Grungy Frida

'Making metal' is the theme for the Finnish challenge blog this month. I made old, grungy metal looking backgrounds (scroll down for tutorial) and thought these found Frida Kahlo pictures would look great with it.

KKvintage-haaste pyörähti jälleen käyntiin. Tekniikkakesän haasteeissa pääsimme nyt vanhaan metalliin. Kun olin tehnyt kuluneen metallisen näköiset taustat (ohjeet alla), pyörittelin niitä viikon jos toisenkin kunnes keksin, että kuluneet taustat vaativat kerrankin jotain kaunista ja eksoottista parikseen. Niin syntyivät Frida-kortit, jotka toivottavasti inspiroivat elämään täydesti joka hetki.

Paired with some metal elements, fancy ribbon, flowers and leaves, chipboard and a Tim Holtz tag and big chat stickers they got some flavor.

Tutorial:
I started with random kraft card stock ( I reuse a lot!):

Gesso them over. Try not to be neat, you'll be happy about some texture later:

When dry, paint with brown paint:

Sandpaper them and wipe off the dust:

Lastly swipe them with a dark brown ink pad:

I also wanted to see what the effect would be if the ink and paint would be done in the opposite order. Voila! After gessoing and sanding, swipe once over with a dark brown ink pad:

Now add brown paint:

They look totally different:

Both look like ancient rusty metal - neat.

(with darker background)

entering this into:
Unstampabelles: #60 Anything but a card - with tutorial
Lunagirl Moonbeams: Anything goes

(with lighter background)

We have had some good flights, my friend

These guys seem very content. Happiness is having had some good flights and being able to reminisce about them with a like-minded person.

- Remember in 1907? The flight we made in Strasbourg - superb. Beautiful skies, peaceful flying.

- Oh yes, that was grand. And how about Lyon? In 1912 we had the sky all to ourselves. We landed  in a cornfield. Luckily the field was being cut at the time and the peasants treated us to some of the best wine I have ever tasted. Then there were some ten years until we could fly again - what with a war going on and some convalenscence time afterwards - by 1924  the twenties were roaring like there was no tomorrow.

The old, wise guys listen, but will only remark one thing: The storms come and go.

Take their wisdom. It will come handy one day.

entering into:
Lunagirl: Planes, trains, automobiles
KK-haaste: 185, Lähden lentoon
Take a Word: Happiness is...

Men, guys & dads and brothers

One week over, two more to go. This week was spent in lectures and catching up on some essay work. But I did manage to sneak in some crafty time. For the most part I made some cards for a swap party (2x9 cards). You will get to see them in July when all the participants have received theirs. Apart from the swap I made a guy-themed card set.

" Nobody had time to warn them - the group of men heard everything."

Some found words to make it mysterious - those men stand funnily in a row and I can't think why. Who would have taken such a photo and for what purpose?

Sorry for the crappy quality, here they are again:

June being the month for Father's day in many countries (not all) there are several challenges at the moment calling for masculine cards or cards for dads. Which isn't the same in my book. So the above I will enter into:
Paperminutes: #438 green-grey-black
Moo-mania: Masculine
TioT: It's all about him


For the daddies out there I placed my favorite father and son into a sunny setting:

"Let's sit here, Son, the sun is shining."
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday: Father's Day
Lunagirl: Fathers and Brothers

The backgrounds on all cards were done with my recently discovered 'scrappy method' which I have blogged here and here. It suits me fine: I can hold on to little pieces of paper, but get to use them (instead of just hoarding for ever). When using, I do try to select colors that go together, but I always paint and/ or stencil on top to make them look uniform but still interesting.

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

Tones of Sepia / Romanttiset linnut

- What do you want? asks the bird lady.
- Want to be my bride? retorts the gentleman bird.

Oh you birds, do I hear some attitude here? It sounds more like a squabble or bicker than a romantic proposition. But maybe it's just love, and some giddiness in a novel situation?

entering this into:
Take a Word: Vintage Sepia
Lunagirl: Love

Kosimisen pitäisi olla romanttinen juttu. Herralintu kultakruunussaan lennähtää oksalle tyttölinnun lähistölle.
 - Mitä asiaa? kysyy tyttölintu.

- Tahdotko olla morsiameni?

Ohoh, kysymys olikin yllättävän suorasukainen ja ilman mitään valmisteluja. Ei romanttista illallista, ei kynttilänvaloa tai kukkakimppua (tai mikä linnuille sitten onkaan tärkeää, kenties oksallinen kauraa, muutama lihava mato ja pesänrakennusaineet?).

Linkitän nämä KK:n vintage-haasteeseen, jossa kysytään ruskean sävyjä.

Gold! / Kultaseni!

