Here comes the sun!

It is so enjoyable to feel the light as the days get longer and longer! I am posting this sunny spread in my altered book for the Stampotique Designers challenge (bring me sunshine) and the SimonSaysStamp Monday and Wednesday challenges (anything goes on both of them).

The altered book I've been working on has a spinner on the front cover, so I had a niche with a turning screw and nut on this first spread. I pondered between clockfaces and different turning images and planned to make a RAK spread with different acts of kindness radiating from the niche and an arrow attached to the nut (= it would randomly point at different options) so I painted the spread in yellow already some weeks ago and kept working on the rest of the book. This resulted in a pile of underpapers obviously waiting to be used for collage! Here is a picture of the spread with only the tree trunks. The ones on the right have been sewn along the edges, the one on the left is on a thick block of pages, so the sewing effect is actually from a happy "print" on the underpaper.

I stamped some little birds started arranging leaves on the trees. As I built the collage I started liking the scene and became cautious about my original idea of journaling around the niche. I built a blue sun (after all, my ground is pink and the sky is yellow...), and decided to give up on the RAK idea for now. I like this spread, it looks happy and bright, as if it was from a childrens book (remember Eric Carle?) and there is space for the arrow and journaling if I want to add it later on.

The Mojo Wheel

I'm posting this altered book (or actually just the cover of it) for the VLVS February challenge (colour wheel, torn edges, stiches, watercolor...) and the SimonSaysStamp Monday and Wednesday challenges (anything goes on both of them). Warning: the rest of this post tells of making this project and is quite long :)

When I bought this tree circle stamp from VivaLasVegaStamps!, I planned to make a spin wheel of it. At some point in December I got started on the project, but I realized it wouldn't fit on the cover of my art journal as I had thought, and I decided to accept that the piece of veneer I had cut out would be an UFO (UnFinished Object). I actually even decided my next VLVS challenge project would be CAS... and then the February challenge came out, and I realized I would have to find the tree wheel -piece and find something to mount it on.

I went to the exchange-shelf at our local library (a small bookshelf, where anyone can bring and take books as they please) and chose a well bound large book on political history: I wanted to not be interested in the contents at all. I go to a craft class for fixing old furniture once a week, and I took my project there. The teacher helped me out with the materials, gave me some bearings from his stash and laughed that it was the first time anyone in his classes has worked on a book. Here's the pile of ingredients well under work:

The tree circle was first scetched on a piece of veneer and cut out. My craft teacher told me to brush over it with full fat milk and let dry , after which the piece could be painted with water colours. I wondered if clear gesso would do the same, but did as I was told. The tree circle was stamped with Versafine Onyx Black and then the piece was sprayed with a clear varnish. The hole in the middle was first round (the size of the hole in the bearings) but after choosing the bolt, I used a file to make the hole square so it fits. At this point the book cover has a hole in it, and after this picture I made a niche by clamming two thirds of the pages between some veneer and drilling a hole about an inch wide through the "package". It needs to be quite deep to house the bearings and screwstuff.

Here is a picture of the "sandwich" of technology to be applied. Since the niche was already made, I couldn't show it with the hole. The veneer image is outside the book, bearings in between spacer disks on both sides of the book cover and a nut on the inside. Everything fastens on a bolt (The screwing threads on the bolt had to be continued deeper in, and it had to be sawed shorter and filed to shape...I would never have got this done at home, but I did do it myself with the tutoring and tools available at the craft class!)

I thinned out the remaining pages: Out of four consequent pages I removed the middle two and glued the first and last together. I used a glue stick for this, and because that is obviously not the strongest medium, I sewed through the resulting pages. You can see the threads and the structure in this picture, where I have covered the book cover with pieces of torn paper and layers of white and clear gesso.

I started colouring the cover with water colours, and continued with Derwent Artbars and Inktense pencils. The colours follow the order in which I always arrange my colour pencils (starting with lemon yellow and ending with white). The doodling between the colour areas has been done with a Sakura Micron pen, as have the different technique options along the sides. I had some trouble with part of the doodles- the pen doesn't write on the waxy artbar- so the writing along the edges was done on tissue paper and decoupaged with Glue n' seal. I left a couple of sections empty, in case I run into something I really feel I must add, or to be counted as a prompt to try something weird. Actually my mojo has been fine lately, and I don't expect to need help to figure out what to do... But my thought was, that I could start with a colour, say purple. When the wheel has spun, the place where the purple tree has stopped would give me a technique and the colour of tree at the purple section could give me another colour etc.

