Woyww #330

It's Wednesday, and I'm posting my desk for woyww. My desk looks gloomy in the early morning light... and has turned into a leaf factory. I'm working on small ones now, I've done Bister and Brushos, stamping, crackle accents and fussy cutting...., going to do larger ones when I have time :)

On the left is a pile of blog candy I received yesterday. It's on top of the pile that is on top of a drawer of rubber stamps. My stamps are in office units, and I can take a drawer next to me if I'm considering options. The green card on the stand can be found here, that's about as Halloween as I can go... really like how it turned out! My Brusho swatch is in the middle of the table trying to remind me I should put it to use. I'm trying out wreaths with those small leaves, though originally I was planning to do something with the tree... who knows what they'll turn out like once I'm done!

Happy skulls

I've had this card in the back of my head since the beginning of this month, when I saw the VivaLasVegaStamps September moodboard: green, black, splatters, skulls... Luckily the Stampotique Designers challenge took Halloween as a theme this week, so going for two challenges at once, I actually squeezed in the time to get this done!

I wanted the mason jar (from Art Journey) to have a dimensional effect. I stamped it on the card base and on acetate. I masked the one on the card base and stamped around with all sorts of splattery spotty VLVS stamps. I cut the acetate out so that there are extra flaps along the straight parts of the edges. I cut slits for the flaps on the sides of the jar on the card. The flaps are on the outside of the jar outline, the slits on the inside... not many millimetres, but surprisingly dimensional! I coloured the lid of the jar from the back with a silver Sharpie. 

I glued in a bunch of skulls. They are from my only skeleton stamp, VLVS steampunk skeleton, and have been covered with Crackle Accents. After glueing the pile in place I added some more grungy stamping and sewed several times around the card with black thread. I'm not really a Halloween person, and came to the conclusion that I don't have a suitable sentiment... But an image is worth a thousand words, so this will have to suffice :)

Silppuja

Paskiksessa on tällä viikolla kiva luonnos, joten pakko olla mukana, vaikka aikaa askarteluun ei olisikaan :) Tämä oli sitäpaitsi oiva tilaisuus hyödyntää laatikossa olevia kuviopapereita ja leikekuvia. Kaikki paperit ovat Basic Greyn, puusydämet Studio Calicon.

Satuin ottamaan kuvan vinossa (koska yleensä minusta kortit näyttävät kivemmalta niin, mutta nyt kortti näyttää lähes kierolta, kun paperit ovat muutenkin vinossa. Epäsymmetrinen luonnos on niin kiva, että sitä tulen varmaan hyödyntämään toistekin!

Apple time

My third and last September take on the Craft Barn calendar challenge (brown and leaves) features an apple tree. I am also posting for the September challenge (shades of autumn) at Our Creative Corner. To get myself in the mood I stamped the paper full of maple leaves and seeds, mostly covered up by the blue sky.

I've tried not to do "real" colours on this calendar, so I kind of discussed  the blue sky with myself, but decided that since it looks to be grey outdoors in reality, blue is fine. It demanded some strong colours to go with it, so I chose pink leaves and yellow apples (golden delicious tend to be greenish, so these are perhaps my favourite Finnish kind called "yellow cinnamon"). I find the ground a bit too boring, but didn't have stronger greens at hand. I cut out a tree for a calendar page last spring, and drew a template since it turned out quite nice. Now was the time to dig the template out and use it! Also some sewing and doodling on the page. I didn't do my normal step-by-step photos, because the evenings are getting dark, and taking decent pictures would have required special arrangements that would have disturbed the "doing" too much. 

As usual I've drawn the calendar grid by hand and filled in the days according to ordinary Finnish standard with the week running from Monday to Sunday and the name-days written for each day. I'm working on three different calendars, one with scrapbook style, one with mixed media and pages from an old book and this one with colourful paperpiecing. The previous pages of this calendar can be found here:

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

Woyww #329

It's Wednesday, and I'm posting for WOYWW (What's on your workdesk Wednesday), the worldwide crafty deskhop hosted by Julia at the Stamping Ground. I'm starting to really feel it's dark in the mornings... and the evenings too!

