Purple Rain

I've been wanting to do a spread for Art Journal Journey (there is a music theme in April, "for the record"). The other day the radio played "Another one bites the dust" -haven't heard that for ages... and it got me thinking about how many well known artists have passed away lately. I remembered I had a chipboard cloud with raindrops in my stash, and so the idea for the spread was born :) I am also posting for the Paperartsy challenge (white space, I'm sorry I haven't had time to do several posts for that one!) and the WOW challenge (anything with embossing goes).

I had smudged some paint on my spread. I didn't want the brown, so I started by covering the spread with white gesso and glueing some old papers along the edges. I prepped the Eye Connect Crafts chippies with gesso and acrylic paint. First in white and blue, then some purple...

The old book page with a cross on it is a  smudged experiment from a year ago. It fits well with the R.I.P theme :) I wanted some more texture on the page, so I stamped with a swirly background stamp from Rubber Dance on the edges of the spread and over the cloud. The stamping on the cloud was embossed with WOW Sparkling Snow. I found some light purple sequins to fit, and decided to cover the holes on the cloud and attach my raindrops with tape behind the cloud.

This picture shows the lovely sparkle of my raindrops. They have a layer of purple acrylic paint, purple glitter sprinkled on heavy gloss gel and covered with Crackle Accents (on both sides). The glitter had dissolving colours that made the raindrops a bit reddish compared to what I had had in mind. I added some plastic gems on the thread before attaching the drops to the cloud. My original idea was to write "Another one bites the dust" on the left page with large letters. Since the colours turned out soft and hazy, I at some point thought to write "laughing in the purple rain" instead... but the white felt addictive, and I ended up adding white texture paste and writing the text at the bottom of the page.

I took pictures on a really sunny day. This looks so cool when the book is upright, but the threads do get messed up easily!

S is for surucucu

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is asking for S. Through the year the challenge will go through the whole alphabet, and this time there was also a twist: to add a shell. I didn't like the twist part... looking through my wildlife encyclopedia I pondered on a fish, thinking the shell could be part of the bottom of the sea. But since I've been trying to pick animals with weird names I chose the Amazon Forest Bushmaster, known in parts of South America as the surucucu (which has obviously inspired the Finnish name). The background is a piece from a masterboard I made ages ago, it nicely fit the jungle/forest environment these live in.

I checked the ever trustworthy Wikipedia for the name in English. The bushmaster is a venomous pit viper, one of the largest venomous snakes that exist (can be over 3m long!). I learned that the latin name refers to silent death: "Lachesis" is something to do with Greek mythology and the term of life and "muta" refers to muteness, since it used to be classified a rattlesnake without the rattle. Well, the encyclopedia I'm cutting to pieces is outdated enough to place this among the rattlesnakes. Here's a video if you are interested.

These live in the Amazon jungle and have nothing to do with shells, but I stamped some shells on the back of the card because I had to. The stamps (letter S, text and shell) are all from Rubber Dance.

The alpha cards that have been done so far can be found under the following links:

a

b (bananaquit)
c
d (dugong)
e
f (falanouc)
g (gundi)
h
i
j
k
l (flying dragon)
m
n
o
p
q (quelea)
r (rathbuni's salamander)
s surucucu
t
u
v
w
x
y

z

Pikkuleimoja...

Paskis #318 haastaa käyttämään leimasettien mukana tulevia pikkuleimoja. Selailin laatikkoa, ja valitsin kukkaa muistuttavan leiman joka itse asiassa on tämän kirjainleimasetin mukana tullut asteriski. Ihana haaste, tuotakin leimaa voisi käyttää useammin, vaikkei asteriskina kaipaakaan :)
Sitä on leimattu summamutikassa erivärisillä Distress-musteilla ympäri korttipohjaa, leimailu jatkuu myös korttipohjan taakse.

Kuvien laatukin parani kertaheitolla, kun tajusin että ipadin kuoren uumenissa kameranlinssi oli kerännyt aikamoisen kerroksen möhnää. Nythän kuva onkin yhtäkkiä terävä ja värit kirkkaat, jee! Akvarellipaperista taiteltu valmis korttipohja on Finnstamperilta ja leimat (asteriski ja teksti) ovat norjalaiselta Rubber Dancelta. Ja jos satut asioimaan Rubber Dancen verkkokaupassa, saat leimaostoksista 15% alennusta koodilla kristiina2016.

Resist with crayons

The Paperartsy challenge has been showing of resist techniques during the past fortnight. I'm going with wax crayons like Seth Apter. Except that I used the crayon with a stencil in stead of stamping.

I chose a rather thin paper, placed it over a TCW stencil and rubbed with the side of a white crayon that I've robbed from my children :) I washed over it with grey watercolour. Here you can see the resist effect. It's strongest around the holes of the stencil.

The Gorjuss stamp has been coloured with my brand new Polychromos colour pencils, the butterfly is from Crafty Individuals and the quote plate by Tim Holtz.

Paskiksen värihaaste

En ole taas ehtinyt Paskishaasteisiin mukaan vähään aikaan... nyt oli ihan pakko, kun vuorossa oli melkein lempivärit: keväisen kirkkaat keltainen ja vihreä + vapaavalintainen väri, joka minulla on oranssi.

