Spring

OKTK mixedmediahaasteen uusi kierros avautui juuri. Hakaneulaa pitää käyttää kiinnittämään kahta asiaa toisiinsa.
Tausta on Timpan painettua voipaperia jonka ruiskin erilaisilla musteilla. Myös pinkkiä on joukossa sitomassa taustaa ja kuvia toisiinsa.

The background is TH printed tissue paper which I sprayed with several colors, including pink so it would tie in with the images. The flower was originally white, but received a pink coating.
Entering this in:
Unstampabelles: Krazy for kritters, Twist: Bokeh background (which I didn't attempt).
Country View Challenges: Easter or Spring

Love love love

... all you need is love. With Valentine's around the corner no wonder the world is going all pink and red! No exception here.
I am thinking love, but not romantic love, but love in the family, between parents and children and between siblings (if only a thin layer masquerading sibling rivalry).

Sydämellistä on teema KK-haasteessa. En ottanut sitä niin kirjaimellisesti, että olisin pannut sydämiä - mielestäni rakkaus lähtee sydämestä ja korttini kuvaavat rakkautta, vanhempien ja lapsien ja sisarusten välistä (vaikka sisaruksilta saattaakin löytyä sisaruuskateutta kun pintaa raapaisee) - mutta 'kuvanottohetkellä' oli vallitseva tunne rakkaus.

A sweet and rare photo of father with a daughter.

 *Love in my heart* - mommy and baby.

 And two sisters, *heart and soul*  (if we believe all we see...).

Background is a black and white coloring book page which I treated with paints, mists, printed tissue and washi tape.

Entering in these challenges:
ATC around the world: #26 Anything goes Option Love /Valentine
Koukussa Kortteihin: #192 Sydämellistä 
Unstampabelles: #65 Anything goes 

Flickering lights

Flickering lights - candle as a sign of hope...
This set was inspired by the coldness and wintry dusk that descends mid-afternoon and makes the world look blue.
I am a Guest Designer over at UnstampaBelles challenge this month. Please hop over there and join us.

Hopefully you were inspired by this to create something of your own. Just remember, everything goes except stamping.

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)

A happy day

Birthdays are happy days.

 I made this card for a dear someone in New York City celebrating a round nice 33.

Background was done with acrylics mixed with some light sand for texture and then applied with a combination of a brayer, a spatula, gelli plate and a ruler dipped in paint. I was inspired by this challenge to make something 'native', i.e. folkloric for the background. This mimics the so called flame weaving of the Finnish folk costume. (one example of a skirt)

Colors were kept bright and happy.
Even the back had a message.

entering this into:
Unstampabelles: Going native
Simon Says Monday challenge: Add some texture
Take a Word: Happiness

Song birds in a forest / Metsälintuja

A while ago I told you my biggest wish and fear concerning mixed media. It is to be able to make picture transfers. I got lots of encouraging comments - thank you guys! So I said to myself, do stop being such a ninny and just do it! Just do it!

These started as a pale blue page from a magazine. It had a story printed on it, which adds nice visual texture, you can still see some words on the leaves.  I stenciled it with latte brown acrylic paint using a leaves stencil. It looked a bit pale, so I went over with clear gesso through the same stencil, just positioning it differently.

After that I went over with distress inks in China blue and Crushed Avocado. I loved the effect they created. The paints flower freely on the clear gessoed background and seeped into the leaves that were still the original paper.

Then I placed some copied text in each card - this was the transfer part. Did it work? (A hint: do you see it anywhere?)

Only partially. I think the background was already too saturated with all kind of product and the text didn't really adhere. Some of it came off, some of it stayed. The transfer medium is rather plastic-y and it didn't come off, but left another layer. This could of course be because of the clear gesso, they might not just play along. I will clearly have to make more experiments on different backgrounds!
           Lastly added some flowers I had made on newspaper and cut-out birds.


entering this set into:
Unstampabelles: Flora and Fauna, with a twist of texture
Simon Says Wednesday: Anything Goes
CountryView Challenge: Spring

Earthy colors and big thoughts

Vanhaa ja värikästä on KK:n vintagehaasteen teema. Pari vuotta sitten tein kovin ruskeavoittoisia vintagekortteja, mutta sittemmin olen tullut tajuamaan, että entisaikaan oli kyllä värejäkin. Värit eivät tietenkään ole pysyneet kirkkaina meidän päiviimme, pöly, lika ovat tehneet tehtävänsä ja aurinko tai sade haalistuttanut värit.

Manumiina räväyttelee näytille toinen toistaan upeampia taskukirjeitä ja on jo houkutellut minuakin kokeilemaan. Pakko siis oli kokeilla saanko nuo 9 korttia aikaiseksi. Ja sainhan minä... Tosin epäilen, että tähän se jääkin eikä minusta tule taskukortti-käännynnäistä - ainakaan vielä.
KK-vintagehaaste avautuu tänään. Voit osallistua kahdella eri työllä (tuplaten siis voittomahdollisuutesi), ja työsi voi olla ATC, tägi tai onnittelukortti.

