A Blue Moment of December

This scrapbooking page is inspired by, and participating in, two challenges. Firstly, a new Finnish guest challenge Vuoroin vieraissa hosted by Emmo. The guest was Helena Virpi, a Finnish scrapbooker living in Italy. The key words to Helena's style are mixed media, white space and sewing machine. Mixed media products are something I use a lot, and have also tried machine sewing in paper crafts. The use of white space, however, is admittedly a weak spot for me. I tend to put too much on a layout, and was now challenged to make it differently.

From Helena's work I also learned about another challenge I wanted to participate in: Once Upon a Sketch. This was my first time participating in a layout based challenge and it was fun − and also, well, challenging!

The journaling tag is partly behing the framed photo, not so much for privacy but just so that it would not take so much space. The photo is from a trip my family took to Stockholm, our neighbouring country's capital quite precicely two years ago. In the journaling, I'm remembering the sort of odd feeling we had on the trip. It felt partly weird to have gone on a holiday to another town just as dark and cold as home. But on the other hand, the pre-Christmas atmosphere was charming like in storybooks and we were left with many beautiful memories.

Skansen is one of the main sights of Sweden's capital and there's so much to see: it's an outdoor museum, zoo, a concert venue and whatnot. But in the midwinter it became dark so early, not much later than the 3 o'clock that the embellishment clock here says!

Joulukuun sininen hetki

Osallistun tällä leiskalla kahteen haasteeseen, joiden lähtökohdat vaikuttivat sivun asetteluun. Ehkä juuri siksi lopputulos onnistuu olemaan aiempaan tyyliäni runsaampi ja kerroksellisempi, mutta samalla mielestäni raikas eikä liian täyteen puristettu.

Emmon Vuoroin vieraissa -haasteessa innoituksen lähteenä olivat Italiassa asuvan skräppääjän Helena Virpin upeat leiskat. Helenan tyylin avainsanat ovat mixed media, tyhjä tila ja ompelukone. Mixed media -tuotteita käytän ennestäänkin paljon ja ompelukonetta jonkin verran. Niin sanotun tyhjän tilan hyödyntäminen on sen sijaan ollut ilman muuta heikko kohtani. Helena vinkkaa, että tyhjän tilan ei tarvitse olla kirjaimellisesti tyhjä, vaan kokonaisvaikutelmaa keventävä ja katsetta olennaiseen ohjaava tila.

Tämän päivän leiska on samalla ensimmäinen tuotokseni layout-muotoiseen haasteeseen. Kyseessä on Once Upon a Sketch, johon tutustuin juuri Helenan töiden kautta.



Leiskassa olen käyttänyt mixed mediaa eli sekatekniikoita kahdella tapaa. Basic Greyn taustapaperi oli sitä lajia, jossa on ikään kuin maalia ja kulunutta pintaa valmiiksi, mutta otin lisäksi omat purkit käyttöön saadakseni työstä taatusti omani näköisen. Käytin gessoa, johon lisäsin ripauksen primaarikeltaista akryylimaalia, ja painoin ensin vaakasuoran koristeraidan kuvioleikkurin jäännöspalaa sabluunana käyttäen. Samalla seoksella painoin pystysuoria viivoja halkaistulla aaltopahvilla. Tässä vaiheessa huomasin, että viivarykelmät toistaisivat kivasti valokuvassa lavan yllä riippuvien valonauhojen muotoa!



Kuvan ympärille tuli kapea kehys, jonka koristelin leimaillen. Muut kuvaa kehystävät koristepaperit ovat omia aiempia tuotoksiani, ja siten leiskasta tuli kaksinkertaisesti mixed mediaa. Lopuksi liimailin vielä ympäriinsä pieniä leikkurilla leikattuja ympyröitä. Samalla leikkurilla olen tehnyt muovitaskusta sabluunan, jossa on reikiä siellä täällä. Painettujen ja leikattujen ympyröiden yhdistelmä on yksi suosikkikoristeeni tällä hetkellä! Koetin pitää värisävyt niin lähellä taustapaperia, että Helenan antama haaste raikastavasta tyhjästä tilasta toteutuisi.

Lumihiutalekoriste on itse tekemäni, se on leikattu vellum-paperista perinteisellä taittelutekniikalla ja kerroksia on kolme päällekkäin. Violetit "timantit" ovat Pandurosta Ruotsista, kangasriekaleet ja nauhat silppulaatikkoni kätköistä.

