Masculine

Hello again, and welcome to the letter M of the Alphabet wheel. We're looking forward to seeing your "Masculine" projects over at the Alphabet challenge blog, so please show us anything that is suitable for a male.

As I'm currently on sick leave still, I had a little more time for my DT task than usual, and I decided to stitch a card for you to be inspired. To be perfectly honest, I've put the components together ages ago already in terms of picking the papers, the card base, and motif, but since paper embroidery takes quite some time, I never really managed to finish the centerpiece. 

Now, however, everything fell into place: I picked yarns in blue and red that would match my colour scheme, and worked on the swirly pattern. Once I was done, I placed the white cardboard onto a layer of dark blue embossed paper, which I then placed onto the card base. To match the blue part of the colour scheme, there are maritime motifs in the upper part of my background - a sheet of patterned paper which I've purchased years ago. I think it matches the stitched motif as the swirls seem to remind me of nautical knots. In the lower part of my card, you can find a red background paper that matches the red details in the stitching, as well as the maritime print above. It also has some golden stripes, which I used to align the nautical paper piece. While the nautical paper came from the crafting shop, the red one was part of an ad that I received per mail - as it was printed on high quality cardboard (& featuring this beautiful combination of red and gold), I decided to keep it in case it came handy one day. 

Given the nasty weather recently, with a significant drop of temperatures, loads of rain and even snow, the card seems to be completely out of place. However, let me reassure you that when I was working on it last week, we had perfect summer weather, and no idea that we'd go straight into winter mode so soon! 

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

challenges: 

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a place to start: ATG

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT 

- colourful options: bold colours

- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG

- creative inspirations: ATG

- lil patch of crafty friends: ATG handmade

- little red wagon: stitching

- lovethoseprettypapers: ATG patterned papers

- love to craft: ATG 

- morgans artworld: ATG

- pennys papertake: ATG paper

- wortartwednesday: ATG
- pinspirational stitching

Landscape

Hello and welcome to another challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. Our inspiration for the upcoming two weeks will be nature, as we'd like to see "Landscape" for the letter L. As always, our DT members have prepared beautiful examples to set your fantasy free, but you can always surprise us with something unique if you'd like :)

Being on the verge of autumn, I thought I'd create some colourful landscape, but then I just couldn't find anything in my stash that would match the vibe. On second thought, I planned to show you a sympathy card with some serene landscape, but I really didn't feel like creating that kind of project. In the end, I got stuck on some paper scraps from a sheet of scrapbook paper that featured a snow-covered Christmas/winter landcsape. 

I decided to cut them into three equal squares that would be big enough to cover a simple white card base. I then matched them with another layer of patterned paper - this time one with tiny white swirls on blue background. They are barely visible, but I like to think that they're a nivce match to the original colour scheme.

Since I wanted to leave the spotlight for the original landscape motif, I opted for very little embellishments - no sentiment, no snowflakes, just a mix of white and blue pearls in different sizes. With the serene colours, I figure that the card could still be used as a sympathy card, especially during winter time - after all, there is no festive bling that would scream "joy" and "happiness".

In the end, I realized that my card reminds me very much of a set of photographs I've taken on a foggy autumn day a couple of years ago somewhere under the trees on Ljubljana castle hill. I like how the fog looks scary and mysterious on the one hand, and very comforting at the same time.

challenges: 

- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a place to start: ATG

- allsorts challengeblog: ATG

- as you like it: layered or flat (while I'm usually not over-doing it with layers upon layers, you will usually find a few layers of different papers on my projects. Main reasons being that I really like to enhance the main motif - be it stamped, stitched, or else - with a layer of matching coloured or patterned paper. I like to combine different patterns and colours, too, and as I have tons of paper scraps in my stash, therefore this kind of paper-matching is a my way ofusing up those leftovers.)

- C.R.A.F.T.: Christmas

- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT 

- crafty gals corner: ATG

- creative crafty uncles: ATG (masculine)
- creative inspirations: ATG

- everybody art: ATG

- lil patch of crafty friends: ATG handmade

- little red wagon: sympathy

- love to craft: ATG 

- morgans artworld: ATG
- my time to craft: add texture

- pearlysparkles: pink, pearls and/or sparkle
- pennys papertake: ATG paper

- 12 months of Christmas: ATG Christmas

- wortartwednesday: ATG