Countdown to Christmas - Grand prize winner

Throughout the December Terhi and me shared some inspiration to you in the form of Countdown to Christmas blog event. We had five posts in total, four with giveaways and then the fifth was a challenge. You can see the original post here (link).

We want to thank everyone who participated to the whole event and even more those of you who participated to the challenge. So thank you PiHi, Kirsi, Lena, Ewelinkag, Kathy, Jaya, Päivi, Piijja and Lea! What beautiful pieces of art you created and shared! If you haven't seen all the beautiful art already, here's a screen shot of the linky tool in all it's glory! Just look at those colors and textures and details! Stunning!

And now some drum roll, please! We have a winner to announce! You remember the prize we have to giveaway? It's not from one but from two manufacturers! A kit from 7 Dots Studio and a whole paper collection from 13Arts! And the lucky winner is...

(blog link)

...Lea! Congratulations! We were impressed with the gorgeous layers in your page! Great details and impressive use of Liquid Pearls! So please send your address to either one of us and we'll get your prize to the post and on it's way to you!

But wait, there's more! We loved all the works so much that we decided to give out another prize! Fun, right? Terhi put together a splendid prize pack and the random.org provided us the winner. So congratulations are also in order for Kirsi! Please, can you also send your address over so we can send the prize to you?

We also want to take this chance and once again thank our gracious sponsors. Extra special thanks are in order for 7 Dots Studio and 13Arts for the grand prize! Then we also had great giveaways from Scrap FX, PanPastel, A Flair for Buttons and Create A Smile! 

Most of the winners have contacted us by now, but there's still one winner missing. So if you see your name underneath and haven't send out your address yet, please do so! All of you winners have now a week time to contact us and claim your prize! If we don't hear from you, we'll re-raffle the prizes!

Thank you for your visit today and we wish you a splendid, inspiring 2016! 

Countdown to Christmas - time for some winners!

Throughout the December Terhi and me shared some inspiration to you and also had four great giveaways. Now it's time to give those gifts away! Don't you just love gifts after Christmas?

Thank you all who participated to our blog event and left such inspiring and kind comments! We loved reading your words! It's you, the readers, who actually make the event! We are grateful for your support and hope to inspire you even more during the new year!

We also want to thank our gracious sponsors - Scrap FX, PanPastel, A Flair for Buttons and Create A Smile - for their support and providing some fun prizes for the giveaways! 

Underneath are the lucky winners, raffled with random.org. Congratulations! So Siiri Viljanen, Kristen Pratt, Diane J and PiHi, please send a mail to either me or Terhi to claim your prize! You can see my mail address on the sidebar. 

If you have an urge to participate, you still can! The last post with the challenge is still open. And what a prize it has - kit from 7 Dots Studio and collection from 13Arts! You can read more from here in my own blog (link) or from Terhi's blog (link). We would love you to join in! 

We want to wish you the very best 2016! Thank you for your visit!

Countdown to Christmas - Happy Holidays

As Christmas and the Holiday season is all about giving and gatherings Terhi and me thought to arrange a blog event or a Christmas calendar to ease with the anticipation of the Holidays. We want to give you inspiration and ideas and most of all to thank you all for your visits and comments. And there's lovely giveaways in all our posts! 

Today it's the final post in the event as it's Christmas Eve! So happy Holidays to everyone and joy to the world! I hope you've been following the "Countdown to Christmas" posts here in my and in Terhi's blogs. There's still time to take part to previous giveaways as well. But as it's just some hours before the Santa Claus starts giving away the gifts here in Finland it's also time to give you a gift. And it's in the form of a challenge.

Terhi and me put our heads together and above you can see what we came up for you as inspiration! There's a sketch by me and a colorful, great mood board by Terhi! You can create anything you like with the duo - a layout, a card, an of the page project, a canvas... We just hope to inspire you! For further instructions about how to enter, please scroll to the end of the post.

