Pure imagination

I have been stuck between different options for the VivaLasVegaStamps November challenge, but made a masterboard for the Paperartsy challenge, and at last got going on the VLVS one too. Find the lovely wintery VLVS moodboard here. Also posting for the WOW challenge (anything goes, linking to the comments).

I started by spreading paint on a sheet of canvas. I used a bunch of acrylics and a water spray to give spots. I found that rolling a brayer over the sheet after spraying with water worked well. Once the paint was dry, I used Stazon ink in Midnight and Teal Blue to stamp with the music background and writing circles. I cut the sheet in four, and added some more of the stamping to balance the pieces (I guess with practise one can learn to fill the original to the edges!)

For this card I stamped the snowy pine trees first with a Pitt artists pen and then with Versamark, heat embossing with Sparkling Snow (from WOW). The sentiment was heat embossed with another WOW powder, Verdigris. I was lucky to win their October challenge, and these arrived last week :)

And last but not least: the non-focused picture, just to show off the shimmer and shine!

Jäistä kimallusta

Viikon paskiksessa bingoillaan. Valitsin rivikseni paljetti - x - hopea, ja tein muusikkoystävälle kortin. Kaikki leimat ovat norjalaisen Rubberdancen, lisäksi hyödynsin kohopulvereita, jotka satuin voittamaan WOW:n lokakuun haasteesta. "x" voisi siis olla vaikka tuo kohojauheen käyttö (embossaus, eikö suomeksi ole parempaa nimeä?)

Taustapaperi on vanhasta Basic Greyn paperikosta, musiikkitausta on leimattu kuultopaperille Versamarkilla. Siihen käytin kimaltavaa valkoista (Sparkling Snow) ja lehteen hopean ja sinisen sekaista Atlantic Seaspray -jauhetta. Paljetit teettivät vähän ongelmia... lähinnä siksi, että kortti oli niin kivan näköinen ilman niitä. Päädyin perinteiseen kolmen riviin. Vaikka nuo näyttävät pussissa läpinäkyviltä, niin useimmista suunnista katsottuna ovatkin vaaleanpunaisia!

Stormy skies

The Craft Barn calendar challenge prompts for November are "Grey" and "Owls". Not the easiest combination, I find grey a difficult colour... and on this months calendar pages I've combined it with brighter colours. This time with pink. Also posting for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes) and the Designs By Ryn customer creation challenge. Love those flowing branches, they became trees.

I used Brshos for the background. I picked out Grey for the challenge and Dark Brown, because I thought it would combine nicely with the old book paper that I have used on each page of this mixed media calendar. The grey brusho turned out violet, the brown gave that pinkish-orange hue to the lower part of the page... Still something to learn about these! I continued with black, that gave those greyish cloud formations. The pink was nice, so I decided to enjoy it and forget the brown :)

I think this really looks light light shining behind dark clouds :)

Black texture paste through the branch stencil, Lavinia owl embossed in black.

This isn't meant to be spooky, I stamped flowers at the bottom.

I realize I'm not especially good at stenciling. Should perhaps get a hold of the stencil glue stuff, I always manage to spill stuff underneath the stencil. I fixed my spills with some opaque acrylic paints. Worked surprisingly well, in real life the "fixed" spots don't really show, somehow the camera seems to catch them with a blue hue. 

So glad this is almost done, only December left! The previous pages of this mixed media calendar can be found here:

January
February
March
April
May

June

July

August

September
October

Frosty trees

Posting these frosty Christmas cards for the Crafty Individuals challenge (Frosty Christmas), the Craft Barn weekly challenge (Snowflakes) and the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes).

I used a torn piece of paper to mask the snowy ground, and stamped Mini Christmas Trees with different shades of blue (and three generations of stamping to give depth). I wasn't really happy with my ground, on one there was too much, and on the other one perhaps too little :) I love the effect of the Stampendous chunky white embossing enamel... giving texture and interest and a snowfall feeling to the piece. If you look close, you might spot some Stickles too!

Merry and Bright

The Stampotique Designers Challenge is asking for quick and easy Christmas cards. I thought about some cards I did last year, and remembered I have inky watercolour papers in the drawer waiting for more... so here's the result. Also posting for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes).

