Gift bag - Prima Marketing

Oh my. I just can't do clean and simple! The guidelines with the projects done with the Michaels products is to keep it simple. But I haven't managed that really well so far... You can see some of the previous projects here - rosy ATCs (link), rusty mini photo display (link) and an album cover in teal (link). If you are pondering what I'm meaning with Michaels, you have missed the info that some of the Julie Nutting and Finnabair products are now available through Michaels in USA and Canada! 

My idea behind this bag was to create something really easy and simple that would be great to duplicate. The original idea was to make a set of a tag and a gift bag with the same stamp but then I thought it was too little and started adding the little stamped roses and Microbeads and some flowers and... well, it was a kind of avalanche! Maybe one day I'll be able to actually create something simple! But nonetheless, this set is SO easy to create! It's just stamping, coloring and adhering. 

Thank you for stopping today! If you have a suggestion or would like to see a product in the Michaels repertoire (link) in use, please hint me and I'll do my best to showcase it next time! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, Ranger

Free as a bird - Prima Marketing

Happy 4th of July to all American readers! Prima is celebrating the day, too, with some freedom related projects. You can see the post here (link). One of the projects in there is this mini canvas I did.

Freedom is a state of mind, states the project. Unfortunately, freedom isn’t just a state of mind to all. But to us living in a free country with almost endless possibilities the last barrier is our own mind. This mini canvas shows a bird escaping a cage. I used a scissors shaped wooden embellishment as the wing of the bird to describe how crafting and creating sets my mind loose. When I create I can truly be me and leave all the worries and barriers behind.

Thank you for stopping by today!

Materials from Prima:

962005 – Don’t Forget to Fly stamp set

579562 – Wood Icons Garden Fable 

579555 – Wood Icons Debutante 

584252 – Watercolor Confections The Classics 

964634 – Impasto Paint Azure 

963095 – Art Alchemy Metallic paint Brass Hardware 

961374 – Heavy Gesso White 

562359 – Perles Welcome to Paris 

590369 – Prima Flowers Grassland 

961367 – 3D Gloss Gel 

584788 – Salvage District SIIC

Materials: Prima Marketing, Posca, Ranger

Blooming city - GDT N*Studio

I have a Friday treat for you! I was honored to guest in the Nathalie Kalbach's Artful Adventures Stroll Challenge online event. Each day the event had a challenge theme, a word to depict in a photo or project format. Some days the event had guest designers, like I was, and in other days Nathalie had self prepared a demo or a tutorial. The whole event was a prequel to launch of her book. And what a fabulous book that is! I'm also honored to have a copy and I've devoured almost the whole book now. It's splendidly written and a true source of inspiration.

But back to the project I did for my guest post. The word on my day was "growth". When I first thought of the word it immediately made me think about spring and the plants growing and life bursting out after the winter. The words then connected to green for me. So when I head outside to take photographs I not only took photos of nature, plants and marks of spring but also of green things I found in my neighborhood. With those photos I made the collage you can see below.

We live in a park kind of part of the city so there’s smaller and bigger parks around and trees, grass and all things green. But what always amazes me is how nature will find a way – there’s a dandelion growing out of asphalt, there’s grass emerging from a wall of rock and moss covers cement and statues. This was my first idea when doing the project – nature and the city.

My second idea was to make a project that actually grows. So I did a simple version – a pop up card like piece.

The third thing that has growth in this piece are the layers – first there’s a simple stamped piece of paper. On top I layered some stenciled tissue paper I did with watercolors. Then Archival Ink stamped pieces and acrylic paint. The mediums and designs grow from the subtle, translucent to more bulky and solid.

In my project the city is green and even starts blooming. Nature grows life everywhere. If you want to see how I made the project, please see the video below! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a wonderful start to the weekend!

Materials: N*Studio, Prima Marketing, Ranger

See with your heart

Moikka! (Finnish for hello) Here's a little something I did some time ago in a workshop. It started as a workshop sample in Salo, but I think I added the last finishing touches at home with the pearly Pan Pastel. The piece combines some of my favorites - black gesso, Pan Pastels and Prima Marketing goodies.

In this piece I used a set of resins and placed the eye on top of the heart thus giving the palette its name. There's also some zipper flowers, bottle caps, light bulbs and lace in the piece. If you wish to do something similar, please see where I'm keeping workshops or invite me over! 