I've been working on my last calendar page for September. Happy it's almost done, I'm hoping to get it posted later today. The paper piecing always results in an awful mess! If you look closely, you might find my brand new Brusho swatch spread out, waiting to be used. I decided not to stick them in my art journal (like the Bister swatch last week), because I can imagine buying more colours... so I punched a hole in the strips and put them on a ring.

Ei lahjahevosta suuhun jne.

Paskiksessa bingoillaan. Päätin vihdoinkin yrittää tehdä jotain tällaiselle kuvakortille, joita voitin eräässä blogiarvonnassa viime talvena. Amerikkalainen Lindsay Ostrom lähetti minulle kortit ja kaikenlaista muuta kivaa. Jaoin tyttärelle kaiken, mitä en itse tarvinnut (mm. nämä kortit), mutta kiittäessäni lähetyksestä sain rouvalta viestin, jossa hän toivoi saavansa nähdä mitä teen näille korteille. Piti siis pyytää tytöltä osa takaisin.

Päätin luottaa siihen, että paperi kestää vähän vettä, ja levitin höyhenen kohdalle himpun vihreää Bister-jauhetta. Ruiskaisin vettä päälle ja kuivasin saman tien puhaltimella. Vasen reuna meni aika tavalla ruttuun, eli ei ehkä ollut paras ratkaisu, mutta paperi on sen verran ohut, että teippi vääntää sen korttiin kiinni. Valikoin Distress-tusseja sopivissa sävyissä ja väritin vähän höyhentä ja reunoja. Viimeistelin Sharpie tussilla (pilkkuja) ja Wink of Stella -kimalteella. Ihan kiva tuli. Tein juuri kokeiluja Bister-värien kanssa, ja oli pakko ottaa kuva Art Journalin kyseisen sivun päällä, kun se on mukavasti sävy sävyyn!

Päivitys: kortti lojui pöydällä, enkä malttanut pitää näppejäni siitä erossa... Lisäsin siis vielä vähän valkoisia pilkkuja (peitin keltaisen pilkun, joka oli akryylimaalitahra) ja kerroksen Crackle Accentsia sekä höyhenen että kirjoituksen päälle... nyt kortti on sellainen että tekee mieli hiplata :)

Milestones

The Stampotique Designers challenge is asking for milestone celebrations. Just as I was wondering if I should skip the challenge or make a "nobody's" card to store away, my dad called to ask us over for his birthday in a couple of weeks. Good for him! How can it be I had forgotten he is stepping into a new decade?

I am also posting for the Paperartsy challenge (pigment powders). The squares in the background are leftovers from my Bister colour swatch experiments. I stamped the grungy numbers with Distress ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. Added some thread and little hearts that I cut out from the Stampotique Heart Boy's shirt.

A Colour Swatch

After watching the Bister videos on the Paperartsy blog (related to the new "pigments" challenge) I decided I really need to do a colour swatch of my own. I am also posting for the Designs by Ryn customer challenge and the Craft Barn weekly challenge (stencils).

I bought my Bister powders from Stampinback.nl as a sampler pack, all 8 colours for 8e. Seeing the swatch on the video, I deeply suspect that there is a mistake with my Mahogany: it is almost the same as red. I cut three different kinds of paper strips: Bristol board, Indigoblu stamping card and Crafty Individuals ivory silk card. I wanted to compare porous and non porous surfaces. Actually there is not a big difference in the results and I decided to document only the Bristol board and silk card in the journal. The indigoblu strips (in the middle) were cut into squares and used as a background for a card that you can find here.

