Love - Live - Hope

What could become of us without them?
Hello dear blogger friends, here I´m showing you an inspiration creation I made for myself and the Twisted Thursday challenge at The Outlawz this week. We want you to add stitches on your creation. Beware! it´s a long post ☺
After a sudden and unexpected turn of my life I was left compeltely desoriented with a deep sadness and pain. I know compared with other people life mine is not bad at all and I shouldn´t complain, but you all know that while measuring our personal problems we loose objectivity, and I saw my life destroyed at my feet.
A few days later I knew I had to get my life back again and heal my wounds, friends for all over the world and family poured me with the most wonderful encouraging words and love, all and each of them helped me to keep going, to lift my face to the sun and walk, and creating is being part of finding my usual self again. It was hard at the beginning because I could not create a single thing, anything at all! and that stressed me too, so I started reading again, going thru old magazines and (even older) card making books and I found an article where the artist made small scrapbooking pages to remind her some of her inner thoughts (she made them to cope with some hard time in her life too), and that inspired me to create these three pages. Actually they are not pages, they are wall hangers. I´m going to hang them in a place where I can see them everyday, to remind me what my inner me is convinced (sometimes I seem to forget!).
I used inspirational quotes I found on the internet ☺ So this is how I made them:

I started by recycling a hanging paper folder (remember those I saved from the recycling bin at work?) and some shopping maps that are freely distributed here in Madrid from time to time. I found them in a wonderful store I like to buy patterned paper and they were the only three left! lucky me... On the front of these maps there is always an image and this time it has these gorgeous kid faces, stern, serious and determined young faces, that´s what I feel everytime I look at them and decided to used them right away.
I cut them careflully and placed them on the base cardstock. I took a page of music sheet, cut it to match the image and colored the borders with ink pads.
Then I stitched the top and bottom borders with embroidery floss and some glass sead beads, here you can see my stitching process

 

Then I added some extra stitches and beads on the boy´s shoulder, it gives it a great look and texture!

The sentiment is by Zelda Fitgerald, printed it on patterned paper, singled out every word and placed them with foam tape. These words for me are strong and are meant to say the answer every time I read it.

I finished them by spelling the main word on every page with black foam stickers.
On the second one I glued some sequins (the green leaf is also a sequin!) on the girl´s neckline of her dress and some yellow rhinestones

and again I printed the sentiment and singled out each word before placing them with foam tape. The sentiment is a Cherokee Indian proverb. A wonderful one! and I need it to remind me not to waste my time going around in cicles, I have to learn from the past and keep living the life I have, the life I want for me.

And finaly on the third one I embellished it with a purple dollar store flower and some sequins and large glass sead beads

Once again, I printed the sentiment and placed it with foam tape. This one has not know author... but it reflects myself so well that´s why I chose it, I never give up, I never did and I hope never will.

And here all three together again, each of them are 6 x 6 in (click on them to enlarge)

Hope you like them as much as I do! and I hope they can inspire you to take care of yourselves too.

I´m missing playing on some challenges, so I´m entering these at:
Anything goes: challenge #50
Lollipop crafts challenge #49: anything but a card
Digital Tuesday challenge #129: people images
City crafter challenge #75: let´s face the music
My time to craft challenge #158: "L" is for...
Sassy Studio: Dare to be Sassy challenge#91 hip to be square
Sweet stampin´challenge: flowers!
All sorts challenge #121: alter/recycle