26 January, 2024

Vogue (fashion)

Hello to the newest challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog, and without much further ado, we're heading right onto the runway. The simple reason: our challenge theme this fortnight is "Vogue", meaning we're eager to see your fashion-inspired projects. I'm your challenge host this time, and I'll be picking the to creations, too, so I'm really looking forward to seeing your designs.
For my DT inspiration, I decided to use this beautiful digi from All Dressed Up for winning one of their challenges years ago. From the moment I saw her I wanted to put the "Beret girl" into action, and here she is ready to face the spotlight. Since I couldn't figure out which outfit would suit the young lady, I began my card with picking the background paper. As I was indecisive about the colour scheme, I opted for a neutral grey designer paper. I picked a part that features a bit of stripes and a bit of abstract text, and placed it onto my card base. 
I then went through my stash of paper flowers, as I knew I'd want to use quite a lot of them to embellish the card. I liked the purple shades most, which is what lead to my project looking as it does: I coloured the girl in different shades of purple, with a couple of pink accents. After that, I added matching background papers - one in light purple, and a darker one with polka-dots. 
Once that was done, I began placing the flowers into the corners of my image. When I figured out their respective spots, I glued them onto the card, adding a bunch of punched paper leafs. 
Then, naturally, I added gemstones in different shapes and sizes to bling up my project - the majority of the was bought on my pre-Christmas shopping spree. I still felt like something was missing, so I went through my sticker stash to look for a matching piece or two. I picked a huge silver swirl which I cut in half: I placed one half in the lower part of my card to fill the empty corner, and with the other half, I decided to decorate the inside of the card. 

Just a little fashion-related footnote before I'm off for the weekend: the purple shawl in the background was made by my little sister. I consider myself beyond blessed that she is obsessed with knitting and crazy enough to create random pieces of clothing "just to try the pattern". I can not possibly imagine how she manages to turn wool into projects that are so evenly, and she'll always surprise me with her knowledge of different yarns and their manufacturers. The particular scarf is not only mega beautiful but also super soft, and one of my favourite pieces in my wardrobe. Glory to the knitting queen!

challenges: 
krafty chicks: all occasions
as you like it: pearls or gems (I like both actually, but I see that I'm using more gemstones in my projects recently. I guess it's that not only they enhance a creation with a bit of colour and depth, they also have this shiny "bling" factor that pearls miss, and I seem to like this kind of bling lately)
crafty catz: ATG
do-all kreatives: ATG
double D challenges: sparkle and/or shine
little red wagon: never been used stuff (gemstones)
morgans artworld: ATG
moving along with the times: new craft item (gemstones)
nachteulen: ATG
pennys papertake: ATG paper
traumfabrik: My sassy girl

12 January, 2024

Under something

Hello and welcome to another challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. I can imagine that many of you are exhausted after a creative winter/Christmas/New Year's time, so we're having an easy theme for the "U" challenge: our request is simply to create a project that is inspired by "Under something". What exactly the "something" will be, is entirely up to you. On our challenge site you'll be able to see that the DT has presented various projects for you, and I'm sure you'll discover some that inspire you in your own crafting journey. 
For my DT work, I'm showing you one of the remaining Christmas cards. The little desert village is a rather small motif I found on the internet ages ago. I finally put it into action by printing it and cutting it to the size of a kraft card base. I then coloured it with coloured pencils, adding a bit of blue in the background to represent the night sky. 
Once that was done, I picked my Christmas stickers from my stash. At first, I placed a huge golden star in the sky atop of the village, which should represent the Christmas star. After that, I just kept adding stars of different shapes and sizes, until the whole upper part of my card was full of stars. Some of them are "full" stars, others are merely star silhouettes, and for the tiniest stars I even used golden filler dots that usually remain after you use up other motifs such as the letter "o" or the number "0". For a bit of gold in the lower part, I then added a sticker sentiment saying "Merry Christmas". 
My idea was a card that would resemble the feeling of being "under the starry sky" or "under the star of Betlehem", and I hope you can take it as a bit of inspiration when joining us this fortnight. 

challenges:
krafty chicks: Christmas
crafty calendar: Christmas themed
crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "no design paper"
creative crafty uncles: Christmas/New year
love to craft: ATG 
pearlysparkles: CAS
pennys papertake: ATG paper