Three ATCs

While the sun has been hiding behind clouds, I have made the best out of indoor life by crafting some ATCs.
/ Synkän pilvinen ilma on tänään jo vaihtunut auringonpaisteeseen, mutta viime päivinä en ole halunnut viettää aikaa ulkosalla. Yllätin itsenikin tekemällä kolme ATC-korttia. :)

Tällä kortilla haluaisin osallistua Tämä Joutaa Korttiin -haasteeseen.
Tässä on käytetty kuvina mainosleikkeitä. :) Jopa teepussin narun päässä ollut mietelause on mukana.
/This one is for the challenge Tämä Joutaa Korttiin. I made use of advertisements and even a tea bag aphorism.

Tässä toinen kortti haasteeseen. Hyödynsin taustaksi vesivärein värittämääni hukkapaperia. Olisi varmaan mennyt roskiin, ellen olisi ajankulukseni alkanut koristella metalligeelikynällä vihreitä osioita. Pidän paljon lopputuloksesta! Kasvitieteellisen puutarhan tekstit antoivat aiheeksi uhanalaisten kasvien suojelun.
/ The second card for the same challenge. Sometimes a cut off part of a painting needs just some decoration to turn into a card itself. A brochure of Finnish botanical garden gave a theme: Protecting endangered plants in scientific facilities.

This one I have started a long time, maybe a year ago. First it was just some ink drawing on a yellow copy paper, and little by little I worked it forward. Yesterday I coloured the edging with black, added the texts and some gold gel here and there. Finished!

Well, time to find more projects to work with! :)

First ATC for Tämä Joutaa Korttiin

Hypistelin keittiössä jo loppuun kuluneen teepakkauksen taustakartonkia viime viikolla, kun tajusin sen joutavan korttiin. :) Sopivasti ATC-kokoa lähentelevä kartonki muistutti siis Tämä Joutaa Korttiin -haasteesta! Kyseessä on tänä vuonna Silpputehtaan laajennusosassa käynnissä oleva korttihaaste.
Tulenpa nyt sitten mukaan haasteeseen. :)
/ I found my starting point for a Finnish ATC challenge "Tämä Joutaa Korttiin"(=This Goes into a Card): a packet of refreshing herb tea! It caught my eye with great pattern and colour. :) So it continued its life in this ATC card which says "Be Courageous!".

Kortista tuli kannustava, nappasinpa Pirkkalehdestä siihen tekstiäkin, ja poimin pari epätavallista tarviketta, tähtiriipuksen ja folio-kukkasen. Niillä voi nyt pyöritellä virtaa päivään... ;-)
/I tried giving the card a little twist - You can spin around the flower and the green star, lol!

For Inspis Challenge

I take first time part to Inspis challenge.
The challenge was to use this design in the card:
/ Ensi kertaa mukana Inspis-haasteessa! Alla kortin luonnos:

I made card for Mother's Day which is 11th of May in Finland.
/ Valmistauduin jo äitienpäivään tämän kortin myötä. :)

ATC about Easter

Hi! I have had less energy than usual last days due to a flu. I guess Spring time has its ups and downs... It is certainly a plus that I managed to get an inspiration for Lace and powder -blog's challenge "Easter". The Easter time is something I look forward to, because we are going to spend few days with our friends and just relax. :)

/ Heippa! Vaikka flunssaisuus on vaivannut, sain aikaan ATC-kortin Pitsiä ja puuteria -haasteeseen. Aiheenahan on pääsiäinen. Itse asiassa odottelen kovasti pääsiäisviikonloppua, koska näemme silloin kavereita ja otamme ihan rennosti. :)

Hope you have a relaxing Easter time as well!

A Spread for Love Songs

Last weekend I got inspired by latest It's All About Vintage -challenge.

The theme of 65th challenge is Music.

At first I gathered materials for a card. Then I happened to find two music-themed pictures I have been keeping safe. They gave me an idea to add a new spread for my scrap/deco book. Some songs have a way to move you and find a place in your heart. Especially love songs tend to do that. That is why this spread fits in greatly with other pages, showing things I love.

/ Viikonloppuna sain yllättävän inspiraation, kun vierailin It's All About Vintage -haasteen sivuilla. Teemana on nyt musiikki.

Löysin korttitarpeita etsiessäni huolella säästämäni musiikkiaiheiset vintage-kuvat. En ole halunnut luopua niistä, ja siksi ne ovat odottaneet oikeaa käyttötarkoitusta. Onneksi muistin kuvia katsellessani scrappays/deco-vihkon, jota olen tehnyt itselleni. Siinä on kaksi aukeamaa aiheista, jotka ovat minulle läheisiä. Koska monet musiikkikappaleet ovat nekin löytäneet tiensä sisimpääni, sopi tämäkin teema mukaan decoon.

