The queen of clubs - Mixed Up

Hiya! It's Saturday and I love it because that means crafty time! At least hoping so, my to-do list is getting dauntingly long! There's something new for Mixed Up in that list, too, but this little album was made and published in the online platform in June. It was a piece sponsored by Artful Days and you can see many of their treasures in there. 

The project was inspired by an old Bible. I don't consider myself highly religious and it's a very personal thing for me, but I do love the look of old family Bibles. There's usually the family tree in there and the big book has a feel of generations in it. Our family Bible is a huge black one with golden details in the cover and also a beautifully embossed pattern. Those details and colors inspired this little journal.

I used the Eileen Hull's Passport die to make the little journal. The covers are made of thick cardboard but the inside papers are just what I happened to have at hand. There's watercolor paper, old book paper, cardstock and even some funky looking packaging paper I happened to have. 

The cover has quite a few embellishments in the golden and bronze shades to match the inspiration source. I also used one mini playing card in there, the queen of clubs. In Finnish the suite is called "risti", cross, so that seemed appropriate. 

If you wish to see how the book was made in a step by step form, you must become a member of the Mixed Up site. You can do that here (link) and then access over tutorials both in step by step and video form! I'm a resident tutor so there's quite a few projects there from me, too, and more to come!

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Materials: Artful Days, Prima Marketing, Sizzix, Ranger

Smile - Mixed Up

Hello new week! Let it be a crafty one! Yesterday I shared a project I made for Mixed Up early this year and I'm continuing with the same theme. Here's a card I made for the online platform (link) and that was shared during May.

The inspiration behind this piece was my first summer in a summer theater. The production was "Some like it hot" and we did a regal bunch of the flowers like the ones in the card to embellish the garments. The rose is really easy to do. The trick in this piece is the actual material it's made of, a self printed mixed media fabric! 

Thank you for your visit today! Have a colorful, crafty week!

Materials: Prima Marketing, 7 Dots Studio, Tape Garden, Sizzix, Ranger

Metallic poppies ATC - Mixed Up

I'm hoping you've had a pleasant weekend so far! Here's a set of metallic ATCs I did with a tutorial for Mixed Up (link). The article was published on the site in the beginning of the year.   

Have you already looked into Mixed Up? It's an online platform for tutorials, articles and all things mixed media. You can join here (link) or if you want to know more then please read the lines in the front page (link)!

I used several metallic products in the cards. There's Metallique paint and wax from Prima, Metalline powders from Wow! and also tiny metal embellishments. I also added some Impasto paints to the cards to contrast the metallic shine with something matte. 

I've always loved ATCs with a story. Especially a story cut from a book. That's how I build this story in my cards. "It was summer in Moscow, the place was silent. Joseph Hugo had vanished." A few lines and you can then build the whole story in your head! 

Have a great start to the new week! Thank you for your visit today!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Wow Embossing Powder, Um Wow Studio, 7 Dots Studio

Miss Spring - Mixed Up

Sweet Sunday to you all! Here's a little something I made to Mixed Up in the beginning of the year. A little art doll style creation using Sculpture Medium from Finnabair. 

The inspiration behind the character is a poem by Finnish poet Edith Södergran. The translation would be something like "Wood's pale daughter". I decided to depict this woodland character as the lady of the spring, with her mantel or dress spurring up flowers and grass.

The doll is smaller compared to those what I've previously made so it was a really fun and different project to do. I needed to scale things, like the hair, which I ended up doing from sewing thread. The greenery in the character made me think also about the Fantasia 2000 by Disney and how they've drawn the Stravinsky's Firebird in that.

If you'd like to see the tutorial for this piece and many more, consider joining Mixed Up site as there's an ever growing tutorials available there. I'm one of the many resident tutors there. Please see more about the online classroom here (link). 

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great start to the new week!

Materials: Prima Marketing

The heart of the tin man - Mixed Up magazine blog hop

Hi there and welcome to my blog! We are having a blog hop day today with the Mixed Up team - I hope you are enjoying meeting everyone!

So maybe a few words about me to introduce myself? My name is Riikka Kovasin and I'm a mixed media influenced crafter from Finland. I do layouts, cards, canvases and altered items. I so enjoy getting my fingers to paints and relax by creating after a full day at work. My favorite color palette is turquoises, blues and greens - kind of reminds me of the sea which I adore. I design for several companies such as Prima Marketing and Wow Embossing Powder and I'm a brand ambassador for 7 Dots Studio as well as for Finnabair. I craft in our living room as I don't have a craft room of my own. If you want to see some of my favorite past projects, try this link (link) for example or if you want to see my so-called craft space, try this (link). Delighted to see you here!

As you might know already, each of us is sharing our favourite makes for Mixed Up today. I wanted to share this canvas with you. I've been saving it for a while for this occation. It was published in March on the Mixed Up site with a step by step tutorial which you can even download as a pdf.

The inspiration to this piece came from Valentine's Day as I wanted to do something sweet and love related. So I made a little canvas with a tin heart. Do you know what's the medium I used to make the background? Embossing powders! You can also "paint" with them if you know a few tricks and what you are doing.

The Mixed Up website has tons of mixed media projects, including these you see during the hop and many more! If you want to know more pop on over to the website (link).

