Sentimental - CJS22

Hi there and happy Monday! I'm continuing to share projects inspired by the Creative JumpStart 2022 lessons slowly but surely. This spread is done inspired by Marsha Valk's fabulous video, but the speedy Gonzales I am, I did it a bit haphazardly. 

Where as Marsha's piece is very detailed and precise, I painted with a broader brush, so to say. The person on the right page is none other than Ellen Thesleff. You can read more about her here (link). The spread was first just one page, but I felt that it needed some balancing to the opposite page and so I added some pieces of paper there as well and topped it with a butterfly. 

I really loved Marsha's class! If you want to see it, too, you need to enroll to Creative JumpStart 2022! The course started on January 1st, but you can still join! All the videos are downloadable so you have unlimited access to them. If you want to join, check more info here (affiliate link). 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a relaxed week. Stay safe!

Materials: PaperArtsy, Posca, Paper Garden, Tim Holtz

Reflecting Egersund

Hi there and sweet weekend! How are you today? This post has A LOT of projects in it and it's also a trip down the memory lane as I'm sharing pages I did during Louise Nelson workshops at Egersund last month. 

The whole event was amazing! I loved meeting everyone, visiting beautiful Egersund again and especially learning from Louise. I also really loved how all of the three workshops were linked and formed a wholeness. It was wonderful to see the organizers Brit and Linda again and also others who attended the workshops like Linda, Elina, Arnlaug and Katja. It was also wonderful to see Egersund again. Like last time I was there - every time we had a little break, I went for a quick walk. It's so beautiful in there!

During the workshops we did monoprinting, carved stamps and drew portraits. I enjoyed every minute of it! I loved the phase of the workshops and how we could explore things on our own as well. I liked doing the monoprinting but I liked even more the stamp carving! It's highly addictive! 

Underneath you can see some of the stamps I carved during the workshop and you can see them in use in the layouts along this post. For example in the layout above there's the flower in use as well as the lines and in the following layout, after the stamp photo, there's the raven and the "stitch" in use. Luckily I still have some of the stamp rubber left so I can do other stamps when I get the chance. 

The first layout in this post is about a letter home. While writing this, I noticed that I forgot to alter the letters of the title with a white pen! Oops. But the topic is how we sent a postcard home while in London and the girls wrote it. There's a monoprinted background in that one from the workshops. 

The next one also has a monoprinted background along with some stamping. The topic is sweet Tania, whom I've had the pleasure of meeting a couple of times and really looking forward seeing again at Creative World! 

The one below is a special one for me. There's a background I did during the workshop and the crow stamp I carved. I used a line from the lyrics of "Chosen" as my journaling - take a leap of faith if you want to find out. 

The last two layouts have again monoprinted background and some stamping as well. The first one, the one underneath here is made for Miranda who at the moment of the workshops had just lost her house and everything in the hurricane. She's so sweet and lovely, I just had to do a page for her as I was worried about her well being while I was in Egersund.

The last but not least is a page I did of my two girls. The photo is taken while we visited Ateneum, Finnish National Gallery as they had Duckburg versions of the famous Finnish paintings in there. They also had a replica of Donald Duck's car in there where kids could sit. Naturally I needed a snap shot of that and then turn that into a layout. The red details in the page are inspired by the color of the car with the register plate 313. 

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

Materials: Prima Marketing, 7 Dots Studio, A Flair for Buttons, Wow Embossing Powder

Inspired By... Vol 10/2018

Can you believe that another month has just flown by and it's again time for the 10th? And you know what that means, right? Time for another Inspired By!

Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

Above I included a collage that partly shows the inspiration sources to this month's make. Yes, I again made something. I know that this year especially we have the freedom of NOT doing an actual project for the Inspired by, but still I feel that I want to do one each time. It's something I do for myself, when I can just play without any restrictions. No particular collection I have to use, I don't have to take step by step pictures nor video, so I can just DO stuff without thinking it through first. And that to me is vacation, relaxation and loading the batteries. Just creating for the sake of the fact that it makes me happy and makes me tick.

But back to the inspiration. We visited Fiskars (link) - the village, not the company - some weeks ago as there was a sound festival my husband was interested in there. The village itself, as you can read from the link, is an old industrial community and has given name to the Finnish factory maybe best known for the scissors, Fiskars. There's still a lot of the old buildings around the village and the sound festival was kept in an old foundry. While my husband and daughters were trying out different instruments, I took a stroll around the area with my phone and took some photos of the old machinery that was lying around the area.