Here's one of my favourite love songs from Sting:

Art Journaling: Happiness

My first Art Journal got a second page lately. It's about reminding myself of steps to increase my happiness.

I take part to Inspiration Avenue's challenge with this page as it fits surprisingly well to the theme "Hearts and Trees".

I strongly link happiness and heart together. The heart shape was the starting point of my first drawing. The final shape with barely visible outlines is important. I wanted to leave out any barriers. The leaves came along in middle of the process. They say to me to go on, something good is going to grow out of listening yourself... :-)

And if you wonder - the main quotation is from a song (Secret) of Madonna, :) Started to listen her record after many years and somehow that line stroke me!

As for technique: I continued the earlier ink drawing with water-based acrylic colours. I'm surprised that the golden flower stamping seems to work! Took some risks with it...
The white gel pen was really useful when writing and finishing the page.

A Postcard for the Faces theme

Hi!
After a short pause I'm taking part again to Sunday Postcard Art -challenge.
The current challenge is Faces. I think it's a fun subject because an artist can use only few lines and still capture person's character...

Here's my card, in 6 x 4 inches:

I think I name it "Bow Ties Are Cool". I didn't plan to make a fan art piece of Doctor Who, but the face just appeared on while painting with watercolours. :) That helped to design the surrounding area with stamps collected from various places.

Thanks for visiting!

29 Faces: the remaining ones

Time to publish the last faces of 29 Faces challenge. This month has gone more quickly than I thought. I've enjoyed the challenge very much! It gave me a reason to explore what I can do, more self-confidence and many interesting blogs to visit (also in future)! Big thanks to Ayala Art blog for making everything possible!

In this last post I show some experimental faces and present even the ones I don't like. But it's now or never to go for all the crazy ideas. :)

The process was unlike anything I normally do. I started with acrylic colours. First I spread two colours on a large plastic cover, and before they dried pressed a paper on top and lifted it quickly. Although I tried to create something that would look like a face, it went quite badly. In my second attempt I used only one colour. I spread a thick layer of it as evenly as possible and drew lines in wet ink before pressing a paper into it. That went more like I wanted - not a total mess.

#23: From the first attempt. Because it didn't look like a face, I painted the black and grey areas afterwards with liquid ink. Still, this just doesn't look good.

#24: Second attempt. The frail lines I drew with the wrong end of a paintbrush.

#25: Number 24 quickly redone with my cheap image editing program. Normally I use the program just for turning images straight... :)

#26: Another one from the second patch. Painted the lines with paintbrush and fingers.
Afterwards lifting the paper I saw the ink blots. Didn't mean to make her cry, sigh...

#27: The last one from the second patch. Tried to leave some areas unsharp.

 #28:Continued the #27 with acrylics that I thinned down with water. I really like how the undertone and texture are dimly visible. Even though the area of mouth looks odd this seems better than the original.

#29: Finally I present an experiment of another kind, one that cheers me up! I mixed up two medium, oil pastels and watercolours. I also spread the pastels with some linseed oil. (I think she looks a bit like Lena Headey, the actor of Cersei Lannister in GoT.)

Thank you for all who have been visiting and commenting! You have made my day more than once and been very supportive! I hope I'll see you around. :)

29 Faces #21 & #22

I do very little model sketches these days, so yesterday I decided to go for it.

First I found a newspaper photo of a man who has somewhat sour expression. It seemed almost exaggerated, thus perfect for drawing.
Face #21:

Then I chose a totally different person. This young Indian is from a collection of digitalized historical photographs. I saw the link in SL Scheibe's blog, thanks for the tip! The photograph was taken by Edward S. Curtis in 1905.
Face #22:

29 Faces #18, #19 and #20

Here are some not-so-planned faces for the 29 Faces challenge...

18th, of subconscious messages. I had fun doing this a step by step, whatever came to my mind.

As you can see I used a lot of techniques and pre-cut paper shapes. That's too big list to start at this hour...


19th was a quick watercolour work that I didn't like earlier, but now it's better with ink lines.

20th, today's version of an old sketch from my notebook. Redrew her with watercolour pencils.

29 Faces #17

Wow, there are around 300 people taking part to 29 Faces challenge now!
So much styles too see and blogs to visit... :)

Ayala asked how we are doing, and for me the challenge is going fine. I still feel excited!
My 17th face is now ready. I take no pressures over the schedule even though my free time is limited. I just wish I could use more time visiting others. The comments cheer me up and mean a lot, and I try to do that to others too.

Well, this is my latest outcome: She does not look like me but I felt like I put a piece of myself here. That's probably because my thoughts take flight alike every now and then...

I experimented with stamp images and my own drawing. Learned many things of how to combine those. I guess I'm happy with result - watercolours and stamping colours mixed up nicely. Even the white ink I used for butterflies and some details looks good. I also added some metallic and shiny gelly pencil colours just for fun.