Make sure you visit everyone’s blog to be in with a chance of winning the Grand Prize - a one year subscription to Mixed Up plus 10 Mixed Up Printable resources of your choice! Here’s the hop list:

Mixed Up Magazine
Leslie Lineberry
Riikka Kovasin (you are here!)
Erica Evans
Debs Wainwright
Carol Fox
Corrie Herriman
Nikki Killinger
Fiona Potter
Mags Woodcock
Lisa Taggart

Hop Rules:

Visit each designer and leave a comment on their blog for a chance to win a fabulous mixed media prize! The draw is open internationally. The draw closes 31st May 2018 at midnight GMT.

Thank you for stopping by today! It was great to see you, I hope you come again! 

Materials: Wow Embossing Powder, Prima Marketing, 7 Dots Studio, Tsukineko

Thank you - GDT CSI #253

HI there! This is not only a special post for me but also a special layout. The page is made to the new CSI challenge (link), Case File 253. You can see the Case File also below. If you are new to CSI, you  might first want to take a look at their blog, to the "Rules" section (link). Way back I was also a member of the CSI team and then I wrote a post how to participate. As the rules have now changed, there's more ways than one to participate, but you still might find this really old post helpful (link) if you want to follow my footsteps. 

For this Case File I chose to go with the topic inspiration of the Testimony and document my gratitude for this lovely lady in the picture. It was amazing to be asked to her team. That's the special topic I wrote about earlier. The other special thing about the page is that it's a sort of trip down the memory lane as I used to be in the challenge's design team. Also for that reason I wanted to solve it the way I used to do these challenges - pick at least one from Testimony and as many as I could from Evidence and use all the colors, too. 

On top of the already mentioned, I also used two other Testimony inspirations as I wrote my journaling by hand and also used "beginnings" and "creative" to document my topic. I guess the colors are quite easy to see except maybe the turquoise which can be found from the watercolor on the background.

From the Evidence I included solid cardstock both in background and leaf details, stripes in patterned paper, wonky dots, die cuts, hand drawn details and metals in embellishments. I also included paint and circles as I did a mixed media inspired background which I adore doing! If you want to see more about the elements or rather, where they are, please see a list below as I wrote explanations there.

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a splendid day! 

Ps. There's a new competition at Sizzix with a possibility to win Essential bundle! It's open to all except USA and Canada, so go and join here (link). 

Scene: navy blue (washi tape), turquoise (watercolor), white (background), marigold (alpha stickers), pear green (leaves) 

Evidence: solid background, solid cardstock (leaves), stripes (patterned paper), wonky dots (doodled), die cuts (leaves), washi tape, leaves, hand-drawn elements, paint (watercolor and gesso), circles (stamped), metal (embellishments)

Testimony: topic (document something about your creative hobby), presentation (handwrite your journaling), inspiration words (beginnings, creative, piece)

Materials: Prima Marketing, A Flair for Buttons, Sizzix, American Crafts, Ranger, Teippitarha

Recycle circus cards - Mixed Up magazine

Sweet Sunday! Mixed Up magazine has an Instagram challenge going on with a hashtag #mixeduprecyclechallenge. You can see the announcement post here (link) and the array of amazing projects that have been submitted already here (link).

I had the challenge pop into my mind when my daughter got a gift box on her birthday party, which had a lovely circus pattern. It seemed such a shame to throw it away, so I took my scissors and cut some of the patterns out.  

After that, I turned them into easy cards. I painted a cream colored cardstock sheet with watercolors and dried it. Then I cut the sheet into circles using a Sizzix Framelits die (link). I also cut some stars using a star die (link) and yellow cardstock. Then I just layered the elements on top of white cardbases and drew a line around using a black marker. To decorate the card a little, I used a golden gel pen and dotted the line around the card and also some stars to the base as well. 

Easy as 1-2-3 and now I have a huge reserve of birthday cards for kids to take to their friends! 

Have you participated to the challenge yet? Or do you have a recycling idea in mind that you could make into a piece of art? Play along! 

Have a great start to the new week! Jolly Sunday evening to you all! 

Materials: Sizzix, Prima Marketing, Sharpie, Sakura

Little red robin - Mixed Up Magazine

Hello there! How are you? Keeping warm? Here's a little something I did for Mixed Up magazine some months ago. The canvas can be found on issue December 2017 / January 2018 on an article titled "Ice and Snow". The article has a step by step tutorial to make the piece. 

The background is made using alcohol inks and then there's acrylic layers on top. The sweet little birdie is done using a Sizzix die. I also added some embossing powder here and there to give a frosty feel to the canvas. 

The piece was inspired by a few things. First the time the magazine was to be published, I wanted to do a winter piece. The other inspiration came from a Finnish Christmas song, loosely translated as "sparrow on a winter morning". And the third thing was the sweet robin die I had from Sizzix. Then it all was just to think about the techniques to use to the piece! If you want to see what I choose to go with, please see the magazine! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you all the best! 

Materials: Ranger, Prima Marketing, Sizzix, Wow Embossing Powder

Keep the fire burning - Mixed Up magazine

Hello and sweet Saturday! How's your weekend been so far? Creative, I hope! Here's  canvas I created for the October / November issue of Mixed Up magazine. The article was titled "The Fire Inside" and it held a step by step tutorial for this canvas. 

The idea for the canvas came partly from this earlier project (link), a journal I created for the bass player of Turisas. I fell in love with the look of the soda can pulls added side by side so I wanted to have another go with that. Here they make up the background from which the main composition rises from. 

Thank you so much for your visit today! Have an awesome weekend! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, Sizzix