Here's to you!

 A new year and #newbeginnings. To celebrate the event, I gathered festive pinks and reds and ventured into new territory myself. 

The background has a wax imprint, made with some wax paper and an embossing folder. The imprint needed to be ironed so the wax can melt - this makes the pattern transfer into the paper. When I colored the background with distress oxides - Picked raspberry and Festive berries - wax resisted the color and a pattern was created. There's an old Youtube video on the technique, I will link it when I find it again.

 

That of course created a lovely texture on the paper - the wax imprint is never 1-on-1 with the embossing folder, as the wax paper will crease and those creases will imprint themselves onto the card base.

A huge bouguet of die cuts, mostly gelliprints, and a wax seal round up the design.

Entering it into these challenges that inspired me:

Creative Crafting Uncles Challenge: #48 Christmas / New Year

Tuesday Morning Sketches: #737 Annual AG

Crafty Chicks: #696 All occasions

Alphabet Challenge: T is for texture 

 

Thank you for your visit and see you again in 2024!

A special birthday card

Peace, dear friend, peace.

Do you also find it hard to come up with birthday cards for people who have theirs just before Christmas? I do. The seasonal colors somehow creep in. The recipient likes red, so that was a relief.

I recently got a polka dot embossing folder, I figured it would have many uses. I made the background by wax paper embossing transfer (which might have a better name, if so please let me know in the comments). I emboss a wax paper then iron the wax onto white cardstock. The embossed parts leave wax residue on paper, so when you color it in, you get the pattern.

I colored this background in with Festive Berries and Abandoned Coral oxide inks.

Entering this in challenges that inspired me:

Papercraft Challenges: #88 Polka dots

AAA Birthday: #44 Embossing

Coloring Crazy: #49 AG coloring

Winter Wonderland: End of year anything Christmas goes - this is for an almost-on-Christmas birthday gal

and entering in the lovely NBUS challenge #45 as well, since the embossing folder was Never-Before-Used-Schtuff

Inspired

... by Tim Holtz. For background I picked the little used technique of turning stamping into watercolor from his second Compendium. And I just love the new paperdolls from Tim!

entering into:
CountryView Challenge: Inspired by Tim Holtz
Take a Word: Childhood

SimonSays: Based on a book - that would be Little Red Ridinghood:

and the whole set into:
A Vintage Journey: All aboard

A Trio

These three ladies begged to have their story told.

But only after I had finished the backgrounds... You will recognize them from my post yesterday. There was a serendipitous conglomeration of challenges: use sprays, use three colors by the same brand, make something you've not made before.
Here it comes:

I took some newsprint and went over it with gesso, but did not do full coverage. I like the way the text shows through. Then I sprayed the papers through stencils with three colors of Tattered Angels mists (ice blue, brown and red apple). I used plastic cake paper as a stencil. One sheet was sprayed with ice blue and brown, the other with red.

Brown-and-blue became the backround, red was torn in stripes. I had decided to try out sewing papers together with a machine - something I have long admired but never tried.

 It was tricky, I found out that there are two crucial things to pay attention to, the tension and the stitch length.

After that came the ladies:

The Princess

The Dreamer

The Determinate One

entering these into:
Simon Says Monday: Use a trio of colors
Try it on Tuesday: try something new
Wicked Wednesday: #174 Splatters or sprays

Thanks for looking!

August Flowers

How I wish that I would have all the crafting supplies at my fingertips that I could ever wish for! Don't you?  I imagine that being a lot of fun.
But then again, it might just be a pain to remember everything you have and look for them.

So I decided to see how precious little I could get away with. Just for fun, for a challenge. Work with a kind of "make-do" attitude.

First I sanded some cardstock and painted this with "linen" acrylic. Then I chose my products: one stencil, three colors and some small colored scraps in those colors. I took two geometric stamps (circles, chevron) and a book page. (And then I felt like I had much too much product already. Where did the downsizing go??)
And finally I chose three challenges.
Let's see.

I stamped the backgrounds through the punchinella in pink and yellow, then added stamping with green ink and the chevron stamp.

Bloom where you are planted

Next I took the circles stamp (Rubberdance Art) and the book page, stamped all sizes, then repeated this onto some yellow and pink scraps. I cut them out and set aside.

Create the world you want to see

Using the chevron stamp and green ink I stamped onto the green paper, then drew freehand stems and leaves and cut them out.
I assembled my cards, and as a finishing touch added some sentiments or affirmations.

Flowers dancing together

entering into:
Mix it Monthly: Mixed Media Flowers
Lost Coast Portal to Creativity: #15 Circles
RubberDance Art: August challenge

Our feathered friends / Lintuystävämme

I love birds, what can I say. So I made a series, using the same materials to get cohesion.

Blue background is an interesting try-out. I received an embossing stencil but I have no machine. Instead I did what one learns in school: I made a rub-off. It helps if the paper is a bit damp, it takes the design better. I used the back of a spoon. (Wait till it dries.) Then I smeared a glittery paint on it, and this was wrong:  it flattened the raised design. ( I should have left it on the stencil for this step. Live and learn) Lastly I sprayed some ice blue mist. I rather like the mottled effect now.
Birds are German scrap, lower backgrounds are from old documents and then there's the (me-made, stamped) enamel tag on twine.

I have no words (but I am happy)

entering into:
Three Muses: Feathered friends
Stampotique: SDC208 Animal
Moo-mania: Embellishments

Minulla ei ole sanoja (mutta olen onnellinen) Viherpeippo

Linnuista puheen ollen, Ainon Linnun tietä haaste on edennyt puoliväliin. Täytyypä olla viitseliäs ja panna tänne useampi sivu kerralla. Anteeksi Aino kun olen ollut pitkään aikaan hiljainen siinä suhteessa!