I recently started playing with sheet gold of the crafty variety. There are very clear instructions on the package what glue to take and how to process it.
It makes for quite a spectacular background, very noble and - of course - "rich".

I love you

Cards are treated differently. The background  in both is white gesso, rubbed smooth. The left card was imprinted with a plastic doily and some faint color. Then the lines were traced with a pencil glue, gold sheet was placed over, the excess was brushed away and the surface was treated with modge podge. (It says so on the package!)

I love you

The one on the right then - I brushed on some modge podge without a plan, waited a bit for it to dry, then placed the metal over it, pressed down well and brushed the excess away. I didn't seal it, and I quite prefer the shinier look. Too bad it keeps on flaking off.

You and Me  (Joy)

 I will continue my experiments. I like the idea that I can go ahead and draw (or trace) with a glue pen and get the gold to an exact thickness and shape.
I am entering these into these challenges:
Paperminutes: #397 eye-catching backgrounds
Lunagirl: Animals
Frilly and Funkie: A touch of gold
Simon says Wednesday: Anything goes

Kulta ja kultanen! Linnut ovat toisilleen rakkaat, sen näkee selvästi. Ostin taannoisella Helsingin reissullani lehtimetallia (kultaa) ja olen kokeillut erilaisia tapoja kiinnittää sitä. Pakkauksessa käsketään peittämään decoupage-liimalla ja niin teinkin vasemmanpuoleiselle kortille. Se himmensi kullan, mutta toisaalta kulta ei rapise. Oikea on kirkkaampi ja hohtavampi ilman lakkaa, mutta toisaalta se hieman kuluu kättelyssä. No, toisaalta nämähän asuvat muovitaskuissa, joten ei se varmaan ihan kokonaan lähde pois.
Mutta kivaa on kokeilla, ja kulta tuo niin ihanan "rikkaan" säväyksen kortteihin.

Oh Marie!

Sometimes I get a craving for something overly sweet. Pink, frills, glitz - oh yes. Only a little nudge from Lunagirl was needed, and let's face it, Marie Antoinette as a theme just cries for a sweet treatment.

this clicks for larger

I started with the backgrounds: an old green envelope, some shoe box tissue paper that has printed drawings of ballet flats on it (visible still on the left upper corner). I painted tissue portions pink, then added some more suitable scraps. It may sound weird to be spending so much time on something that doesn't even show... but for me background is essential.

Shoes always delight me

You can see black paper lace and stamped flower scrolls, too. And lots of rhinestones.

My life motto

I am a fan of Oxford Impressions at Etsy, they have awesome stamps, and quite a few on Marie A. Linking you over there. This crown and MA initials are part of the stamp set, too. I treated the images with gold paint, then cut them out. The quote is handwritten on tissue, I wanted an authentic hand. I placed a piece of tissue over the stamped quote and just traced it. I have a weird turquoise glue that doesn't turn white after drying, but here it adds a pleasing shade to the tissue.

The Girl Queen

And Marie herself - I colored her in, but decided not to add anything onto her head, not even a crown. I might do some of elaborate hair-do cards some other time.


Apart from the Marie Antoinette challenge by Lunagirl (joint challenge with The Cheerful Stamp Pad) , this fits also nicely into the Moo-mania: Swirls challenge.
I have used a satin ribbon for her shoe, so entering this into Stampotique SDC 202: Ribbon.
I recently found Use your Stuff challenge blog, and they urge you to use things that you are just hoarding. Just the nudge I needed: I used rhinestones and ribbon and that paper lace... all acquired long time ago and never put to use. (Shame on me.) So entering this into their summer challenge.

Marie Antoinette jos kukaan uskoi unelmiinsa, jotenka linkitän tämän Silpputehtaan kesähaasteeseen
TJK 27: Usko unelmiisi

Black and White

Black and white always has a simplicity about it, no matter how many elements.

Hello, my name is...

I am invisioning the distant future, when people are known by bar codes and chips in their wrist.

Background with large letters, a bar code, a scratch code, drawing of an eye and some rub-on letters.
Lunagirl and The Cheerful Stamp pad are hosting a black&white challenge together.

(Card reserved for live trade.)

Borrowed and Blue, Old and New

What a fun theme for a challenge over at Stampotique! Work with the rhyme "something old, new, borrowed and blue". I admit the "borrowed" was the most difficult part.

Old newspaper and an old stamp, new words, a borrowed rye flower (from gift wrap at my mom's) which is blue.

Entering in SDC196, the " borrowed and blue" challenge.
Lunagirl's Black&White challenge - mine comes with a dash of color, hopefully it is allowed.
And when I found Artful Times (challenge 82 Anything Goes) I was happy - only to discover they are closing and this is the final challenge. Sad to see it go.