Steampunk projects

The SanDee and Amelie's steampunk challenge is asking for three favourite steampunk projects from 2016. At first I thought I might not even have three projects to show, but actually I did... I even got to pick and choose! Here they are, in no particular order: a set of ATC:s and two cards.

Original post here

Original post here

Original post here

H and O

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is going forward every fortnight... and I'm making two cards at once: H for the challenge that ends tonight and O for the challenge that just started. I'm piecing a wildlife encyclopedia for this challenge, and today we have two mammals: the hoolock and the oribi.

The hoolock gibbon spends all of it's life in trees, hence the green background. They are light grey when they are born and turn black at a few months age. The females turn grey/tan after puberty. I picked him not only because of the never-before-heard-of name, but also because of this gorgeous video. Those eyebrows are adorable!!! (and the mom looks a bit fierce compared to the cute baby) Here is the back of the card with the info text.

The oribi looks (to my eyes) like any other small gaselle or antilope, but is actually the only member of it's genus. It has a peculiar bald black spot on both cheeks, almot like having two eyes! I layered some gelli prints for the background.

Make a Wish

Just managed to squeeze time for the June page of my recycled calendar... Only May missing, yay! The reason I wanted to get this done now was, that there are a couple of moon/star challenges out right now, and I felt that the colours I was going to use (Rubber Dance June challenge colours: blue, purple, magenta) would suit a starry sky. I'm linking to the Eye Connect Crafts challenge (something recycled with the moon) and the Mixed Media Monthly challenge (reach for the stars) and the WOW embossing powders challenge (favourite techniques with embossing).

The blue-red background is a gelli print made onto the gessoed old calendar page with satin glaze, blue Bister and Sunset Beach Infusions. I hoped I would have got a more purple look, but I didn't... sometimes the colours just don't mix! I added crackle paste around the edges and adhered some diecut trellis with Glue n'Seal... I would have imagined the Satin Glaze had the pigments fixed, but some colour bled through. I used Totem Moon and Stars from Eye Connect crafts as my centre piece. I didn't want to hang the bits (the moon has holes at the bottom and the stars have holes in the centre) so I used a bit of washi tape on the back to secure the holes and covered all the pieces with texture paste. I have an old paste that is well on it's way drying, and it turned out perfect for stamping! I chose a squiggly stamp from Rubber Dance and stamped with water over the moon. 

And here is the texture after a serious amount of paints and stuff... I first painted the pieces in gold (3-4 layers of different shades), but it just didn't work with the background, so I painted over with white and started anew :) some magenta rubbed with a baby wipe and transluscent inteference gold. I wiped over the top of the texture with my Versamark inkpad and heat embossed with WOW sparkling snow. It really gave an awesome finish to the pieces, though the sparkle doesn't show in the pictures.

Here is the graphics for the MMMC challenge and a closeup of the smoochy gelli print and the trellis. The sentiment is from Rubber Dance Art Stamps and has been heat embossed with white. Of course this is kind of a silly page for June, since in Finland no stars can be seen in June. Even when the sun sets, it just gets dusky for a few hours before the sun starts to rise again :)

I'm working in an old calendar, gessoing all the pages and drawing new calendar grids. I haven't done the grid yet, because the first ones got really warped when I treated the next pages. And also because I'm in a hurry (after all the July page has already been done, so warping shouldn't really be a problem here). I'll just have to do a pile later on! The previous pages of this calendar can be found under the following links:

January
February

March

April

May (not done yet)

June

July

Lazy Summer Days

I started a calendar at the beginning of this year with the idea that I'd use the Rubber Dance challenge colours every month and end up with a great calendar for 2017 at the end of the year. Here's my July page. I'm going to add the calendar grids later on (I glued one on in January and it got horrible warped when I gessoed for February on the other side, so no use doing them at this point!). I'm also posting for the Craft Barn biweekly challenge (CAS= background+image+sentiment), the Stampotique Designers Challenge (SDC253 Beach or Sea) and the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (Nautical/By the Sea).

