Mixed Media Summer ATC Swap

Hello! Here's what I made for an ATC swap here in Finland, themed Mixed Media Summer and organized by Taru.



I had plenty of gelli prints with summery colours, so I began to work my backgrounds from them. I also added some mists in different shades of green, and was happy with the colour palette that reminds me of a summer evening just before dark.

For inspiration, I had several challenges, starting with Mixed Media Place and their gorgeous mood board, also with a feel of a summer evening.



The mood board has some delicate white flowers and seeds, and I decided to decorate my ATCs with lily-of-the-valley shaped chipboards from Wycinanka.



Before glueing them in place, I gessoed the chipboards to make them completely white and heat embossed them with an embossing powder that has a particularly lovely golden white shade. It's called Angel Wings Gold by Lindy's Stamp Gang, and it is indeed white with a hint of gold. The colour was very hard to catch in the photos, I'm afraid. But try them if you get a chance. I only have a couple of Lindy's powders but they both are this kind, shining in two different colours and with a high gloss, enamel-looking finish.



At Art-Piaskownica, the challenge theme was Stamping.



The stamped part in my project are the dark blue leaves. I first stamped them on a tissue paper, tore pieces of it and glued them in place with acrylic medium.

I have previously used stamped tissue paper on my beeswax collages, and recently I realized they are a cool thing to add to other mixed media projects, too. The white tissue paper becomes invisible and the stamp shows very well, even on uneven surfaces where it would be harder to stamp directly. You can also prepare these papers in advance, if you feel like trying some new stamps but can't think of a project just then, for example.

Like this:



I'm also joining the challenges at

Craft Stamper: Anything Goes
and Mixed Media Monthly: Altered Embellishments

(For the Craft Stamper magazine, I hope my submission counts as one project, since this is a set of very similar cards. If I were so incredibly lucky to be picked as the winner, I do have three of the ATCs still left that I could mail for publication.)



A few more photos to follow...







I'll end today's post with the full set of 12 cards, photographed with my unfinished acrylic painting as background!



Thank you for popping in and commenting, as always. Welcome back next week to see another post with the cards I received in this Mixed Media Summer ATC swap!

Nature Prints Journal Spread

Hello, and happy new week to everyone!

My biggest inspiration of this year has been the year-long Wanderlust 2017 online class. I've started more projects than finished but at this point, this doesn't feel like a failure at all but instead one of the main teachings of the whole class so far.

When I feel good making art, the important thing is to do it as often as I can, and not count the finished projects. This goes at least for the kind of period as I have in my life right now - my to-do-list seems very full also without art deadlines and blog posts. The main thing I'm sorry for is that this has also meant neglecting my blog.

Anyway, today I have a Wanderlust inspired project to share!



A while ago the class theme was Nature Prints. Kasia Avery, the sweet and super talented main teacher of Wanderlust 2017, inspired us with a video of Gelli printing with objects from the nature.



I've used household items for Gelli printing before but hadn't thought of trying something like flowers or leaves. I got really hooked on it right away so I was lucky to have picked plenty of different leaves with the help of our three-year-old! It was a good idea to let them straighten overnight between a newspaper, under a weight of books or something.



I still have some of those leaves from a week ago but I suspect they may get too dry at some point, becoming more fragile, so I may want to gather new ones for my next prints.



The photo above is of the spread before adding the photo and the final touches.



I am also joining the challenges at Eclectic Ellapu: Everything Goes and Art-Piaskownica: Plant/Floral Motifs.



The last few photos are detail shots where you can get a better idea of the see-through beeswax technique!



I made my prints on tissue paper, wanting to try them for the beeswax collage technique I've done a lot lately. Beeswax technique is so special in how it leaves the different layers quite transparent, and I thought this might be the perfect way work with my nature prints!



I just realized I only have photos of the finished project and none of the individual prints. I have gotten the memory of my phone nearly full so I'm afraid I have to spend the rest of the afternoon organizing my photos. I'll post pics of the prints as soon as I have time!



Thank you so much for your visit!

Mixed Media Greenhouse ATCs

Hello springtime, flowers and greenery! To welcome the new season, I enjoyed joining a Greenhouse swap at ATCs for All. This was a mixed media swap and another cool twist was that the cards were to be actually house shaped. They were so much fun to make and I can't wait to see the returns I get!



I was inspired by the following challenges:

The Artistic Stamper: Springtime
Crazy-Lab: Spring Feeling
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Layer it Up!
We Love 2 Create: Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes



For the spring themed challenges, the inspiration is quite obvious, I guess! As for Simon's Layer it Up challenge, I actually tried something new with layering. I'll get back to that a bit further down!



In all the four cards, I began cutting the background and roof from different papers. I included both DIY papers, like Gelli prints, and scrapbook papers and magazine pages.



I then added collage elements like postage stamps, washi tape, magazine cuts...



And some colour with Gelatos and Crayola crayons.