Here's my project with the sketch and the mood board! As the mood board had the lovely phrase "do what you love" and also the key I decided to combine my two great loves - music and paper crafts. It seemed really appropriate to make a page out of my partner in crime, so to say, lovey Terhi. I want to take this opportunity also to thank her for doing this project with me! So thank you and iso kiitos Terhi!

Now you might be wondering what's the music part in the page. Well, it's the title - maybe partly the colors as well. The title is from my favorite band and if you have been following my blog for a while you are bound to know that it's Finnish Turisas as they have inspired me to numerous creations (for example this or this)! The song in question also has quite great lyrics, click here if you want to read more (link). 

The journaling part of my page talks about how we are in the same boat with Terhi only that the expression in Finnish refers to a train not a boat so the picture we took together in the train on our way to Turku and some workshops fitted the page perfectly.

As you might have noticed, I used materials of all the teams I design for that participated to this event in my page. There's Scrap FX and A Flair for Buttons and also 7 Dots Studio. I also want to take the time to say a huge thank you to all companies that supported this blog event - Scrap FX, Pan Pastel, A Flair for Buttons, Create A Smile and 7 Dots Studio and 13 Arts! We are very grateful! 

If you want to see how the page came to life, please see the video underneath!

As it is the Christmas Eve we have a big prize for you to win! To be in for the draw, you need to make something inspired by our duo, the mood board and the sketch. Then you need to do a blog post and using the linky tool to add the link to your post to the challenge.

You have until January 6th 2016 11.55 pm CET to participate and add your link. Then Terhi and me put again our heads together and raffle the winner. But be warned that there might be a something extra to entries we really like! The winner or winners will be then announced on both of our blog's on January 9st 2016. So be sure to stop by then to see if you've won!

An InLinkz Link-up

For this big prize we don't have one but two sponsors!

7 Dots Studio is an European scrapbooking manufacturer of high quality scrapbooking products – papers, stickers, die-cuts, chipboards, stamps and stencils. Company's collections vary from clean, graphic designs to mixed-media grunge. All the 7 Dots Studio papers are perfect for mixed media. Please visit the company here 7dotsstudio.com and go for some additional inspiration in the company blog here http://7dotsstudio.com/archives/category/blog.

13arts is a Polish manufacturer specializing in scrapbook papers, embellishments and mixed media products. The company ships worldwide so you can go shopping whether you are from Europe or Asia! Please visit them on http://13arts.pl and look the amazing projects of the DT in the company blog http://13artspl.blogspot.fi.

The price of this challenge is huge! From 7 Dots Studio we have the "December Memories" kit with some exclusive supplies and from 13arts we have the whole Winter Tales collection! How awesome is that? So get your project started and join in the fun! We can't wait to see what you make! 

Materials from 7 Dots Studio:

December Memories Kit

Yuletide - Warm Cider

Yuletide - 6x6 Pad

Destinatio Unknown - Celestial

Destination Unknown - Walk the Plank

Materials: 7 Dots Studio, Prima Marketing, A Fair for Buttons, Scrap FX, Ranger, Sharpie, American Crafts, Sodalicious, Epiphany Crafts 

Countdown to Christmas - Stamping Soiree

It's the last Sunday post of the Countdown to Christmas blog event! But we still have something in store for you on Christmas Eve! So remember to be back then! You can find the previous posts under this tag here at my blog (link) and from this link at Terhi's blog (link). 

As Christmas and the Holiday season is all about giving and gatherings Terhi and me thought to arrange a blog event or a Christmas calendar to ease with the anticipation of the Holidays. We want to give you inspiration and ideas and most of all to thank you all for your visits and comments. And there's lovely giveaways in all our posts! 

The event started on November 29th and there's a new "Countdown to Christmas" post in every Sunday on both of our blogs all the way to Christmas. So that was on December 6th, on the 13th and today on the 20th as well. There's also an extra post on Christmas Eve, like a gift under the tree. 

So welcome on board and hope you'll enjoy!

