Blue hummingbird - a card

Moikka moi! It's again new week and new posts! Last week was quite hot here in Helsinki but now there's a definite air of autumn about. It's funny how fast the season seems to change - during the weekend sunshine and summer and in an overnight it's now rainy fall! 

Today I'm sharing a card I did using my Cricut Maker. If the color palette seem a bit strange for me, there's a reason. This card went with a gift and part of that gift was a tin of tea in these colors, peach and ultramarine. I mimicked the colors in the card by using a peach-tone patterned paper and then colored the cut elements using ultramarine and peach. The focal point is a combination of three elements - the frame, the bird and a branch and then the separate 'sakura' brach.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a great week!

Materials: Cricut, Posca, PaperArtsy, Ranger

Moonlight Garden - Art Daily Cafe

Moikka! Today I'm sharing my take on the March Art Daily Cafe theme of gardens, favourite colour scheme and ephemera texture. You can see the theme announcement post here (link). Can you believe that I found this lush combo of everything nice a tough cookie?!

Yes, even if I loved all the elements of the theme, I was stunned with the almost endless possibilities this theme offered. First of all, the colours! My all-time favourite colour combo is blue, turquoise and hints of green. But a garden? That’s more like green and vibrant colours like pinks or reds or even whites, not that much blues. That got me off balance first but then I realized that I don’t have to re-create a garden in my project, I just need inspiration from it! I also found a colour palette I’ve recently been drawn to ease the colour choices. I’ve done several projects combining a brown and a blue and together those colours make up a beautiful greenish tone. Ha! Colour palette decided!

After that things got a bit easier as I wasn’t ruled by the silly thought of “must add green!” anymore. Instead, I browsed through some cut files in my electronic cutter’s library and found a stunning combo of a rose, a crescent moon and some crystals. I changed the cut lines to drawn version and used the end result as my focal point. I also put the machine to draw some additional flower elements that I could use to balance out the focal point.

The ephemera part was easy! Although I didn’t collage them to the background, but instead made a cluster out of different pieces of paper I had stored. There’s a small envelope, a used tea bag, a museum ticket and a product wrapper. I picked these with the colour scheme in mind. I did add some ephemera layers of sorts to the background, too, as used washi and masking tapes the add some delicate pattern there.

The moon and garden turned my thoughts to a Finnish poet Edit Södergran, one of my favourites, and to her poem “Stars”. I actually bought an anthology of her poems to be used in mixed media. The language in it isn’t Finnish, though, but Swedish as she was a Swedish speaking Finn and I wanted the original language, the language she used to write. The lines I picked for this spread are loosely translated: “The stars swarm in the garden. Don’t go barefoot to the grass, my garden is full of shards.”.

Thank you for your visit! Please, stay safe everyone. All the best to you all!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Ranger, Cricut, Carabelle Studio, Paper Garden

Copper Critters - Cricut

Moikka! Today I'm sharing some ATCs with copper toned creepy crawlies on top. The critters as well as the diamond shapes are cut using a Cricut Maker. 

The idea to these cards became from spring. I was thinking what to cut, what would remind me of spring. The increasing light and more over, warmth, means that bugs are starting to emerge from their winter hideouts in spring. So, I choose to cut some different bugs. The copper tones came from the background piece I decided to use. It's an older gel print, I even think it might be from cleaning my plate. I just loved the teal and blue tones of it and the rustic, grungy layers of color. Weathered copper seemed a perfect fit for it! 

I embossed the critters first with golden embossing powder and then added a layer of translucent red on top, turning the metallic shade more to copper. The several embossing layers also made the elements more dimensional. I finished the weathered look by using some teal colored wax on top. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Stay safe!

Materials: Cricut, GelliArts, Ranger, PaperArtsy, Sinelli, Prima Marketing

Finding Fairies - Cricut

Hi there and delightful Monday! Today I'm sharing a little mixed media card I created using a piece cut with Cricut Maker. 

I originally made the cut file to be used as a stencil and cut it out of transparency (link). But I later used the same design to make some chipboard pieces as well (link) and turned those to make some cards. And now I used the same thing to make some cardstock backgrounds, too. I backed this piece with an old book page. I added a little cluster behind the focal point, added some metallic blue splashes to the piece and then mounted the card on top a pale blue gel print.

Stay safe everyone! Thank you for stopping by today!

Materials: Cricut, Tim Holtz, A.B.Studio, GelliArts, Teippitarha

Love you to the moon and back - a card

Moikka moi! Now that I know this important card has reached its destination, I can blog it. It's a baby card for a friend. 

I used mixed media in the background. Instead of going totally pink and pastel with the card, I wanted to add some emerald green to the mix. There's a touch of watercolor as the first layer and then delicate stenciling on top. I used a self made stencil together with a green ink.

Like the stencil, most of the focal elements are cut using a Cricut Maker. The bunny and moon were free cut files, the stars a basic shape. I just altered the size to match the card. The moon and stars are cut from a silver glitter cardstock while the bunny was cut from white. I backed the bunny piece with a small gel printed scrap of paper to add some pink there, too. The line of the balloon is silver, made using a paint pen and then I coated the balloon with a piece of pink cardstock. 

My idea behind the moon and bunny was the children's book "Guess How Much I Love You", where there's the saying to the moon and back. That's why there's just a simple sentiment of xoxo in the card and nothing more. Well, I wrote a big deal inside before sending! 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a loving Thursday!

Materials: Cricut, Sizzix, GelliArts, Ranger, A.B.Studio

Safety reflectors

Safe Tuesday everyone! Here's something totally different as it's not mixed media in any way. A craft, yes, but no mixed media. 

What they instead are is my Christmas presents for my co-workers last year. I made the base out of black, thick felt and then ironed a reflective design on top. The reflector pieces I cut using Cricut Maker and different free designs in there. I also added a snap fastener to the felt so you can attach the ends to make a ring. You can then add the ring to a bag or wrist or where you ever want!

Thank you for your visit today! Back to mixed media tomorrow!

Materials: Cricut, Sinelli

Gentleman snowman - a set of cards

Not quite a snowman weather here in Finland today or the past week as the temperatures have been above zero Celsius for some time. But these were created in December to hold gifts for the godparent's my our kids. 

I cut the snowmen out of white cardstock using Cricut Maker. The hat was the only exception, that I cut out of black. I then colored the pieces using Distress Inks - scarf with red, vest with green and hands with brown. I also added some shadowing to the snowman itself using inks. 

To have a backdrop for the character I used a round gel printing plate. I brayered some blue acrylic on top and then used the plate as a stamp to create that roundish shape to my card. On top I then stamped some snowflakes using Korttipaja's stamps. A few drawn details and the cards were ready!

Thank you for stopping by today! 

Materials: Cricut, PaperArtsy, GelliArts, Ranger, Korttipaja