Easter chicks

Another quick recycling project, this time using an old lid from what I planned would be a paper box filled with chocolate I could give away for Easter. Once it was done, I didn't quite like the outcome, so I proceeded to demolish everything. However, I did my best with saving the cover as I thought I could use it for something else. 

After many considerations, I decided to place the finished lid on a plain white card base to create a rather simple Easter/spring card. Apart from that, there isn't much to say about the project itself: the cute Sarah Kay image is coloured with coloured pencils in brown-ish shades that I thought would match the chocolate treasure inside the box. 

Once the colouring was done, I placed the motif on a brown background paper which I upcycled with a border punch. Then, I glued everything on a shimmering white background paper with a floral pattern, and placed a couple of rhinestones on the blooms. 

A little contribution to the April collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

And as the post is a rather short one, plus to complete the Easter theme for this year, I'll finish off by adding a snap of beautifully scratched eggs from the Easter egg exhibition at Ljubljana castle. 

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- gem of a challenge: ATG
- brown sugar: spring/fall
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG with optional twist "all creatures great and small"
- crafty gals corner: Easter
- creative inspirations: Easter/animals
- friendship challenge: happy Easter
- kreativtanten: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- morgans artworld: ATG
- moving along with the times: spring feeling
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: Easter
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- use your stuff: Easter/spring
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

On the short note...

... I can't help being the person to walk past a motionless bee on the sidewalk without noticing it. 
And as it was still there when I was returning from my errands, I thought I might as well try to save it. Not knowing whether it was hungry or just cold, I decided to take it home and see what I can do. 
It became a little more vivid when I brought it into my apartment, so I put it in a jar while I prepared the sugar/water mix that I once read would be helpful to revive bumblebees. And as the sugar/water mix is just a substitution for the bee's actual food, I thought I might as well place a few drops of honey and see what it prefers.
Once the food was on display, I let the bee out of its jar, and needless to say the little guy promptly indulged in honey. And after some slurfing and tail wagging, the little creature was as fit as one can imagine, and ready to take off from the balcony.

And who knew how cute a bee looks like when it patiently slurfs honey with its tiny trunk? And is that an actual little tongue? 

From old, make new

As my roses were slowly fading, and the placeholder greenery was still intact, I decided to place in one of my smaller vases and make it the sole attraction. 
Because nothing resembles a feeling of fresh energy like a little white cloud on my table.
And because I truly believe "baby's breath" is one of the cutest flower names one can come up with. 

And while a soft white cloud is lingering above the little vase...

... some guys decided to hide right under it.

I don't know when I decided to start making this card, and I don't remember what I placed above those four green squares, but I obviously didn't like the outcome as I recently found the square-ish background with a couple of tears on the surface. Whatever was glued on there, must have been removed and placed elsewhere, while the card base remained forgotten in my stash. 

However, during one of my latest visits to Erlangen, I found some super cute leaflets on display in the city's botanical garden. The green paradise is dear to me for obvious reasons, and I like to flip through their publications, but I usually don't take them home as I know exactly I'd sooner or later just throw them away.

This time, though, I knew exactly I'd like to have this hedgehog couple on one of my creations. They had to wait quite a while before being used, but have provided a nice simple spring/Easter card in the end. 

The only thing I added to the half-finished card was an additional layer of brown cardboard to support the main image, and a punched branch with a little flower to cover up the torn edge of the image itself. 

A contribution to the Friday Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen.
A little contribution to the April collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- a place to start: ATG
- alphabet challengeblog: A for animals
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty gals corner: spring
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- creative inspirations: Easter/animals
- creative moments: ATG
- friendship challenge: ATG with optional twist "Easter"
- love to craft: ATG 
- my time to craft: Easter/hedgehogs
- pennys papertake: ATG
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- male room: ATG with optional twist "spring"
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG

A wonderful surprise

Just a quick post to tick off another item on my to-do list: this time, a rather simple necklace that took me quite some time to get it done, and even longer to get it out there. 

I knew I just had to have those mother-of-pearl pieces when I saw them in the bead shop during one of my stays in Erlangen, and I didn't even need to put the colour combo together - in fact, the ones I took were the only ones left in what (I guess) was once a colourful mix sold on the base of weight. I knew right away they'd look pretty in a necklace, but realized I'd need to combine them with other pearls for the proper effect.

Needless to say, they waited for ages until I took the time to search my jewelry stash, looking for the perfect match. I tried a couple of materials and colours, but nothing seemed to fit the way I imagined. In the end, I came up with a rather simple solution: beige glass wax beads that would go with all the colours of the mother-of-pearl, and take away nothing from the funny shapes that I thought would deserve to be the highlight of it all. 

And even though I thought I'd keep it for myself, I realized the colours aren't mine at all. I do like everything about the necklace, including how it turned out in the end, but I figured out it would be a nicer addition to my sister's wardrobe than to mine.

 challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty cardmakers: special someone
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- creative moments: ATG
- love to craft: ATG
- modsquad: pastel fun
- my time to craft: female
- scrapping4fun: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Resembling colourful beads and tiny pearls in between, my current bouquet is made of beautiful orange-cream roses and a touch of baby's breath (what a beautiful, beautiful name for this fragile bloom!). 