To finish of the colour theme of this book I painted the spreads according to the same distribution as the front: from yellows to white. My array of acrylic paints is quite limited, so I'm proud I managed to produce the colours this well. All I have is a set of primary colours and a few metallics, but I blended in inksprays when necessary, and this is ok.  The first spread holds the niche (with a turning screw and nut) and if you want to see what I did with it, you can check here. Otherwise (for the time being) I believe I'll enjoy the pages as they are, using them as colourful backgrounds for photographing cards and ATCs. I plan to add interest and texture to them when I happen to buy new paints or mix a suitable colour for other projects, simply applying more layers either with a brush or through stencils.

The name of the book was written with the Steampunk letter -series (that just arrived yesterday, as my supersale package made it across the ocean!) I stamped with Versamark, embossed with black embossing powder, coloured the letters and added Glossy Accents. When it was dry I continued the colouring process with pearlescent ink sprays... They were really beautiful, but I didn't count for what a mess of colours would be created when I adhered them to the book (the colours on the book are all watersoluble and so is Glue'n Seal...) after quite a bit of rubbing and wiping and adding new colour to the book the result is nice and grungy, though no sign of pearlescent pastels anywhere :)

Landscape with clouds

I planned this card for the Addicted to Technics challenge that asks for selfmade stamps... But the background ended up so drip droppy, that I'm going for the Country View challenge instead :) I am also posting this for the SimonSaysStamp Monday and Wednesday challenges (anything goes on both of them) and the SimonSaysStamp Work it Wednesday challenge (spring).

I made the background by stamping with the leftovers of cutting out unmounted rubber stamps. I have a whole drawer of these...mostly unused and should be thrown away, but I'm bad at throwing stuff away. I chose pieces that could be cloud shapes and placed them on top of the card I would stamp on. 

Then I used an acrylic block with a sticky Tack'n Peel surface to pick the pieces up. I spread different shades of Distress Inks on the rubber and spritzed with water before stamping. The only problem that can occur with this is, that the background part of rubber plates can vary in thickness. These pieces are from Chocolate Baroque, that generally has quite even quality.

I ended up stamping a second generation stamp after heatsetting the first one. This way the sky is more even in stead of stripy. The cardstock is Canson Imagine, which works fine with water. As can be seen, the second lowest stripe obviously was a bit thinner than the rest, as the water droplets haven't been squished against the paper. A nice effect, I think.

I finished of the card with tree stamps I recently bought from Crafty Individuals. This is a combination of two different rows of trees, that have been stamped with Versamark Onyx Black and clear embossed. I didn't stamp quite straight, but was able to fix the image with a black pen. 

Zentangle ATC IV

Sainpas tämän viimeisenkin kortin tehtyä Finnstamperin Sarin ja Täti Punaisen helmikuiseen ATC-haasteeseen, vaikka näin kuun lopussa minulla sattuu olemaan kädet täynnä erästä toista haastetta, joka pitäisi saada valmiiksi... Mutta odotellessani maalin kuivumista tämä kävi ihan mukavasti.

Päätin käyttää tähän Cubine-nimistä kuviota, jossa on mukava kolmiulotteinen vaikutelma. Alla prosessikuvat leikkaamattomasta kuviosta. On aika ihmeellistä miten ison muutoksen tuo pieni viiva mustan neliön kulmasta valkoisen kulmaan voi saada aikaan! Tosin tällä kuviolla tuo leikkely ei mielestäni varsinaisesti tuonut lisäarvoa, jollakin muulla olisi voinut olla mielenkiintoisempi.

Quick mini art

Making this little framed piece was much easier than I first thought. Actually it was so easy, I'm almost shy of posting it for the Paperartsy miniature art challenge... but I do think it looks nice.

The easiness of this was, that I realized I could use a smudged picture by framing it so that the smudge doesn't show. The 2x2 inches frame has first been covered with texture paste through a Tim Holtz stencil and coloured with a colour bloom spray and Distress Inks. The girl is a solid stamp from the VivaLasVegaStamps Banksy range. You can see the actual image here. The image has been partially stamped (the plant is actually a tv-antennae) with Distress Inks spritzed with water. In January I made a spread with four of these, and shoved several to the side because of smudges or other mistakes... if you have ever tried watercolour stamping, you know that you never know quite what you get :)

WOYWW #299

It's Wednesday again, and time to hop around the world via Julia's blog and peek on desks (and other workspaces). Here is my living room today:

It's winter holiday for me, and I've been spending all me spare time (since Friday) cafting, and now this looks like it needs a cleanup before I can continue... There is no workspace left! As you can see I have promising underpapers lying around (on top of those magazines that still haven't dissapeared, I wish I had a magic wand!). The pile of pink rubber arrived yesterday from VivaLasVegaStamps. I won a grab bag from their December challenge, and was able to buy from their supersale (-45%) without having to pay for the postage...so I got quite a nice pile. I'm not looking at those yet, because todays project is to do spring cleaning (husbands wish) and get that altered book (the one on the floor) painted through if possible. The cover is almost done, (even though I know that the inside should be done first...that's why I want to get as much paint on the inside now as possible!) I want to post the cover for the VLVS february challenge, and the deadline is frightfully closing in. There will be a spinning part in that hole on the front.