And then to the last layer! I had done some stamping on tissue paper and other nearly see-through papers earlier this week. I've been wanting to build a pre-made stash for beeswax collage, which is where I have previously used stamping on tissue. The thing is that the paper becomes invisible with wet media, and only the stamping shows. This is a cool way to add stamping on surfaces where the stamping ink alone might not show very well, or might bleed, depending on what you're going to add next.



I usually only make beeswax collage when I can dedicate a whole day or longer stretch of time for it, since it takes a while to take the supplies out and clean afterwards. Mainly it is that I use the same ironing board that I use for clothers so I need to cover it properly before I get started. Anyway, I'm glad I thought of using the stamped tissue in another way! And acrylic medium worked in a similar way as beeswax - the paper seems to completely disappear.

Remember that for both beeswax and acrylic medium, the stamping ink has to be permanent! I always use Staz-On.



Thank you for your visit!

Old is New Again − Counterfeit Kit June Challenge 3

Hi there,

and welcome to June Challenge #3 at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge! The prompt is
"Old is New Again: Showcase the oldest item in your kit in a new & fresh way!"

My oldest items were the floral papers from The Sweet Blossom Stack by Die Cuts with a View: one 12x12 paper and a 12x12 that has tags in different sizes.



I picked three other papers in shades of aqua/mint green/teal. I cut the solid mint green cardstock in half to make a 6x6 card.



This was the perfect moment to open the Studio Calico wood veneer package I got recently...



I was once again crafting at night so I didn't get to take process pictures, I'm afraid. But here's the finished card!



In addition to the papers and wood veneer, I used stamping inks, 7 Dots Studio Alpha Stickers, Geometric Neon Washi tape from Papermania Docrafts Capsule collection and Liquid Pearls glue paint in Mint Green.

Although I didn't have any of their papers this time, just the alphabet, I was also inspired by the Gardening challenge at the 7 Dots Studio blog!



Another challenge theme that inspired me was Berries at Studio Leto.



I'm really happy with how the fuzzy cut painterly flower and branch look in the card! The paper was restless to use as such, and that's probably why I hadn't used it. It definitely needed a new and fresh look from this challenge!



For those of you who aren't familiar with the The Counterfeit Kit Challenge, it's is all about putting together our own kits from what we have, inspired by actual kit club kits. I'm happy to be their Guest Designer this month and got to Counterfeit the May kit from Hip Kit Club. If you want to see what else I included in my kit, it's here!



Thank you so much to Leslie and the team at Counterfeit Kit Challenge for inviting me as the June 2016 Guest Designer! It has been a lot of fun and I continue to be inspired by the kit I created. A ready made kit is also very easy to take with me when I spend some summer weeks in the countryside, so that's an extra plus side!



Thank you for coming and hope to see you again soon!

First Peony: Layout for Scrap Africa DT

Hi there! Here in Finland, this is the time of the year when we are welcoming the crisp cold mornings, scent of apples and first falling leaves. At Scrap Africa, however, we have a mood board that still reminds of summer. A perfect time to scrap your favourite garden or nature photos from this season, or anything this mood board inspires you to make, of course!



I planted my first peonies in 2012 at our summer cottage, and they have bloomed very scantily so far. From what I've heard, peonies are not difficult to grow per se, but they do demand some patience from the gardener. They can take many years to grow large enough roots to be able to bloom fully. So I'm not worried yet, even though just three of my five plants have bloomed at all and only with one flower each!



This is what the mood board looks like:



I'm also joining the following challenges with my layout:

Memuaris: Sketch Challenge #21



Scrapki-Wycwaniowo: Autumn Love



Crafty Life Challenges: Anything Goes and



We Love 2 Create: Challenge #21, Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes



In Finland, our school year starts early, mid-August or even a few days before. So now it's already time for a short autumn break, and we'll get to spend a long weekend at our cottage again. I love it in the fall season, too, and can't wait to see what it looks like!



Thank you for your visit and have a nice week!

August Light: Layout for Scrap Africa DT

Hello! Here's my layout for the mid-month mood board challenge at Scrap Africa!



And here's what the mood board looks like:



I was inspired by the abundance of flowers and the colours, and also the combination of different typographies in the heart, which suggested using two different sort of alphabet in my title. One word is written by hand and and another with alphabet that I cut from corrugated cardboard.

Another inspiration to my layout was the mood board at Scrap Around the World:



Here I was inspired by the combination of pink and natural colours, the handwriting and the twine. I didn't feel like using dark brown this time, but the dark green handmade paper that I used to mat my photo sort of reminded me of the worn out leather covers of the old book in the mood board.



With this layout, I'm also joining the Archi-Scraps challenge, with the theme of Layers and/or corrugated cardboard!

I had wanted to use corrugated cardboard alphabet since I saw them in a layout by Terhi Koskinen recently. Do check out her work if you haven't already done so, she's one of Finland's best known scrapbookers and for a good reason!









Thanks for your visit! I hope to see you in the Scrap Africa challenge, open for participation until the end of September!