Nature's Neutrals ATC Set

Hello everyone! Today I'm posting a set of ATCs I made for a swap at ATCs for All, for a Neutral Colors theme.



I began my collage background from some magazine images with flower pods and leaves in a wintery garden. These lead me to think of autumn, early winter even, after a first snowfall perhaps. So I ended up with a palette of white and shades of brown and yellow.



I added torn paper scraps from book pages and paintings I no longer wanted to keep, and then used gesso to fade the edges.



The edges are coloured with Distress Ink colors Brushed Corduroy and Black Soot.



For embellisments, I chose mistable fabric stickers that I tinted with different yellows and browns, and Wycinanka chipboards that I embossed with WOW embossing ink, color Earthtone Nutmeg.



These cards went for a swap, but I'll let you know in the blog if I make more in same style for trade later on!



I'm entering my ATC set in the following challenges:

Mixed Media Monthly: Vintage. I was inspired by the vintage colour palette, and also had the lace in mind when I applied the subtle, uneven coat of white gesso.



Memuaris: Palette #28, Orange & Brown or Sand & Brown



Mixed Media World: Anything Mixed Media Goes.

And Eclectic Ellapu: Flora and Fauna / Nature



Last but not least, here's a photo of the little extras that I included when mailing the swap. I love getting happy surprises like this so I often include some collage elements myself whenever there's room in my swap envies and the postage limit allows!



Happy weekend to everyone and thank you so much for your visit and comments!

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!

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!

ATCs with Hearts of Collage, Stitches and Yarn

Hi! This set of ATCs is for a Heart Collage themed swap at ATCs for All.



I got so excited with collage work with the background that I didn't want to cover it up completely. Thus the sown thread heart that allows the background to show a bit! I made the background with really small bits and pieces, used a couple shades of green mists to colour it and was quite happy with the result! I did use some white crayon for the hearts to pop out a bit more.



My background paper was not too thick so I mounted the collage onto scrapbooking paper. Torn edges and machine stitches are good for a shabby look, I think.



I was inspired by the May colour palette at Tando Creative − although I went with slightly darker shades.



Thanks for popping in and happy weekend!

Memuaris: Back to the USSR / Work & Love

Hello there! This month, I've been inspired by art shows and one of them went really well to combine with the unusual theme of the Memuaris Challenge: Back to the USSR.



The exhibition was featuring art from the Soviet Union, and this delightful women at work scene that I scrapped is called Weavers by Vladimir Myagkov.



For us in Finland, the Soviet Union was of course our neighbor like Russia is now. I was nearly grown up at the transition time so I have plenty of memories from that time. I also read Russian at school since age 13 through High School. That wasn't something we had to do, but I'm very attracted to the language and have always been.



I used the May Week 4 Sketch by Brenshevia Baker at Lets' Get Sketchy (rotating it to the left) and was also inspired by the challenge at Our Creative Corner: Hit the Books.





I was really happy with the background I made splashing with different paints: tube watercolours, acrylic inks and mists. I meant to keep the layout really simple and in the end, I wish I had left a little more empty space. That said, I'm mostly happy with my layout, anyway! It was really inspiring to work on a very different theme than usually.

I like how I used mainly just the buttons for embellishments, and just a few wood veneer ones. My favourite things in the layout are the long title (from a song lyrics) and how I used the Russian alphabet and dressmaking stencils in a less usual way: tracing with pencil.



Thank you for coming and especially for commenting, as always!

Moon Faces − ATCs for Scrap Africa Sketch 74

It's a new month and a new sketch challenge at Scrap Africa! I made a dreamy set of ATCs with a focus on these lovely vintage bottlecap images, or round inchies as they are also called. I think they are also moon faces, so that's how I named the set.



This is our sketch at Scrap Africa - you're most welcome to pop in and see what the other DT members did, and even better if you join yourself!



This month, we also have some very exciting news for all friends of Scrap Africa challenge. As of this month, the challenges will run for an entire month, so you will have lots of time to play along and prepare your entries. Double the time and double the fun!



I was also inspired by the space themed On the Milky Way challenge at ART-Bazarchik.



The background is made with stamping, mists and layered strips of leftover papers.



The Photo Faces collage sheet was bought from an Etsy shop called TinTeddy and it has altogether 48 different faces. I think I'll be using these a lot! I'm lucky to have a round inchie punch just the size, and I gave them a polished finishing with Glossy Accents glue.


1 (available for trade) and 2 (I'll keep this one that's gone scarfaced with the bubbles!)
Edit: These are all traded now, but I have other ideas for using these faces, so there will be more ATCs soon!


3 and 4 (both available) Edit: traded.

Thanks for taking a look and happy weekend everyone!