Celebration − A Birthday Card with Gelli Printed Paper

Hi there! Between Christmas and other wintery themes, here is a quick birthday card I made using previously made gelli printed paper from my stash. The other papers are from We R Memory Keepers and 4heures 37.



I'm entering my card in the Mixed Media Card Challenge, theme Celebration. (Edit: It was too late to join that challenge after all.)



Thanks for your visit and welcome again!

(Edit: Add link to the Mixed Media Card Challenge.)

Wintery Mixed Media Mail Holder − Scrap Africa

Hi there! Just a few days left until Christmas, and some lovely cards have began to drop in. I have to admit I don't always send many and I'm often late with them. On the other hand, I love to send and receive snail mail all year, and I think most people would love a hand made card any time!Let's keep that in mind in case we don't get to send Christmas wishes to all those we would have liked to.

This is my project for the mid-month mood board challenge No. 65 at Scrap Africa!



For the Christmas cards and any nice snail mail, I've been hoping for a special place to put the letters as soon as they arrive instead of piling them with bills and magazines. I spotted this little holder in a thrift store earlier this year and saw it was perfect for altering.



I got too carried away making it that I forgot to take photos of the process, and in a Nordic country winter, it's also always dark when I'm crafting! But I gave it some sandpapering, then gessoed a couple of layers.

Now before I forget, let's take a look at the lovely wintery mood board by Denise van Deventer! You can join the Scrap Africa challenge No. 65 until the end of the month.



I was inspired by the snowflakes, the frosty feel, and all the glass and sparkle.

I was also inspired by the Winter Challenge at WOW! Embossing Powder and the Christmas Ornament Challenge at Art Bazarchik.


I hadn't made a lot of 3D projects before, at least not this kind where you build layers of all kinds of little bits and bobs. It was a bit of a challenge but a lot of fun, a bit like a puzzle, moving and turning all the pieces around to reach a balance.



First, after the gesso, I had painted the holder with acrylics in white, a few shades of blue and Inka Gold in Turquoise. Secondly I stamped it with an old script looking stamp and used metallic blue embossing powder from Wow! Embossing Powder.



The leaves and some of the snowflakes are also decorated with embossing powders, after paint. The "foot" of the holder I painted with white and shades of blue, also making a bit of a pattern with stencils.



The side in the photo below has slightly less embellishments so it's probably going to be the back side. There's also a used puzzle piece under all the other parts - I first didn't like the look of it, with too much gold, a messy mix of paint and embossing powder. But it works out fine under the other pieces!



I even got to use a broken cheap necklace, probably dating from my sister's or my teenage years! You can see it between the other pieces, with the darkened chain and pearl and blue jewel looking plastic beads.



Et voilà, here it is ready and in use!



Thanks for your visit, and I wish you all a very happy midwinter celebration!

Illustration Friday: Punch, Collage with DIY Stamps

Hi there! Today I'm showing you the very first stamps I carved myself! The material I used here is called Speedy-Carve. It's a soft eraser-like material that is very easy to carve.

I've had the supplies for quite some time and now was a good time to start, inspired by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Carve December Challenge.



The lemon slice stamp I made on day 1 can be used alone or together with the one from day 2, the lemon half.

Here I've used them in a mixed media collage piece I'm submitting to Illustration Friday, theme Punch.



Speedy-Carve is a great material, but I didn't have more than the small block that I used more than half of already. I'll have to check out the best place to buy more, and in bigger blocks, too! Another thing I need is smaller carving tools. The set I've bought seems to be good quality, but even the smallest tool is very wide.

Have you ever tried making your own stamps? It's really fun, and it doesn't have to be carved from a material like this - I think even potato prints count, or stamps that you make in any other technique. Do check out Julie Balzer's site and also the hashtag #carvedecember in social media.

I hope to be posting more home made stamps soon!

Hello Sunshine: Layout for Scrap Africa DT - Sketch Challenge #64

Hi everyone! I can hardly believe it's time to say Happy December already. I've been busy with the workshops I've been happy to teach here in my home town Espoo, Finland, and apologize for the long blog break!

Today is also the time for the new challenge at Scrap Africa, and it's a Sketch Challenge with hexagons, a shape I'm really drawn to but still had a bit of a hard time placing this time! I felt like making a sunny layout to cheer up the darkest time of the year.



Here's what the sketch looks like.