Kuva on aika tasan kahden vuoden takaiselta Tukholman matkalta perheeni kanssa. Muistelen, että matkan tunnelma oli jännä: toisaalta oli outoa viettää lomapäiviä paikassa, jossa oli ihan yhtä pimeää ja lumista kuin kotona. Toisaalta matkaan mahtui myös aika ikimuistoisen satumaisia hetkiä, joista muistona tämä näkymä Skansenin laululavalta juuri ennen pimeää. Tarinointi kuuluu: Lyhyt on talvipäivä Tukholmassakin, mutta olipa kaunis hetki ja kiva retki ekaa kertaa Skansenille 18.12.2010.

Sewing: A Chunky Page

I love sewing, and everything that relates to that: fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and of course my old faithful sewing machine! Sewing was this week's challenge at Take a Word.

For this piece, I tried both a new card format and a new background technique and am excited about both! The card sixe is 4x4 inches and it's called a chunky. They are usually made of a bit sturdier backing than ATCs so they're tough enough to become a book if you want to. You can punch one hole on top left or several on the left side, and collect a whole book of the same theme!

I want to collect these now, too, and sewing might well be the theme of my first chunky book. The pages can be traded in the same way as ATCs.



The background was a result of simply experimenting and I was really happy with it! I did not remember to take a complete series of "How to" pictures, but here's a photo of when the background was done.



It's made of decoupaged napkins, but instead of a decoupage glue, I used white acrylic gesso to attach the teared napkins. So the first layer was gesso and then a napkin layer, then again some gesso and napkin scraps.

I added some gesso to even out the wrinkled background in places where the rub-on sewing machine and the stamped button border would be. At this point it seemed to need a bit of another colour than violet and white, so I added a bit of orange yellow acrylic paint.

The sewing machine is a rub-on from Hambly Screen Prints. Buttons border stamp is by Lost Coast Designs, Versamark ink and the Purple Puff for embossing the buttons is by Wow Embossing Powders. All stamping products are from my local craft shop Askartelu Amalia and the artists' supplies from Tempera. My acrylic paints are brands called Amsterdam and Royal & Talens and the gesso is from Pebeo.

The Entertainer

My First Altered Playing Card (APC)

I recently made an Altered Playing Card for a trade and have been wanting to make some for my own collection, too. My deck will be themed Postage Stamps of Famous Women.

When I saw that this week's theme for Collage Obsession was Entertainers, I knew right away I wanted to do Marlene Dietrich in the film Morocco, true entertainment style with the top hat and all! I remembered I had a stamp of her in my stash, and printed a black and white picture to go with it.



Here's my 8 of Clubs with Marlene Dietrich. The stamp is mounted on a leftover pink paper with gold embossed decoration, and the see-through oriental flower background is a decoupaged napkin.


APCs are often collected with a purpose of getting the whole deck in one theme. I had been thinking of a theme for a while but when I heard of someone collecting this theme, Postage Stamps of Famous Women, I knew that was what I wanted to collect. I asked my trading partner to make sure she didn't mind my copying the idea, but she was just glad to hear I'd loved it.

I had lots of foreign penpals as a school girl and ever since, I've found it exciting how much you can learn from postage stamps. Not only are they often beautifully designed, they can tell you many things about their countries. Who are the women that are honoured in postage stamps, and what did they do to make their mark in the history books?

Happy Surprise!

Great news! I've won a prize in a challenge, for the first time ever. Yay!

I was drawn to win this cool prize of Art GRIP® Aquarelles in Faber-Castell's monthly challenge I posted for last week.

I can hardly wait to try these lovely looking watercolour pencils!





Feeling like a winner, I thought it a good day to make someone else happy, and made this little package for a fellow member of ATCs for All.

She wished for a green-coloured embellishment kit, and here it is!

I even decorated a coordinated green-coloured envelope, which was fun.

Birds and the Trees

Here's a spread from my new art journal, inspired by things I am thankful for!

In my country this bird, bullfinch, is associated with winter. I just saw a group of them this beautiful morning walking to the kindergarten with my kid. I do enjoy the change of seasons a lot!

Between working with acrylics and collage a lot, I like to think of new ways to use my watercolour pencils and the Pitt artist pens, for a change. So it felt more than suitable to create a piece inspired by the Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft challenge. This interesting monthly challenge is something that I just found about yesterday and was immediatly tempted to play along in!

