Where is Cynthia?

An old airmail envelope was used as the background for this tag.Onto it I added postage stamps and ephemera and a second tag as well as the text that I found in a book.

Entering this in:

Tag Tuesdays: Tag on tag

Simon Says Wednesday challenge: Red white and/or blue

KK vintagehaaste

Koukussa kortteihin Vintage-haaste pyörähtää tänään uudelle kierrokselle. Aiheena on tällä kertaa "Helmeilevää".

Minua se inpiroi helmillä koristeltuun taustaan. Korteissa on ranskankielinen teksti, oli sopivinaan paremmin elegantin naisen seuraksi kuin englanninkielinen. Tekstit on lyhennelty eräästä historian opuksesta.

Aika oli suotuisa nuorten pyrkimyksille.

Rva D. tuli kuulemaan ja näkemään kaiken.

Nyt sitten osallistumaan, on kokonainen kuukausi aikaa!

Kuvareportaasi kesäpäivästä Kangasalla

Tosin ei ole vielä kesä... enkä ole Kangasallakaan koskaan käynyt. KKvintagen haaste avautuu tänään aiheena "Mä oksalla ylimmällä". Aiheena ei ole lintu, vaikka lintu siinä maisemaa katseleekin. Aiheena on kaikki se, mitä lintu näkee: maisema ihmisineen, eläimineen, taloineen ja koko ympärillä oleva luonto.
Minun oudot aivoni menivät askeleen edemmäksi ja tutkivat, mitä ajatuksia linnun päässä mahtaakaan liikkua. Mielikuvituksen voimin jalkauduimme Kangasalan metsiin suorittamaan kiertokyselyä kevään/alkukesän tunnelmista. No tässä!

Ensin sattui eteen valioyksilö tukevalla oksalla.  Hän räknää, että menee kuitenkin viisi vuotta ennen kuin saattaa ajatella perheen perustamista - tai jotakin muuta. Tai jotakin muuta? Jäämme kiinnostuneena odottamaan.

Totta, kukapa ei olisi mielellään oma pomonsa! Tosin herää kysymys, onko lintuparat jollain tapaa orjuutettu keräämään hyönteisiä, tallettaamaan ne oksankolopankkkiin, josta saa sitten hakea niitä tarpeeseen - tosin vähemmän kuin sinne aikoinaan talletti? (Pitäähän pankinjohtajalinnunkin elää.)

Näin voidaan huokaista sitten elokuussa, kun taivas taas tummenee.  Sitä ennen valoisat yöt valaistuvat entisestään ja linnutkin melskaavat yöt läpeensä.

Onko onni siis lainkaan mahdollista? Kuunnelkaamme viisaan sanaa:

No niin sitä pitää! Tämä loppukaneetti pääti epävirtallisen haastattelumme Kangasalan lintumetsissä.

Kolmen ensimmäisen kortin pohjat tehty gellipainannalla silkkipaperille, kuvat leikattu vanhasta luonnontieteen kuvastosta ja tekstit vapaasti yhdistelty lehdistä ja kirjoista. (Ja hauskaa oli!)

Circles, my friend

This week you should be inspired to think circles and apply them to your art. Then head over to Use Your Stuff and enter this week's challenge. Here's my inspiration piece for you:

I started the background with my favorite method: sanding. I rarely use white, pristine storebought card stock, instead it's cereal boxes or covers from glossy brochures, really anything that is thick enough. Sanding it down has several positive effects: it removes some of  the print color, prepares the surface for the paint and brings in texture (especially if you use a coarse sandpaper like I do). I really love the movement of the sanding lines! I am a geek that way.

Next I added a light wash of pink acrylic. The small circles were done in two different ways,  by rubbing distress ink through a stencil (only in select places), and by stamping a  sheet of printer paper with a small circle stamp with script, which were then cut out and glued on. Lastly the large circles were stamped on. The animals were cut as well. Finally came the text that I found in a book.

Osallistuin näillä seuraaviin haasteisiin:
TJK / Silpputehdas: Kevätlempeä. Kruunu päässä riiausmatkalla - mahtaako kumppania löytyä?
KK-haaste: nro 194: pupunkorvat, pajunkissat, harakanvarpaat
Osallistun vähemmän tavallisilla eläimillä. Nämä selvästi nauttivat kevätlaitumelle pääsystään!

A longing for...

When a challenge provides tęsknota - Polish for longing, or yearning for something -  for a cue then it has a wide range of interpretation.

I decided to go with the one that ties in with my occupation of history. On a weekly basis I get frustrated with the sources. For Medieval, even for Early Modern times there just aren't enough sources. 

Week after week I am longing for the opportunity to go back in time and see how a Medieval village really looked like or what the aspirations of Bohemian cooks in Vienna around 1880 were.

This singular stream of time really eats my heart out. I put all my frustration and yearning and longing into these cards. 
One of them speaks to me on a personal level. I always find searching the history - or going back to your own past - is like battling against an invisible wind. 

Entering this in:
ArtGrupa: ATC "Tęsknota"

Gruesome for Halloween

Halloween is mostly funny pumpkins, but as there is a challenge this week on extra-terrestial I wanted to explore other kinds of fearful things that would be scarier than an odd witch.

Like cyborgs - those are humans with machine parts.

