as "make it CAS", meaning that I'd like to see simple designs on your projects this fortnight. I'm sure you'll enter loads of winter/Christmas related cards, but in fact you can work with any occasion you like, and it doesn't have to be a card either. Without further ado, here's my DT inspiration for the CAS challenge (the lighting has been horrible in the past couple of days due to clouds & rain, but I'd like you to imagine an overall bright card with no weird shadows and/or grey tones). 
I knew that my challenge would be placed in the winter/Christmas time, but nevertheless, I decided to create a sympathy card. Or rather: I saw this motif of a falling feather on the cover of one of my scrapbook albums, and as I went along with it, this sympathy card happened. I didn't want to throw this beautiful motif away, so I carefully extracted it from the album cover. However, after I removed all the words, it ended up being this weird size - too narrow for a regular card base, and too small for a slimline. I solved the issue by adding an additional layer of light lilac paper. It doesn't show very well in the pictures, but the lilac colour goes well with the feather, and the lilac paper itself has a subtle shimmer. 
Since the feather is quite high on the card, I decided to surround it by a couple of tiny gemstones. Then I placed a sentiment in the lower part of the card base. I worked with a simple condolence message which I framed with a tiny piece of silver shimmering paper. 
What do you think of the result? Shimmer might be a weird flex on a sympathy card, but I thought it would complement the motif of a feather, which was the main reason why I used the paper in the first place. I understand that not everybody might be comfortable with a shimmering condolence card, but I thought there might be people who like it. Also, I tried to incorporate the glitz it in a very small amount while leaving lots of empty space in my card, so that the main focus would be on the falling feather, the subtle branches in the background, and the emptiness that remains when somebody passes away.

challenges:
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