Count your blessings

An umbrella and a pair of rain booties - count your blessings when it rains!

Stamped, fussy cut, embossed... The girl with umbrella is from an anonymous maker, I purchased it pre-loved;  the saying and marks is from Technique Junkies and the clouds is ancient Stampington.

I would like to enter these in:
Country View Challenges: Black, white plus one
Simon Says Monday Challenge: Add some red
Fashionable Stamping: Anything goes

It's tea time

Yesterday's card already had stamping on tissue. Today I'd like to show you my step-by-step for this method. Not that it would be unknown, and of course there is printed tissue to be bought as well. But it is fun to make your own.

I started with very thin tissue, the kind that can be found in shoe boxes. It takes ink well and it is easy to stamp.

For this type I wanted the tissue to be extremely thin, because next I was going to glue it onto patterned paper. The good thing about this is that you can flip sides. The stamping doe not have to go down the way it was stamped. Here I made two cups with handle on the right side and one cup with handle on the left.

After it was dry I fussy cut everything.

Next I picked a nice floral background.

Even though it was rather pale and pastel-y, I still felt it was too strong. So I quickly gave the center of the card a wash with white paint, then added a tad of coral paint.

Finished:

I'd like to enter this project into following challenges:

TJK: Kuppi teetä?
Patterned Paper Challenge: February open theme
Fashionable Stamping: Anything goes

Enamel dots

Is it weird to build your card around enamel dots? As I browsed through the challenges, it was 'Enamel dots' that caught my attention. I have them, plenty, but I never use them. Today was the day!

The background was treated with Distress oxides. I added bees that I had stamped on tissue paper.

entering in:
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Anything goes
Use Your Stuff: Enamel dots
Fashionable Stamping Challenge: Anything goes

With brave wings

Bugs are so misunderstood. No, I don't like bugs either... even a bee gives me the creeps. (Sorry bee, I know your work is valuable, but I hate it if our interests collide - e.g. in ice-cream...)
If you stay with flowers we'll get along just famously.

The bee and floweri are stamped. Bee's wings have a blue iridescent powder on them.

Background is magazine clippings that were sandpapered and inked.

entering in:
Fashionable Stamping: It's a bug's life
Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: Stamp on it
Stamping sensations: September: B

Neon flowers

The sun is so bright so the colors feel like they would be even brighter than normal.

I made a set of ATCs with such colors bright that they look almost neon.

The flowers have been stamped, the stamps are by Artistic Stamper.

 I have no idea which flowers they are, but let's just call them snowdrops, roses and bluebells.

Background is a thinner wash of gouache. It has been layered over with stenciling, stamping, painting and finally with white rub-ons.

I am entering this in:
Fashionable Challenge: #133 Springtime
Rubber Dance Art: April Pink-Green-yellow

Inks and stamping

The badges of my last post were not all there. This sweet bird was deemed suitable for a Paris-themed card.  Text "Les heures glorieux" - glorious hours - a find from a book seemed to fit perfectly.

It's a huge stamp with lots of details. I colered it in with Distress inks, then added some glitter 'diamonds' and the bird badge perched on a paper flower.

entering in:
Fashionable Stamping: #126 Use inks any way you like
Moo-mania: Birds
Simon Says Wednesday: Anything goes.

Just to say - -

There are stamps that get a lot of use and then some that - while lovely - don't get much use at all. I think it's the more complex stamps that get less use - they are more or less 'ready' and don't require much thought.
Nevertheless, today was time to use my favorite pretty stamp:

I stamped and inked the stamped picture, added some rub-ons, washi tape and words. (The stamp is by Crafty Individuals in case you are wondering.)

entering this in:
Fashionable Stamping: #122 My favorite things.
Frilly and Funkie: Put on your inking cap.
Rubber Dance Art: Black+white+one more color.

Birthdays

... are just numbers, right? I could be wrong though... at least these ladies don't look overly delighted.