I recently got the large gelliplate 20cm x24cm and the background is my first print with it. I used Satin Glaze, added Golden Sands (Paperartsy Infusions) and blue bister, brayered them around and waited for small bubbles to appear (the Satin Glaze kind of peels from the gelli, you can see this at the top of the print). I took my print, and realized that my paper was quite uneven because of the gesso and I had put pressure over the whole calendar bundle instead of the actual page, which resulted in large white blotches. Not what I thought, but rather cool anyway :) I stamped the beach babe onto the background and on a marker pad, coloured with Promarkers, fussy cut and adhered over the stamped image. Both the woman and text are from Rubber Dance Art Stamps.

My previous calendar pages can be found under the following links. I was so busy in May and June, that those are still undone... But June is on it's way (with a gelli print too!), I hope to get them done soon.

January
February

March

April

May

June

July

W is for the Weddell seal

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is asking for W. My wildlife encyclopedia didn't offer many options, because w is not really used in the Finnish language :) Anyway, let me introduce you to one of the largest seals that exist. It is also an extremist, being able to dive deeper and longer than any other seal! The weddell seal is relatively common and has been researched a lot... and it has been measured to dive up to 600m deep and to have stayed under water for even 75 minutes. I would be quite at loss for air even after 75 seconds!

I used a bit of tissue paper coloured with Paperartsy Infusion The Sage for the background. My table is a mess, and I haven't been able to find the little snippet that says "weddellinhylje" that should go on the front of this card. For the back I used a Rubber Dance background stamp inked with a bunch of Distress inks.

K is for Kukkakaviokuono

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge for K was a difficult one. I'm on holiday, but haven't had time to get this done before the last minute, and there weren't many suitable animals in my wildlife encyclopedia. As before I wanted to choose something I'd never heard of before and preferably something with a name that didn't give a clue of what kind of animal it happened to be. This is the flower-faced bat, in Finnish the name is "flowerhoofnose". I learned that hoof-nosed bats (the English term is leaf-nosed) are a large group of insect eating bats. All have some sort of skin ornament on their nose, and this is a rare species with a flowerlike ornament that has layered petals. (No one knows what function the ornament has :) )

For the background I dug out a piece of ink jet photo paper coloured with grey Brushos. I added some texture paste with a star stencil for interest. That is my dusky night, and the rest ended up quite simple. Here's the back of the card, the encyclopedia didn't have much to say about these! The k and harlequin stamp are from Rubber Dance.

The previous cards for this challenge can be found under the following links... still quite a long way to go! And the letters have been picked according to the Finnish names of the animals:)

a (pinecone fish)

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

z

Paskis #322

Paskiksessa on tällä kertaa värihaaste, jossa pyydetään keltaista, oranssia ja punaista. Korttini tausta löytyi kokeilulaatikosta: leikin taannoin Brusho-pigmenttijauheilla ja Lidlistä ostetulla sikahalvalla mustesuihkutulostimen valokuvapaperilla. Kaikilla muilla alustoilla värien intensiivisyys häviää paperin kuivuessa, mutta valokuvapaperi toistaa koko väri-iloittelun!

Tekstileima on norjalaiselta Rubber Dancelta, ja se on leimattu samalle valokuvapaperille. Kokeilujeni perusteella Versafine oli paras muste tähän, ja leiman yksityiskohdat näkyvät viivatarkasti. Pienet puutähdet on päällystetty parilla kerroksella keltaista kohojauhetta, tähän värimaailmaan sopivia valmiita koristeita kun ei sattunut olemaan. Jos satut Rubber Dancen verkkokauppaan leimaostoksille, saat kassalla 15% alennusta koodilla kristiina2016.

Sunshine + Rain = Rainbows

We've been having some adorable summer weather recently, sunshine together with rain! I made a happy rainbow card for the CASology challenge (sunshine). Rubber Dance Art Stamps are sponsoring the challenge this week and I've used their Alphabet Uno stamps for my card. It says "congrats" in Finnish, six times. There is a piece of thick corrugated card in between the stamped panel and the purple card I used as a background, I like the way it gives dimension and air to the card, though the effect doesn't really show in the picture.

I made some measurements on a piece of watercolour card, to mark six spaces for the stamping. Luckily the u and n are so alike, this is easily stamped! The card has a textured surface, so I used a black micron pen to fill in the lines where they weren't clear, coloured in rainbow colours using Inktense pencils and finished with a touch of Wink of Stella glitter.

