A cup of hot cocoa - a pair of ATCs

Care for a cuppa? Here's some mint chocolate inspired ATCs! 

Some weeks ago I received my order from Nannan Paperi ja Helmi, which included this die and embossing folder set. Naturally I needed to play with my new toys immediately and created this pair of ATCs using them. Instead of coffee or tea, I decided to make hot chocolate mugs - kind of bringing the Holiday vibe to the make. I used Ranger's Distress Inks to color the pieces I cut from cream colored cardstock. The candy cane sticks I made using a red brush tip marker, and added just a hint of ink to the edges of them. The whipped cream on top got some extra fluff from Modeling Paste and the little biscuit some details using the markers as well and then some sprinkled sugar using Rock Candy glitter.

If you want one of the pair, please let me know and I'll mail the cup to you! I'm also delighted to do a swap! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a nice Wednesday!

Materials: Sizzix, Ranger, Tim Holtz Idea-ology, Prima Marketing

Emerald butterfly - a card

Hi there! Today I have something quite different from the Holiday theme that's been going on for a while. It's a card, but this time a emerald colored butterfly. I made this based on a request from my husband. 

I really liked making this card, but it was a bit difficult as well as I didn't know the receiver and was kind of flying in the dark with it. This was a congratulations card for newly weds. The color scheme came from the bride's dress and butterfly from her love of butterflies. The glitter details were as well something she had in a music event this year. 

The background as well as the butterfly are done using a PaperArtsy acrylic paint. For the background I then layered other paint layers and stamped details as well as Posca doodles. The butterfly on the other hand is just stamped using a Stampers Anonymous butterfly stamp and embossed using golden embossing powder.

I hope the couple liked what I created! But, it's the thought that counts after all. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a lovely Tuesday!

Materials: PaperArtsy, Stampers Anonymous, Ranger, Tim Holtz Idea-ology, Carabelle Studio, Posca

Blue and White - an art journal spread

Happy Independence Day Finland! Today, the 6th of December we celebrate our independence. The date is when the parliament confirmed the declaration of independence with votes 100 for and 88 against. Finland was a Grand Duchy then, belonging to Russian empire.

I drew inspiration from the day and used just blues and whites in this art journal spread. If you are wondering, why those colors, they are the colors on the Finnish flag. When I was crafting the piece a song called "Sininen ja valkoinen" (Blue and white) started playing in my head. There the singer thinks how to describe his homeland. He then sings about all blue and white things in Finland (blue skies and lakes, glistening snow, white summer nights and white clouds). 

How I made the spread? Well, you can see that from this process video (link) on my YouTube channel! Like I say in the video, you could use the same idea to make some Christmas cards, too! 

Wishing you a peaceful Friday and wonderful weekend! Thank you for stopping by today!

Materials: 

GelliArts - 5"x7" printing plate

Fabriano - Accademia 160g cardstock

PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish acrylic paint Baltic Blue, Double Denim, China, Heavy Cream, Eggshell, Snowflake

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz Layering stencil Brush Marks THS167

Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz Layering stencil Berry Leaves THS174

Carabelle Studio - Ecriture a la Plume stencil

Wennström - beeswax crayons

Stabilo - All Aquarellable white colored pencil 8052

Posca PC-1M black, white

letter stickers, pencil

foam tape, double sided tape

brushes, brayer, scissors

Holiday Klimt - PaperArtsy

Moikka again! Yesterday I shared a pair of cards (link), which were inspired by Gustav Klimt and done for PaperArtsy. I then hinted also, that I actually made a trio of cards and the third one would be a bit different. Today I'm sharing that third one.

While the other two were without any sentiment, I added a Christmas greeting to this card. I also used a red card base instead of white and instead of clear rhinestone stickers used red half pearls here, which reminded me of berries.

If you want to know, how I made the cards, please head over to the PaperArtsy blog (link) as I have a detailed step-by-step post there! The background is done using embossing powder resist and the character coloring prompted me to get myself a Christmas gift! More about those both here (link).