Now Ann, Mary and Charlotte here claim their age to be a secret,

whereas Jane and Elizabeth are at least attempting to make a wish:

The stamp is an under-used old Paperartsy which I have had since five-six years if memory serves me right.
For background I used the 'stamp an acrylic plate, mist with water, drag your background through the droplets' -technique by Tim Holtz. I used pink, lavender and plum. It's interesting how the colors stayed separate but united to form two-tone droplets.
I am using primaries as prompted in the RetroRubber challenge.

entering in:
Fashionable Stamping: It's just a number
CountryView Challenge: Inspired by Tim Holtz
Retro Rubber: RRCB57 Color my world

 

Muutosten tuulia / I feel so centered

Kun minua pyydettiin OKTK-haasteen DT:n jäseneksi seuraavaksi puolivuotiskaudeksi niin ilolla suostuin. Olen varmaan jo useammin hehkuttanut kuinka paljon tykkäänkään haasteista. Osallistun niihin mielelläni ja toivon, että inspiraatioksi luomat korttini innostavat muitakin osallistumaan. Sillä eihän voi muuta kuin voittaa! Omat pelkonsa, esimerkiksi. Omat luomistuskansa. Kun-se-hirviö-ei-tahdokaan-onnistua! Kun siitä-ei-tullut-sellaista-kuin-halusin! No vähätkö siitä. Pääasia on kokeilla.
Jollet tunne OKTK-haastetta vielä, niin siinä osallistutaan ja samalla vaihdetaan. Tämä kuvakooste oli inspiraationa:

 ja tällaiset kortit siitä sain aikaiseksi. Isosiipinen tyttö osallistuu vaihtoon.

Kuvakoosteessa mieltäni kiinnitti ennenkaikkea seesteisen kaunis kuva oikeassa yläkulmassa. Tein pohjat kahdella kutakuinkin hempeällä värillä, ruusunpunaisella ja oljenkeltaisella, etenkin kun kuvakoosteesta löytyy alavasemmalla kauniita ruusunpuunaisia sävyjä:

Niiden päälle suihkautin laventelinväristä mustetta:

 ja lähikuvassa vielä:

Tyttöjen siivet leimasin kenkälaatikosta talteen otetun ruskean silkkipaperin päälle. Ne tuovat yhtymäkohtaa kuvakoosteen oikeasta alareunasta löytyvään kukkaan.

New year - new ideas, new everything. These cards have three things that are new to me: the sponging of color - shiny fashionable red gold - elements that have not been glued down.

I made the backgrounds with distress inks and my brand new sponge tool and spray as shown in the pictures, then added some gentle stamping on the background. The girls have wings - this tiny mite has indeed huge wings! I stamped my butterfly stamps onto brown craft tissue that I had salvaged from a shoe box. The mood board above was used for color inspiration. It shows some serene colors - I hope these make you feel as centered as I feel now.

entering:
Emeral Creek Dares: Bring on the New
Fashinable Stamping: Spring or Winter
ATC around the World: Mythical Creatures

Fly home 2.

Another bird, same quote as on the tag a few days ago - this time the mood is a bit darker. The evening is closing on, home is still far away.

This journal page was made with stenciling, stamping, resist stamping, watercolor and Infusions.
I just love the way Infusions particles react when you sprinkle them over a wet surface.

 

The bird was stamped with embossing ink, then embossed with clear powder. (A few flakes of gold made it into it, I had just been playing around with sheet gold.)

 

  
The Big Dipper (made of silvery diamante dots) is guiding the bird as it flies home.
There is a key lying in the grass.  (With some more diamante dots, a second, this time colorless and raised stenciling above the first which I then highlighted with a rubbing of golden mica.)

 I am entering my journal page into:
Fashionable Challenge: #114 Resist stamping
Stamps and Stencils: Take flight
Stamploration: Stencil Sunday August challenge

Under the Sea

and with the fishes...

For these I used the CD-inking technique that can be found on youtube or some blogs. Take a plastic sheet or a cd-cover, swipe Distress Inks on top, spray with water and dip your substrate into it.

I used three colors and shiny white cardstock. This way the color floated on the surface and produced a translucent, watery surface.I didn't want to go heavy on product here, it is water after all.
Later I added droplets with a shimmery pale blue mist.