Thanks for stopping by, leave a comment if you have time, and I'll do my best to stop by your post too! I have managed to go through all the posts a few times, but I feel that is away from my crafting time... so a bit here and there suits me better. Hope everytone has a fun crafty week celebrating the 300th WOYWW that is on it's way!

Embrace imperfection

I've been a bit behind on the DLP art journaling prompts... Not much, but I decided to do two prompts on the same spread: week 6 (undercover layers) and week 7 (repeated elements). I am posting this Journal spread for the SimonSaysStamp challenges Wednesday (Add a little texture) and Monday (No rules). Sorry how blurred this large picture looks, I hope the zoom ins are a bit better.

I started by journaling on the whole spread. I have last done diary entries when I was a teen, and found it very enchanting to know that no-one (not even I myself) would read this ever again! As soon as the page was full I covered it with gesso. My gesso was actually more effective then I expected (or I could have used a stronger pen, this was pencil) since the fact that there is something underneath only shows in a couple of places. I doubt anyone would notice this if they didn't know it was there!

My repeated element is this TCW Maroccan tiles stencil. I sprayed with green and blue (Dylusions Fresh Lime and London Blue and Colour Bloom Lime Wedge), alternating between using the stencil as a mask and "stamping" with the excess ink. I wanted to add some texture, and used crackle paste with the same stencil on some areas. I ended up spraying some light blue and pink pearl mists on the white areas.

I wanted my sentiment to be this lovely Zettiology stamp. It is so small that I gathered a bunch of stuff to make it the focal point of the spread: paper doilies, that were sprayed with the same mists (and somehow do repeat the tile patterns of the stencil), underpapers, ribbon and pieces from a silk scarf. I made a sandwich of the lot and sewed everything together before adhering them to the page. I love getting the chance to add some thread and stitches in the journal!

Drips and drops

This Gorjuss-card is a combination of several challenge prompts: Inspired by the Country View challenge (drips and drops) I made a bunch of inky backgrounds by smudging Distress Ink on an acrylic block, spritzing with water and wiping a card into the ink over and over again, heatsetting in between. I chose the colours of this card according to the Rubberdance February challenge (teal, chocolate and cherry) and dug my stash for Tando mdf leaves to be able to play along with this weeks Craft Barn challenge.

 I used the mdf plate where the leaves had been as a mask and created some leaves on the background using an ink spray and crackle paste...so I'm also entering for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (add a little texture). Besides the crackle paste, I'm also counting the sewing, 3D decoupage and mdf as texture elements. That is all I was originally planning for, but before I got this done the new SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (anything goes) was published, so why not go for that too! I'm wondering if I ever before have posted for five challenges at the same time...it's kind of a round trip around the world for this little girl :)

Paskis #266

Tämänkertaisessa Paskiksessa pyydetään akryylipalikkataustaa, siis värin "leimaamista" paperille akryylipalikan avulla. Tällainen kortti (tai pikemminkin ATC) siitä tuli:

Paljulla seilaava poika ja teksti ovat molemmat VivaLasVegaStampsin mallistoa, ja leimattu ihan vaan mustalla Versafinella. Taustaa varten levittelin akryylipalikalleni sinivihreitä Distress musteita suoraan tyynystä ja suihkautin vedellä. Vettä tuli aika paljon, ja paperi on tavallinen ATC-pohja, ei mitään vesiväripaperia... näytti siis ihanalta, kun akryylipalikka oli paperin päällä:

... ja ihanuus johtuu siitä että kaikki väri (ja vesi) lilluu tuossa palikan ja paperin välissä eikä imeydy ollenkaan. Kun nostin palikan pois jäljellä oli vain jättimäinen vähän likaisen vihertävä vesipisara. Kääntelin paperia, ja pisaran liikkuminen sentään rajoittui kostuneelle alueelle. Kuivasin puhaltimella samalla kun kääntelin paperia, joten tulihan siitä lopulta tausta, muttei ihan sellainen kuin ehdin toivoa!

