Hello Friend − Layout for Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge 78

Hi! Happy Friday, and happy September! It's monthly challenge time again at Scrap Africa!

I felt like making a light and neutral coloured layout with some mixed media elements on the background. I'm still using my Krafty Travel Kit I joined the Counterfeit Kit Challenge with last month.



This month we have an elegant simple sketch with a circle around the focal cluster.



I'm also sharing a couple of photos of how I got the layout started. For the background, a cardstock colour called Straw was suitable for my idea, light but not completely white. I had spread a very light layer of gesso on it previously. The journaling card, the gold and white striped straw and the paper with the crosses or plus signs are from my Counterfeit kit as well as the cardstock.



Due to having a toddler at home, I quite often start my projects at night, choosing materials and trying different layouts. If it's already late at that point, I don't necessarily do anything else but just "sleep on it", and next day I have a better idea of how to go on.

The photo with my messy table below is about a trick I have learned at patchwork quilting.



That is, for checking if the layout still looks mainly white when I add the plus sign paper and the blue journaling card.

Sometimes it's hard to compare the lightness value of different elements from up close, so it helps to look from a distance. Blurring your eyes a bit or taking a blurry photo, like I did here, confirms that the other elements are fairly close to the background in lightness value. I wanted it to be this way so that it's just the photos that pop out from the background, not the whole cluster of elements.



At the point of taking the photo above, my 2-year-old had been drawing beside me, and I wanted have the mark of his pen on my background, too. He and his brother are also the stars of the layout, so it felt like a nice way to keep a memory of his first drawings!



In addition to the doodling, I used mists, white and gold structure pastes, yellow Paint Pen and turquoise Stickles for the circular frame.





The chipboard rocking horse is from Wycinanka. I used blue acrylic paint on it first, let it dry and embossed around the edges with Midnight Teal from Lindy's Stamp Gang. Last layer is clear embossing powder. The separate stars that came with the horse just have the blue paint and the clear powder layers.



Apart from the thin washi tape strip in the top left corner, I felt like no more embellishments were needed this time!





Thank you so much for looking. I hope to see you at Scrap Africa!

Amazing Glass House − Counterfeit Kit June Challenge 1

Hello! Today's the day for June Challenge #1 at Counterfeit Kit, where I am happy to be the Guest Designer this month.



The challenge prompt is to be inspired by one of these mood boards at Burnett's Boards − you're free to choose one that works with the color/mood of your own counterfeit kit!

The images that you see on the main page are only partial so if something looks promising, take a closer look!

There are some really gorgeous color combos & moods... This one seemed spot-on for my May Hip Kit Club inspiration this month:

Neon Wedding



The neon colours inspired me to use the yellows and pinks of my kit. And I loved the decoration with the hanging glass pieces and the alphabet in different colours. The letter O in the word LOVE has a metallic finish that made me think of using my sequins. Instead of alphabet, I cut out and decorated two arrows from my kit.



In the background, I've used some gesso and acrylic paints in neon orange and yellow. I thinned them with water so that I could splash them like watercolours. There is also some pencil doodling and stamping.



I used washi tapes and strips of my papers to create the background for my photo.





I'd love to see you pop in and link your own challenge project at Counterfeit Kit Challenge. It'll be so fun to see what mood boards everyone will choose!



Thank you for coming!

Easter − Layout for Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone, and happy April! The sketch at the new Scrap Africa Challenge inspired me to scrap a photo of our Easter decorations.



Here's the lovely sketch by Scrap Africa owner Denise van Deventer.



I am also joining the challenge at Scrapcraft.ru themed Wood and Decorative Tape.

I used wood in the embellishments − firstly, the heart that was silver coloured in the beginning but I sanded it to let the woodgrain show a bit more and inked the sides to suit my colour palette.



The bird I glued on the photo is also of wood veneer.



I'm not sure if it counts for the wood theme, but the challenge also inspired me to use birch bark! You can see it as a strip on the right side of the photo and in the die cut flower on the left side of the photo.













Here below is the photo I used in the layout so you can see it from a bit closer!

In Finland, willow twigs with decorations are a typical Easter thing to do. Feathers and flowers made of colourful tissue papers are the traditional ways to decorate the twigs, but I was using washi tape and eggs covered with foam clay. Those were super easy and fun to do with kids, by the way. Even pretty young ones, like our 2-year-old, was fine doing it with just a little help!



Thank you for looking in and Happy Springtime to each and everyone who's reading this!

