Wednesday Stampers: Growing old

Off the cuff: My piece is not about how old you are, it's about getting there. Getting to be really old, wise, respected, y'know, stuff. It's a long road. My sentiments go out to the very young, to the adolescent. I'd like to shout: don't give up, don't despair. The world is harsh, the world is unjust, parents should know better but some never do. Just do not give up. Be a better person, a good person, be all you can!

For this challenge I decided to "illustrate" the poetry I've been slowly working on. Hannu Mäkelä of Finland wrote these lines (among others) in 1974. I'm positive he wasn't writing about children, or adolescent, but I think they fit beautifully to describe growing pains.

"My road shrouded in darkness. There is no other road."

"We have very little future, and we have to take care of it ourselves."
click both for big. Sorry for the glare!

Oh mercy me!

Hallowe'en, oh mercy me!
All challenge blogs are full of Halloween, and I'm not a huge fan. The evening is altogether too noisy, people are going wild on the streets. I usually have a Halloween party "just for us girls", nice food, wine, good music, the obligatory pumpkins as decoration. Well, used to have. That was in the big city, thousands of miles away. Now I live in a very rural life, secluded, even, where lighting just one candle will make a big difference.
I made these inchies for Joanne's inchie swap. Halloween, if you will.


The picture clicks bigger.
tech stuff:
Note the festively sparkly background. I used a wild concoction of ink, dye, glitter glue and puffy fabric paint. Squirted everything onto the surface and blended it then and there with a thick brush. Different type mediums didn't exactly blend, some colors stayed mostly where I had put them, others could be manouvred around. There is coverage, though it is deliciously uneven. The background was school grade (100g) watercolor pad. I flattened it out with hot iron after drying as it had started to buckle.

in the pink

Chris at My favorite Thing for Today has a wonderful mini challenge in her blog. Plus great papers to download! Make a card or an altered object using her pink papers and you might win some goodies. Right up my alley! I love pink, love-love-love. Some pink can be real tacky, but check it out, Chris has wonderful clean shades of pink. It was hard to choose what to use.

I made an ATC (is this getting old?) using this paper. Only in my card you can't see a whole lot of it since I stamped it, too.
(Sorry Chris, I didn't do anything sweet! But if you scroll down my entries for this weekend you'll notice I have had my fill of sugar...)

So here's my entry for Chris' mini challenge, and I think it fits the prompt for Inspire Me Thursday - all things spooky, ghoulish or haunted! This lady would spook me!

Quiet please! (I'll have order please!)

Sunday couples

I'm still rolling on... Made some interesting backgrounds, and used some for these cards.
Clearly it is couples day!

Vaaralliset aseet (I'm not scared of men like him, unless, of course, he carries some terrible weapons.) traded
found words, gessoed paper, gel transfer (gone bad), background color sponged on directly with the ink pad

Kuiskaus (Whispering loudly: I had to return)

Words from a third-rate play. The background is my thriftiness... I always keep a sheet of printer paper under my work in progress. A good and reliable catchall for any overflow ink, or stamping, trying out pens, doodling, and especially all that excess glue. The glue gives the paper a nice shiny surface, and this takes sponged ink from ink pads beautifully.

Robbery. A play in 4 Acts
Torn papers, sponged in with ink pads, then stamped with the same inks, some lavender tissue paper, found words (from a list of plays)

all pics click for bigger!

Saturday Surprise: Letter

She's got mail! And not just any, but clearly happy mail. See the stamp: Au pays des fees. Couldn't resist it - translation: in fairyland.

Good tidings
click for big!
Saturday Surprise is here

I'm on a roll

Clearly, I'm on a roll. Ten atc's in two days. Not that I've been trying to be fast, no, just because I'm usually good for one card per night, maybe in two nights this rare occasion filled me with happiness and contentment.

There is a new Mixed media Monday challenge site, and their first prompt was Vintage Women. I "blame" them for the overall vintage look. Once I had made one, the others just kept coming. I can't show all, some are meant for swaps. But these I can show you, and if you'd like to trade with me, I'd be happy to! Ps. There are more free cards in the posts below...

Fashion Demands / Muodin vaatimukset
traded


Life is Blue (Alakulo)
pending


Silver Wedding Anniversary
reserved

Vaaralliset harrastukset (I almost stopped playing soccer after hurting my knee )
free

The Last Masks - a play in one act
pending


A Room of her Own (Kiinnostus omaan tilaan)
traded

All pictures click for bigger. Thanks for looking!

Last minute Vintage

Mixed Media Monday is a new challenge site. This week the theme is Vintage women. Not too hard, in fact, somehow I always end up with vintage women... Here is the one I made for this challenge, though whether you scroll up or down my blog you're going to find plenty more vintage ladies!

