Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Sewing Basket Treasures

Moikka! It's now day two of my three day blog series as a member of Seth Apter Creative Team. You can find Seth Apter's site here (link) and more about the Creative team here (link). I've included a list of products to the end of the post with links to Seth's own store.

Here's a quick recap in case you missed day one. As November is kind of "my month" for the Seth Apter team, I wanted to add something personal to the project. I'm using sewing supplies in three pieces I'm blogging in the course of three days as a homage to my education and work as a seamstress in theaters. There was just little details in the first project, more in this second and most in the third. If you rather see that first post, please see it here (link).

I created a monoprinted cardstock in the first video, which I then use in all of the three pieces. If you want to see how I created that cardstock, please see the first video (link). I'm doing some monoprinting in this project, too, but this time I'm working on fabric. Because with some acrylic paints and inks you can easily transform a fabric and make it more of your own, adding your personal touch to it. So even if the cloth isn't quite right in the beginning, by adding layers on top you can make it perfect for what you are working with.

The idea with using sewing supplies is not only to highlight my education, but more of "work with what you got". I happen to have a cupboard full of different fabrics, trims and stuff. If you don't have those, you can easily purchase some from fleamarkets - at least here in Finland. But you don't have to! I'm a firm believer of putting your buck to the mediums and tools rather than patterned papers and embellishments. Let me open that up a bit. Whereas you can use a button, a clothing tag, a cutout from a magazine as an embellishment or a focal point, it's harder to substitute a medium. If you want a translucent acrylic layer, you need some kind of paint and a medium to dilute it. If you need to prime a layer, you need gesso. So while you can rummage around your closets and drawers for paper pieces and embellishments, it's harder to find a medium in the everyday stuff. (Yes, you can use a potato to collage, but that won't hold a rusty nail.) I guess you get what I mean? Same with tools - a good stamp and stencil will last for years and years whereas you can use a sweet die cut piece just once.

Like in the first project, I attached the layers together with sewing and embellished the piece with buttons. Other sewing elements are the monoprinted fabric I created and a piece of denim. Then there's the same monoprinted cardstock I have going in all three as well as the lace. Also the background is similar. If you want to see how I turn these same elements to a third project, please be back tomorrow!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have enjoyed the videos so far!