Runaway

I decided to ink up a stamp I never used so far: The Gorjuss runaway. I looked at a few challenges I keep an eye on, and decided on the Rubberdance colour challenge colours: teal, brown and cherry... and this little girl, who obviously loves her horse! I am also posting this card for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (All creatures great and small).

The image has been coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils. I used cherry for the girl, but she turned out pinkish! The old paper on the background has been coloured with an ink blender and Distress Ink in Faded Jeans. The yellow of the paper gives a dark teal shade. I used golden ink and added small stars in the sky and some star-grass on the ground. After fussy cutting I used foam adhesive to mount the stamped image.

Don't give up

I started this journal page with several goals in mind. First of all the DLP week 6 prompt ( don't stop till you get enough) that ended up turning into "don't give up" and secondly my February tag (12 tags of 2015), for which I wanted a pocket and the text "know in your heart that you are loved" that I didn't get on the tag. Thirdly I decided to try out pink as a journal page colour, so I could fit this in the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (red and pink). After finishing the page, the new SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge had come (All creatures great and small), and since I have a little fox here, I'm posting for that too.

I started by stamping the spread allover with three different background stamps (a ledger, a letter and one with water droplets. I spread the pink ( and some purple) over the spread with an old plastic card. I cut out some scallops along a scrap piece of card and using my mini ink blending tool applied first gesso and then light green along the edges. I chose a page from an old chemistry book (this has pictures of complex ions with coordinated bonds, and it has me thinking about complex relationships)
I embellished the top edge of the pocket with some quilling strips, sprayed it with some pink glimmer mist and glued it in place.

I added grey around the scallops and since there was grey paint some left, wrote the text on the right side of the spread. After continuing with a couple of different stencils and adding some shadows and highlights I thought I was done and packed the journal away. 

Taking a second look at it, I realized that there was an empty spot in the middle: my writing was too far out in the right. I remembered doing a topper in these same colours and checked it out. It would have been perfect both in colour and message, but didn't fit... so I settled for colouring another little Gorjuss girl. When I look at her I'll remember the "just be you" from the topper too!

WOYWW-wednesday once again!

My desk (living room table) hasn't seen any crafty biz for a few days. On the left are a couple of tangle-ATC:s for a Finnish challenge, and on the right is a first attempt on the confirmation invitations we should send in March or April (my oldest daughter is turning 15 soon, and her confirmation will be in the beginning of June--fun that she wished such a girly colour combination).  The box under my blue calendar holds beads and sequins. It lives upstairs in the girls room, because I barely ever use them...but during the weekend I tried out the bokeh effect on a card, and added sequins, for some reason the box is still here. The art journal is waiting for DLP-related attention and the rest of the table is filled with some drawings my son brought with him from school.

The white tower is where I might claim to have all my stash, but as the next photo shows, that is not quite the case... Since there has happened some development in this corner that doesn't show in the desk view, I'm offering you a doggy view too (she probably wouldn't notice anything but her ball). I have bought three office boxes, each with 5 drawers... Guess how many drawers I was able to empty from the white tower of drawers where I have had my stash?

Starting from the left:
-two shoeboxes, one with alterable/rippable books, other with crap.
-First office box, the old one: 3d-decoupage sheets, markers, inks, glues and ribbon.
-Cardboard box: kids mittens and other winter stuff, can't understand why DH placed them here, and why the box is full at this time of the year!
-2. Office box: painting equipment, pens, inks, embossing stuff and paint tubes.
-Box with tiny drawers: all sorts of bits like buttons, charms and brads.
-Tower of two office boxes (barely visible): acrylic blocks, stencils and 8 drawers of unmounted rubber stamps.
-Underneath the sofa I have two shoeboxes with small designer paper pads, one with wood mounted stamps and my megaflake kit. 

Thats it, I got 15 new drawers and managed to empty two from where the stamps have been cramped up for ages... And by now they are starting to fill with underpapers and other necessities :)

Wondering about WOYWW? Check out Julias blog, and find other desks there!

Zentangle ATC II

Täti Punaisen ja Finnstamperin Sarin ATC-haaste jatkuu edelleen. Aiheena oli siis zentangle, joka pitäisi piirustella ATC-kokoiselle pikku kortille. Lisätietoa voi halutessaan etsiä edellisten blogeista, mukaankin ehtii vielä! Tällä kertaa itselleni kävi kuten monelle jo viimeksi, että kortteja synyi saman tien pari. Minulla oli töissä parin tunnin tylsähkö istumakeikka, ja nappasin kynät ja ATC-pohjia mukaan.

Itse kun en ole koskaan ollut sellaista doodlailu tyyppiä, kaipaan tässä puuhassa jotain, jolla saada edes alku tyhjälle paperille. Lähdin siis edelleen liikkeelle "virallisilla" zentangle-kuvioilla: välillä niihin tulee lisättyä enemmän, välillä vähemmän "omaa". Vasemmanpuoleisen pohjana on Bales johon uskaltauduin keksimään täytteet ihan itse, kun vauhtiin pääsin...keskiosa on tehty Fife-kuviota mukaillen. Oikeanpuoleinen kuvio on Nzeppel jota on sovellettu erittäin epäsäännölliseen "ristikkoon". Lopputulos oli niin kiva, että totesin ettei jatkamisessa tai lisävärityksissä olisi ollut järkeä. Molempia on varjostettu lyijykynällä. Näillä siis mukana, molemmilla tai kummalla vaan. 