Pocket Art Pages for Scrap Africa Mood Board Challenge No. 67

Hello! With the start of the New Year, the challenge at Scrap Africa is this cheerful mood board combined with the following questions:

What does 2016 hold for you? What are your hopes and desires?



This time, I haven't thought up a word that would represent the whole coming year for me, but what is new is that I'm experimenting a new format for documenting my thoughts, memories and art learning throughout the year. I'm joining the Documented Life Project (DLP) 2016, the UnPlanner online class. You can read more about it here!

The course fee for the whole year is just $12, so even I dared to make the decision to join it, even though I haven't managed to finish a long online course before. I find it generally hard to find the time to watch the videos, whereas I can read books and blogs in bed. Well, now that the phones are smart enough for watching even videos in bed, I might be more successful!



Here's the Scrap Africa Mood Board No. 67, which inspired me with its colours, the doodles, the birds, the vintage crackled paint, the whimsical houses, the gold striped tape and the lighthearted feeling in general. A bit of spring while it's still middle of winter here in the Nordic countries. You're welcome to join until the end of January!



This is the first spread with the monthly calendar view and the monthly divider.





The second spread consists of an art journal page and a photo pocket page.

You can get a feel of the Nordic winter in these photos that were taken in Stockholm, a mid-morning in the first week of January!



The art journal page with the word Freedom in Finnish language was inspired by the Freedom themed Mixed Media Place challenge, and Studio 75 challenge, with the theme of Vintage.



The card with the photos is a Pocket Art Card (PAC) for my DLP 2016 UnPlanner; the prompt was to incorporate the number 16 to represent the new year. Can you see where that is? Yes, there are 16 of the faux cross stitches.

The card was super quick to make. All I did was took a pre-made print/collage background and selected which part of it would make a nice composition. In doing this, it helps if you have a template with a hole the size of the card, so you can see where to cut the best part of the background. I just drew the stitches and voilà, the card was ready! I'm using the 3x4 card size instead of the normal ATC size to suit the pockets of my binder.



My take on vintage may not be so obvious, but for me colours are an important part of the vintage look, and also the crackled paint and distressed paper. I was thinking of what the shades and textures would be like in an aged collage, or old sketches or technical drawings in a museum or an archive.







Thank you for your visit and welcome again!

Hello Sweetheart: Layout for Scrap Africa DT

Hello, and happy July! Summer is at its best in the northern hemisphere, while some of my colleagues in the Scrap Africa DT are in the middle of winter. In any case, I hope each of you everywhere is enjoying some crafty time, and I wish you warmly welcome to take a look at Scrap Africa if you have not done so yet! It's a friendly and inspiring challenge site whose team I am really proud to be a part of since last month.

This month we have a sketch challenge.



Here's the lovely Scrap Africa July sketch by Denise van Deventer! I rotated the sketch and started splashing some acrylic paint and mists on the left side.



The yellow pattern/texture is done with Gelatos and a stencil.



The textured Hello part of the title is modeling paste that I stenciled through one of my new Heidi Swapp Mini Frames stencils. To make the letters pop out a bit more, I shadowed them with pink Versamark ink and a Pitt Artist brush pen in light warm grey tone. I also tried using microbeads for the first time. They are of the Pop! brand from American Crafts and the colours are Black and Leaf.



I made a journaling tag to write some more than I could fit in the brush scripted circle. I love the pop of pink that I stamped with Staz-on in the tag and the circle doodles made with a pink Paperpen! The color scheme is not exactly in my comfort zone, but I think the bright pink and silvery & dark greys were a good choice to brighten up the photos! The retro yellow is quite dominating in these photos otherwise - in my mother-in-law's kitchen and even in the skin tones of my baby and me, as these photos were taken in the diminishing evening light without a flash.



I'm also entering this layout in the Challenge YOUrself! blog, where the theme this month is Anything Goes! (As long as you are in the photo yourself.) I really like this photo of me, with such a relaxed smile, so I hope my layout qualifies, even though my face does not show completely! You still have a few days to play along, as this challenge closes July 4th.

And the Scrap Africa challenge, that's always on until the new mid-month challenge, so you have two weeks to participate! I'd love to see you all there!

Peace!

To honour the United Nations Day, here are some previously unposted ATCs I made for a Mixed Media Peace Signs swap. All I am saying today, is Give Peace a Chance! (And let's hope the decision makers around the world agree, as I'm sure all of us other citizens of our beloved planet do!)