Joy of living
clicks for big!

Brilliance pearly blue re-inker, brown painting ink, stamped with brown chalk.

arty dots

Arty Girlz' challenge this week is to use spots, dots, circles - anything as long as it's round.
Well, then, here's my slightly surrealistic take on it. Spots reside on the background...

The Unused Path
traded

Using up scraps of my papers on the background, reworked Basic Grey on left. Center strip came as a freebie with a British magazine (PaperCraft?), right some watercolors and gouache stamping.
Clicks for big!

Milk Fairie

Skinny Saturday challenges us to use a Fairies as theme this week. Here is my take of it, Mary the Milk Fairie!

Clicks for big as always!

Dream

4x4 Friday's theme this week: use the word Dream, Inspire or Create on your 4x4.
I chose to dream. Or rather, this lady is dreaming of flowers, of spring, cherishing a handful of earth.

Funny enough, this piece has plenty of circles. Could have suited DCM as well.

Daring circles

Oh, just talking about Daring Cardmakers' newest challenge Circle (of friends). Contemplated doing something cute, something carefree, but nope, got finally sidetracked enough so that the circle on my card is a vicious circle: shoes, the cost of them, dreaming of them. Shoes are clearly her friends. And, oh, this lady does have a round earring. Not quite what the challengers might have had in mind...

Circle dangly earring (Thinking in circles)
traded

Saturday Surprise

Lapsen mielellä
pending

Today's Saturday Surprise challenge prompt is More precious than gold.
What is more precious than that? To me it is imagination, creativity, being able to think like a child. Just suppose, we all were guilless as a child, open, unbiased. Would the world be a better place?

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Saturday Stampers: Winter

The winter solstice is drawing on. It's a starry night, the air is biting cold. Indoors it is very warm and stuffy, the candles and oil lamps give warmth as well as light. Adele feels like going out for a walk. She puts on her fur-brimmed coat (her next-to-best) and strolls out into the garden. The young man, who had wanted several dances with her, follows Adele outside.


The stars are shining, the snow is falling in soft petal-like clusters. The young man falls on his knees and recites: En voisant le bonheur au fond des yeux scrilles, Le coeur dans le regard une etoile, brille.
The meaning is beyond Adele, she has never been too good in French. She is annoyed and doesn't hesitate to show it. - Sir, would you care to use plain English so we may all understand. - Certainly, Miss Adele. I see the happiness in your eyes, and compare it to the brilliance of the stars.
What was it about the heart? Adele has caught this one word, coeur. The young man coughs. Hm, hm, Miss Adele, the French language is too delicate to be translated fully, it has to be understood - with your heart. He grabs Adele's hand and presses it to his heart. Adele feels delicious little shivers along her spine. - Oh, I do love the winter! she breathes, rather incoherently.

Saturday Stamper' Challenge: Winter
click picture for a bigger view

WS / Children

Wednesday Stampers has a topic this week: Children. Here is my take on it.

Charley Boy (traded)

And in case you are wondering about the four-letter word that now is cut to half - not my doing. It kind of censored itself. I have a glueing board, and part of this strip got accidentally glue on the letters, so it stuck to the board when I was lifting it up. D-a- came off, m-n stayed. Some vocabulary, Charley boy!

FFTT/ a very wicked witch

Yes, it's that time of year again! Spiders, webs, ghosts, oh my!
And since Fluffy Fatbottoms Twisted Tuesdays is challenging us to make a wicked witch, I'll show them a wicked witch - yes sirree!

I have been reading Margaret Atwood's A Handmaid's Tale. Do you know it? If not, you should definitely pick it up. It was published 1985, but it has remained eerily accurate in mapping out things to come.
In my picture below the witch is a woman, as per convention. Though who the real witch behind the happenings in this book may be - my guess is as good as yours.

A Wicked Witch

Leni's challenge

Sinä et kuule
traded

This one is for Leni's holiday challenge! She asked to use her picture.
It reads: You cannot hear me.

I'm still cutting up that poetry book I told about earlier. Go, go already, so you may return.

Mene mene jo
traded

Ring-robin ATC's

These ATC's have gone through five participants. I was the last, so I did the finishing touches. Some of them needed a lot of work, while with one I was at a loss what to do, since it felt finished. Well, I added my touch, anyway.
Too bad I didn't take pics of before and after, only after, it would have been nice to compare.

Piki, our hostess should receive them today, so I don't think I'm spoiling anyone's joy. She'll also make a drawing and send each participant one ATC.
I have two favorite cards, and cross your fingers for me - maybe it is my lucky day!