I wanted to continue my experiment a bit further, so I glued paper strips on the right side of the spread, and covered with gesso. Half of that (on thhe right) was covered with clear gesso, in case that would make a difference. An experimental spirit engulfed me, so I took a stencil (Maidenhair by Ryn) and added crackle paste, gloss gel and modelling paste to the page. I played around with the powders... The gesso gives quite a chance to wipe stuff out and redo... The green and yellow practically disappeared and I do prefer having some white and splashes, but it isn't too bad. I added a couple of moths, colouring them with colour pencils. By the way, I learned that though Stazon marks almost anything, it doesn't make a print on moist paper! The right hand moth first had only wings :)

As far as the experiment is concerned I could say the following:

        - Bister works well on gesso, colours are vibrant

        - clear gesso didn't make much of a difference, biggest difference if you regard the line running             through the middle of the blue on the lower part of the page. Clear gesso on the right.

        - water splatters (after the pigment is dry) result in white spots like with Distress Inks

        - crackle paste looks cool, doesn't take very much colour itself, but shows from the cracks.

        - gloss gel gives a decent resist, but takes a tint from the colours

        - modelling paste (Deco art) absorbed the colour

Love the combination of black, blue and "natural".
The bleaching effect of water on dry colour pigment to the left.

The lower edge that shows effects of plain paper vs white gesso

The leaves stencilled with modelling paste are barely visible compared with the crackle paste.

Glossy gel tinted with red and yellow more than with the brown shades visible around.

This was fun, I'm going to have to do the same with my Brushos, they are still in the box they came in some months ago!

Woyww #328

Good morning fellow deskers and anyone else that happens to drop by! The sun is risen, but doesn't shine... It's as if autumn just fell upon us like a blanket, and artificial light is needed even though the curtain is off the window. I'm also realizing I'm going to have to find a light solution that will make it possible to take decent pictures for my blog, this is too yellow. Can't really remember how I managed last winter! I'm joining in the world wide desk hop hosted by Julia at the Stamping-ground -check it out and join in the fun :)

My desk is overtaken by experiments related to the new Paperartsy challenge (pigment powders). I know I should be finishing a DT thing for next week, but I want to try this out first. I made a colour swatch for Bister powders, leftovers became a CAS card and the right side of the spread is still under work (I'm hoping to finish and post it tonight). You can maybe see the Bister bags in a pile near the keyboard. I bought a sampler pack with all the colours about a year ago from Stampinback.nl, they'll last me a decade for sure! There are also some strips of wood, I got them from my mother-in-law (already tried stamping on it, and was ok, check here).

I have no idea why the dog's ball is on the desk, maybe I should through it for her to play, because now I've got to leave for work.

Matkahaaveita?

Viikon Paskiksen inspiraationa on kuva... Poimin kuvasta miedot auringonpaahteiset sävyt ja matkateeman. Kivaa autoleimaa minulla kun ei oikein ole :( Vaikka lomat ovatkin takanapäin, tulevista voi aina haaveilla, kuumailmapallokyyti olisi varmaan mukava!

Kävimme lauantaina anoppilassa, ja eteisessä oli pussillinen puisia läpysköitä. Läheisellä Kalson tehtaalla oli ollut avoimet ovet, ja niitä oli jaettu kävijöille sytykkeeksi (opin, että heidän päätuotteensa on tällaista ohutta puuta joka menee parkettien alusiin, pääasiassa ulkomaille). Anoppi tarjosi heti, että ota jos haluat, joten kaivelin pussista suorempia palasia reppuuni. Leimailin Stazon- musteella, sillä olen joskus jo oppinut, että jotkin musteet lähtevät leviämään puun syitä pitkin. Tässä yksityiskohdat säilyivät yllättävän hyvin, pinnan epätasaisuus tietenkin näkyy, en hionut sitä yhtään. Puuleima ja linnut ovat Crafty Individualsin, kuumailmapallo VivaLasVegaStampsilta. Käytin taustapaperiin TCW:n uutta Believe-sapluuna ja Gloss-geeliä, kuoreen samaa sapluunaa ja mustetta.

A dream is a wish

The Stampotique Designers Challenge is askng for two stamps, the Craft Barn weekly challenge asks for stamping. Posting for both with this simple kraft card. The floral image is from Carabelle Studio and the sentiment from Rubber Dance Art Stamps.