I was also inspired by the tic-tac-toe themed challenge at Challenge YOUrself! You can join until December 4th.



I chose Sunshine, Bling and Doily for my tic-tac-toe row.



The three things that represent sunshine in my layout are the colourful gelli printed paper, the pencil pattern like rays of sunshine that I drew with a Dutch Doobadoo stencil, and last but not least the sunshine themed photo!



I'm really quite into using sequins in my layouts right now! I just tried it for the first time a month or two ago as I'd never realized how easy they are to attach with a neatly drying glue like Glossy Accents. I had two small bags of them, golden and an assortment of blues and greens, from long ago when I did more textile arts. Now I bought my first ones specifically for scrapping, these almost clear ones that still seem to have a shade of pale pink or gold in a certain light. I'm really happy with how they worked out! Other bling I used are Stickles and Liquid Pearls glues.







Thanks for your visit and welcome to check out the Scrap Africa challenge to see what the other DT members did & more importantly, take part in it, you too!



You can join until December 14th and the random giveaway prize is this collection "You're Invited" by Bo Bunny!



I hope to see you again soon!

Guest Designing for Archiscraps Transport Challenge

Hi there! To honour the beginning of a new month, I'm delighted to tell you that I've been asked to Guest Design for Archiscraps November challenge. I was glad to find their (usually architecturally themed) challenges a while ago, especially when there are not so many theme based challenges going on at the moment! I would love to see more crafters joining the Archiscraps challenges. By the way, they are also having a Design Team Call until November 15th, so check it out if you're interested!

This month the Archiscraps Challenge is anything transport related: a car, bus, train, cycle, or why not a horse! The accompanying inspiration photo is of a whimsical house that is shaped like a car, and I was particularly drawn to its fun round shapes.



That inspired me to pick a photo of my son and me in Mickey Mouse's car, and to crop it into an oval and frame it with circular shapes.



I look forward to seeing what YOU will create based on this challenge!



I made this layout at a craft meet here in Finland last weekend (Askartelupirtti) which was super inspiring! I love meeting new people connected by crafting and not just that, I even got to try some new products from folks I sat next to. In this layout, I've used Light Molding Paste from Golden and must say that's something really different from the hard pastes that I've tried before. It is definitely lighter and leaves a nice matte finish. I think I'll want to get a jar of my own!



I also tried cutting my own chipboards with the Big Shot cutter, which I don't have at home. I tried with different cardboards that were from the backs of paper pads, but the thin metal die did not cut it completely. I liked this shape, and decided to use it anyway, even though I could not remove all the bits from within the little circular frames. The die cuts are gessoed and embossed with white.





Thank you for your visit!

Forest Gold: Layout for Scrap Africa DT

Hi everyone, and happy November!

Here is my layout for Scrap Africa November Sketch Challenge #62.



This is what our lovely sketch looks like this month.





I was also inspired by three other challenges. 7 Dots Studio: Woodgrain

I used papers from several 7 Dots Studio collections: Destination Unknown, 9th Wave and my old favourite Wonderland, and the word stickers and tags are also from Destination Unknown.



Bumaga-Maraka: Gold



And Studio75: Gold & Sequins.







I wish you all a joyful autumn weekend, whether you celebrate Halloween, Day of the Dead or All Saints' Day!

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!

Wonderful Things: Layout for Scrap Africa DT

Hi! It's sketch challenge time again at Scrap Africa, and here's the layout I created.



I love this sketch, with the photos and embellishments clustered in opposite corners.



Finding photos that are suitable to be cut into circles is a fun challenge. There has to be enough empty space on each side of your focal image, so that your focus fits in the center. Don't worry, it's absolutely not expected that you should take the sketches so literally - photos in all shapes are fine!

But I'm enjoying my experiments with photos in different shapes at the moment, whether they be circles, squares or completely something else. I don't think I ever tried cropping triangular photos, but maybe I should!



I was also inspired by the 7 Dots Studio September/October Challenge: Frames. I thought of many different ways to frame the photos, from layering papers to ribbon and microbeads. In the end, I also added heat embossed chipboard corners to frame the whole layout, kind of.





For my layout, I used two patterned papers from the 9th Wave collection from 7 Dots Studio, and alpha stickers from two sets in the All I Ever line.



Do pop in at the Scrap Africa blog and see the gorgeous pieces the DT members and Guest Designers did - and participate in the challenge yourself, of course!



Thanks for your visit and have a nice week!