In a fun twist, they match nicely with a really old bookmark I found during my spring cleaning, and the bookmark itself matches perfectly with everything that is going on right now: a new season, a successful decluttering, and finally, slowly getting back to my old self. 
After ages of going from one day to another without getting anything done really, I'm getting to say that things are going in the right direction again. And one day, all the pieces of myself will fall into place again. 

And while I enjoy the bunch of flowers on my desk, I have to set the record straight by admitting that not only did I come from the flower market with something I didn't look for - I even got a whole load of it, bigger than I never imagined! 

Thinking I'd buy a bunch of spring greenery or maybe some hyacinths, my flower lady as usually asked who'll get the flowers this time. As I planned to just place them somewhere in my apartment for myself to enjoy, she offered me lilies or roses. I thought a branch of white lilies would be nice, when she grabbed the whole bucket, and a moment later, the bucket of roses, too. 
Because she felt like she's had enough for the week and wanted to get rid of her stash before she'd get a couple of days off. 
And to make sure "they'd all be jealous" of my baggage, as she put it with a wink (and if jealousy can be counted in the looks I got carrying the huge bouquet through the city, her plan absolutely worked). 

Back home, I somehow managed to place that roses in all the vases I could find, but I ended up having no idea what to do with the lilies. One branch could go in a vase on its own, but for a bouquet like this, I'd only have a bucket which wouldn't do them justice. 

It was enough to get them through the night, but once they started to open up, I felt like there must be a better place for them. And since I planned for ages to catch up with my ex-roommate, I thought she, being a nun now, will certainly find the vase and the place for what was about to become a beautiful white cloud of flowers. Because what can possibly be better than sharing a wonderful surprise?

 A little contribution to the Friday Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen.

Swirly

As a result of my spring clean-up, I gained some kind of overview over my papers and craft supplies again. Also, I found a couple of half-finished projects such as printed digis and magazine cut-outs, such as this picture of white roses that were already glued on a piece of white cardboard. 

I must have planned to use them on a sympathy card, but never finished the idea. Now, I decided to glue the image on a piece of black cardboard before placing it on a simple but elegant white background with shimmering floral swirls. 

Unlike in my usual card creations, I thought I'd let the white swirls blend into the cardbase without an additional piece of black background paper that would create a line between the cardbase and the added layers. 

However, I'm thonking about adding a couple of pearls as the card itself is quite simple without any additional ornaments. On the other hand, I might as well leave it as it is or add a tiny sentiment once I'll need it for a sad occasion.

A little contribution to the March collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- krafty chicks: ATG
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- a bit more time to craft: ATG
- a place to start: ATG
- crafting with an attitude: ATG
- crafty catz: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative moments: ATG
- love to craft: ATG 
- morgans artworld: ATG
- pennys papertake: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- use your stuff: black & white
- wortartwednesday: ATG
- worldwide open design team challenge: ATG

Spring flowers

Now that spring has clearly sprung and everything seems to be sproouting and blooming, I can hardly wait for longer days, warm weather, long walks, fresh veggetables, and more productivity. Some of the above is already here, others will hopefully follow soon.
I even got my lazy low-energy self to get some spring cleaning done (not bragging at all!), and when doing so, I discovered this one in my stash: a simple (birthday) card with a soft green background paper with foliage and a lovely flowerpot digi by Meljen's Designs.

As the card was one of those flat cards I needed for my exhibition (yup, so deeply sunk in my stash), I decided to avoid all embellishments except for a space for a number or message.

The motif itself is coloured with coloured pencils, in shades that would fit both the background and the punched flower-shaped label.

A little contribution to the March collection of Create in Austria - artwork created by Austrians and/or in Austria.

challenges: 
- 613 avenue create: ATG
- gem of a challenge: ATG
- crafty cardmakers: flowers
- crafty catz: ATG
- crafty sentiments: ATG
- craftyhazelnutspatternedpaper
- creative inspirations: spring greens
- cute card thursday: greens
- fabnfunky: spring colours
- friendship challenge: ATG with optional twist "spring flowers"
- morgans artworld: ATG
- pennys papertake: ATG
- through the craftroom door: ATG
- unicorn challengeblog: spring
- wortartwednesday: ATG

Talking about spring colours, I decided to brighten my room with a combination that happened to be quite similar to my card: a yellow and cream coloured bouquet with lots of green hydrangea. I liked the arrangement when I saw it on the flower market and put it in my crystal vase after cutting the stems to size. 

The vase itself seems perfect for this kind of bouquets, but I might as well get rid of it after my spring cleaning is done. I'm not sure whether I'm tired of rich flower arrangements, crstal vases in general, or that even though I like both I just need some kind of change?

A contribution to the Friday Flowerday at Holunderbluetchen.