Both have been stamped with Versamark and heat embossed with black embossing powder. I didn't mind getting some sprinkles of the black embossing powder around the images. I used a white Sharpie to colour in the floral image and finished of with some chunky white embossing powder (Stampendous Frantage), which I heated from underneath the card, because it was just sprinkled around. I'm starting to wish I had the same stuff in black :)

That autumn feeling.

The Craft Barn calendar challenge prompts for September are BROWN and LEAVES. And since "the shades of autumn" happens to be the theme for Our Creative Corner, I'm posting for that too.

I started by drawing a calendar grid on the A4 mixed media paper... and searching my stash for the leaves I knew were somewhere (leftovers from a year ago!). I stamped the focal point (portrait by Da Vinci from Rubber Dance Art Stamps) on the old book paper I've been using on this calendar. I used stencils to trace an oval on scrap card and cut it out. I heat embossed with gold and stamped a music stamp on part of it. Here are pictures of the layers: 

A collage of torn paper, just to get me in the mood

Gesso and sprays... always surprised how the gesso "kills" the colour
(dark brown, bright green and orange sprays... would you believe it?)

Added a layer of gloss gel and resprayed before it dried. 

Stamped with Archival inks. Large iris from VivaLasVegaStamps, smaller
flowers and diamonds from Rubber Dance Art Stamps.

Adhered my main image and frame

Adhered leaves, these are done with clear stamps from a small Finnish
company (Finnstamper) using Distress inks and water.

A banner for the month (Lawn Fawn, Sally's ABCs) and I'm calling it done! Love it :)

The previous pages for this calendar can be found here:
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August

Woyww #327

Good morning fellow deskers and anyone else, who happens to drop by! This is a post for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (WOYWW) hosted by Julia at the Stamping Ground blog. Here is my desk this morning. I just cleaned it up the other day (so clean, that I actually moved the pots and wiped all the dust too!)

I have my tea cup, pieces laid out for a calendar page, some miss-stamps and my first try with alcohol inks. Short and sweet today, but I also have a doggy view.

This is my messy spot on the floor, you can see the base for the calendar page drying and the stacks under the table. I'm in a hurry today, but I should be able to get around tomorrow. Maybe. 

Joulu on jo ovella...

Tein ensimmäisen joulukorttini jo reilu viikko sitten, nyt näitä olisi tarkoitus tiputella vähitellen... Tällä mukana viikon Paskiksessa. Sain paikan norjalaisen Rubber Dance -firman DT:ssä ja sen myötä sain valita heiltä muutaman leima-arkin. Silmään pisti iso arkillinen "luolamaalauksia" tai kaiverruksia. Saatuani arkin käsiini huomasin porot, ja tiesin että niistä tulisi vielä monta joulukorttia. Myös riimukirjoitus on erityisen upea.

Kirkkaansininen tausta on tehty halpis vesiväriarkille käyttäen Brusho sinistä jauhetta ja suihkeita. Laitoin kuivumisvaiheessa merisuolaa arkilla, mutta tyypillistä värien hajaantumista ei tapahtunut. Pyyhkäistessäni isot suolakiteet pois tasaiselta pinnalta totesin, että suolaa oli ilmeisesti liuennut arkilla olleeseen veteen ja kiteytynyt paperin pintaan veden haihtuessa. Nuo pienet neliskanttiset suolakiteet ovat aika hienot, eivätkä siis lähde irti! Leimailin arkille hopeisia luolakuvioita ja leikkasin yhteensä kahdeksan tällaista taustaa. Leikkasin ison reiän ja kaksi pientä ympyrää ympyrästansseilla.

