Summertime fun

I bought a notebook to decorate. I love little notebooks, small thin ones to jot down little notes when on the way. This one is very summery, a sweet little number. Something to keep in my apron pocket when going round the garden.

I may have made it overly complicated... The background is four different colors - Nile green, sand, white and pale blue acrylics, smeared about with a palette knife.

Then I stamped with a harlequin background stamp (pale turq) and twice with a swirly Crafty Individuals stamp, in blue and pink.

Next came the flowers. The stamp CI-226 has pretty flowers but they are laid out in both directions, so you can't really stamp the whole sheet and be done. Instead, I stamped the sheet once on tissue , a second time on pale blue paper, then some individual flowers on a paper which I had painted yellow and pink.

I cut out the individual flowers and arranged them pleasingly. The label was meant to have a title of some sort, but really, what could I write on it that wouldn't sound corny? *Notebook*? Kind of obvious, is it not? Until I can think of something smart I'll just leave it blank.

Entering this into
Crafty Individuals July *mini* challenge.
Anything but Cute: #15 Summertime fun
Moo-mania: Summer

A journey through stuff

I promised to show my second attempt on upcycling my paper scraps. The first one was blogged here. The paper scraps are nice and colorful and I always think 'I could still use this'. Well, time to show I not only 'could' but can!
 - welcome blog hoppers -
I started by gluing strips and pieces of paper onto my card backs. I stayed fairly color-coordinated because I knew I wanted a rather open background with little product.
Here you can see the stenciled layer on top of all and sundry.

Next I unified the background by some pale mold green ink and olive dots through a stencil.

Voila, finished. As this was my journey through old craft stuff I thought it only proper to apply the journey theme a bit further:

 entering this set into:
Country View Challenges: #39 Use a Stencil
Frilly & Funkie: Oh the places you'll go
Crafty Individuals: Anything goes (with CI product) third time this month! What can I say, I have been very inspired.

Spring is turning into summer / Kesää kohti

I had more mixed media fun lately. What looks like an elaborate background is in fact a simple sheet of drawing paper. I squirted two acrylics straight onto it, then squeegeed around with a credit card. While the color was still wet I stamped into it with children's foam stamps, then sprayed it with some chalky mists.

 I stamped the bird and flowers onto tissue and glued them on first.

  I was going for a raised 3D effect so built it up layer by layer:

washi tape, paper scraps,

paper lace,  thread,

floral chipboard cuts by Wycinanka and some flower pistils. Last came the found words, spinning a story of a lazy sunny morning.

entering into:
13 Arts: #42 Everything about Spring
Eclectic Ellapu: Yay it's May
Crafty Individuals: May anything goes with CI touch (stamps)

Letting out some steam / Päästelen höyryjä

A series of steampunk cards with dapper gents and lots of gleaming copper...

They live in the best of all possible worlds. The Victorian age firmly believed they had come to the end of history, everything was just perfect and hardly could be improved upon.

Gas light, electric light, steam engines...

)

railways and hot air balloons,

huge machines working with steam power - uniting coal and water in an exiting, unprecedented way. All that noise and clamor meant progress. 'We hold the keys to the future' is what these gents are clearly thinking.

entering into:
Emerald Creek: B-words (brass, brad)
Anything but Cute: #13 Celebrate your style
Crafty Individuals: May anything goes with CI product (gents)
Steampunk challenge: anything goes May

I left out some steam of my own (ha ha). I had too many scraps on my table! I got tired of looking at them and glued them all onto cards:

I needn't have bothered with color coordinating, because next I coated them with black gesso:

When they were dry I painted over with blue, purple, turq and olive, then rubbed in some gold:

I made some other cards the same way (more about them some other day) - now my desktop is almost clean...

Sain kohtauksen kun pöytäni ajelehti täynnä paperisilppua. Liimasin kaikki pienet silput korttipohjiin, päälle mustaa gessoa ja sen kuivuttua hieroin päälle tummia sävyjä. Itse asiassa oli täysin kannattamatonta tehdä pohjat tällä metodilla (vaikka lopputulos olikin kiva), nimittäin pohjan silput ovat ihan näkymättömissä. Ainoa 'hyöty' on, että pohja on epätasainen ja sehän tuo tietenkin hieman elävyyttä.

Lisänä kaikenlaista tilpehööriä, kuten esim, ruosteinen ruuvi, ohutta kuparilankaa (kadulta löytynyttä) ja ruskea kiekko jollaisia tipahtelee ilotulitusraketeista. Tämäkin haisi vielä ruudille. (Kortit jäävät itselle mutta voin tehdä niille sisaruskortteja jos kiinnostusta on.)