As you can see from the collage, there's also something else than old buildings and machinery. We visited our cottage during the same weekend. Forest is a special place to me and I'm lucky that there's plenty of it around our cottage. There's something really soothing about that greenery and silence that's in the forest. As autumn is here, there were a lot of mushrooms around and it all started to form into a project when I saw some dried wood pieces on the ground...

I combined the machinery, the different textures found on forest floor and the color palette of rust and autumn and made a little "cabinet of curiosities" styled display. It's a toadstool with gears and cogs. The stem is made out of a piece of dry wood, painted lightly with white gesso. The cap is made with air drying clay and then painted with acrylics. The toadstool also has a ring that I made out of lace ruffled around the stem. 

To make the little scenery complete, I added some Scandinavian type ferns (kallioimarre in Finnish, link) to the piece using a Sizzix die, an old book page and some ink. I made three plants and curled one of them like the young plants tend to be. They are green then, but the old ones, that turn to brown tend to curl, too, only in a different way. But let's say that I took some artistic liberties. 

As you can see, there's a touch of green in the make, too. That's my take on the moss, the knights plume moss (link) to be exact. That really looks like a feather! So maybe not that of a surprise that I used feathers to make my moss. 

To make the piece more fit for a cabinet of curiosities, I constructed my toadstool and surroundings into a glass dome display. Well, I say glass, but that's plastic to be fair. We got those at work for Christmas pieces and displays but I saw it in another light right away. Now that I've done one, I think I should buy a new one and do something different to it. I really like the shape of the dome! 

But now that I've shared my project and what got me inspired this last month, it's time to see what Marsha has been up to! Here's a link to her post (link). I just love her posts, don't you?

Thank you for stopping by today! Thank you also if you managed to read the whole post! Inspired Bys are usually my longest posts as I write about the process more than usual. Maybe that these "IBs" are my playground, I usually think them differently than my regular DT work where there's a totally different angle on things. 

Have a great day and creative autumn! 

 

Materials: Sinelli, Prima Marketing, Sizzix, Ranger, Varalusikka

Inspired By... Vol 9/2018

Tenth of the month means a special post again. It's time for Inspired By.

Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

I guess I won't surprise anyone when I say that once again, I had a bunch of sources for the project I did. Even though we intended this year to be more about the sources of inspiration, I think I've done an actual project in most of the months. Somehow that's the easiest way to go for me and try to explain the inspiration sources. I mean, I have sources of inspiration daily in abundance. I'm very rarely without an idea or something I want to try when I start crafting. Mostly the inspiration nowadays comes from the "assignment" - a DT duty, an article, a GDT post. But when I have extra time, I can draw inspiration from what ever!

 

That's the way I go with Inspired Bys. I notice things differently, make little mental notes and then turn those notes into a project. This month I had maybe three or four main sources. 

The first was an ATC I received from Darcie. When I saw the card in her Instagram (link) I fell in love and was so happy to be able to swap it. It's now waiting for me to decide how to frame it. (I'm thinking a long narrow frame with some ATCs.) I love the tones it has and the theme as I adore crows and ravens. 

Then another bird popped into my mental pin board. I'm so in awe, that I got to work alongside Mirja years ago and get to know her art. We actually have two of her earlier pieces hanging in our living room. I love her way of combining painting, embroidery and beading. The finished pieces are absolutely, breathtakingly stunning. But what now really caught my eye was one blackbird in her Instagram feed (link), a close up from one of the works. The long stitches reminded me of a piece I created when I first drew inspiration from her art (link) to make a little pendant. Which, by the way, is still one of my favorites and I use it every time I need an extra boost.

The rest of the inspiration sources were my wish to use more fabric in my crafts this year. It's kind of an re-occurring theme, which is naturally nice as it was kind of my goal for this year. To gravitate towards multiple materials and not to be limited just paper. 

I also kind of went back to my roots in many ways as I made some mixed media brooches years ago (link). And of course roots in the way that I'm a costume designer by education and studied embroidery while in polytechnic. 

As this piece was a sort of return to a theme I'd already used, I wanted to make things better. What happened with the pendant was that the resin hid most of the stitches I'd done and also the little piece of fabric I managed to add in. With this new piece I wanted to have more textures, more different surfaces and stitches more visible.