How do you use stamps? With ink or with other mediums as well? They are really versatile tools so today we're hopefully inspiring you to think out of the (ink) box and go experimenting with different mediums! Terhi has a lovely video with three great stamping techniques so pop over to her blog to see it (link)! 

My page is about beautiful Norway. I've only visited there once but the land is almost right out of a story book! While driving from the airport to the venue I was really bad company in the car as I was mouth open but not chatting away but just gasping and gawping of the awesome sights. There were snow topped mountains, meadows, hills and still lakes and little villages growing upwards to the sky on the side of the mountains. I just need to go back someday!

While Terhi went really out there, I stayed with more traditional mediums. Underneath you can see steps and mediums I used to create the stamped layers in the background.

The first stamped layer I did was using VersaMark, two different stamps and white embossing powder. 

First I stamped here and there with the two stamps and VersaMark ink layering the two designs on top of each other thus creating an unique design. Then I sprinkled the white embossing powder on top, poured extra off and melted the powder with a heat tool. 

If you are new to heat embossing, you can find more info about the technique for example here at Wow Embossing Powders site (link).

Next I added some color in. The embossing powder acted as a resist for the color in the middle and I softened the edge with some "crayon stamping". For that I used the script stamp I used before as well and Prima Oil Pastels. 

First I colored the two blues directly to the stamp and then added a bit of water to the stamp with a water mister. As the Prima Oil Pastels are water soluble this created a lovely, soft look. If you want to see the technique in a video, I'm using it for example on this video (link). 

Last I went with my absolutely favorite way of using stamps. It's the basic one, using them with ink, but the way you hold the stamp really changes the way the design looks. So as my last stage I chose two other script stamps and used them with Archival Ink Jet Black. If you want to see the way I stamp as I'm very, very rarely using an acrylic block please visit my YouTube channel (link) as almost any of the layout videos will have that.

Now to the giveaway part! With the help of some generous sponsors we have a giveaway in each post and here's how it works. 

You have a possibility to have two tickets to each giveaway by leaving a comment to both of our posts - a comment here gives you one and comment on Terhi's blog gives you another. Each of our Sunday giveaways is open until 30th December 11.59 pm CET and the winners of these raffles are announced on both of our blog's on January 1st 2016. So be sure to stop by on the first day of the new year to see if you've won!

Today's giveaway is sponsored by Create a Smile. The name says it all: Create a smile stamps are made for cardmakers, scrapbookers, stampers - people, who like to create things that make others smile. The company's stamps are made from high quality photopolymer and are produced in Germany. Fun designs, cute images and punny sentiment are exactly what Create a Smile loves - and they create a smile! Please visit company site at: www.createasmilestamps.com and the blog over at: createasmilestamps.blogspot.de.

The price is a gift certificate worth 15 euros. Imagine how many smiles you could create with that! So leave a comment here and on Terhi's blog to be in for the giveaway. We wish you best of luck!

Materials: 7 Dots Studio, Prima Marketing, Wow Embossing Powder, American Crafts, A Flair for Buttons, Design Memory Craft, Ranger, Fiskars, Docrafts 

Countdown to Christmas - Household Happening

It's the third post of the Countdown to Christmas blog event! Here's links to the previous posts: Chipboard Celebration Riikka (link), Chipboard Celebration Terhi (link), Pastel Party Riikka (link) and Pastel Party Terhi (link).

As Christmas and the Holiday season is all about giving and gatherings Terhi and me thought to arrange a blog event or a Christmas calendar to ease with the anticipation of the Holidays. We want to give you inspiration and ideas and most of all to thank you all for your visits and comments. And there's lovely giveaways in all our posts! 

The event started on November 29th and there's a new "Countdown to Christmas" post in every Sunday on both of our blogs all the way to Christmas. So that was on December 6th, today on the 13th and 20th as well. There's also an extra post on Christmas Eve, like a gift under the tree. 

So welcome on board and hope you'll enjoy!