I wanted to use a Stampotique stamp for the challenge, but I don't have any Christmas ones... luckily it turned out that Daniels Hearts is extremely versatile! I bought this because I thought it would be great in all sorts of backgrounds, now I keep using it as a focal point. I used washi tape to mask of the sideparts of the stamp that I wanted to leave out.  The tape can be reused lots of times --just remember to peel it off every time you stamp and place it back for the inking!

All the stamping has been done with Distress inks and heat embossed with clear glossy embossing powder. The blue tree has been inked with Salty Ocean and touches of Chipped Sapphire. Since everything was out, I did a few. The white card is Crafty Individuals Satin card (european A6 size) cut in two. Then I wanted to try some other colours, after all I had the inky water colour also in red and green. No time at all, and I had done toppers for eight cards! The foot of the tree has always been doodled with Distress Markers.

I finished the cards by mounting them on the inky watercolour and sewing around the toppers. I guess some would say that sewing is not quick and easy, but my sewing machine is always at hand (and sees more paper than fabric), and I can't think of a faster way to add a sophisticated finish to a project like this. I used the same colours to stamp some mail art on the envelopes.

The red tree has Festive Berries and a touch of Aged Mahogany, the green one has Evergreen Bough and Pine Needles. The inky backgrounds have been done with water soluble inks, metallic or pearlescent sprays and seasalt. If I hadn't had them in my stash, this wouldn't have been quick, but of course the matting could be done with anything you fancy! These would also look great with a swish of colour in the hearts or a layer of Glossy or Crackle Accents...

Blessings and wisdom

Posting for the Lavinia challenge (Christmas), the Craft Barn weekly challenge (Snowflakes) and the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (Anything goes) with a winter-themed card. This would be great on the front of a Christmas card opening to a Merry and Bright greeting, but I'm using it as it is.

I used sprays for the background, stamped the lovely text stamp with a metallic blue.

I heat embossed the flower pods in white, filled them with Crackle Glaze (love how the embosssing makes it easy to fill the space!) and decided I wanted some snowflakes. Since I don't have a flake stamp, I took out the mini flowers. Used the stamp for the first time, and found (to my dismay) that the black colour on the flowers surface came of. I was stamping with a Pitt Brush pen, and the first impression was grey. I stamped onto an underpaper several times, cleaning and rubbing the stamp untill no more colour came off... Here I've stamped white over the grey impression, ended up adding white Sharpie and Diamond Stickles to cover it. A bit off trouble... why do these small stamps have to be coloured?

Anyway, the result fits fine to the fact that we had winter here for a few days :)

Woyww #338

Where do these Wednesdays fly? Once again I'm sharing my desk for woyww and if you don't know what that means, check out the link and join in the fun! My desk is a mess, photo taken Tuesday afternoon, just to have some daylight for a change :) Besides we got our first snow... just an inch here (and it's gone by now), but during the weekend there were 50000 people in middle Finland without electricity, because 30-50 cm of wet snow made trees fall on the power lines!

Not much crafting space to be seen (but after taking the photo I did the traditional shove-to-the-side thing to get a little card together). The bunch of paper is "real" work = tests that need to be marked. Our high school has stepped into a test phase, and I'll have several bunches more before next Wednesday... Apart from that, I've been darning socks. It's a tedious job, but necessary in the sense that it's faster than knitting new ones. At this time of the year we wear the socks all the time, and I found a bunch that I set aside last spring (not to be used before fixing) because it's much easier to darn them if the yarn is only thinned out in stead of the sock having a hole in it. Hmmm...

These have a nasty hole that's a bit to the side so it breaks the structure that gives the heal it's shape... and I can't even get the satisfaction of whining at the person who let them go that far, because they happen to be mine! The one on the right was just thinned out, and has been reinforced, the one on the left is under work. Luckily this is already the last pair in my pile, I can move on to checking those darn tests!

The movie star

Introducing Moth Fab, the well known movie and musical star, in an autographed original photo. Below the photo is a clip from her most famous movie that busted all records when it was launched.