So there above is what I came up with. A little raven mixed media piece. The theme - raven - came from the ATC as well as my love for that particular bird. The coloring of black with some blue and teal tones came also from these both - the ATC and my love for that particular palette. The stitching, sequins and French knots came from the will to do a better job this time and naturally from Mirja. You can see the little birdie better in a close up underneath. As I fell in love what I created so much that I framed it immediately as I happened to have a Ikea frame lying around. 

The mixed media piece is done on top of a piece of felt. I primed it using clear gesso and then started to paint the basic shape of the bird using black and white gesso. I also added a touch of teal to his chest. After drying, I then layered PanPastels, watercolors and stamping on top. Then I first added two pieces of solid fabric to him and later added the two tulle pieces as well. 

The actual embroidery took the longest time but even though I absolutely hated it during my studies, it was now part of the fun. I enjoyed layering different colors and doing tiny stitches here and there. Lastly I added the sequins and stitched outline. 

I think I need to make a couple of birdies more now! Partly to see, if I can do anything else than ravens and partly just to try out the process more as it was really enjoyable! 

Now let's go and see what Marsha has been inspired by this month! Here's a direct link to her post (link)! Thank you so much for stopping by today! Have a great week! 

Materials: Prima Marketing, Kreinik, Pan Pastel, Ranger

Inspired By... Vol 8/2018

Today is 10th of the month and you know what that means, right? Time for another Inspired By!

Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

There were several possibilities this month to be inspired by. For example, we took a short family stay-a-cation in Naantali, a Finnish coastal town where I took a lot of photos. I thought to use those at first, but then I found something even better as it sparked a project immediately. 

I recently changed my job and I'm now working in a craft store whole time. I've been trying to avoid mixing business and pleasure, so to say, fearing that the joy will be lost, but considering what I've been feeling so far that fear was in vain. In fact, it couldn't have been further from the truth! 

During my first days I was going through the canvases and thought to move some that were almost on the isle further in. I lifted one and instead of a huge one I thought I was moving, I got a tiny, skinny canvas. The little ones were leaning to the side of bigger ones, that's why they seemed to come to the isle. But I'm holding this canvas in my hand and immediately it sparks an idea. I just have to get me one so that I can realize my idea! 

The size of the canvas is 10x50 cm so it's really narrow. But I saw this Louise Nelson / Finnabair  / art journaling inspired elongated person with a dress immediately. You know those altered old photos people from art journaling that have a dress out of old book paper and more importantly a pointy hat? I had to do mine with the hat, too, as the photo I chose to use didn't have the top of my head so I needed to cover it up. Also I think the hat balances out the piece. 

Now I knew what to do but then colors were an issue - again. What color scheme to use? I'm always drawn to turquoises and black but this time I didn't want to do that. I felt that this way the piece would be totally too Finnabair. 

The answer came one evening when looking through our kitchen window. The sun was just setting and had colored the sky in the shades of pink and peach. It stood in a harsh contrast to the trees standing just below the horizon - deep green colored firs and pines. I tried to took a photo of the combo, but didn't manage to get the colors right. Probably it was because of the direct light source and that I was just using my phone without the SLR adjustments. But luckily I was able to create the background the next day and the colors had imprinted to my mind. I did take some "artistic liberties" but the main inspiration to the background gradient color is from that. 

Now that I had my background done and quite colorful, I thought that the only possible color of the dress and hat was white. Well, black naturally would have been another option, but then you wouldn't see the book paper which I was planning on using and also black would have needed something on top to reveal the texture I was hoping to add. After adding all the layers in I decided to add a hint of watercolor on top after all as the shape looked too pale, but mostly it's just painted white or white washed with gesso.

Above you can see the actual piece. I layered book pages, corrugated cardboard and lace for the dress to create a delicate texture. I used Soft Matte Gel as my adhesive for the layers and then painted the elements white using gesso. After making the dress it seemed that the piece needed more dimensional details so I added some button clusters here and there and made a big necklace or brooch embellishment using a resin clock, metal heart and buttons. 

The buttons I used were turquoise, pale green and bright red. I left the cool colors almost as they were, but painted the red ones more white using gesso. The heart needed to be something else than rusty colored for this project so I changed it into gold one using wax and added a golden touch to other embellishments, too. 