Happy un-birthday!

Every day should be celebrated, so the Stampotique Designers Challenge really makes a point with their un-birthday theme. I don't have any Alice in Wonderland stamps, so I decided to use this little princess from VivaLasVegaStamps. Besides the Stampotique challenge, I'm posting this ATC for the Rubberdance colour challenge (blue-brown-cherry) and the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (add a little texture).

The background has a water droplet stamp...I felt they kind of looked like confetti, and I liked the colour. I added some crackle paste (Finnabair) through a Tim Holtz stencil and wrote the text on a piece of book paper that has been covered with gesso. The girl has been stamped several times to give a layered effect on her dress. While working on her, I wondered if it was worth the trouble (there are 5 layers!) but after adhering her to the ATC the layers show after all.

Pure imagination

I love reading fantasy novels... but as I searched for a book to take a picture of this bookmark, all I could find on our shelves were comics: my husbands comic collection has taken up all the spare shelf space :) They are of course pure imagination as well, so no harm done.

I am posting this bookmark for the Paperartsy challenge (theme: paint). I bought some canvas sheets recently, and started by painting them with acrylic paints. I don't have any fancy paints, just a cheap set of primary colours and some metallics. This canvas has been painted by squirting some yellow straight on the canvas and dabbing the brush with red before starting to spread the yellow around. After spreading the paint I sprayed some Dylusions Bubblegum pink and was done. After a session of trial and error I have learned that stamping on the canvas is best done with paint, because of the texture on the surface. I don't have any Paperartsy stamps(yet...) these are from VivaLasVegaStamps. The strip af canvas has been adhered to a "blank" bookmark (it suitably covers some messy stamping I once did) and I stiched around the edges to make sure it stays put.

Silver slippers

I had actually decided to skip the Craft Barn shoe-challenge, because I felt I had nothing shoe-related in my stash... But while I was searching for a sentiment stamp for another challenge, I ran into this one, and remembered that the power was in the shoes Dorothy had been wearing-- all I needed was a girl with shoes to go with the sentiment...

The girl is actually this girl from VivaLasVegaStamps. She has a crown and bare feet, but I've altered her earlier too, that time I added socks :) I must say, that I had much more trouble with the shoes! I thought they should have had high heels, but I wasn't able to draw them, and settled for these. When I started colouring in the image, I did a google search on the colour of Dorothy's shoes in Wizard of Oz... In the original book they were silver slippers (so I'm not sorry about the missing heels!) and in the movie they have been ruby red. I decided to go for the original colour and make a simple ATC. The background is crackle paste with a dash of Distress Inks, and I added Glossy Accents to the shoes to show them of.

Feel the rain

The Country View February challenge asks for drips and drops, and I decided to start by taking it litterally and using a water drop stamp to make this little card. Actually the base is an ATC card, but I have never seen an ATC that has the wide side down, so I'm not daring to call this an ATC, just a tiny card :)

The background has been stamped with Versamagic Ocean Blue. I added Glossy Accents, because I wanted anyone that sees this to want to touch it. I'm quite happy with the result, and I am also posting this for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Add a little texture). The sentiment is from VivaLasVegaStamps! and felt just perfect.

WOYWW-298

Hello again, here's my desk this morning (the dog was sleeping in my lap, and when I got up, she decided to make use of the warmed up spot where I had been sitting):

Not much going on on the desk: The comic strip has been made by my daughter at school.  I am trying to make something out of the plans I have for an altered book (the striped one under the paper with plans). I'm doing the cover first, because I want to post it for a February challenge. I've already made a niche and thinned out the rest... I was going to do collage on the cover, but I think I'll do better with paint... My husband cleaned up the other edge of the room by moving the piles of magazines into MY corner! I complained that it was the spot where I do messy stuff, and he kind of let me understand they were under work, but now they have been there for so long, I'm suspecting they might stay for ages.

Now you can hop to Julia's blog to find more interesting desks!

Zentangle ATC III

Finnstamperin Sarin ja Täti Punaisen ATC-haaste jatkuu edelleen. Tällä viikolla pyydettiin leimakuvan täyttämistä zentangle-hengessä. Mietin noita leimojani: kovin monta "avokuvioista" sieltä ei löydy, tai sitten ne kuuluvat harvoin (jos koskaan) käytettyjen joukkoon, enkä jaksa penkoa. Päätin kokeilla kahta erilaista: Chocolate Baroquen lyhtykukkaa (olen nähnyt heidän blogissaan tästä zentangle kortin) ja yhtä Gorjuss-tyttöstä, jolla on harvinaisen runsaat graafiset hiukset. Jos nyt pitäisi näistä lemppari valita, niin se olisi kyllä tuo tyttönen!