Posting for the Stampotique Designers challenge (movies), the Jehkotar Craft Challenge (I used the right side of the moodboard: colours and sketch... not eligible for the prize, since I'm crosslinking, but joining anyhow), the Craft Barn challenge (World Records) and the WOW challenge (anything goes).

I always feel horrible tearing up music, but this is a neglected sheet that the library was giving out, because it had lost the piano accompaniment and no-one had been interested in it for a long time... I adhered a piece of brown underpaper and used gilding through a Paperartsy stencil. Moth Fab was stamped on an ATC base and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I sprayed on some brown sprays and coloured with Distress Markers. The "autograph" is from a Paperartsy stamp, as is the film strip, that was stamped on acetate with black Stazon. I just got some new washi tape with a film edge pattern, had to add it! The text is simply "Congrats" in Finnish, stamped on a torn edge of the music sheet.

More rusty trinkets

The Paperartsy challenge (abstract art) really got my juices flowing! These cards are very much like the one I posted earlier. I just wasn't sure I'd have time to put them all together.

The background is a canvas sheet painted with brown acrylics. I misted with Colour Bloom, and used the sticky ink spray to emboss with gold embossing powder. The canvas was divided into four pieces, one of which I've saved for another project. I wasn't planning to add the skeleton leaves on all of these, but the effect was so fun, I couldn't resist. Depending on the angle you look at, the leaf is almost invisible or strikingly almost white. The backgroung stamping has been done with brown Stazon. To my surprise it dissolved quite a bit after I added Satin Glaze to adhere the leaves.

The glaze has been added to the whole surface, but dissolving happened only under the leaves (the area ended up with the thickest layer of the glaze). This just adds to the rusty look! The rusty Spacers have been stiched with a shiny green embroidery thread, after which I adhered the pieces to card blanks. The three cards practically form a triptyche, here they are together. Sorry for the silly blue light, it's weirdly foggy outside!

A brown hummingbird

A very quick post for the Stempelwinkel challenge (shades of brown) and the Designs by Ryn customer creations challenge.

I wanted to turn the small hummingbird (from Designs by Ryn) so it looks to the left. I stamped the bird on tissue paper, painted with acrylic paints and adhered with Satin Glaze to a piece of canvas that has been painted with brown acrylics, and embossed with gold. This way it is also possible to get a good clear stamped image on a textured background. I covered the bird with Glossy Accents, and once it was dry I felt something more was needed, so I used a music background and Stazon ink in the background.

Water or air or whatever

The Paperartsy challenge is asking for abstract art. I had in mind a blue page with collage for texture and acrylic paints. After choosing the underpapers and tearing them to approximarely palm sized pieces I set the spread aside... and lying awake in the night I decided I wanted to do fingertip sized pieces in stead :) Also posting for the Country View challenge (the colour blue).

My technique was simple: tear a piece, rub it over a gluestick and stick it down. No plans, just going with the flow of the colours. Quite therapeutic, actually. There were some blue marks on the spread from some previous inking, and I tried to leave them visible, which gives a bit of a layer to the spread. I wasn't really planning on a mosaic look, and thought I'd continue with clear gesso and paints or sprays... but the blue-green underpapers mostly have water soluble ink sprays, and if I add something the colours will start to dissolve, and I don't want to loose the contrasts. So I'm leaving this as it is.

Woyww #337

It's Wednesday again: the day Julia hosts a worldwide deskhop. If you don't know what's happening, check out the Stamping Ground blog. You'll find links to desks all around the world. Join in the fun!

My desk today shows work in progress. I wanted to make a blue spread in my art journal (the spread had some blue ink on it as a starter) and the other night I decided it would be built of fingertip sized pieces of underpaper. So I've been doing a tear-and-glue-it-down kind of thing for a couple of days. No real plan, but it's looking fine so far. The brown cards with rusty circles are for the PA abstract art challenge. Probably this blue spread too. The hummingbird is on it's way, but practically everything else is stuff that should be put away... perhaps once this blue thing is done :) Oh, and the face I found on the desk last week is already in the book, see the spread here.