The piece still needed some contrast, some black. So I took a felt pen and doodled some stripes and details to the dress and hat. I think they really make a difference! Naturally it would have been easier to do it before adding all the embellishments but as I rarely plan my work that far ahead and I'm more keen on letting the project lead me, that didn't happen. Maybe next time! This piece is now at work as an example how you can use that lovely narrow canvas, but I liked it so much I'm thinking should I do a family portrait this way. The problem is that there's no space for four of these in our apartment! But maybe just one bigger one with four people in it... Makes you think! 

But without further ado, now's your time to head over to Marsha's to see what she's been up to! Here's a direct link to her post (link).

Materials: Prima Marketing, Posca

Inspired By... Vol 7/2018

This "Inspired By" is a bit special one for me. As you may have noticed, my blog has been quiet for some time. It's because some time ago, first my right hand, then my left one stopped working. Or they worked but everything caused pain. It was a bit scary sensation, but now the situation is much better with physio therapy.

As the situation is now better, I want to start blogging again as I have many projects to share. I thought 10th of the month, the "Inspired By" would be a good start. Naturally that post includes a lot more writing than my normal post, but I wanted to test how my hands work, are we getting back to normal. But what this hand situation caused is that this post is a bit different than other "Inspired By" posts. Even though we are doing things a bit differently than before, I always try to create something for the post. This time my hands didn't allow that, but I wanted to share what I WOULD have created if I would have had the possibility.

A bit differently, I wrote. Do you remember, what that means? Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link). Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

Last month my older daughter attended a birthday party at Arkki - A school of Architecture for Children and Youth (link). She liked the party very much. Arkki in Helsinki, where the party was held, is situated in a place called Cable Factory. It's an old factory (where they made, surprise, surprise, cables!) and nowadays the place is filled with culture. The facility houses three museums, 11 galleries, dance theaters, art schools and there's several work spaces for different artists, for example. You can read more about Cable Factory here (link).

While my older daughter was at the party, the rest of us were exploring what this culture space had to offer. We naturally dropped the party goer to Arkki, then went to Theater Museum (link) - which is on the same space as The Finnish Museum of Photography (link). We also kind of stumbled upon one of the galleries with many interesting works of art.

When we were exploring, I immediately thought that this was it - that would be the IB for this month. I took some pictures, too, but after finding some interesting things at the Theater and Photography museum shop, I thought to use the ephemera. I also picked up a brochure of Arkki (above). What I loved about it was the whimsical city, colors and especially how the front of the brochure was shaped to form a city with layers and sort of perspective. The brochure somehow reminded me about Azoline's work. Before totally burying the idea of making something, I thought to paint with my toes using acrylics and then continue with felt pens to create a whimsical city of my own with the same kind of folded layers.

I'm also a sucker for old photos. I love their color, I adore the black and white photography, and I would love to know the stories behind them. I bought the post card in the middle above from the museum shop but found a total treasure for free. The paperback book was free of charge and while the topic (workers' theater in Helsinki) wasn't that interesting, the photos inside were and are pure gold. Just look at those make ups! Most of the photos are from actors in their stage attire, but there's also a couple from the audience. I can't wait to use these in projects! And if these aren't enough, there's more! The last little piece in the photo above is a little note telling about free pictures the museum offers in the net.

I found these very inspiring, but the gallery we visited was pure eye candy and hold enough inspiration for several "Inspired By" posts. I was really happy to find calling cards from all the artists that really caught my eye in the show. 

Rasaliina Seppälä (link) really inspired me with her choise of colors, the textures, the collage effect and the splashes. The works were like poetry in pictorial form. 

There were really beautiful paintings by Terhi Leppäkoski (link) in the show. I really enjoyed especially the bird paintings she had on display with great, textural feel, but there were also really stunning horse pieces. The color schemes of the works as well as the hint of humor really inspired me. I also came to think about the superb works Linda Brun creates. 

What I found most intriguing about the works of Meri-Kaarina Rahkomaa (link), were her use of plywood. I also found her imagery beautiful and loved how she had added folklore to the works. Somehow they rang a bell, hit a spot so to say.

I wasn't so keen on the paintings by Elizabeth San Miguel (link) but I really loved her altered books. Especially one with nails on it really shook me and spoke to me as a piece of art. 

So as you can see, there was a lot of inspiration to be found last month, but unfortunately I couldn't use it this time to make something concrete. But I can draw inspiration from this to new pieces and crafts. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Sorry for the long absence again! But now, let's see what's Marsha has been up to last month! Here's a direct link to her post (link). 

