23 February, 2024

Xtra love hearts

Welcome to another challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog, and without further ado, we'd like to see hearts on your creations. As always, feel free to show us whatever technique and project you like, just make sure to follow our very seasonal challenge theme.
With  the warm temperatures outside, I decided to create some ice cream for you. Specifically, a popsicle made of white chocolate with a little touch of raspberry. For my project, I used a piece of patterned paper with loads of tiny hearts, which couldn't be more perfect for our challenge theme. To make it a focal point of my card, I made sure to keep the rest of my creation pretty simple: a white embossed background with swirls, a piece of red paper to frame the image, and a couple of shiny pearls for a bit of bling. 
But even though I thought I was done, I just couldn't help thinking that the card was missing something. As the popsicle didn't pop from the white background as expected, I decided to draw a thin red line along the patterned paper. The border between motif and background is now defined more clearly, but I'm not sure whether I like the result. I obviously can't use 3D adhesive pads to raise the popsicle as everything is already glued together, but I'd appreciate your ideas on any solutions that come to your mind. 

challenges: 
krafty chicks: all occasions
613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "love letters"
a place to start: ATG with optional twist "mononchrome"
as you like it: feminine or masculine (I like to create both types of projects, but I certainly make way more feminine things. While masculine creations usually present a challenge for me, meaning I have to focus on making it masculine, I like how I can set my fantasy free when I'm working on girly projects: flowers, pearls, gemstones, patterned papers, and all that jazz. I consider the CAS hearty popsicle to be a feminine project, too, but it's fun to think that it could be also suitable for a boy/men, showing that certain things like love for ice cream are universal and can not be attributed to one single gender.)
CAS on Friday: male/boy
crafty calendar: add a heart
crafty catz: ATG
crafty gals corner: add a heart
creative inspirations: ATG with optional twist "for a loved one"
double D challenges: patterned paper
everybody art: birthday
lil patch of crafty friends: ATG handmade 
pearlysparkles: hearts
pennys papertake: ATG paper
scrapping4fun: ATG
male room: Valentines/use a heart

09 February, 2024

Weddings

A bit later than expected, here comes my DT inspiration for our new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. With valentine's Day around the corner, there are huge amounts of flowers availible at the local supermarket, and blogland is swarmed with tons and tons of hearts. Our theme for teh letter W is "weddings", which should fit nicely into the lovey-dovey season. Of course you don't have to feature hearts, and I'd be most excited to see any of your wedding creations, but I went for the classic approach here with a stitched heart pattern for my DT work. 
I've stitched this particular pattern many times before, and I like the swirls around the heart image, so I knew what was awaiting me. Once the pricking was done, i sewed the outline with a shimmering silver yarn. After that, I added a couple of white pearls to the swirls. For the background, I worked with a design paper that is covered in silver hearts of different shapes and sizes, many of them giving away a nice shimmer if you tilt the card a bit. It goes nicely with the main motif, which I elevated by using 3D adhesive pads. 
I thought I would be finished after that, but as the border between the two layers didn't really do it for me, I decided to add a tiny silver sticker to frame the heart image. I think it looks much better this way, and it doesn't really bother me that the sticker border is actually from a winter/Christmas collection as it's made from tiny stars. 

On the side note, the card comes not only late for the start of the challenge, but also late in general - it was meant to be a wedding card for my sister who got married in December. I didn't manage to finish it back then as I had some unexpected health issues and literally didn't know if I'd be able to attend at all until travel day. I'm glad I did though, as I finally got to meet all of the Kiwi the in-laws, not to mention that it was a very lovely celebration, and a very chill one, too - no dress code, no requirements, no drunken craziness, no bridezilla drama. Just be there and enjoy the moment with close friends and family. 
To be perfectly honest, we *might* have caused a little scare to the lady in the flower shop, asking her whether she'd make us a wedding bouquet form the flowers we picked on the spot ... on the morning of the wedding! 
"We don't do wedding bouquets. And even if we did, you'd have to pre-order as we make them separately in our workshop, and you have to go through a catalogue to pick one, and then we can make you a bouquet just like that, but anyway, you have to pre-order from our catalogue, and it will be done in our workshop, and it will take time."
"Ok, how about just a normal bouquet with those flowers here?"
"Will be done in a minute. But a wedding bouquet, you'd have to pre-order, and we make them in our workshop, and it takes time."
Oh well... Turns out it was the most beautiful "just normal" bouquet for the most beautiful "just normal" wedding. Yay to the chillest couple ever! Yay to normalness!

A little contribution to the collection of hand-stitching at made with Blümchen.

challenges:
613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "love letters"
a place to start: ATG with optional twist "mononchrome"
C.R.A.F.T.: love/Valentine
cardz4guyz: love
CAS on Friday: Valentine
crafty calendar: add a heart
crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "Valentines/with love"
creative inspirations: ATG with optional twist "for a loved one"
fabnfunky: new beginnings
friendship challenge: ATG
love to craft: ATG 
make my monday: patterned paper
nachteulen: ATG
pearlysparkles: hearts
pennys papertake: ATG paper
scrapping4fun: ATG
traumfabrik: My sassy girl (feminine, Valentine's day)