Saturday 15 December 2012

A Blue Moment of December

This scrapbooking page is inspired by, and participating in, two challenges. Firstly, a new Finnish guest challenge Vuoroin vieraissa hosted by Emmo. The guest was Helena Virpi, a Finnish scrapbooker living in Italy. The key words to Helena's style are mixed media, white space and sewing machine. Mixed media products are something I use a lot, and have also tried machine sewing in paper crafts. The use of white space, however, is admittedly a weak spot for me. I tend to put too much on a layout, and was now challenged to make it differently.

From Helena's work I also learned about another challenge I wanted to participate in: Once Upon a Sketch. This was my first time participating in a layout based challenge and it was fun − and also, well, challenging!

The journaling tag is partly behing the framed photo, not so much for privacy but just so that it would not take so much space. The photo is from a trip my family took to Stockholm, our neighbouring country's capital quite precicely two years ago. In the journaling, I'm remembering the sort of odd feeling we had on the trip. It felt partly weird to have gone on a holiday to another town just as dark and cold as home. But on the other hand, the pre-Christmas atmosphere was charming like in storybooks and we were left with many beautiful memories.

Skansen is one of the main sights of Sweden's capital and there's so much to see: it's an outdoor museum, zoo, a concert venue and whatnot. But in the midwinter it became dark so early, not much later than the 3 o'clock that the embellishment clock here says!

Joulukuun sininen hetki


Osallistun tällä leiskalla kahteen haasteeseen, joiden lähtökohdat vaikuttivat sivun asetteluun. Ehkä juuri siksi lopputulos onnistuu olemaan aiempaan tyyliäni runsaampi ja kerroksellisempi, mutta samalla mielestäni raikas eikä liian täyteen puristettu.

Emmon Vuoroin vieraissa -haasteessa innoituksen lähteenä olivat Italiassa asuvan skräppääjän Helena Virpin upeat leiskat. Helenan tyylin avainsanat ovat mixed media, tyhjä tila ja ompelukone. Mixed media -tuotteita käytän ennestäänkin paljon ja ompelukonetta jonkin verran. Niin sanotun tyhjän tilan hyödyntäminen on sen sijaan ollut ilman muuta heikko kohtani. Helena vinkkaa, että tyhjän tilan ei tarvitse olla kirjaimellisesti tyhjä, vaan kokonaisvaikutelmaa keventävä ja katsetta olennaiseen ohjaava tila.

Tämän päivän leiska on samalla ensimmäinen tuotokseni layout-muotoiseen haasteeseen. Kyseessä on Once Upon a Sketch, johon tutustuin juuri Helenan töiden kautta.




Leiskassa olen käyttänyt mixed mediaa eli sekatekniikoita kahdella tapaa. Basic Greyn taustapaperi oli sitä lajia, jossa on ikään kuin maalia ja kulunutta pintaa valmiiksi, mutta otin lisäksi omat purkit käyttöön saadakseni työstä taatusti omani näköisen. Käytin gessoa, johon lisäsin ripauksen primaarikeltaista akryylimaalia, ja painoin ensin vaakasuoran koristeraidan kuvioleikkurin jäännöspalaa sabluunana käyttäen. Samalla seoksella painoin pystysuoria viivoja halkaistulla aaltopahvilla. Tässä vaiheessa huomasin, että viivarykelmät toistaisivat kivasti valokuvassa lavan yllä riippuvien valonauhojen muotoa!



Kuvan ympärille tuli kapea kehys, jonka koristelin leimaillen. Muut kuvaa kehystävät koristepaperit ovat omia aiempia tuotoksiani, ja siten leiskasta tuli kaksinkertaisesti mixed mediaa. Lopuksi liimailin vielä ympäriinsä pieniä leikkurilla leikattuja ympyröitä. Samalla leikkurilla olen tehnyt muovitaskusta sabluunan, jossa on reikiä siellä täällä. Painettujen ja leikattujen ympyröiden yhdistelmä on yksi suosikkikoristeeni tällä hetkellä! Koetin pitää värisävyt niin lähellä taustapaperia, että Helenan antama haaste raikastavasta tyhjästä tilasta toteutuisi.