Fish are stamped, as is the seaweed. Eyes and air bubbles are enamel drops. Further embellishments is thread and some words.

entering this into:
Mixed Media World: #16 Under the Sea
Fashionable challenge: #113 Under the Sea
Die Traumfabrik: Finding Nemo

All splashed up / Purkitetut lapset

I love found words. When you leaf through a book with an open mind, forgetting about the persons and the story in the book you can put together a whole different story.
Words are never just words, they are the connotations they create - and depending on our cultural background this connotation might be totally different than what 'the sender' had in mind. What I love most is connecting words with pictures -  the way the words are able to transport a visual image to another level is just pure magic.
But enough of my mini lecture (can you tell I have been reading Stuart Hall and Roger Chartier and their ideas on cultural representation?)... let's move on to the pictures.

We'll have a quiz: If there was a mason jar larger than yourself and you were for some reason inside it - how would you react? With anger? Frustration? Fear? Joy?
Let's see what these children made of their experience:

They have very different temperaments which means their reactions differ vastly. This girl is either happy or sad, for she says: "I want to be alone." (Yes, there you see an example of cultural connotation. The wish for solitude is for Finns a happy thing, we like being alone, most of the time.)

This child is thinking hard. "I thought desperately what one is supposed to do in a situation like this." So we see her knocking on the glass, hoping the bird can offer some help.

 And here is one who exited of the new situation: "This is shaping up to be so cool!" No worries there, then.

Purkitetut lapset syntyivät kun pöydälläni ajalehti kahden kokoisia leimoja. Sain juuri lahjaksi sekä purkin että lintuleimat. Purkkileimaa olenkin pitkään toivonut ja nyt eräs amerikankävijä toi sen minulle. Sairas mieleni sulkee purkkiin hillon sijasta kaikenlaista muuta... Mutta ei hätää, nämä lapset ovat kyllä neuvokkaita ja pääsevät pois. Reipas kirja merimiehistä ja heidän seikkailuistaan auttoi lauseiden teossa.

The background was done with Ranger inks. I use CD box for this. I 'inked' it with three colors (crushed olive, Victorian velvet, Broken china), spritzed some water on it and pulled my watercolor paper through. Afterwards I sprayed the paper with some similar inks. Everything else is stamped. I especially love my children stamps with their 30's/40's vintage look, from Flonzcraft.


entering the set into:
Fashionable Stamping Challenge: #111 Blots, dots, splashes
Try it on Tuesday: Spots, dots, splashes
Our Creative Corner: Hit the books

A little girl in a big wood

... a change of roles for this strongest girl in the world, Pippi Longstocking. Imagine being captured in a glass jar among giant plants! Not that it matters much to her - 'no problem' is her reaction.

entering her into:
Stampotique: SDC 241 Inspired by a movie or a show
Fashionable Stamping Challenge: Blue white yellow

Mirrored Butterflies / ja yllättävä haiku

For these cards I started with a grey base. First I worked with pearlescent white 3D paste through a stencil. Next I added a layer of color with Gelatos, I find those neon shades add so much whimsy to vintage pictures. I stamped the lady on a tissue, then reversed the tissue and stamped again. This way I was able to get a mirror image of her.

Two opposing each other / facing east / escorted by the morning sun's rays.

I am working with the concept of mirroring right now - double identity, a self with a shadow self, a twin - there are many interpretations possible.
Next came another layer of stamped butterflies, I repeated the small ones and added them on the bottom. The big butterfly is placed so that it matches.

entering these into:
Fashionable Stamping: #109 Butterflies
Vintage Stamping: #42 Three layers
Take-a-Word: Butterflies

Näissä korteissa kokeilin miltä vintagekuvat näyttäisivät neonvärisellä taustalla. Yllättävän hyviltä, sanoisin. Osoittaa ainakin sen, että vintagen ei suinkaan tarvitse olla jatkuvasti hengettömän ruskeaa tai masentavan sameaa.
Eniten ilahduin korttien sanoista. Kerrankin niistä tuli jotain kaunista. Tämä on kuin runo:

Vastakkain kaksi,
suoraan itään
aamuauringon säteiden saattamana.

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!