A transformation

Just a little something. An ATC for no challenge and no-one. Available for trade, though, if you so wish. EDIT: traded.

Clicks for bigger.

tech stuff: background matte rub-on color and iridescent ink refill used as paint, stamping with Versamark and pearlescent paint, a slaughtered book (what a terrible thing!), collage elements.

FFTT: where was my head?

Fluffy Fatbottoms Twisted Tuesdays! Those challenges are tricky! Mean! Tough! But really great! No wonder, then, that my entry is really not a straight answer to their new challenge: Where was my head? I interpreted the head theme rather freely. Like so:

What's wrong with them?
background Gesso, dye and watercolor. German scrap, vintage face cutouts.
Clicks for huge.

Edit: Oh, dang! Just realized it had to be postcard format! Where was MY head!!!

Skinny Saturday: Childhood

I'm trying out a new format, a 3x5". In my book not as hard as the 4x4" - I really struggled with that one! There is a new challenge, Skinny Saturday, now into it's second challenge. Of course I had to do it. (But of course!)
Childhood is the theme this week. Jump in, try it out! You won't be sorry.

I Am Happy to be Me

click for really big! Sorry for a hazy photo, the gold kind of overpowers everything. Not in real life, though.

OMG, I just linked the challenge page and realized I had used golden corners as well! I wasn't even aware. They must have looked cool to me ...!

Saturday Surprise: Waiting

New challenge over at Saturday Surprise: waiting, expecting.

My take is melancholy: waiting for life to happen, for time to pass. Quotes are taken from a poem by Hannu Mäkelä, Finland. (Syksy tuli kutsumatta, Otava, 1974.) I can't believe I'm actually cutting the book - sorry, Hannu!
I like his poems, and the best ones I'm keeping. This one is a rather somber one, the protagonist is waiting for life to happen, for time to pass. Aren't we all, at times?
I think they suit well to illustrate what these Victorian ladies may be thinking.

Odotus I: Jokainen hetki
"Every moment lasts its given time" (traded)

Odotus II: Edessä päiviä
"And there are days ahead I don't want to live through" (pending)

pics click for bigger!

Hats!

Inspire Me Thursday came up with a fabulous theme: hats. We all wear many hats, trying to fit our art world into our daily world, but this lady has a head to go with each one, it seems. She's not taking part in Twisted Tuesdays, though, I have another one coming for their headless challenge.

Hats just look so much more chic with French titles, don't you think so too?

Wearing Many Hats

believe in yourself

Beyond the horizon
reserved
Gold spray, iridescent paint, stamping with Versa color, Distress Ink and Brilliance, collage elements

Believe in the power of you
traded

Gesso, papers, paint, scrape, ink, collage elements

another image transfer

Sisters
traded

I used acrylic paint medium for this one. The ink jet print was about a month old. It didn't transfer as smooth as the previous one. I am getting to know the quirks - my background paper was now more porous and the medium was diluted with some water. Note to self: thick medium is fine as long as it is applied thinly, whereas thin medium applied thick doesn't do the trick.

TMTA / Mask

TMTA threw a hard one this week: masks. I don't like them, I hate not seeing someone's eyes. It took me this long to overcome my aversion.
My thought process ran like this: mask - hiding face - not knowing - what don't we know? - future - we don't know the future - future is masked - something that can hide the face - butterfly? - yes, perfect -

Masked and hidden

Do I think too much? Maybe I make the challenges too difficult for myself by reflecting on the meanings of words and what they conjure? I wish I could do something fast and straightforward and just call it a day.

background has Gesso for texture, dye, watercolor & glitter glue

pic clicks for bigger!

recycling items challenge

Running on ink posted a challenge. We have to use recycled utems. What fun!
Mine are: a puzzle piece, found on the street back in August, now gilded. Waste ribbons from my job. Also the background has been made spraying gold paint through an old doilie.

Picture can be clicked bigger!

Forgot your birthday!

4x4 Friday is calling for Men. I purchased a bag of stamps at ebay, the funniest stamps, I'm telling you! How about this: A clear conscience is usually a sign of bad memory. Yep! I forgot your birthday, but my conscience is clear.
Well, there won't be many occasions for using it, but here it fits! On the background another gel transfer - yay, this was fun!

Saturday Stampers is prompting us to show a different point of view (DPOV) by using the same stamp on different pieces. I stamped the funny saying about the clear conscience on a piece of watercolor painted paper, then cut it in three random pieces and used as background on three moo cards.


I also used up the surplus of the musical notes. This version could be used as a greeting, the letters on bottom spell hei - hi in English.

