Fernweh / Wanderlust

 The animal that embodies this must be the swallow - flying here there and everywhere (even in its sleep I hear), and as soon as it decides it's not warm enough it moves on.

Entering in:

 Paperminutes: #702 Wanderlust / Fernweh

 

Ja koska TJK-haasteessa pyydetään Lintusia, niin yhdistän tämän siihenkin haasteeseen. Pohja on gelliplatella tehdyistä paperinsuikaleista, jämistä siis, ja pääsky on leimattu.

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

More games

Making my own backgrounds is something I have done since the beginning of this blog (back in 2007). The possibilities are endless and the results are never the same.

This week, prompted by a challenge that asked to use playing cards, I started by glueing playing cards onto card bases. Next I dabbed white chalk paint through a stencil. It dried matte white over a somewhat shiny yellowed base - a very nice look I thought.

I decorated along the edges with matching red and black tissue tapes, then adhered the stamped, fussy cut images.
As you can notice I chose playing cards with spades, clubs and diamonds - no hearts, because they would come to play a part in each one.

Heart is always trump - that's the message here.
Lastly there's a sprinkling of white paint.

entering in:
TJK: viikot 45-46, käytä pelikortteja.
SimonSays Monday: Make your own background.
More Mixed Media challenge: Anything goes with optional black.

Are you playing games with me?

Vihdoinkin ennätän osallistua TJK-haasteeseen! Ne on useimmiten ohi silloin kun vasta rupean inspiroitumaan aiheesta...
Nyt oli aiheena seuranpito ja harrastukset. Tällainen setti syntyi kun otin hyötykäyttöön muuan brosyyrin.

 A duo of playful girls.

TJK: viikot 39,40
Take a Word: Pair, couple, duo

Back to normal

It's almost September, for most people the vacation is over and it’s back to real life and regular daily rhythm. For me it marks the end of my summer job, ten days quick study related vacation in Sweden where I intend to visit as many rune stones as I possibly can (as a private geeky enhancement for my curriculum) while possibly shopping for new shoes and finding the perfect pair that would go equally well with slacks and a skirt (so far an elusive expedition) ... a girl can dream.

This means my final semester is starting soon. I feel my mind expanding with each hour and day spent at the uni.

But how did it all begin? As simple as ABC. Learning to read is the prerequisite. It all starts there.

Here's to everyone, big and small, just learning to scribble some letters in kindergarten or making your umpteenth PhD: brain is a wonderful machinery, capable of learning something new up to old old age.

There is a new challenge at UYS / UseYourStuff - it would be lovely to see you participate.

I'll be entering this project into:
Simon Says Wednesday: Back to school
TJK: Kouluun
TagTuesday: Back to school.

Last days of October / Lokakuu on pitkä

It's been such a long October, like Halloween would never come and end the month with an aplomb.
Soon, very soon now...  In expectation of it I made some new Halloween themed atc's.

Lokakuu on ollut todella pitkä kuukausi eikä se vieläkään ole lopussa. Onneksi ehkä, niin sainpa tehtyä vielä muutaman atc-kortin.

There are only a few days in year when everything is different

Now those days are here

entering these into :
Wicked Wednesday: #182 Happy Halloween
Traumfabrik: #25 Happy Halloween
TJK- haasteeseen BÖÖ

Granpa traveling

What a lovely granpa - pocket watch and tickets on the ready.

He's traveling with nana, who points out there is still time enough and she would like to take her photos.

Mamma ja pappa matkalla Joensuuhun. Pappalla on jo piletit ja hän kiiruhtaa mammaa, mutta tämäpä tuumaa, että juna ei lähdekään ihan heti ja hänpä aikoo ottaa kuvia. (Kameraa ei ehkä heti tunnista, se on vanhanaikainen haitarikamera.) Kiitokset sukulaiskuvasta Piikulle! Kaksi korttiani TJK-haasteeseen / sukulaiset.

entering granpa into:
Unruly Paperarts: Men

both into:
Take a Word: Vintage Photo
Rubber Dance Arts, September challenge

Traveling

For Rubber Dance Art challenge, here's the breakdown: I used  July colors (with some darker shades for the photos). I collect stamps, and after dissolving them I am left with these lovely wavy postal imprints and circles with names of towns. I have been collecting the prettiest ones. I now collaged them onto the card, then painted over with transparent gel paints and some diluted acrylics so the postage lines would stay visible. I stamped with Rubber Dance stamps Round in circles. It's a useful set to own, I have used it for sea life and flowers before this.
Thanks for looking!

Look Ma, no hands... / Pelkkää roskaa

...meant to say, stamps. No stamps! I may have said it a couple of times already, but I really really love participating in challenges. And not least for the reason that it feels good to be taken out of one's comfort zone.
This is my second time participating in UnstampaBelles challenge - strictly no stamps, not even digital. When I first started doing atc's I had no stamps and everything was hunky dory. Now I have stamps, quite a few of them, and can't imagine a life without.

So there, create a bunch of flowers with no stamps. Not the worst of assignments.
I wanted to combine it with two others, TJK asking for memories, and Wicked Wednesdays ATC challenge with Stitching (fake or real). (Again, this is not very wicked, but there are so few ATC challenges around that I will post it there anyway. And Simon SaysStamp on Monday calls for "anything". I wonder whether it needs to be stamped?)

So I created bunches (and bunches) of flowers.

This is what I started with, lots of mismatched backgrounds that I had made ages ago. I painted white gesso through the stencils of naive flower shapes (from a children's board game).