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a beautiful Wednesday! 

Materials: PaperArtsy, Ranger, Tsukineko, Korttipaja, Sinelli

Gilded Klimt - PaperArtsy

Hello there! Here's something I created for the "Gilded" blog topic for PaperArtsy. You can see the original post with a step by step here (link).

Like I write in the post, it's peculiar how gold makes me think of Gustav Klimt. I've used him as an inspiration source before and also - there's plenty of painters and artists who use gold! But still my thoughts steer towards him whenever gold is mentioned! It might be the impact he had on me back in school when I was doing a presentation about the art nouveau style and stumbled upon his paintings. I also love the juxtaposition of the detailed, more naturalistic faces of the characters, and the meticulously painted patterned backgrounds or robes.

For PaperArtsy I created a trio of cards. I'm showing two of them here and shall blog the third tomorrow. These two are quite identical, but there's a slight difference in the third. The card here below is the first one, the one I made while shooting the step by step pictures. The two others I made when I had a better understanding of the composition. If you want to know to what I refer to, please head over to the PaperArtsy blog and read the post (link)! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a sweet Tuesday!

Materials: PaperArtsy, Ranger, Posca, Sinelli, Tsukineko

Christmas Magic - an art journal spread

Heippa! It's again Friday and that means a new video on my YouTube channel! This time I made an art journal spread using inks, paints and die cut elements. If you want to see how I made this spread, please see this video (link) on my YouTube channel!

The idea behind this spread was to use this Christmas themed vintage image I've had in my stash for a while. I think I bought a set of these for my December album one year and then realized while I otherwise love vintage vibe, it's not suitable for the particular album. Or let's say the images would look a bit peculiar along Instax photos and Lawn Fawn styled ephemera I otherwise tend to use on the album. I was trying to find a link for you to show a picture of the album, but couldn't find one. I don't tend to share them as I would need to blur a lot! But to clarify a little - each December I document the month to an album. I use Instax for the photos and assembly the album in a Simple Stories Sn@p album in sleeves. I fill the pockets with right sized patterned paper pieces before hand and gather a box with date stickers, embellishments and left overs of those patterned papers so the documenting is easy during the holidays. I've been doing this for several years, in this format I guess this year will be the fifth. 

I got sidetracked, so back to today's project! The inspiration was that vintage photo. I wanted to create something relatively simple, and picked up this patterned paper with some nicely wrapped gifts. To enhance the sweet atmosphere, I picked pink as the background color. As you can see from the video, I started by breaking the blank page with some acrylic smudges, for lack of a better word, and then continued with inks. If you want to see the whole process, please see the process video (link) on my YouTube channel!

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a crafty Friday and lovely weekend!

Materials:

art journal

Fabriano - Accademia 160g cardstock

PaperArtsy - Fresco Finish acrylic paint Vintage Lace

Ranger - Distress Ink Kitsch Flamingo, Saltwater Taffy, Lumberjack Plaid

Tsukineko - VersaFine Clair Nocturne

PaperArtsy - TS065 stamp set

Sizzix - Thinlits die set Forest Shadows 666334

Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Postmarked sticker book TH94387

Tim Holtz Idea-ology - Christmas 2023 sticker book TH94350

Posca PC-1M white, black

doily, pearl stickers, vintage die cut, gift patterned paper

double sided tape, craft glue, foam tape

paper cutter, scissors, inking tool, water mister, brushes

Rusty moth - a canvas

Hello lovelies! Today I'm sharing a project I did quite a while ago. Like the transfer projects, it was going to be an online workshop, but like the other one, it didn't materialize. The topic would have been mixed media mediums and self-made rust paste.

The assemblage is done on top of a set of Fabrika Decoru HDF art board. The composition includes cast embellishments as well as buttons, flowers and corrugated cardboard. Everything is adhered together using gel medium. I used white gesso and various PaperArtsy paints to color the piece.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a lovely Wednesday!

Materials: Fabrika Decoru, Prima Marketing, PaperArtsy