Hope and faux enamel

 Embellishments galore in my little offering for today's Moo-mania challenge. It also uses a word very dear to me,  and I enter it into Mixed Media Gym #10 exercise.
The background is made by rubbing moistened paper over a stencil, it gets an embossed look. Then I inked the embossed portions with distress ink.

Tämä kuva on toivoa täynnä. On linnun toive pesällisestä munia ja että niistä kuoriutuisi poikasia, ja sitten on tekijänsä toiveet hiukan maallisemmista asioista. Olen kauan toivonut emalisia numerokilpiä. Saahan niitä tilaamalla meren takaa, mutta päätin kumminkin katsoa saisiko sellaisen itse tehtyä. Ja saihan sen. Tekniikassa on hiomisen varaa, mutta kokeilut jatkuvat. Alapuolella on jonkuntapainen ohje englanniksi, ja lähetän kyllä suomeksikin jos ei siitä saa selkoa.

Hope

The details include a metal tag and plenty of threads:

and an "enamel" plate:

I have been fascinated by enameled number tags. The kind to be found on French flea markets, apparently, and barring that, one could always buy a set by a big-name maker. But sadly, none of that is an option in our little neck-in -the-woods-country. So I had to make my own.
It's simple, really. All you need is white cardboard cut to shape. Then stamp the numbers in black Versamark, apply dimensional glaze. Once it has dried ink the edges and you've got yourself a faux enamel tag.

I did try with powders, too, but that was a mess without a torch. I put them in oven under grill for a couple of minutes - only to have them burned. Well, I could call it steampunk and get away with the scorched look...  But I will be experimenting further.
Thanks for joining me today!

aurinkoa ja varjoja / shadows and sunshine

It's very hot these days, almost too hot in my little studio under the eaves.  So now I played around with "cool" materials, like tissue paper and stamps, pale blue mists through a stencil, crisp black stamping.
These I made for the Try it on Tuesday challenge (Stencils). Colors were "Runway Inspired", the challenge has a inspiration photo of Christian Siriano's Resort 2016 collection with lovely sunny hues of apricot and smoke grey,  turquoise, pink and some beautiful yellow on the background.

Moonshadow

Be still

Ullakkohuoneessani, "ateljeessani", tulee äkkiä kuuma, eikä juurikaan tee mieli olla siellä nyt helteillä. Kuitenkin tekee mieli luoda jotain. No, kun ilta tulee, on hämärää ja viileää, ja eilen illalla sitten syntyivät nämä kaksi. Tein ne käteen viileistä materiaaleista, silkkipaperista, johon käytin ruiskuväriä ja mustaa leimailua, ja väritin kuvat kevyesti tusseilla ja pastelliliiduilla.
Rei'itin valkoista paperia ja väritin näin syntyneet ympyrät. Liimasin ne kortille ja pullautin päälle koholakkaa. Se on nyt uusin suosikkini. Saa helpolla aikaan juuri kuvan väreihin sopivia puoli"helmiä".

Love is all you need

... all you need is love

The background is made with mixed paper scraps, baby blue paint and a napkin as well as some stamping.
On heart and crown I tried an enameling technique I came across lately. Unfortunately the black cardboard sucked up most of the color - no, she does not have a black heart, goodness me, her heart is red and loving! There is some glitz on the crown under the shiny surface.
I tied the card with lovely vintage linen thread and finally adhered a piece of washi tape and a sentiment.
Thanks for looking!

entering this into:
Simon Says Wednesday: Tie it Up
Paperminutes: #394 Lyrics 
That Craft Place: Mixed media Anything Goes

Hot hot hot

It's time for bathing and beach life...

... these beauties come directly from the sizzling Seventies...

"Soleil." - Masculine or feminine?

Give the poor chap a chance.

Not that these ladies do... So all we can wish for them is:

Shine on - you are beautiful

This series was inspired by a few challenges into which I would like to enter:
TioT: hot colors
Lunagirl: Retro Summertime
Stampotique: SDC205 stamped background using household materials

I started with cards cut from a yoghurt container. The background color was unified first with some orange ink, then stamped with bubblewrap and the insides of paper rolls in red acrylic paint.

My fashionable garden

I recently stumbled over  a challenge called Runway Inspired. It is not quite what it sounds like, so no Project Runway for the paper crafters ha ha. Instead they challenge you to be inspired by a fashion look for your paper crafting."Of course" I had to play along!

Now Holly Fulton (this month's theme) may not be a household name, but do check her out. Her garments are very interesting. If I say they have prints and embellishments it makes them sound busy, which they are not. They are airy, they are clean and simple and have a soothing, "pure" look. And if one is inclined to look for inspiration outside the paper craft world, this would be a place to go.

This was inspired by the photo provided. It has quiet natural colors combined with transparency and intricate detail. I added blue, because I have seen it in her clothing for this season. (And because it gave me a theme to pursue.)
Entering this into ric #87: Holly Fulton

I made some further collages of the flowers I have in my garden right now. There is Centaurea (above), poppy is just finishing, a few dandelions still pop up and the sweet wild strawberries are a delight every morning.

To get this ethereal and semi-transparent look, I took a shiny white cardstock, roughened it up a bit with sandpaper, then smeared distress inks (tattered rose, old paper, iced spruce), but painted them with water so they got very diluted. Next came a musical stamp (early medieval notes and text). Flowers are from a wrapping paper (the poppy has a crack where the paper had been folded), text written by me, acrylic abc tiles (two of them by me), plus frothy white rub-on swirls to give the final polish (I hope).

Entering these into Moo-mania (In the garden) and Anything but a Card (anything goes) as well as SimonSays Monday challenge.
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.

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)