On the first two posts we've used special items or mediums but today we wanted to do something different. No special mediums were allowed! So no gesso, no mists - just things you could find in a regular home. Want to see how Terhi managed? Click here to visit her blog (link)! 

It was really fun trying to think outside of the box with this page! As my basic "go to" tools were blocked, like gesso and mists, it was fun to see what are the essentials in my page making. I needed to have a bigger splash of color and then something more detailed as well. I think I managed ok with the homey mediums! 

The use of the household items inspired me to use very little of actual scrapbooking supplies in my page. The background of the page is the backing cardboard of a 12x12" paper pad. The paper layers behind the photo are done using corrugated cardboard, book pages and a doily. Then there's an old spoon acting as an embellishment and some twine. The only "real" scrapbooking materials are a few stickers and the two flair buttons. The different color mediums I used you can see from the video underneath.

Now to the giveaway part! With the help of some generous sponsors we have a giveaway in each post and here's how it works. 

You have a possibility to have two tickets to each giveaway by leaving a comment to both of our posts - a comment here gives you one and comment on Terhi's blog gives you another. Each of our Sunday giveaways is open until 30th December 11.59 pm CET and the winners of these raffles are announced on both of our blog's on January 1st 2016. So be sure to stop by on the first day of the new year to see if you've won!

Today's sponsor is cute like a button! It's the Etsy store A Flair for Buttons! The store is owned by Shelley Haganman and here's what she tells: "I love scrapbooking and fell in love with flair buttons years ago. They have so many fun uses! You can pin them and wear them. Add them to a card or project, the possibilities are endless. I enjoy designing and hand making these fun little embellishments!" Please visit the store here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/aflairforbuttons. You can find a lot of flair button inspiration in the Buttons blog: http://scrappergirl.typepad.com/aflairforbuttons, so please come and say hi!

The price is two lovely sets of Christmas flair buttons. So leave a comment here and on Terhi's blog to be in for the giveaway. We wish you best of luck!

Sets used from A Flair for Buttons:

 

Materials used: A Flair for Buttons, Teippitarha, Prima Marketing, Scrap FX

Countdown to Christmas - Pastel Party

Welcome to the second Sunday of the Countdown to Christmas blog event! You can find my first post here (link) and Terhi's here (link). 

As Christmas and the Holiday season is all about giving and gatherings Terhi and me thought to arrange a blog event or a Christmas calendar to ease with the anticipation of the Holidays. We want to give you inspiration and ideas and most of all to thank you all for your visits and comments. And there's lovely giveaways in all our posts! 

The event started on November 29th and there's a new "Countdown to Christmas" post in every Sunday on both of our blogs all the way to Christmas. So that's today, December 6th, and then 13th and 20th as well. There's also an extra post on Christmas Eve, like a gift under the tree. 

So welcome on board and hope you'll enjoy!

On our first post we were playing with chipboards and today we are using the lovely medium called PanPastels! Like I typed in the first post, every Sunday we have an inspirational video too. This time Terhi made an excellent video telling about PanPastels and showing a few basic techniques with them. So hop ever to her blog to learn more! Here's the direct link to the post (link). 

I used the soft pastels to color my mini canvas. First I collaged different things on top of an old wooden stencil. There's an old spoon, flowers, pieces of lace and a lamp, for example. I painted most of the pieces black using black gesso but used clear gesso in few items as well. 

Then I added the colors to the piece by using two different colors of PanPastels, Permanent Red and Magenta. I also added the shimmering Pearl Medium White one. I used the same colors in the coloring of the resist canvas I then adhered to the back of the stencil.

I finished the little decor piece with some flicks of mists and glitter.

Now to the giveaway part! With the help of some generous sponsors we have a giveaway in each post and here's how it works. 

You have a possibility to have two tickets to each giveaway by leaving a comment to both of our posts - a comment here gives you one and comment on Terhi's blog gives you another. Each of our Sunday giveaways is open until 30th December 11.59 pm CET and the winners of these raffles are announced on both of our blog's on January 1st 2016. So be sure to stop by on the first day of the new year to see if you've won!