Inspired By... Vol 6/2018

10th of the month means another Inspired By post! Inspired By is something sweet Marsha and me have been doing for years now. Until 2018 it was that we chose a subject to be inspired by and then did something inspired by that theme, a piece of art or a book. The inspiration could be anything but we both turned that into some kind of project and blogged the creation on the 10th. You can browse the past "Inspired By" posts from here (link).

Inspired By is a playground, a concept we can use to explore, to play and to discover. We can do as much or as little we want and have time for. I guess it's not a surprise then that we both enjoy Inspired By very much but after doing it the same way so many years, we thought to change the things a bit.

This year, 2018, we both just post on the 10th with some source of inspiration we found that month. Or rather on a period from the 10th of previous month to 9th of the current month. It can be a series of photos, a book we read, an artwork we saw, just a pebble on the street or a new product we bought. We can make something using that source, but it's more about sharing just the inspiration. Consider it as a window to our creative minds!

I knew exactly what I'd use for the source for this month's creation the moment I saw it. I was really blown away and inspired by this journal spread by Jaine Drake, a fellow Wow Embossing teamie (link). I loved the collage feel of the spread, the different materials and textures it has and even the colors. Such a perfect piece! I could have studied and stared it for hours! The spread also reminded me about a cabinet of curiosities (link) somehow. 

I naturally didn't want to copy the page but use it as a jumping of point. Thinking what I would actually do, I got browsing Jaine's blog (link) and decided to use this tutorial (link) for a mini book as a jumping of point as well as I remember doing similar books with 12x12" papers years ago. I actually tried to find the mini albums I made like that from my blog but maybe they were so long ago, I might have even deleted the posts. 

I got so excited about the project again and it was such a pleasure to create! I used one 12x12" sheet for the inside pages. I also used two pieces of coffee stained paper to each end of the album to get inside cover pages. I cut these a bit longer than the actual pages and then added a fold to the other side so I could sew the pieces to the inner pages.

Before folding them and using double sided tape to secure the folds and spreads, I sewed all the details to the pages. I followed the idea of the original spread and mixed fabric with the paper in the spreads. I also added some lace in the mix and also used a striped washi tape.

I really liked the inside pages but I think the best part was making the cover! I browsed through my paper stash but nothing seemed to be just right. So I thought of using old book paper but as it's old, it's also very fragile so not the best material for cover. Then I got thinking about a craft I did for Craft Stamper (link) collaging tissue paper on top of cotton. As it worked so well with tissue paper, I thought it must work with book paper as well. 

I used Soft Matte Gel as the adhesive and glued several pieces of book paper on top of coffee stained cotton. It looked good, but the contrast was too high. First I thought to add gesso on top but then thought about even a better solution - I adhered a pale beige colored sheet of tissue paper on top. That was perfect for the job! It got rid of the high contrast and turned the fabric almost like leather. I also added another sheet of tissue to the inside part of the cotton. After drying I cut the fabric to the right size, added the elastic band and stitched around the edge. 

I used the inside cover parts I made of coffee tinted paper to attach the mini album to the covers. As you can see from the previous photos, I made the back cover longer so that a piece wraps around to the front, making the album a bit like an envelope. The shape of the mini album is almost like a traveler's journal this way, too! 

I'm not totally sure what to do with the finished mini. I finished the spreads with inspirational words or mini stories anyway. I used a 7 Dots Studio word sticker on each spread and then found a piece of text from an old book that would somehow add to the phrase. There's "some regular passengers, put your cape on and fly" for example or "dare to dream - most satisfying". 

I really love how this piece turned out! It was fun to make and I like the end result as well. I also really like how this project also continues the series of adding more textile into my crafts! It seems to be an ongoing trend with my inspired by creations this year! 

Now it's time to go and see what Marsha has been inspired by this month (link)! I'm so in awe about her posts as they contain a thousand seeds for inspiration! I love how she adds things she's done during the month, things she has seen and other sources. Really amazing - I love how you're able to peek inside her mind a bit with the posts! 

So thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a lovely Sunday and an inspiring start to the new week! If you haven't already, be sure to participate to this blog hop (link) and be in for the giveaway draw as well! Ta ta for now! 

Materials: 7 Dots Studio, Prima Marketing, Varalusikka, Teippitarha