24 May, 2023

Dragonflies

Hello and forgive me for the late appearance over here. I didn't feel well all weekend (no particular illness, just persistent pain issues and feeling overwhelmingly tired), meaning I spent the past days in bed. I'm trying to get back on track again, but I barely find the energy to fulfill bassic evreryday tasks.
Anyway, while I've been away, a new challenge has started over at the Alphabet challenge blog. Our theme this fortnight is "Dragonflies", which is self explanatory. Include a dragonfly on your crafting project and you're in for the game. 
For my DT project, I decided to prepare an embroidered card again. I haven't made paper embroidery in a while, and I was really looking forward to making a card that is not some sort of last-minute CAS project. 
I took this beautiful dragonfly pattern from my stash, contemplating which colour of yarn I should use on it. As I couldn't decide between silver and gold, I decided to have a look at my paper stash and see which papers would better match the dragonfly motif. I found this beautiful pattern of leafs and tiny dragonflies, which I matched with a golden shimmering background paper. To go with the colour scheme, I took a piece of green shimmering paper, and golden yarn for the embroidery. I spent an overall of two evenings pricking and stitching the pattern while listening to ASMR videos on youotube, creating my own ASMR bubble. 
Once I was done, I placed the golden dragonfly onto 3D adhesive pads to distinguish it from the card base. I decided to add a strip of patterned paper in the background while leaving part of the white card base visible, because I think it makes the entire project look more airy. Also, I think the white card base goes well with the white cardboard in the background of the golden dragonfly. In the very end, I decided against adding a couple of rhinestones as I thought I'd limit the shimmer to the two papers and the dragonfly motif.
A little contribution to the collection of hand-stitching at made with Blümchen.

challenges:
krafty chicks: CAS
C.R.A.F.T.: ATG
crafty catz: ATG
critter crazy: ATG animals
little red wagon: flora or fauna
nachteulen: ATG
path of positivity: inspired by nature
sparklesmonthlychallenges: things with wings
male room: animals
use your stuff: use a technique (paper embroidery - I'm not sure whether it fits your definition of technique, if not, feel free to remove me from the link-up)

06 May, 2023

Cats

Hello and welcome back to the Alphabet challenge. Before we start with the new challenge, I'd like to thank everybody who played along at the challenge I hosted. It was a small selection of participants, but I really hope you all had fun with your black & white projects. For the letter C, we have an easy task again: we'd like to see "Cats", so make sure to feature those furry creatures on whatever you create.
I for myself needed quite some time to navigate through that theme. First, I wanted to use one of those beautiful vintage cat images to create a multi layer vintage card. Then, I thought I'd use paper embroidery. I picked a couple of cat patterns, but right before I could pick my favourite, I happened to catch a nasty angina from my mom. I could barely breathe and swallow for about a week, and needless to say, I hade to put my crafting on hold. Once I was OK again, I didn't have the time to focus on something super time-consuming. Looking for alternatives, I remembered this beautiful background paper with paw prints from my stash. I'm not sure whether it features cat or dog paws, but when I looked them up on the internet, I figured that both look kind of similar. I placed the paper onto a kraft card base, and started looking for cat elements that would go with it. 
I thought I'd go with something simple to make sure the paper in the background will still be visible, and in the end, I opted for a cat silhouette. The image comes from the internet, I transfered it onto black cardboard and fussy cut the outlines. I then placed it onto a piece of white cardboard, which I enhanced with a piece of black paper. I then used 3D adhesive pads to mount the image onto the card base. Once that was done, I tried to figure out a way to embellish the cat silhouette. I tried paper flowers and punched butterflies, but nothing seemed to fit: no matter what I did, the card looked too thick, too busy, and overall, too "blah". 
In the end, I took three black rhinestones and placed them into the left upper corner. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it's the best I could come up with. I hope my cat creation will inspire you to join us in our link-up, if not, you may find your inspiration in this princess that resides at mom's aunt's place. 
If neither seems to work for you, I suggest you have a look at what my DT mates have prepared :)

challenges:
crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "masculine"
critter crazy: ATG animals
love to craft: ATG 
path of positivity: ATG positive with optional twist "inspired by nature"