Fishermen in Black and Blue

It looks like I'm really attracted to limited palette challenges right now! Here, the thing was to use only different shades of black and blue.

I'm also trying a new, yet smaller card size here. This 1" x 2.75" format is called a moo, and it's a great way to use all your treasured paper scraps!

The fishermen images are from an old touristic photo book of Greek islands Mykonos and Delos. The book was, again, a free find at our local recycling center. I'm really happy with how the vintage pictures look together with the background of blue paper scraps!

With this set of cards, I'm participating in the weekly challenge at Collage Obsession, the theme being Men. In Finland we celebrate Fathers' Day tomorrow, and while I was creating these cards, I was also remembering the fishing trips together with my father or grandfathers when I was little.

Bird and Vintage Cage in Brown

This is a card I made for trade. It is a so called Arch ATC card, which means its dimensions are those of a standard ATC (2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches) but the top is round shaped. Also, I wanted to give a try on a monochromatic card, using just shades of one colour. This week's challenge at Collage Obsession was Brown, so that's what I chose.

The collage image of a brown bird, song thrush, was a good starting point. I don't have a die cut machine of my own, but had a few previously cut cages to choose from. The brown of the cage was a bit dull at first, but as I added stamping, I was happy with the result. Brown was a bit of a challenging colour to do monochromatic, and I felt it needed a hint of other colours. Green pigment ink in the background and the poppies to add some reddish brown did the job well, I think!

Song Thrush (Turdus Philomelos) Laulurastas

Mediterranean Island

I recently found this outdated road atlas at the free stuff department of our Recycling Center. I’d been eager to try it as ATC background and I’m quite happy with the outcome! The island is made from scraps of magazines and painted cardboard.

On the background I added some gesso mixed with acrylic & watercolour paints, with splashing seawater in mind. Borders are made with paper scraps in Mediterranean-inspired colours, terracotta, turquoise, blue and white. The leaves stamped on top are, in my mind, either from an olive tree or a lemon tree.

With this, I am participating in the Islands challenge at the Collage Obsession blog.

Sister Sunflower

This week's theme at Collage Obsession was Anthropomorphism, meaning attribution of human characteristics to other animals, plants or non-living things. It's sunflower season here so I thought of making a face of a sunflower. I had a suitable stamp in mind and the rest is collage at its simplest. The flower "body" is drawn with watercolour pencils and outline pen.

Background is painted with acrylics, and the technique is the easiest you can think of: just drop paint here and there, and apply with a credit card. I do this a lot to use up rests in the palette when I'm done with painting, and quite like the nice surprises that turn up!

Fairytale Mushrooms

These collage ATC cards were inspired by Collage Obsession's this week's challenge, Mushrooms. It looks like some edible mushrooms have popped in the middle of a fairytale forest!

This was the first time I made ATCs with decoupaged napkins as the main element. With a bold design such as this (from Ikea!), it became quite a dominant element. The stamping and the vintage edible mushroom pictures sort of disappear in the background. Still, I quite like the harmonious result that sure demonstrates my passion for mushrooms of all sorts!

The vintage table of edible mushrooms from a Finnish Home Encyclopedia(published by Otava in 1935) was given by Eila of Collage Obsession Blog. Thank you!

In the Summertime

Here's my entry for an ATC swap "In the Summertime". My inspiration came from my recently bought stamp set of old-fashioned chairs and lamps. I imagined a nostalgic summer house by the sea, with lots of light and fresh flowers in every room, and pretty coloured shoes and dresses waiting for their owners to come back from swimming.

I first toned the backgrounds lightly with watercolour on a good thick watercolour paper, then stamped the furniture and lamps with a chalk ink. The focal images are made using magazine cuts, acrylics, watercolour pencils and black pen. The swap is due in mid-September so I might then make another post on what I receive in return!

My first ATC swap: Eternal Egypt

I joined an international ATC swap for the first time, through an active and friendly-looking community ATCs for All, that I recently become a member of. The swap title is Eternal Egypt and it’s also the first time I made completely hand painted ATCs. Here’s my series of six! Too bad that instead of a scanned photo of my dearies, I only have this lousy last minute shot taken at the post office. But you’ll get the idea, I hope!

Tällä kuuden kortin sarjalla osallistun ekaa kertaa kansainväliseen ATC-vaihtoon. Mukavan oloinen ja aktiivinen yhteisö on nimeltään ATCs for All, ja vaihdon aiheena oli Eternal Egypt, ikuinen Egypti.