Lumihiutalekoriste on itse tekemäni, se on leikattu vellum-paperista perinteisellä taittelutekniikalla ja kerroksia on kolme päällekkäin. Violetit "timantit" ovat Pandurosta Ruotsista, kangasriekaleet ja nauhat silppulaatikkoni kätköistä.


Kuva on aika tasan kahden vuoden takaiselta Tukholman matkalta perheeni kanssa. Muistelen, että matkan tunnelma oli jännä: toisaalta oli outoa viettää lomapäiviä paikassa, jossa oli ihan yhtä pimeää ja lumista kuin kotona. Toisaalta matkaan mahtui myös aika ikimuistoisen satumaisia hetkiä, joista muistona tämä näkymä Skansenin laululavalta juuri ennen pimeää. Tarinointi kuuluu: Lyhyt on talvipäivä Tukholmassakin, mutta olipa kaunis hetki ja kiva retki ekaa kertaa Skansenille 18.12.2010.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Sewing: A Chunky Page

I love sewing, and everything that relates to that: fabrics, ribbons, buttons, and of course my old faithful sewing machine! Sewing was this week's challenge at Take a Word.

For this piece, I tried both a new card format and a new background technique and am excited about both! The card sixe is 4x4 inches and it's called a chunky. They are usually made of a bit sturdier backing than ATCs so they're tough enough to become a book if you want to. You can punch one hole on top left or several on the left side, and collect a whole book of the same theme!

I want to collect these now, too, and sewing might well be the theme of my first chunky book. The pages can be traded in the same way as ATCs.



The background was a result of simply experimenting and I was really happy with it! I did not remember to take a complete series of "How to" pictures, but here's a photo of when the background was done.



It's made of decoupaged napkins, but instead of a decoupage glue, I used white acrylic gesso to attach the teared napkins. So the first layer was gesso and then a napkin layer, then again some gesso and napkin scraps.

I added some gesso to even out the wrinkled background in places where the rub-on sewing machine and the stamped button border would be. At this point it seemed to need a bit of another colour than violet and white, so I added a bit of orange yellow acrylic paint.

The sewing machine is a rub-on from Hambly Screen Prints. Buttons border stamp is by Lost Coast Designs, Versamark ink and the Purple Puff for embossing the buttons is by Wow Embossing Powders. All stamping products are from my local craft shop Askartelu Amalia and the artists' supplies from Tempera. My acrylic paints are brands called Amsterdam and Royal & Talens and the gesso is from Pebeo.

Sunday 9 December 2012

The Entertainer

My First Altered Playing Card (APC)

I recently made an Altered Playing Card for a trade and have been wanting to make some for my own collection, too. My deck will be themed Postage Stamps of Famous Women.

When I saw that this week's theme for Collage Obsession was Entertainers, I knew right away I wanted to do Marlene Dietrich in the film Morocco, true entertainment style with the top hat and all! I remembered I had a stamp of her in my stash, and printed a black and white picture to go with it.



Here's my 8 of Clubs with Marlene Dietrich. The stamp is mounted on a leftover pink paper with gold embossed decoration, and the see-through oriental flower background is a decoupaged napkin.


APCs are often collected with a purpose of getting the whole deck in one theme. I had been thinking of a theme for a while but when I heard of someone collecting this theme, Postage Stamps of Famous Women, I knew that was what I wanted to collect. I asked my trading partner to make sure she didn't mind my copying the idea, but she was just glad to hear I'd loved it.

I had lots of foreign penpals as a school girl and ever since, I've found it exciting how much you can learn from postage stamps. Not only are they often beautifully designed, they can tell you many things about their countries. Who are the women that are honoured in postage stamps, and what did they do to make their mark in the history books?