Hanki

I've been working in my art journal for the first time this year (horrible how time flies!) Luckily I ran into the Art Journal Journey page and got inspired by the March prompt "if you go down to the woods". I found myself bugged by the fact that I didn't do anything in January and February, so I decided to incorporate the January theme (Winter Wonderland) too. After all we are still in winter weather here in Finland.. at least it's not -30 anymore like it was in January :) besides AJJ I'm posting for Try it on Tuesday (Nature) the Craft Barn bi-weekly challenge (background circles) and the Paperartsy challenge (sculpting mediums... I added cheesecloth and used a combination of gel medium and matt glaze, can't talk about sculpting with my skills, but at least this is soft enough for the flaps to work!). I was inspired by the prompt post that you can find behind the link, check it out for gorgeous projects!

I guess it's quite natural that the Finnish language has more words for snowy phenomena than English... and my art journal page is about one of them. Hanki refers to the blanket of snow thick enough to cover all details of the ground underneath (at least 30 cm in my opinion). This fell upon us a month ago, and gives the proper "winter wonderland" look. This year however we have been lucky with our "hanki": the strong spring sun combined to ongoing proper frost (-10 C this morning!) has resulted in a strong crust on the snow. This is what the "kanto" refers to: the ability to carry weight. Instead of having to walk IN the snow, it's possible to walk ON the snow. Love it. Woodlands are a CAS version of themselves and all of a sudden we are not confined to the paths someone has trod, but can wander where we please :) This is typical for spring in northern Finland, but here in the south it's a rare treat that doesn't happen every year! Our little dog is head over heals. 50 cm of soft snow meant she had to "swim" in it if she jumped of the path, now that's not been a problem for the past couple of weeks.

Acrylic paints brayered over the spread. I thought of the ground under the snow waiting for spring.

Stamping with Paperartsy stamps. I decided this looked too much like autumn.

so I added flaps to the bottom of the page with white washi tape and stenciled some trees

Tissuepaper and cheesecloth to camouflage the flaps and diecut/punched snowflakes.

The dog stamped and painted with acrylic paints.
Letters stamped on inky scrap paper and fussy cut.

Some bokeh with white paint and sequins to depict the fierce spring sun.

The flaps at the bottom of the page can be lifted up. I stamped "no pulse yet", because spring is still letting us wait... The underpart is quite ugly, but that's what we'll have when this snow melts!

A few closeups of the page. The dog is a stamp from VivaLasVegaStamps. I haven't used it before, the dog in the stamp is quite skinny and smooth, but I added fur with a narrow brush and acrylic paint. Looks like a border terrier in need of a trim, and that's our dog :) I would have liked to stamp her lower down on the page, but I had already adhered the cheesecloth so this will have to do. The faraway background trees are from Crafty Individuals and the letter stamps from Rubber Dance.

I'll fill in the ending date once the snow goes soft again :)