Spinneriin käytetyt pienet ympyrät on tehty tripla-embossauksella: Versamarkia suoraan tyynystä paperiympyrälle ja hopealla embossaus, jäähtymisen jälkeen uusi kerros. Kolmannella kerralla laitoin leimaankin Versamark-mustetta valmiiksi niin että kuumennuksen lopussa sen sai painettua pehmeään massaan. Värjäilin kuviota lopuksi sinisellä alkoholimusteella ja harmittelin etten suojannut leimaa Versamarkin sijaan vaikka sinisellä Encore musteella, väri olisi ehkä tarttunut järkevämmin. Spinnerissä on molemmin puolin sama poron pää, virittelin sen ihan tavallisen ompelulangan ja kaksipuoleisen teipin varaan, toivottavasti se riittää pitämään sen paikoillaan!

Be like the bird

I am super satisfied to have the first of my three calendar pages done for September! The Craft Barn calendar prompts for September are Brown and Leaves, their weekly challenge is stamping and the Crafty Individuals September challenge is Anything goes... I'd say these are a perfect match for me! I wanted a "photo", a sentiment and embellishments for my page --and found all of them on CI-287.

After picking out an 8x8 background paper with the brown and the leaves (DCVW), I coloured a piece of CI silk card with sprays in light blue and green. The trees were stamped in the middle so that I got blue for the sky and some green lower down. The remaining areas gave coordinating backgrounds for the sentiment, the birds and some punched out leaves.

This will be a flip calendar, so the calendar grid for September will be behind the October page and can not yet be done. I have updated the August page with the grid I placed behind this one.

Update: here is the whole "spread"... sorry about the poor light (and I believe the picture was in focus when I took it ?!?) I had set aside the piece with the month and some leaves when I made the page, so this was quick to put together.

The previous pages of this "scrappy" calendar can be found here

January 

February

March

April 

May
June
July
August

Wish upon a star

The Stampotique Designers challenge asks for two primary colours and their combinations. I chose blue and yellow, which gave me the additional green to work with.

I just got some Gelatos, and used them to make the background. Actually this is the first background I made, but it proved too restless for the little boy, so the one you see here is my second play. I wanted some additional texture and used heavy gloss gel through a stencil. The same stencil (from Imagination Crafts) has been used for the envelope. I stamped the boy with Memento ink on a Letraset marker pad and coloured with Promarkers. The sentiment was stamped straight on the background. I used Stazon to be sure it would manage the gloss gel and added some accents with a white Sharpie. Looking from the front the gel barely shows, but at an angle it gives a nice glossy star crescent!

The little bunny

The Craft Barn weekly challenge is asking for animals. I was thinking I don't have time for it, but all of a sudden I realized I had the pieces lying on my desk (that was desperately in need of a cleanup!) a green background and a Gorjuss image with a green dress.

I made this background ages ago, with Christmas cards in mind, it is Distress inks and sprays + some seasalt. The dress of the girl just happens to fit :) she is my first try at colouring with alcohol markers. I have a couple of sets of Promarkers, and found that I don't have enough shades for skin. Could use some more browns and greys too... and I wouldn't have had a choice for the green on the dress either! No wonder active colourers seem to have shelves full of pens. I added some lace to give texture, and mounted the girl on foam adhesive (actually keeping her at hand and sticking the foam pads in the holes of the lace)

I used a large oval frame from another Gorjuss set to do my mail art. I couldn't remember where my large acrylic block is, but noticed Cuttlebug plates hanging around on the edge of my messy desk... excellent and worth recommending, if you don't have a large block, or happen to be lazy the moment you need one! After piling my mess dangerously on one side of the desk, I used the side of my hand to wipe away the worst dust and dirt so I could take these pictures... and then I actually cleaned up :)

Reach high for the stars!

I've been wanting to post for the Paperartsy "circles" challenge... all sorts of lovely ideas what could be done, but my time is scarce and I ended up with relatively simple CAS.

I just got my first Gelatos, and had a play with them on some scrap cardstock: blue, green and yellow mixed for an ombre effect. I cut out as many circles as I could with a stitched die set and added some stars from EDY08. My original plan was to do a "flow" of circles, like Gabrielle Price on this post... but I ended up placing them randomly over the whole cardblank. The sentiment from the same stamp set fit perfectly, and I finished of with some stamping on the envelope. I love the way the sliding colour gives a 3D look, the circles almost look like planets!