This time our sponsor is no other than PanPastel - Ultra Soft Artists’ Painting Pastels for Painting, Drawing & Mixed Media. PanPastel Colors are professional artists’ quality soft pastel colors packed in a unique pan format (cake-like). The special qualities of PanPastel Colors mean that artists can blend and apply dry color like fluid paint for the first time. All PanPastel Colors are made using a unique manufacturing process requiring minimal binder and fillers, resulting in rich, ultra soft and super-blendable colors. PanPastels are easy to use, blend, layer and apply like paint. Please visit: www.panpastel.com to learn more about the medium!

The price is a set of five PanPastel colors in a palette with some Soft Tool. The best part is that the winner can choose the colors! So leave a comment here and on Terhi's blog to be in for the giveaway. We wish you best of luck!

Materials: PanPastel, Prima Marketing, Sodalicious, Scrap FX, Epiphany Crafts

Countdown to Christmas - Chipboard Celebration

Christmas and the Holiday season is all about giving and gatherings, right? It's about the Holiday cheer and that warm feeling inside. With this in mind, Terhi and me thought to arrange a blog event or a Christmas calendar to ease with the anticipation of the Holidays. It's also to give you inspiration and ideas and most of all to thank you all for your visits and comments. It's about giving back to you who give us so much with your excitement towards our projects! And there's even more to give - we have lovely giveaways in all our posts! 

The event starts today, November 29th and there's a new "Countdown to Christmas" post in every Sunday on both of our blogs all the way to Christmas. So that's December 6th, 13th and 20th. There's also an extra post on Christmas Eve, like a gift under the tree. 

So welcome on board and hope you'll enjoy!

On this first post we are playing with chipboards! What we also have in each Sunday is an inspirational video either on my or on Terhi's blog. So if you scroll down, you'll find my take on the chipboard theme with a few ideas how to color your chippies!

When I started to think about what to do I realized that the project must have room for a lot of chipboards colored with different mediums. So quite quickly I ruled out canvas and scrapbooking layout as they might not have had room for that many mediums. What also affected my choice to do ATCs were the chippies I happened to pull out first from my box - the cutlery pieces. I made them the center of attention and added letters and stars to the cards as well.

Underneath you'll see how these little ones came to life. I start with making the backgrounds and then coloring the different chipboard shapes with different mediums. Of course there's many more you could use - like coating them with patterned paper or coloring with pastels or felt pens or wrapping them with twine or collaging different papers on top or stamping... Well, you get the point! So it's just to get your creative juices flowing!

Now that you have half of the inspiration is time to go visit Terhi and see what she has come up with to inspire you! 

And giving even more, there's the giveaways. With the help of some generous sponsors we have a giveaway in each post and here's how it works. You have a possibility to have two tickets to each giveaway by leaving a comment to both of our posts - a comment here gives you one and comment on Terhi's blog gives you another. Each of our Sunday giveaways is open until 30th December 11.59 pm CET and the winners of these raffles are announced on both of our blog's on January 1st 2016. So be sure to stop by on the first day of the new year to see if you've won! 

Our first sponsor is Australian Scrap FX. Scrap FX is a leading wholesale laser cutting business that designs and manufactures chipboard words and shapes, stencils and stamps, for the scrapbooking and craft industries. They just celebrated their 10th anniversary and continue to release a new collection of unique designs every month. Please visit them on: www.scrapfx.com.au and see what the design team has in store in the company blog: http://www.scrapfx.com.au/blog/. 

The price is a selection of chipboards. So leave a comment here and on Terhi's blog to be in for the giveaway. We wish you best of luck!

Materials from Scrap FX:

Music Collage Stamp 2015203

Words of Wisdom Stencil 2015172

Bag of Letters Classic Lower Case 2008020

Antique Cutlery 2015107

Seeing Stars 2014238

Materials: Scrap FX, 7 Dots Studio, Sharpie, Ranger, Prima Marketing, Wow Embossing Powder