Taustaan on ensin levitelty keltaista ja limen vihreää Brusho väriä. Kun kartonki lopulta kuivui, kohokuvioin sen lehti- aiheisella kansiolla. Kuvioinnin jälkeen lisäsin vielä vihreää väriä Distress musteilla ja levittimellä. Kukkaleiman väritin Distress tusseilla, sumutin vedellä ja leimasin erilliselle paperille. Leimaamisen jälkeen jatkoin tusseilla: lisäsin erityisesti varjostuksia, jotka asettuivat mukavasti kun kuva oli hieman kostea. Joitakin kohtia pehmensin vedellä ja siveltimelläkin, koska tussileimauksesta jää yllättävän terävä jälki. Teksti on Tim Holtzin "small talk" tarra. Vasta saapuivat eilen, ja ihastuin oitis, täytyy pitää silmällä niitä muitakin sana-arkkeja. Oranssi pitsinpätkä on joskus aikaa sitten värjätty johonkin, johon se ei sitten sopinutkaan, pääsinpä siitäkin :)

Olin tätä ennen käyttänyt kohokuviointikansiota mustapintaiseen hologrammikartonkiin josta jäi mustaa väriä kansioon. Vaikka kuinka olin yrittänyt puhdistaa sitä pois, jäämiä vilahtelee siellä täällä. Onneksi niitä ei kuitenkaan paljon huomaa, jos ei tiedä etsiskellä... ja toivon mukaan sieltä ei enää irtoile seuraaviin projekteihin 

Kukkaleima on norjalaisen Rubber Dancen tuotantoa. Jos kiinnostaa, niin heidän verkkokaupastaan saat 15% alennuksen, kun käytät kassalla koodia kristiina2016.

No Pulse Yet

Here is my entry for the VivaLasVegaStamps! April challenge. Check the link for the lovely moodboard. I have been inspired by coffee, coffee spills/rings/splatters and shades of tan and browns.

As soon as the challenge was out, I dug my stash for the trusty coffee ring stamp and a bunch of go-to background stamps. The sentiment from Paperartsy was a perfect match, all the other stamps are from VivaLasVegaStamps (Coffee rings, Ledger, several different stitches). I used the stitches to make the pulse line and stamped the coffee rings with different shades of brown Distress Inks. The stamping continues over the bend in the card, part of the rings and the stitch line have been heat embossed with VLVS Ultra High Gloss Clear embossing powder. To add some texture, I mixed gesso with brown acrylic paint and added stars using a stencil.

D is for Dugong

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is asking for the letter D with a twist of pink. I am using a wildlife encyclopedia, and trying to find creatures I never heard of before... so let me introduce you to the dugong that lives a quiet and secluded life eating seagrass on the seafloor. It is the only totally herbifore sea mammal on this planet! The dugongs live on coastal areas all the way from western Africa to Australia. Their closest relatives, manatees, live on the other side of the African continent and the northern part of South America.

I used a Tattered Angels spray for the blue background. It shimmers nicely, though the photo doesn't show it. I forgot that the cardstock I'm using for these doesn't really take sprays very well, but the blown surface acts like bubbles... I added some old book paper for the bottom of the sea and stamped pink seagrass (using a stamp that depicts sewing stitches!). I'm sure she doesn't mind a pink meal today :) Here's the back of the card with the description in Finnish. Want to learn more, but still don't read Finnish? No worry, check out the ever reliable wikipedia!

All the stamps I used are from Rubber Dance Art Stamps. 

The alpha cards that have been done so far can be found under the following links:

a

b (bananaquit)
c
d (dugong)
e
f (falanouc)
g (gundi)
h
i
j
k
l (flying dragon)
m
n
o
p
q (quelea)
r (rathbuni's salamander)
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z

A Calendar for April

My altered calendar project has proceeded to April. I am linking to the Craft Stamper Take-it-Make-it challenge (Spring flowers) and the Rubber Dance April challenge that is using a colourful moodboard for inspiration this time.

I picked the colour combination and the flowers... and here is my page:

I started by gessoing the page white and adhering large flowers cut from a brochure. I covered the flowers with clear gesso and sprayed the background. All the images have been coloured with alcohol markers (New Rubber Dance stamps: Clover Castle and flying girl from Fly Mail and a flower from Antique Botanicals). The sentiment has been written by hand on scrap paper. I finished the page with some stich stamps around the edge. Lots of fussy cutting with the girl and the flowers! Part of them are mounted on low foam tape for a more dimensional effect.

Here is a larger picture with part of the calendar grid showing. I've drawn it by hand and added names on all the days (in Finnish tradition we do celebrate name days :) The large letters are from Alphabet Uno and the butterfly girl from the same Fly Mail set as before, this time with the postage stamp showing. Also these have been coloured with alcohol markers.

If you go shopping at the Rubber Dance web shop, remember to use the code kristiina2016 for a 15% discount on your stamps!

The previous pages of this calendar can be found here:
January
February
March