Rusty trinkets

The Paperartsy challenge is asking for abstract art. I decided to try my luck with brown acrylics on canvas. Here is the first card, still at least two to go, if I have the time to put them together :) I was inspired by the original challenge post and the neutral tones of the Two Reeds by Jo Myhill. I'm also posting for the WOW challenge (anything with embossing goes). No linkup, but entries have been linked to the comments.

I painted a cheap A4 canvas sheet with brown acrylic paints, going for a distressed look (surprising what water sprays can do to half dry paint!). Inspired by the water sprays, I added Colour Bloom in Teastain... forgetting my everlasting trouble with that: it just becomes sticky in stead of drying properly. I solved the problem by spreading gold embossing powder over the piece (the next day, it was still so sticky), which gave a lovely random texture to the background. The original canvas was cut in four pieces, so I have a couple more coming... I've stamped some numbers with brown Stazon, adhered a skeleton leaf with satin glaze and sewed on some rusty spacers. Love this, simple and effective!

Autumn leaves

Still one autumn card, posted for the Stampinback card challenge, where the theme is autumn. Actually, all the leaves have fallen, and I'm starting to wish for snow!

UPDATE!

I needed a baby card, and looking at the stuff on my desk, I realized this would be the one :)

This is what it looks like now: the baby is from Stampinback, the wings from Rubber Dance.

The leaves (from Rubber Dance) have been stamped with Distress inks. I sprayed over the images with a mild yellow spray (Tattered Angels) and dried fast with my heat tool. Love the way the colours spread a bit. The sentiment has been stamped on a piece with yellow bister. I coloured the text with Inktense pencils and added Glossy Accents. The baby has been stamped with Fern Green Archival (for an elf- look) and coloured with Tattered Rose from the Distress range. I used Distress Markers and a spritz of water to stamp the wings.

A matchbox

The Stampotique Designers Challenge is asking for boxes. I decided to go for a very small simple box: matches. Real ones, that is. Just because decorating a matchbox is quick and fun... and it's lovely to use matches from a cute box instead of the ordinary dull package.

I started by colouring around the edges of the matchbox with a black marker. This way I got a frame around the image. I chose some underpaper in earth tone colours, stamped on the smallest little kitty-monster from the lineup-stamp and coloured it with acrylic paint and a thin brush. Added a coat of glossy accents over the figure, and the result is quite adorable. The backside of the box has a piece of the same underpaper. Got to do some more, these are fun to give away around Christmas!

Dreaming of a white Christmas

The Lavinia challenge for November is Christmas. I'm don't really have any Christmas Stamps, but I decided to build a winter scene around the lovely tree trunk. Also posting for the WOW challenge (Anything goes)... no linkup there, but everyone seems to have linked to the comments.

I've brayered blue acrylic paint onto my card blank, gilded some stars with Megaflakes (Flitterglu applied through a stencil) stamped the tree and foliage with Versamark and heat embossed with white.

After that I continued heat embossing onto vellum, willow branches in white and little stars in "kaleidoskope" for a little bling. I tore the edge of the vellum and mounted it by cutting narrow strips from a low foam tape and placing it behind the leaves and branches.

Syksyn värejä

Viikon Paskiksessa on inspiraationa kuva, jossa on ihania murretun sävyisiä lankoja. Valitsin kuvan syksyiset värit, puusyisen taustan (tuo vihreä paperi), sekä langat... tosin minulla langat ovat ompelulankaa, ei neulontalankaa.

Korttiin upposi pöydällä lojuneita paperinpalasia ja leimakuva. Lehti on norjalaisen Rubber Dancen, leimattu Distress musteilla, ja leimaamisen jälkeen suihkaistu kimaltavalla keltaisella jotta värit vähän leviäisivät. Keltaisessa taustassa on käytetty TCW:n sapluunaa ja geelimömmöä (gloss heavy gel).

Jos sinua huvittaa käydä leimaostoksilla Rubber Dancella, saat 15% alennusta syöttämällä koodin kristiina2015. Lisäksi yli 40e tilauksiin saa ilmaisen toimituksen.