Thanks for visiting, hope you're enjoying the challenge! x

29 Faces: #14, #15 and #16

Today I got carried away by Scribbler Too. I'm a bit tired so this not-so-serious test was a lot of fun.

Managed to pull out some faces too.

14th face: scribbling produced a woman sewing something.

15th face: I like to think he's a fairy native to desert...

16th face: this lady I named Cinderella. She's going to the ball to meet the prince!

Faces of Nature

Glad to be back after lovely weekend!
I'm little late with the 29 Faces challenge, but fortunately inspiration still keeps flowing. :)

11th beastly face, a werewolf I guess...

12th, face of Spring:

13th, a feline face:

Drew these with watercolour pencils and spread colours with water.

Thank you for visiting, x

One Way to Live in a Moment

What a great challenge theme - Dance!
It's one thing I enjoy whenever there's a chance for it!

Sunday Postcard Art challenge has this lovely theme this week - thank you!

I'm not sure if I succeeded with the colours. Normally I use less colours, but this I wanted it to be as full of joy and excitement that I can show...

29 Faces #9 and #10

Is it 11th of September already? I feel like time flies with this challenge. I guess that's good! :)
Yesterday I decided to do some sketches about my favourite artist, Sting. So unlike my previous faces, these two sketches are based on photographs.

Face number 9

Face number 10

My first version of number ten was pretty awful so I tried to slow down the pace. The wet black ink wasn't easy to handle. I also skipped my usual routine of drawing the main features with pencil, just to see how this medium behaves. It's actually fun to make something with a loose touch! You can't stuck to details. Now I try to ignore the errors, that his nose is too short and the upper lip too big... Probably I'm the only one noticing those spots. ;)

This was great practise for the project I've been planning. One of my records of Sting misses the cover because my boyfriend managed to pour some drink on it with horrible outcome. :( The pages stuck together totally. Ever since that I have wanted to make a new cover or some sort of small booklet. It could be a cool do-it-yourself project!

29 Faces #8

I planned to make something bigger with a harder medium last weekend, and on Sunday got started.

I chose the acrylic colours because the oil colours are nowhere to be found... (Must have packed and carried them to storage some time ago.)
I don't normally do the hole work with acrylic colours, rather just fix background or details.

I had this sketch from Friday as my starting point. I really liked it and wanted make more out of it.

And there was a little twist... At the time there came a documentary about Incas which gave an idea how to move on! Tonight after work and cooking I finally got finish this piece:

Unfortunately the scanner left the dress too red and bananas way too yellow. Anyway I must admit I'm surprised that this looks as good as it does! :-)

After working so long with one piece, I gave myself permission to relax the rest of this evening. I'm getting on with the challenge tomorrow. (Starting fresh with no plans!)

29 Faces #7

New face is here again!
I'm continuing with the oil pastels. I really start to enjoy them. :) I tried what happens, when you thin down oil pastels while using black paper. Turns out that does not look good, and after spreading the colours they just look foggy and loose their glow. I was relieved that the result was easy to fix because I had started to like the character.

This face is more close to the fifth face than sixth.

29 Faces #6

Today I continued with oil pastels, but now thinned them down with some linseed oil as planned.

There are some features I would change, but I decided to stop making corrections before the paper was totally covered. I like how the white paper shimmers through thin colour layers.

Thanks for all the comments, they mean a lot! It's nice to hear feedback when trying out new things. :)

Fairy Painting in Frames

I'm glad to finally present my latest bigger project: fairy painting in frames. I had such a fun time with it. :) I made this for a "secret fairy" friend swap and this is the first time I get to tell about it here.

I'd like to take part to following challenges:
Lexi's Creations: "Anything but a card"
Inspire Me Fridays 119: "Anything goes!"
Southern Girls Challenge: "Make Believe"

I wanted to use same theme for the painting and the frames. I decided to go for a "Summer in river bank" -theme based on my fairy sketch.
Last Spring I went to a course of Emmo. There I learned using gesso, stamps and acrylic colours all together. It helped to make the frames since I have never done those before. The gesso was great base for stamping and painting colours. To make the result water resistant I brushed two lyers of decoupage finish.

Materials of the painting:

Watercolour pans & pencils
watercolour paper 200g/m2

Materials for the frames:

Gesso
Dragonfly board stamp
Water resistant green ink pad
Acrylic paints
Decoupage finish

29 Faces #5

This fifth face took me more out of my comfort zone.
When I got off from work today, I decided to grab some coloured papers from book store. One of the papers

As I was reading Ayala's blog I noticed she dared everyone to try at least one new thing. So that's what motivated me this evening to create a colourful portrait to dark blue background with oil pastels.

It's fun to collect ideas for future faces. In my to-do-list there are at least...
- charcoal and red chalk with coloured paper
- oil colours
- acrylic colours
- finger painting
- stamping; art journal-like...

In weekend I might have time to test the more time consuming techniques. :) Yay!