 I used earthy colors for an artwork to celebrate Earth Day. The man made environment collides all too often with nature, sometimes with catastrophic results. Here I wanted to show only the nice results: birds, flowers and butterflies on nature's side, science, liberal arts (but also the wish to dominate the nature) on the human side. Every card has an inspirational quote built in.

 Keep moving forward

Be yourself

Create without fear.
 For me this is the most significant one - I often hold myself back thinking something is not going to work, or it's not good enough, or simply I am not trying something because I've never done it before. I will confess you my biggest apprehension: I would love to try paper transfer. I even bought the medium - yep, 3 months ago. But I am scared to be disappointed if it won't work, so I am not even trying. So there, a major confession. What about you - are you able to create freely and without fear?

 entering this into:
Unstampabelles: #56 Flora, Fauna wit a twist of Texture. (bronze glitter highlights)
Anything but Cute: #12 Earth Day

Coffee, I need coffee!

I admit, I am a coffee junkie. I love the smell, I love the taste. Until very recently my mornings started with a large mug. Now I am trying to free myself from that addiction. Why, you ask? Because it would be nice to be able to jump from bed, dress, run for the bus and not suffer a head ache for the rest of the day.
I have brought myself to hold out till 10 - 11 am. Then I consume my only coffee of the day, a nice frothy latte from my favorite vendor (if I'm in the city).
Yesterday being Sunday I made myself a cup. Not as good. I used the dregs to paint some backgrounds:

Brown tissue covers the pizza box cards (those were lightly sanded), then I added a few thin strips from a calendar, printed paper tape (Tim Holtz), then painted it all with coffee and flicked drops of walnut stain on top. Voila! Very vintage.

Turn a life around.     /    Never regret.     /     Learn to laugh at things.

entering my coffee cards into:
Creative Gym # 17: Coffee
Unstampabelles: #55 Unlock your potential (Instead of keys they have some empowering sayings.)

KK:n vintagehaasteeseen vielä yksi ruskea korttisarja. Taustat on tehty kahvilla maalaamalla, no, oikeastaan roiskimalla. Pizzapaketista leikatut kortit peitin ensin kaavapaperilla, sitten lisäsin muutamia vanhasta kalenterista leikkaamiani liuskoja ja Tim Holtzin kuvioitua paperiteippiä, jonka päälle voi maalata. Sitten tulikin jo kahvi ja muutama musteroiske.

Vaikuta jonkun elämään.

Älä koskaan kadu mitään.

Opi nauramaan.

 

Capture my heart

Here's some new inspiration for the current challenge at UnstampaBelles.
I found a terrific western style paper and decided to make some manly cards - with a twist.

WANTED - a man Who can Capture My heart

I keep and collect all kinds of things, the part of background that looks like weathered wood is from a poster, although many craft companies have that kind of paper as well.

$2,000 REWARD for information leading to the arrest of my heart

I painted other parts of the backgrounds through a puchinella stencil. I also went heavy on embellishments, eyelets in form of copper stars, studs, hearts...

Proclamation: $1,500.00 to be awarded for the capture of my heart

Men are from image sheets, and the Western style text is from that great background paper ( I forget the name of the company, but I think there will be several around with that theme).

This was great fun - silly, I admit, - but fun.
linking with:
Try it on Tuesday: Metal

Men 1-2-3 / Miehiä

Today I would like to share some Men with you (- ha ha, not quite!). I have created these as an  inspiration project for UnstampaBelles current challenge.

this clicks for larger

Background is burlap paper and men are from my own collections. I wanted to explore male bonding and friendships - perhaps not on the usual beer-telly-cars axis, as these gentlemen look like they wouldn't be caught dead with a slice in one hand and a Bud in the other.

Apart from this single guy, the men in the next two cards actually formed a group. One really has to wonder - what kind of friendship could they have entertained? They look awfully serious, not like they would have any fun at all together.

They all hold keys, which I distressed a bit with acrylic paint. Numbers are plywood. I have used them on and off, they are really versatile.

This is how I made ordinary plywood look like copper:
 First I painted them with black acrylics, then added some strokes of turq. When that was dry I dabbed with Adirondacks Paint dapper in a shiny orangey metallic color. I didn't give it a full coverage, some turq is showing through and it gives the piece a nice verdigris look. Lastly I added some dimensional magic which gives the number a really shiny and metallic surface.

Sadly I did not take photos of the process, but if you'd like a photo tutorial, please mention it in the comments and I'll be happy to show you how.
All pictures can be clicked for larger. Thanks for looking!

linking this with:
Frilly and Funkie: Stamps be gone
Country View: Numbers

Monochromatic

Dresses... they are not only pieces of cloth, garments, worn with pleasure but then forgotten. They are special garments, worn at celebrations and on other special occasions, kept and cherished. A dress is attached with memories, infused with the music from a party, by discussions, they are keepers of lovely murmured words, not meant for anybody else but you.

Dress series 1-3.

I made my dresses with pieces of paper - old sheet music, math, literature.

Cherish

 I cut a shape out of paper and collaged it, then attached it to a background painted with acrylics.

Be curious

I used rub-ons to embellish the dresses, and added some free-hand drawing and doodling. No stamps today.

Memories

I am entering these into:
Unstampabelles: white / one color
Make Art: Monochromatic
Anything but a Card: Celebration

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.