Saturday Surprise: History

1856 / Katarina (traded)

Year 1856 - Czar Alexander meets young Katarina, then a child of 10, and falls instantly and violently in love with her. Eight years later, at her coming out dance he meets Katarina again. It was said her beauty was not from this world. Katarina becomes the mistress of Czar Alexander. The Czar is assassined in 1882, Katarina flees to Paris where she lives until her death in 1922.

Saturday Surprise challenge

On technique: This is my first gel transfer ever! I followed these instructions and found them very consise. I peeled off the picture while it was still wet, the image transferred great! My print was a week old ink-jet printout. (I think I'm hooked!)

Bird tags

Pick a challenge, any challenge!...
Three challenges just happened to coincide perfectly.
These tags are an answer to Arty Girlz challenge #3 that is calling for tags on our projects - only I made tags as my project... At the same time Technique Thursday was prompting us to use embossing powders, Inspire Me Thursday had birds as a challenge!

I combined the three, voila - bird tags with embossed backgrounds!


On the occasion of a newly hatching chick - a friend of mine is expecting - these are for her baby shower gift. As for the gift itself, I am contemplating making a mini-album slash journal for her first days with the new baby.

Technicalities: this is my absolutely second time around that I have done embossing. My previous attempt (seen here as the pink stamp on moo cards) produced a good quality image, this time I was trying to emboss card stock and that didn't go too well. I did it over a light bulb - I guess a heat gun would be mandatory if I was to become serious. So far I find the results nice, but nothing I could imagine becoming addicted to. My embossing powders came with my newly acquired stamps from ebay, they are from Stamp 'n Stuff, Print Art and Rubber Stampede.
Stamps are carved by me, and the hatched egg is decorated with bronze mini sequins and beads.

Picture clicks for bigger!

Wednesday Stampers / fall colors

The glorious colors of fall! The challenge this week over at Wednesday Stampers is to use these colors in our artwork. I was drwan towards the muted shades of those colors, and this is the result:


I am

background: reworked Basic Gray paper (Urban Couture Mila), mulberry paper, textile leaf with brad, postage stamp, old portrait, stamp from ebay. 4x4 format (starting to like it!), a wire for hanging.
Clicks for big! Sorry I didn't get the picture face-on, so it shows some unfortunate perspective!

fluffy fatbottoms

Fluffy Fatbottoms Twisted Tuesdays - a new challenge. The first dare is "Fish out of water".

Here is my take on it. Format 4x6", post card size. Only I can't think of any fitting occasion for this card. Well, maybe Bat Mitzvah or any other girl becoming woman kind of event. Only, though, girls want to be reassured, not made wistful.
And this woman is certainly that. I can't decide whether she's a fish transforming into a human, or a human longing to be a fish. And what happens if she can't make up her mind?

Song of Freedom (Transformation)

pic clicks for big!

Alpha Challenge + DCM

I recently run into Alpha Challenge, and of course had to try it out! I was itching to use frame in it, since DCM's this week's prompt is Frames. Which I did take part in already, but didn't really dare to use a full-size frame... Long story short: here is a frame and the letter N:

Resume of Helene Neville

TMTA / Pirates

Oh, the pirates, lurking everywhere! This is my take on TMTA's this week's prompt, Pirates.

A Real Gu--, eh, Pirate

Too bad the photo doesn't show the glitter on her eye patch!

Is this serendipidity, or what!
An interesting looking paper had been lying in the grass for a few days, but only today I decided to pick it up. It's the kind that comes along with candy. The kiddies like to tattoo them on their hands, foreheads or whatever. Lookee, lookee, it's a pirate ship and it fitted perfectly!

Other than that it took me half a day, as in: six hours, to do this. Lucky that it was my day off. (I must be slow?) It grew in fits and starts. My original idea was very far removed from this one.

Gothic Arch / vacation

Here is my take on Gothic Arch challenge: an arch embedded in a 4x4.

Having a Fine Time

My absolute favorite place is Montauk. It is at the very end of Long Island, also called The End. There is a wonderful lighthouse at Montauk Point, and you can walk miles and miles along the white sands. In fact, we once did walk all the way to Amagansett. From there on you could walk to Hamptons, then to Long Beach, then Brighton Beach on Coney Island (Brooklyn) - a trip that takes 4 hours by train. That is the extent of sandy shoreline! I find it world's best kept secret. No need for exotic destinations, not for me.
I toyed with the idea of sprinkling the background with real Montauk sand (which I fill each year in found little bottles from the beach, funny me!) - but in the end I just settled for sand colored textured paper.
This is my happy place. Loved this challenge!