Bokeh or not to bokeh

When I first ran into the word bokeh in this blogpost a few weeks ago, I had to do a google search to find out what bokeh means. I found it quite fascinating that all of a sudden I started running into the word on several other posts too! I don't happen to have a circle stencil, but looking at an advertisement in the paper I realized that the baubles could also be hexagons. I decided to try the bokeh on the Stampotique Designers challenge (citrus colours) well aware that the card would also be fit for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (All things bright and beautiful). Since I use hexagons, I ended up in a hurry to finish this of before the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge (H is for...) ends!

I painted my background on canvas with acrylic paints. Actually I have noticed that my paintings never end up as nice as I would like, so this time I just squirted blobs of yellow paint around the A4 canvas sheet, dabbed my brush in red and started spreading the yellow around: really cool! I added some green on one edge, so my citrus colours are lime, lemon and orange. I stamped the Penny Black "Soft Whisper" image using black acrylic paint and started dabbing gesso through my TCW mini hexagons stencil. When I thought I had enough coverage, I added glitter with a clear Wink of Stella pen, sewed the background on a card base and glued on a bunch of sequins. Looking at the result, I regretted not mixing a grey for stamping the tree: there were places without gesso, and they were too black. I added some white with a Sharpie and smudged it with my fingers, but the sequins were already adhered, so I couldn't get any underneath them. I love the hazy, glittery look of this card, even though it is difficult to catch in pictures!

Home sweet home

I made this card with the Chocolate Baroque colour challenge and the SimonSaysStamp Monday challenge in mind. So I have used CB stamps and the colours brown, rust, green and mustard, and this time H is for Home. I wasn't imagining it would fit any other challenges, but now that it is done, I can't help thinking about "all creatures great and small"... So I'm also posting this card for the SimonSaysStamp Wednesday challenge (All things bright and beautiful)

I mostly used stamps from the Steampunk Flowers and Punky Birds stamp sets with Archival inks. I made a background with flower stems from the Punky Flowers set and "bushes" from the Texture Fragments stamp set. I used masking tape to mask the stems and edge of the card. 

All the other images have been stamped on paper, coloured with Inktense pencils and fussy cut. Somehow they look pinkish in the pictures, but the flowers have been coloured with a combination of Chili red, brown and orange..they are trying to look like a version of reddish rust. I adhered part of the images with a glue stick and part with foam adhesive, to add some interest, especially on the birdhouse. On very thin pieces meant to be decoupaged I usually use a low doublesided foam tape: when the cover has been taken off on one side, it is fairly easy to cut as narrow strips as necessary, and because the tape is low, the adhesive doesn't show too much.

Iloisen päivän paskis

Paskiksessa pyydetään tällä kertaa ilmapalloja. Pengoin laatikonpohjia, koska tiesin, että jossain minulla on Lawn Fawnin leimasinsetti, jossa niitä löytyy. Muistan innoissani ryhtyneeni kokeilemaan näitä ja pettyneeni, kun kauniit karkkiväriset Distress Musteet pisaroituivat leiman pinnalla ja leimakuva muodostui pilkuista...siksipä joutuivat laatikon pohjalle, kunnes selvittäisin mikä auttaa! Koska meillä kerätään kaikenkarvaisia sarjakuvia, ja juuri tällä viikolla löydettiin paikallisesta kierrätyskeskuksesta oikea sarjakuvien aarrekasa, piti siitä penkoa iloisenvärinen sarjis kuvaan kirjanmerkin kaveriksi :)

Jouduin huomaamaan mikä minulle on näissä CAS-tyyppisissä projekteissa vaikeinta: valkoisen osan valkoisuus. Kuvassa tekstin lomaan ilmestynyt oranssi "usva" ei näy ihan yhtä pahasti kuin luonnossa (ja koska oli DI:tä, niin sain osan poistettua vedellä ja talouspaperilla), mutta siellä se on. Ehkä sitten ensi kerralla olen huolellisempi!

Miettiessäni tämän kirjanmerkin tekemistä muistelin törmänneeni artikkeliin, jossa todettiin, että pisaroituminen helpottaa vähitellen, kun leima likaantuu. Siinä suositeltiin lkäyttämään kirkkailla leimasimilla aluksi esim Archival-musteilla, koska ne vähän syöpyvät leiman pintaa, minkä jälkeen vesiliukoiset käyttäytyisivät siivommin. En ihan periaatteessa halua liata leimojani, mutta päätin kokeilla, jos Versamark auttaisi pisaroitumiseen: ensin siis leimalle kerros väritöntä Versamarkia "liaksi" ja sen jälkeen värinlevitys DI-leimatyynyillä. Parin oikealla näkyvän kokeilun jälkeen olin vakuuttunut, että toimii. Sininen ilmapallo on suihkaistu vedellä ennen leimaamista. Versamark pohjalla saikin Distress-musteen reagoimaan samaan tapaan kuin jos se olisi ollut paperin pinnassa, eli vesiväriefektin sijaan tulikin valkoisia pilkkuja. Kirjanmerkin ilmapallon valkoinen johtuu Crafty Individualsilta ostetun Stix2-kirjanmerkkipohjan pintarakenteesta.