Or aliens,

or more aliens... 'Carpe noctem' - 'Seize the night'.

entering into:
Stampotique: SDC-260 Outer Space
Country View Challenge: All things spooky
Koukussa kortteihin: Miehelle /isälle sopii tällainen rouhea avaruuskortti

Valoa ja varjoa / Light and shadows

Koukussa kortteihin vintage-haateen aihe on tällä kertaa Valoa ja varjoa. Ajattelin sen ihan kirjaimellisesti - taivas antaa valoa ja varjoa. Tosin kuvassa näkyy vain pilviä, niitä varjon tuojia, mutta pilvet on valaistu eli jossakin paistaa aurinko.

Naiset putoavat jostakin - tämähän voi olla myös kuvitteellinen matka. Tekstit löytyivät juuri lukemastani kirppispokkarista, jonka hyvällä omallatunnolla heti leikkelin.

Inspiroiduitko? KKvintage-haaste on avoinna kuukauden ajan ja siihen voi osallistua kahdella työllä.

I have just finished the book by Cecilia Ahern: Thanks for the memories. The prologue is rather dire - it's a grippling account of someone miscarrying and loosing lots of blood and debating whether to stay alive or just go. I portrayed four women in this journey between darkness and light. The words are from this prologue.

I haven't landed yet

Stop me from falling

Light fills my eyes

Only one is still reluctant:

There, not here.

entering into:
Frilly and Funkie. Author, author.
Dream in Darkness: 31 days of Halloween

syksyn haikeutta / it's fall

Syksyn väreissä on vaikea tehdä iloisia kortteja. Niinpä kun mietin mitä tekisi KKvintagehaasteeseen oli yksi kriteerini, että lause siinä pitää olla. Ruskea ja lehdet sopivat syksyn teemaan, ja kuin itsestään valikoitui lauseita, joissa on hieman - haikeutta? Epämääräistä kitkaa?

Tämä olisi voinut olla toisinkin päin, ja ensi alkuun olikin: Rakastan sinua - mutta se ei käy. Nyt käännettynä toisin päin on merkitys aivan toinen:

Lehdet on stanssattuja. Leimasin niiden päälle kolmella mustetyynyllä (vihreä, punaruskea ja oranssi) ja suihkin päälle sekä ruskeaa että kullanväristä mistiä.  Pohja on tehty hiekkapaperilla käsiteltyyn pahviin, jossa oli vihreää kirjoitusta. Liimasin päälle muutaman palan tekstiä ja sottasin ruskealla geelivärillä. Painelin märkään väriin leimasimella lehtiä. Lopuksi ripottelin vihreää ja turkoosia vesiväriä isoiksi tipoiksi pohjalle ja suihkin kultamistiä päälle.
Toivottavasti inspiroiduit haasteeseen - ota kolme vihjettä ruudukosta. Lisää niihin muitakin elementtejä, käytä mielikuvitusta ja  rakenna sanojen ympärille aivan oma maailmasi!

A set of small mixed media works using inks, mists, die cuts, old photos, found words,  watercolor and gel paint.

Gel paint gives a nice translucent background. I stamped into it while it was still wet creating shadow prints of leaves and branches. Then I sprinkled it with some blue and turq watercolor and gold mist.

Let's not quarrel.

I love fall coloring. Leaves are starting to turn where I live - the tips of trees are yellow, red or  orange while the rest of the tree is still green.

Life is full of disappointments.

For my leaves I stamped them with mahagony, green and orange stamp pads, then sprayed brown and gold mist over it. This made the colors run into each other and blend nicely.

Please don't be mad with me anymore, darling.

The words are very fitting for fall I think. There is a wistfulness - whereas summer words would be happy. It's funny how the right words just pop when you leaf through a book. Have you tried?

entering this into two challenges:
Three Muses: Autumn colors
Mix-it-Monthly: Leaves and Trees

When is the best courting time?

Is that a silly question? You can court anytime and people did. Or did they? Courting used to be seasonal, either in the slow months of winter or else in the short nights of summer. At least where I am sitting right now, that is Scandinavia.
These cards showing Frida Kahlo and the place being South America, perhaps there was no specific courting time. Although in one of the following atc's she is making the remark that she hated when it rained in July - now that might have been the best courting time.

I built these somewhat 3D with paper scraps, washi tape and pieces of cardstock.

Next came the fun part, spraying. I used a sunny yellow and orange colored Distress inks which I sprinkled with cherry Infusions flakes. I just love to see them give out their color in and blend with the ink. Some of them stayed put and created nice little sprinkles on top.

 Then I stamped it with a script stamp and added some diluted gesso highlights. The faces and fans are raised.

It was the BEST courting weather

I am entering this into:
More than Words: August Mini-Challenge with the word BEST
Three Muses: Roses
 Country View Challenge: Hot summer days

A hair-do for a party

What is this party everyone is going to? An why are they so concerned about their hair?

I think I know why... (snicker).

Background is acrylic washed and some random stamping with a polkadot stamp.

Figures are stamped with black Vresamark on card stock, cut out and placed. Text is from a book.

entering this into:
Stampotique: SDC 255 - Polka Dots

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.

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

Of Men and Women 2.

More men and women from vintage photos are letting you know something of their lives:

Lisää ihmisiä... katsotaanpa mitä heillä on sanottavanaan:

Vaatimaton.

This guy (above) looks like a brave and dapper person, but doesn't want to draw attention to himself.
Whereas the fellow below clearly likes basking in the limelight:

Naistennaurattaja.

This lady claims to be expensive, dangerous and coveted. Yes, we can understand the 'dangerous' part, but ... coveted? Excuse me?

Kallis ja himoittu.

This lady is exhausted, she has spent a hard night. I wonder why? Has she been biking? Or trying on dresses?

Yövalvoja.

Just for fun!