Yellow is my colour

Yellow was this week's Collage Obsession Challenge and for once, I was early! I immediately thought of some yellow scraps I had waiting, and decided to try and make some collaged ATC backgrounds.

The colour scheme came from two shades of yellow, the pale lemon coloured paper that Stampington magazines come wrapped in, and the bright sunny one of a favourite red wine label. So I named the cards Wine Country, but was thinking more of California and Australia than France or Italy. 

My first idea was to make several fruit cards in monochromatic colours like the grape one, but then came a rainbow that I saw from my window and decided to seize the moment. And the good thing is, a few more of the same backgrounds are waiting for another day. I was really quite happy with them!

Wine Country Rainbow & Wine Country Grapes

Ihminen, kasvi, suru, rakkaus

Ensi kertaa mukana Pajan Art -haasteessa! Teemat sai valita bingoruudukon riveistä ja innostuin tekemään parikin. Näiden Art journal -aukeamien aiheet ovat:

Tehosteaine, ihminen, suru

Rakkaus, ihminen, kasvi

Aika hämyiset kuvat tuli näin iltamyöhällä! Mutta olipa ihanaa tehdä pitkästä aikaa.

Tämä vanha kirjanen on ensimmäinen aloittamani Art journal, joka on ollut tauolla aika pitkään. Tämän haasteen aihepiirit innostivat tarttumaan siihen taas.

Surusivun likaisen värisen pohjan olin maalannut ajat sitten, mutta väritys ei houkutellut jatkamaan. Nyt tartuin haasteeseen ja olikin hyvä yrittää lähestyä surua jollain muulla kuin perinteisillä suruväreillä, kylmillä tummilla, hopealla tai valkoisella. Värit lähtivät ruskeasta kirkkaampaan suuntaan, mutta se oli kiinnostava lähtökohta taustaksi.

Surullinen klovni on Freubels Freebies -sivuston kollaasiarkista, molempien töiden teipit Teippitarhasta. Japanilaisen naisen kasvot on Inkadinkadon leimasin ja pisaraleimasin pullonkorkista kaiverrettu. Kirja, sanakirja ja käsintehty paperi ovat Kierrätyskeskuksesta. Yogi Tea -teepussien mietelauselappuset ovat vakiotavaraa askarteluissani. Ennen aikaanhan myös Lipton-pusseissa oli mietelauseita, mutta Yogi Tean ovat minusta viisaampia ja niitä on hurjasti erilaisia, harvoin tulee sama eteen!

Ensi jätskihetki: vadelmaa ja vaniljaa

Viikon Inspiroidu-haasteessa (#210) oli hurjan innostava tehtävänanto: Itse värjätty tausta. Olen juuri tosi innoissani kaikenlaisista taustakokeiluista ja tähän oli siis pakko ehtiä osallistua, pitkästä aikaa! Keksin heti ajankohtaisen kuvan ja siitä poimitut vadelmanpunaisen ja valkoisen värin. Valkoista paperia minulla ei, kumma kyllä, ollut, joten lähtökohdaksi tuli mintunvihreä paperi, jolle gessoilin valkoista. Kokeilin painaa vadelman muotoa kuplamuovilla ja lopuksi lisäilin toista kuviota ornamenttileimalla. Tämä ihana uusi Kanadan tuliainen on käsintehty, kovapuinen leima. Hoksasin nyt, että se sopii paremmin maaleilla painettavaksi kuin leimasinmusteilla. Leimasinmustetta ei näet tartu puuhun riittävän paljon ja leimakuvasta tulee aika hailakka. Lisäksi valokuvien taustapapereissa on mukana aiempien värjäyskokeilujen jämäpaloja. Helmirannekoru on kierrätyskeskuksesta ja ihana kaksivärinen Dymo-nauha Teippitarhasta.

F is for Florence

After a very long break, I was inspired to participate in a challenge. To use the letter "F" in a decorative way known as illuminated text was this week's challenge at Collage Obsession. I found this challenge blog a while ago and I think it is fast becoming one of the favourites I follow. And one that I wish to participate in the future as well.

Looking for a word beginning with F for inspiration, I came to think of Florence and knew I had postcards from a long ago trip. So I began with the idea of having a slice of the skyline inside of the letter F. The colours and the rest just came along.