You can see another version of the same subject in this Instagram post (link), a palette I recently did in Kokkola while keeping this workshop there. If you want to see the piece in real life, well, I donated it to the shop I was teaching, Ihan Itse.

Thank you for stopping by today! Always a pleasure! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, Epiphany Crafts, Pan Pastel

Treat yourself - A Fair for Buttons

Hi there! Today I'm sharing a page I did for A Fair for Buttons with you. This whole layout got it's idea of the "Donut Love 1" sets button that stated "treat yoself". I had been working a loooong day at work without a break and when I got home, I craved to do something creative. So I took a peek in my flair stash and saw the donut buttons and the text version. They immediately sparked an idea so off to create I went!

The topic of the page is "note to self" styled reminder that I should care for myself, too. Even if there's a lot to do, I need to keep my breaks so that I manage to work next day, too. The sugarcoated donuts and the bright colors seemed appropriate to the energizing page.

You see that "Merci" button - did you know that you can order your own designs from A Flair for Buttons, too? This "thank you" in French was a commission I asked as a special order for my workshops in France! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a lovely day! Don't forget to treat yourself!

Sets used:

Donut Love 1

Materials: A Flair for Buttons, 7 Dots Studio, Sizzix, Doodlebug Designs, American Crafts, Lawn Fawn

Meet me by the beach - GDT Artists Live

Hi there! How are you doing today? I'm excited about next Monday as I'm then guesting at Artists Live again! Are you familiar with Artists Live already? It's a free Ustream show, happening each Monday on Artists Live Ustream channel (link). There's a design team and then guests like me. Projects range from layouts, cards and tags to bigger mixed media projects. You can see the past shows here (link) in Artists Live YouTube channel. You can find my past shows there, too, like PanPastel ATCs (link) or monochromatic layout (link). 

But next Monday I'm not doing ATCs nor a layout but this style mixed media project. I'm using a piece of weathered wood as my background and building a beachy project on top. I'm doing my own sand paste and using a trick to make cool paint splashes. 

The show starts 9 pm Finnish time and lasts about an hour. The time is 8 pm CET or 2 pm EST. If you are wondering what that is in your time, please check the Facebook event page (link) as you can easily see the time in your time zone from there. 

Hope to see you online! If you want to create along side me, underneath is the list of materials I'll be using. Thank you for stopping by today!

Materials: 

Piece of weathered wood

Seashells 

Paper flowers (for example 594611, 586171, 594831 by Prima)

Melange Art Pebbles

Sizzix Bigz Die – Scroll

Coasters

Punchinella

Mesh tape 

Cotton twine

Cheesecloth 

Wire thread –  Ivory

White gesso

3D Matte Gel

Modeling Paste

Impasto Paint – Azure

Art Alchemy Metalique – White Pearl

UTEE

Seed beads

Glass Beads – Butter

Mists (for example Tea Stain, Golden Walnut, Spring Dandelion, Fairy Pond, Dragonfly Blue)

Materials: Prima Marketing, Sizzix, 13Arts

Mechanical flower for dad - Prima Marketing

I’m not sure why but Father’s Days cards always give me trouble. Luckily, we celebrate Father’s Day in November here in Finland so I still have time to come up with many ideas! But here’s one to get me and you started – a mechanical flower! There's more ideas in the Prima blog (link) if you're looking for inspiration for a manly project or want to Pin the ideas for next year! 

The petal part and one of the center parts of the flowers are stamped using Finnabair’s stamps. The sunflower like bloom is actually a phone dial stamp, but you can easily turn it into a flower, too. The center of the flower is made using Finnabair’s Mechanicals. 

I chose neutral colors for the papers and mixed a couple of collections. I also created a gear paper of my own using watercolor paper, a stencil and the Color Philosophy inks!

Have a blooming start to the new week! 

Materials: 

960391 – Mechanicals Bottle Caps 

960346 – Mechanicals Washers 1 

962050 – Cling Stamp Set Rust and Dust 

961985 – Cling Stamp Set Never Too Late 

569518 – School Memories Brads 

990763 – French Riviera Respirer l’air de la Mer 

847791 – Rossibelle Notes and Scribbles 

992354 – Wild and Free Ephemera 

847722 – 6x6” Watercolor Paper Pad 

962302 – Mechanica stencil 

589370 – Color Philosophy Poison Love 

589394 – Color Philosophy Foggy Nights 

589363 – Color Philosophy Potion

Materials: Prima Marketing, Ranger