I actually managed to catch the shimmer of the glitter! Once in a lifetime... 

Colouring...

I love to look at all the beautiful colouring books that are available, and I've been avoiding buying them since I have quite enough to do as is! But having the need to do some colouring, I decided to stamp myself some images for cards, and I'm posting this one for the Country View challenge (Crackle).

I started by stamping some "o" letters from this alphabet set onto card bases. What happened to the one on the right you can see here, the one on the left I coloured rather slowly and thoroughly with my Faber Castell Polychromos pencils. No solvent, just lots of layers of colour, trying to create some shade and dimension. I love the way the patterns pop after a layer of Crackle Accents. Super simple!

Paskis #320

Paskiksessa on tällä kertaa luonnos, ja täytyy tunnustaa ettei homma oikein meinannut lähteä käyntiin. Pyörittelin pöytälaatikossa lojunutta väritettyä leimakuvaa eri gelli-vedosten kanssa kunnes sitten vaan päätin, että kokeilen. Ja tulihan tästä lopulta ihan kiva!

Gelli-vedos on tehty 3x5 tuuman levyllä varsin yksinkertaisesti: telasin kahta vaaleanpunaista akryylimaalia ja on taputtelin kuplamuovilla ennen vedosta. Revin palat käsin ja ompelin kiinni aika kaukaa reunasta jotta voisin rytätä niitä. Yhdeksi luonnoksen paneeliksi tuli tuppo sideharsoa. Tässä on kaikki ommeltuna korttipohjaan...

Onhan se ihanaa kun aurinko paistaa, mutta näihin kuviin se luo aika väkevät varjot! Kukka on Rubber Dancen leima ja se on väritetty Promarkereilla. Kiinnitin sen sellaisilla paksuilla liimatäplillä,  kun tuo sideharso on vähän haastava alusta. Teksti on stanssattu Tim Holtzin stanssilla. Jos omistaisin enamel dotseja, niin tähän olisin ripotellut muutaman keltaisen, mutta menee tämä näinkin... :) 

Jos haluat käydä leimaostoksilla, niin Rubber Dancen verkkokaupasta voit syöttää kassalla koodin kristiina2016 saadaksesi 15% alennusta. Leimat ovat syvään uurrettua punaista kumia ja niitä saa sekä mountattuna että ilman.

A is for the Pinecone fish

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is asking for A. I chose a fish from my wildlife encyclopedia. Actually in Finnish (and obviously many other languages too) this is a pineapple fish... for obvious reasons :) Besides the Craft Barn challenge I'm posting for the Country View challenge (stencils).

I have been gelli-printing lately, and decided to try using my gelliplate and some stencils for the background. After several layers, the result was ok... and since all my previous alpha cards have sewed elements, I added sewing around the edges (though this time there was actually nothing to sew onto the card. 

Here is the other side of the card with a description of the fish. I checked youtube and found this nice video that shows how spiky the little fellow is. Must be a lovely find for a diver, quite a stunning fish. This fish is nocturnal, hiding most of it's day and moving more actively by night. It leads a symbiotic life with some bioluminescent bacteria that live in pouches under it's lower jaw... perhaps the light helps to lure food. The first finn on the back is mutated to separate strong spikes that turn to left and right instead of rising upward. The letter A and the button background are From Rubber Dance Stamps.

The previous cards for this challenge can be found under the following links... still quite a long way to go! And the letters have been picked according to the finnish names of the animals:)

a (pinecone fish)

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

z

J is for Jamaican Tody

The Craft Barn alpha/dictionary challenge is asking for J with a dragonfly. Since I had a scary snake last time, I was glad to find a real cutie for this one :) I am also posting for the Paperartsy challenge (monoprints) and the Country View challenge (stencils).

The bird and it's description are cut from a wildlife encyclopedia. I used a gelli print for the colourful background (and a flower stencil has been used to pull the print). The tody-birds eat insects, and you might guess what his next meal is going to be ?!? The letter and the harlequin stamps are from Rubber Dance. There wasn't much info available about these birds, but here's the wikipedia article.

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.