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!

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 Christmas ATCs for Scrap Africa

Hello again, and happy December! I created this set of Christmasy ATCs inspired by the December Mood Board at Scrap Africa.



I was particularly inspired by the textures, glitter, festive mood and shades of red. The rose in the top left corner made me think of using a stencil, so I started the background with stenciling some structure paste.



I worked the background in one large piece, about A3 size. I actually started it with a scrapbook layout in mind, but couldn't think of an inspiring photo to combine with it, so I decided I was more in an ATC mood this time.



When creating with a paper of the size A3, there's actually enough for both scrapbook layout and a row of ATC backgrounds. A3 short side is a quarter inch short of a regular 12x12 scrapbook paper, but I don't mind a difference this small in my projects. I think it's handy and economical to buy art paper for mixed media scrapbooking, even though the sizes have not been created with scrapbook albums in mind.



Can you guess what other media I have used?



There are quite many layers actually. Over the stenciled paste, I first painted some parts with tube watercolours and other spots with acrylics. You can perhaps see the fluorescent red that pops out a bit. That, for example, is an acrylic paint.



I used two different lettering stamps that are among my very favourites at the moment: historical script-looking Liesbeth's Letters from Art Journey and an old one that looks like scribbly handwriting.



For the main embellishment, I used wood veneer Christmas trees that I had first gessoed white and then heat embossed with a white gold shade.



I also used paper scraps, washi tape and a velvety flourish fabric tape.



I am also joining the following challenges: Christmas at the Artistic Stamper, and Merry & Bright at the Mixed Media Monthly.



Thank you for popping in! Do check out what the rest of the DT did and join our challenge at Scrap Africa until the end of December!

You are Here: Stamped Art Journal Pages

Hi there! Just in time to write the last post of November, I'm posting this art journal spread inspired by the monthly challenge at Viva Las VegaStamps!



Here's what the mood board looks like, accompanied by inspiration words: gold, warm, yellow, tans, browns, vintage, black and white, background stamps, doodles, harlequin, diamond, distressed, polka dots, swirls, circles, hearts, stripes and more!.



I used many of the mentioned elements indeed!



All stamps are from Viva Las VegaStamps.



I'm also joining the following challenges: Altered Eclectics, and We Love 2 Create. Both of these challenges run with the same theme every month, Anything Goes as long as it's Mixed Media.







Thank you for your visit and comments!

Red Shades and Hexagons: Another Mixed Media Fall Colours Tag

Hello! Here in Finland the winter has come early and the earth is already covered in snow. It came so early indeed that I'm still finishing my last pieces with fall colours!

Today I'm posting a tag similar to the one I made last week as the DT for this month's Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge.





A couple of process photos, the first depicting how I used Glossy Accents in some of the hexagons and the second trying all the elements in place.





I am entering my tag in the following challenges: Bumaga-Maraka: It's All in the Details. I chose Bright/Shiny Accents, Circles and Hexagons. And Crafty Life: Anything Goes.













Thank you for your visit, and especially all the comments, as always!

Dark Green and Hexagons: Autumn Tag for Scrap Africa Sketch 80

Hi! November is here, and it's Scrap Africa sketch time! (Sorry for posting late!)



I was happy to work with this one since I love hexagons.



I've been admiring the cool mixed media tags that people do and wanted to give it a try.

I started by colouring two manila coloured tags with Distress Inks. I often choose to work on more than one piece, especially if it's something fairly small or something I haven't tried before. If one does not work out, there'll still be the other, and maybe it works better in one colour than the other.



I recently got some Prima Resist Canvas Shapes and this is the first time using them! I dyed them with mists and let them drying. Next, I cut hexagons in different sizes, and gave some of them a glossy finish with the Glossy Accents glue. The canvas shapes and hexies would take pretty long to dry and it suited me fine to leave them overnight.



I then went on making layers for the tag backgrounds. I stamped with two different text stamps and heat embossed them using Lindy's Stamp Gang Midnight Teal powder. I also used thin gold-foil striped washi tape and acrylic inks.



Next, I arranged the hexies and swirls in place, adding some white and dark blue sewing thread.



And on top of it, I had these really pretty cardboard and vellum poppy flowers. I still wanted to add a bit of something so I glued some micro pearls on the flower and some Perfect Pearls and Stickles onto the flower and on the side.



Thank you so much for taking a look! I hope to see you again here and of course joining the challenge at Scrap Africa!