Kasviin liittyen olen tosiaan nähnyt oikein toimivan zentangle-värityksen joskus, mutta en lähtenyt sitä etsimään, jotta saisin tehtyä oman. Huomaan, että kokemus ja silmä eivät oikein riittäneet: kuvan eri osat eivät kirjavuuden ja kontrastien puutteen takia oikein erotu niin hyvin kuin toivoisin. Kuviot ovat niin tummia, että varjostuskaan ei oikein auttanut.

Tyttöleimassa on ohut viivarakenne ja niin paljon leimausalaa (nuo hiukset eivät siis ole omaa piirustelua), että siitä on vaikea saada kunnollista leimakuvaa, nytkin jäi jotenkin harmaaksi. Otin kaikkein ohuimman Sakurani (0,05mm) ja piirtelin sillä, mikä toimi paremmin kuin aluksi luulinkaan. Oli aika hauska pohdiskella vaatteen poimuttumista ja miettiä miten saisi sen ja jalan muodon mukaan kuvioihin. Päätin lisätä lattian, mutta jättää taustan valkoiseksi, ja varjostusten jälkeen kuva oli niin kiva, ettei mikään jäänyt harmittamaan...

Tähtivaelluksella

Tiukille meni, mutta ehdin nyt kuitenkin mukaan Paskiksen bingoon rivillä embossaus-tummansininen-lanka! Tagin tähdet ja teksti on leimattu Versamarkilla ja niissä on valkoista kohojauhetta. Oksat on leimattu mustalla Archival musteella, ja tausta on tummansinistä Distress mustetta. Kaikki leimat on valmistanut VivaLasVegaStamps. Olisi kyllä ollut vielä kivempi, jos olisi ollut jonkin oikean tähtikuvion sisältävä leima!

Tein jo viime viikon lopulla heppa-Gorjuss kortin, joka olisi sopinut riviin vaaleanpunainen-tummansininen-raitoja, mutta kun näitä ei voi linkittää muihin haasteisiin, ja se sopi muuallekin (ja tähän oli mukamas vielä aikaa)... päätin tehdä Paskista varten jotain muuta... no, ehdin juuri ja juuri :)

Love at first sight

Here's a cool lady trying to look her best by the pool. Behind her sunglasses she is keeping an eye on a handsome guy who is just planning to jump from the jump tower. She is secretly hoping he'll come and ask her to play with the beach ball.

And the guy up in the tower? He is having a hard time concentrating on the jump, because he just spotted a gorgeous woman in a striped pink bikini sitting right near by. He isn't quite sure if it would be easier to jump so she gets a small splash of water and he can go and apologize or if he could manage to jump stylishly without a splash and just happen to dive up right where she is...

I am posting this ATC for the Stampotique designers challenge (It's all love and hearts) and the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (A piece of paradise). The pink background is canvas painted with acrylic paints. The image is from VivaLasVegaStamps! and she has been stamped twice, coloured with inktense pensils, fussy cut and mounted on foam adhesive.

Mini tag album

I went to check the Craft Barn blog this morning for their first weekly challenge of the year, and found out (yikes!) that it had been running a whole week and was ending at midnight. Besides the challenge was a mini album, which I really wanted to make, since I've never tried them before. I decided to use a tag that has been out on the table lately: my daughter chose her confirmation invitations to be made in the style and colours of that tag. Every time I see it, I remember those invitations are not made yet!

So... I made this mini tag book, and I plan that we write in it all the stuff that needs to be done for the confirmation party we will put up for near and far relatives next summer. I hope there will also be space for ideas of things that could have been arranged better, since we have several children, and the same business will be ahead of us again! I started by gluing together some pages that were leftovers from thinning an altered book. I painted them with acrylic paints using a plastic card and added gesso on top to mute the text and give a coarse surface that can be written on. I cut out tags and bent a piece of green wire to hold the pages together.

The tag has been done with Distress inks and stencils. I first spread yellow on the page with an ink blender, then pink through the stencils. I added embossing ink with a dabber and embossed with clear embossing powder to get a resist effect, after which the surface was covered with green ink using the ink blending tool. Here is a picture of the tag album together with the first attempt on those confirmation invitations. I think I'll use some more yellow for the next ones. After taking this picture I decided to add some sewing to ensure the tag pages don't fall apart.