18 October, 2026

Motivational

Here I am with my DT project for the new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. We'd like to see "Motivational" creations from you, anything with an uplifting message and/or a positive interpretation of what you link up. When in doubt, feel free to tell us how and why your project is meant to inspire and motivate.
I'm showing you a page from my art journal. It was my first attempt at journalling and I thought it would help me to organize my thoughts through premature menopause.
I must admit the journal now sits half empty on my shelf as I don't know what to do with it as I'm currently working on another art journal. Anyway, back then I decided to use a quote that resonated with me as I believed it would allow my thoughts to concentrate on what is yet to come rather than waste energy on what is a done deal. I printed the sentiment on a structured paper and framed it with a pink paper. 
I then embellished said paper with a heart border punch. 
After that, I picked a patterned paper with cherry blossoms, and combined it with another shade of pink for the background. On the album page, I placed a paper with a handwriting pattern. Once I positioned all those elements, I embellished the border punch with a couple of tiny pearls. I then added a couple of silver stickers that represent both transience and (self)love. 
At that point, I thought I was finally at peace with myself, content with my past and what I had become. Turns out a pile of other things came along, and my thoughts keep coming back to what happened, what could/should have happened differently, and what I could have done in the scenario. I keep coming to the conclusion that no wisdom in the world will help when your counterpart is absolutely not willing to hear you. How a situation like this can happen in the first place is a mistery to me, but it keeps bugging me nevertheless. 
Turns out I haven't yet reached the point of getting over, mainly because I'm not the person who believes in forced apologies and fake forgiveness when you're not ready to draw the line yet. On the contrary, I think that if you force yourself to close a chapter before you're ready to do so, it will not bring satisfaction on the long term because the issue will keep coming back. Because moving on is not a switch in your brain, but rather a process of approaching the issue and finding a way to deal with it. And it's quite difficult to do so when you're bullied into silence. 

Oh well. Maybe you've already found a way to make peace with your demons, and if not, I wish you all the best in doing so. I for myself still like the sentiment and it still resonates with me, it just comes with a different vibe now. And that's fine with me - even if you read the same book on multiple occasions, it will speak to you in a different way each time. 
That being said, I'm still looking for a balance between being stuck and moving on. But then again, maybe that's my motivation for the moment, before I'll be able to do anything else. 

challenges:
- 613 avenue create: ATG with optional twist "think pink"
- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG
- card free zone: ATG but a card
- fabnfunky: 3 of something (3 silver heart stickers)
- little red wagon: frame it
- lovethoseprettypapers: ATG patterned papers
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04 October, 2026

Little people

Hello again, and without further ado, we're starting a new challenge over at the Alphabet challenge. Our theme this fortnight is "Little poeple", which means we'd like to see projects that are dedicated to children. I'm still working with Bugaboo images, and for my child-inspired card, I used this cute little troll motif. 
Before colouring my image, I tried to narrow down my colour scheme. With autumn season in full swing and Halloween around  the corner,  I figured I would find plenty of pretty papers in my stash. However, the more I looked, the more I went from green & purple spider motifs to warm tones with leafs & blooms. Since I couldn't pick one favourite paper, I decided to cut a stripe of each and combine them to create a colourful autumn background. And even though it may seem the papers come from an artsy album, their origin couldn't be more different: one actually does come from an album and one was a scrapbook page, but the others I cut from a Japanese cookbook and an envelope that came with a stationery set. Believe it or not, I've been keeping the latter since my highschool days, which is... quite some time!
Once I glued the stripes on the kraft card base, I coloured the little troll girl using colouring pencils. I then placed the image onto a piece of dark yellow cardboard, embellishing the corners with an edge punch. Placed the image on the center of the card and glued everything together. Since I felt like something was missing, I took a "Happy birthday" message from a sccrapbook page. I placed it under the image, and I think it makes a perfect birthday card for a child. 
However, because the image was already centered when I was playing around with the sentiment, I had to place the birthday greetings in the lower part of the card, whereas the upper part is empty. And now I can't help thinking how this imbalance brings all the weight of the motif to the lower part of the card, and how it would be better if I considered the sentiment before fixating the image, which would allow me to adjust both elements. Oh well... I guess I'll have to get over it, since there's nothing I can do about it now. 
Another thing that bothered me (and I could do something about it even after everything was done) is the white space around the troll motif. I went through my sticker stash and blinged the image up with some golden stars from a Christmas sheet. I like to think they look like reflections from the birthday candles, or even fireworks.   
And now that the troll girl is all finished up, all she needs is to find the party location. The card has no recipient yet, but I think it can fit any birthday, autumn season or not. I could also imagine her going to a Halloween / monster inspired celebration, because, after all, not everything must be skulls and blood on October 31st. Many kids - especially the younger ones - might prefer a mix of sweet & spooky, which gives them a chance to participate in "adult stuff" without being scared. 

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: birthday
- allsorts challengeblog: ATG with optional twist "ATG autumn"
- C.R.A.F.T.: ATG
- cardz4guyz: autumn colours
- classicdesignchallenge: ATG DT  
- crafty calendar: autumn/Halloween
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: ATG with optional twist "fall foliage"
- creative inspirations: hello autumn
- inkspirational: autumn/Halloween cupcakes
- kreativtanten: Halloween
- little red wagon: autumn colours
- lovethoseprettypapers: ATG patterned papers
- nachteulen: colourful autumn
- path of positivity: ATG positive
- traumfabrik: When fall is coming
- try it on tuesday: autumn's beauty
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01 October, 2026

Kittens

Better late than never, I guess, here is my DT inspiration forthe "Kittens" challenge over at the Alphabet challenge blog. It's a rather simple card witht a beautiful digi from Bugaboo. I fell in love with it as I was browsing through my digi stash, and can you blame me?
And since the image is such a highlight, I kept the rest of the card rather simple: for the background paper, I used a piece of a paper bag with a black geometrical pattern. I placed it on a kraft card base, and since the bag was made of kraft paper, too, it almost looks like the pattern is printed right onto the card base. 
I then took a piece of black cardboard to frame the digi. I then painted the cat lovers in different shades of brown, using colouring pencils. I opted for soft colours, going for a CAS design. And as I proceeded with the crafring, I figured the card would be purrfect for my sister's birthday. So, after everything was done, I added a "Happy birthday" message.  
And since I happened to see her as well (which is rather rare, to be honest), I could even deliver the dard in person - alongside with some other goodies. We even managed to have a spontaneous day trip to Prague, catching summer sun and autumn colours on the Náplavka farmer's market. 

challenges: 
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