Birds, backgrounds and feelings---

---oh my! I have been doing very light backgrounds lately. The sun is not really fully out yet, there are days when one can feel the spring, but more often it just feels like a never-ending winter, grey and cold.

So often these days I make four identical backgrounds. Well, strictly not identical, but using the same ingredients. These are cut from a pizza box, have a coat of white gesso, then pink and yellow stenciling, some b&w tissue tape and narrow washi tape. Sentiments are from 7 Dots Studio (love that kraft paper look!).

I built two different groups. First, meet the Sweet & Positive Birdies:

(click for bigger)

Look out world

You fill my life

I'm entering these into:
Eclectic Ellapu: Flora and Fauna
Lunagirl: Flowers and Birds
Berry71bleu: March challenge (moodboard colors)

Then  I made another group with the same backgrounds. It's about Adoration. I don't know what this caressing a chin is all about - I have three Victorian postcards with the same theme. Perhaps it was the closest you could get to a lady, an intimate gesture at a time when kissing and hugging in public was unseemly and frowned upon. To me the gentleman clearly looks to be worshiping the lady. (She looks less pleased, though.)

(click for bigger)

From the point of view of the lady:

She had never seen such a deep adoration in anybody's eyes.

He says to her:

- Would you like me to get you a kitten?

- of course, thereby reducing her and comparing her to a kitten. (Or have I read too many feminist theories lately?)...

Simon Says: make your own background

Lady at the Seaside

I recently ordered some new stamps. They were a mixture of steampunk and romantic (what can I say, I am torn!). This is a romantic piece, but I managed to use part of the steampunk stamp on the background.
Then I added a lot of frill and pink and fluff. To frame the lady I used the 'flow-over' frames of the self adhesive postage stamps. Those of you who have swapped with me recently will recognize the postage stamp.

participating in:
Crafty Individuals, January challenge
P*skis: 307. luonnos
Take a Word: Frames

Choose Your Path Wisely

This pensive lady has a lot of paths to choose from. Do it wisely!

Background from an old map, the kind with small trees and shrubbery, sunshine and shadows. Then I added a stamped image (Crafty Individuals) which I gave a wash of watercolor.


participating in:
TioT: Letters and Numbers
Three Muses: Vintage Collage
Paperminutes. #417 Anything goes

What happened to Dorothy?

After the Red Brick Road - did you ever wonder what happened to Dorothy when she grew up?

There are some interesting challenges going on now, they made me ask the question - and then answer it.
Let's see... I say when Dorothy grew up she got tired of Kansas and moved to Paris. She still likes red shoes though, but wears them the grown-up way, with high heels.

Out of Kansas

I am entering this into:
Wicked Wednesday: Not in Kansas anymore
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Sparkle and Shine
Crafty Individuals: Face value
The Mirror Crack1d: Canvas

I used canvas on the background. I once salvaged a strip of prepared canvas, no idea where I might have gotten it from but it has been traveling with me for ages. Now I finally found a place for it. I used ink on the background, and once it was dry (two days!!) I stamped it with a map of Paris. Then came the picture of the couple (CI) and a shoe (from a magazine) that I glued heavily with shiny glitzy rhinestones.

Both pictures click for larger. Thanks for looking!

The Omnipresent Mr Sherlock

I was very inspired by a couple of challenges and created this:

It shows the many faces of Sherlock Holmes.
Indeed, he can be a very dapper gentleman, fashionable in his top hat, or walk the streets looking ordinary in his homburg and plain clothing, or indeed, wear no hat at all.

I wanted to explore grunge and therefore used a restricted and darkish color palette (brown, white and black), plenty of stamps (Crafty Individuals, Tim Holtz and Artistic Outpost, all done on separate paper, fussy cut and colored in), pieces of a vintage tape measure, a clear acrylic tile, a puzzle piece, a key brad - all mounted on brown background made with India ink, acrylics and pencils.

linking up with these challenges:
Fashionable Stamping Challenge: #101 It's about Men
Die Traumfabrik : #21 Sherlock Holmes
Crafty Individuals: Face Value
Simon Says Monday Challenge: anything goes

and joining ArtJoyStuff July ATC swap with these cards. The theme is Grunge (Tim Holtz style). I am not exactly sure what TH style is, except perhaps plenty of layering? But at least this is grunge (right?).
I am so happy to have found an international swap - yay!