Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Mystic wander

Moikka moi! You know what time it is? Third week of the month and that means another set of posts for the Seth Apter Creative Team! As before, I'm starting today on Wednesday and continuing through Thursday to Friday. 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.

I'm a mixed media addict, I can confess that. I'm also lucky and privileged to be or to have been a part of many design teams, so I have quite a collection of different mediums. My studio aka a nook in our living room isn't big so I constantly need to think about what to fit into that space. You can see a post from 2019 here about the space (link). But still, as you can see from the 2019 pictures, there's a lot. So, when I make a project, I usually add quite a few different mediums and products to it. I'm fully aware that if you are just starting to venture into mixed media, you probably don't have the means to have everything at once - if you have, congratulations! What then comes to play is your inventiveness, your "out-of-the-box" thinking. That's kind of something I have tried to capture in some of my Seth Apter posts, too, how to use a tool or a medium in various ways. Here you can see the first post of the stamp series (link) and here the ICE series (link).

When you have limited means, you want to get products that you can use in various ways and maybe in the colors you love or that go well to everything. So, the theme this time to these three posts is using the same 15 supplies in three projects. No extras allowed except glue and double-sided tape. OK, I did use a black gel pen in one, too. But no extra mediums!

Let me first introduce the mediums I chose. I chose them for a couple of reasons. First of all I picked colors that I like and that go together but have some contrast, too. Then I chose mediums I could instantly think a couple of different ways to use. And I also chose supplies that I use all.the.time., my basics. You can see the list with links at the end of this post, but let me quickly go through them, too.

From Seth's range I chose first the sprays as they are super versatile. They can be used like watercolor, they can color other mediums and you have a choice how to apply them. I chose my favorite color, blue, then something to go with it, a purple, and something that went with the palette, but also had contrast, a warm orange brown. I usually tend to lean towards analogous color schemes like blue-purple-red, but I knew that a contrasting color gave me more options.

I also picked three stamps - or rather a stamp and two stamp sets. From Seth's repertoire the "Journal Jargon" series provided me with words to make titles, sentiments or journaling and mini stamp texture for background. I chose also a set from Carabelle Studio to be used as focal points. Stamps are super handy tools as they can be used in various ways and with a wide range of mediums. Background stamps bring instant pattern, texture and interest and stamped images make wonderful focal points and embellishments. And the best feature is that you can use them over and over again!

For the ink I chose my all time "go to" ink, Archival Jet Black but topped that with Izink Pigment ink gold. A good ink pad is an essential, but having that liquid ink bottle rather than two pads gave me again more possibilities with techniques. Ok, you can always rub the ink from the pad to a piece of plastic to be able to pick it up for coloring, for example.

Other basics included white gesso, a pencil, paperclips, buttons and a roll of washi tape. For the papers I chose white cardstock and old book pages. I picked these because I use them very often. The other reason was that they usually are quite inexpensive - like paperclips. They make up as beautiful embellishments and add interest to a piece and can be found anywhere. A pencil is another staple that, like gesso, is super versatile. You might not think of it as such, but you have quite a lot of techniques to choose from with a pencil. I will share some during these three posts, but you can already take a peek at this older post I did about pencil (link) if you want to know more!

I hope that my project and choices give some ideas and tips how to start building your stash. Or if you already have a big stash - how sometimes limiting your options is good and opens new doors!

When I had my 15 products chosen, I then chose the project types. Naturally I could have made three different art journal pages or cards or whatever project type three times, but I thought that changing the type would also benefit my cause, to encourage to try something new. Like if you are a cardmaker and haven't tried art journaling, maybe knowing you already have the mediums to do it might encourage you to try. Or vice versa.

So for the three projects I chose a card, a layout and an art journal page. All done with the same 15 mediums. I'm starting with the card today, continuing with the layout tomorrow and ending with an art journal page on Friday.

As you may know already, I'm all in for splashes. Also our living room floor seems to know it as there's some pretty stubborn paint splashes near my work table. But I remember back in the day Ranger had Ditress Stains and I just loved the splash-pattern they gave when you hit with the bottle to the paper. Gorgeous, energetic marks! I should have saved the bottles back then to be filled with different mediums, but it's easy to have hindsight. So, instead I made my own little pounding tool - just a small sponge I could hurdle to the paper. And those lovely splashes again - ah!

Another thing you could pick up from the video, in my mind, is the boiling of the pigment ink. Easy way to get a touch of texture. Just add a bit thicker coat of the ink and heat until the bubbles appear!

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope I'll see you tomorrow for another post with these 15 supplies!