Then I tinted the  stark white with some light purple:

I cut the flowers out of an smeared desk protecting paper:

I planned to do real stitching, but the cardboard background was too heavy. So I just drew the stitching lines: all centers and stems, and some leaves.
The flower pots were cut out of a Swedish song. The words form an interesting sequence and give you and idea of the song:

In the morning -

- I wake up missing you

- when I dream -

 my happiness grows

- night and day -

- he cannot leave.

TJK - todellakin, nämä "roskat" ja silput joutivat kortteihin. TJK:n aiheena on muistot, ja nämä kortit ovat täynnä muistoja. Ensinnäkin korttipohjat, vuosikausia sitten tehdyt. Värit eivät ole oikein minua, joten aina on muut korttipohjat ajaneet näiden ohi. Hienoa, pakotin itseni käyttämään nämä ja onnistuin! Kukat on leikattu vanhasta askartelun aluspaperista, se on täynnä roiskeita ja korteista ylimennyttä maalia, eli muistoja siinäkin.

Muistoja / Romance is in the air

Meet Doctor Owliewood... he can be quite romantic at times, he fancies himself a real ladies' man.

 Wings are stamped, the guy is from an image sheet, background is an "unintentional background paper", the kind that covers my desk when I work. They have paint residue, stray spray paint drops, stamping, scribble, smudging, in short: they have seen it all. And for that reason I usually keep them, as they can be quite inspirational.

Entering this into some fun challenges:
Take a Word: wings
TJK 29: muistoja - Tässä käytetty kätkee muistoja entisistä töistä. Uudelleenkäytän pöydänsuojuspaperit korttipohjina. Tässä on jälkiä sabluunasta, glitteriliiman jämiä, leimasinkokeilua ja hieman poispyyhittyä sinistä akryyliväriäkin. Se on vapaana vaihtoon, lisään sen vaihtosivulleni, jonka löydät heti blogin nimen alta.

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

Give it wings

... is the prompt at Stampotique for the last week of June - and I am in,  just in the nick of time. That Medieval festival - as nice as it was - did take up a lot of precious crafting time.

Anna toiveillesi siivet - uskalla uneksia!

It's rare for me to stamp a person instead of taking a photo and working with that. I stamped the face and the dress onto white copy paper, then colored it in. Wings were stamped onto a magazine photo of peonies and then cut out. Headwear is a flower bouquet.

Entering this into:
SDC201 (wings)
TJK 28 (believe in your dreams)
Paperminutes (flower decoration)

Beauty / Kauneus

Beauty lies in the moments, and their memory is more fragile than a wing of a butterfly.

Kauneus on hetkissä, ja niiden muisto on hauraampaa kuin perhosen siivet.

entering this into Take a Word.
Mukana myös TJK25, jossa aiheena on perhoset. Tämäkin on tehty pöydällä pyörineistä silpuista.

Kesäkuu!

Kesä ja ompelu kuuluvat yhteen... Ainakin minulla on silloin aikaa ommella. Niinpä tartuin kahteen haasteeseen yhdellä kertaa, TJK ja P*skis.

Kohokukat pahvia, ommeltu mustalla karhulangalla korttipohjaan. Ja mitä kesä olisikaan ilman voikukan siemeniä, jotka niin vallattomina lentelevät ja laskeutuvat kukkapenkkeihin ... (mur)

Simon says: Bake!

... No, not really, they only tell you to use x, y or z at Simon Monday Challenge Blog. (I chose y for yellow.) I have never entered before, I wonder if stamping is obligatory? Well, I'll be bound to find out.
So it's vanilla custard yellow for color as it pairs very well with my intended theme of baking.

I have had these bakery-themed photos for ages, received in a swap. On their own they are too large for the ATC format, so I decided to make it a triptych.

I am also entering this triptych into into The Mirror Crack1d 's May challenge.

Kesää kohti mennään ja leipomuksia peräänkuulutetaan TJK 21-22:ssä, onhan toukokuun loppu suurinta leipomiskautta kun on kaiken maailman valmistujaisia ja lopettajaisia. Mutta miksi tyytyä yhteen kakkuun, kun leipomossa voi tehdä niitä kymmeniä? Näin minä tuumin, ja rupesin hommiin.  Muinoin säästämäni pahvinen kakkulaatikko sai uutta käyttöä korttipohjina. Lisäsin kaikenlaista kivaa skräppiä erilaisista tarvikevaihdoista, maalailin hieman taustaa ja eritoten nuo kirjaimet. Ne olivat alunalkaen mustaa muovia. Ne saivat päälleen akryylimaalia ja vielä suojalakkaa.
Kortit ovat vapaina vaihtoon, mielellään menossa samaan kotiin. Olisi kiva vaihtaa toiseen triptyykkiin eli kolmen yhteenkuuluvan kortin sarjaan.

Write more!

TJK:n tämänkertainen haaste on Kirjoittaminen. Tein aiheesta kaksi korttia.

Miten kirjoitimme ennen:

Kirje on suukko.

ja miten nyt:

Klik Me.

TJK challenge has the theme Writing. This led me to think how we used to write (above) and how we write now (below). Hundred years ago, even forty-fifty years ago we used to write letters and postcards. Phoning was costly, international calls prohibitively so, but even domestic calls could run up a mean bill. No wonder then that important events and everyday gossip would end up on sheets of paper, and cherished as keepsakes.
And today? A few clicks on keyboard, short mails or tweets, text messages - oh the poor historians of future, they'll have nothing on us!

Both cards for live trade / molemmat kortit Turun live-vaihtoon. (Kiinnostuksensa voi kyllä esittää, saattaahan olla ettei niitä vaihdetakaan...)