Dreamer of Dreams - Art Daily Cafe

Hello there! Today I'm sharing my take on this month’s Art Daily Cafe theme and colors. You can see the theme announcement post here (link). The theme is "at night moth lulls us to sleep with flapping wings" and the colors deep black and gold.

As you can see, I used white as my main background color and accented that with the black and gold. At first I thought doing the page on top of black cardstock, but that would have limited the options a little bit. With the white background I had more options for mediums and could do more layers. Although, as you can see, the background isn’t totally black. It’s in fact a letter from my great aunt to me several decades ago. My parents are moving so we’re shifting through a lot of stuff. I took some items from the piles to be used in art journaling and this letter was one of them.

I used a piece of the journal packaging on top of the letter and then added a thin layer of white gesso to prime the paper. On top I then added black acrylic paints, mimicking an ink stain. To add some texture to the piece, I also added some stitching.

The focal point of the page is a rub-on moth. That and the phrase “Dreamer of dreams” both refer to the month’s topic: ”At night moth lulls us to sleep with flapping wings”. I rubbed the moth on top a piece of black cardstock and then mounted the creature using foam tape. The screws on the side of the page are from the same rub-on sheet.

The black is present in the “ink stain” but also in the text sticker and the moth. For the gold I used some golden acrylic splashes in the background but also added golden foil to the background and the moth. I really like the metallic shine of the flakes!

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

Materials: Prima Marketing

Be Your Hero - Art Daily Cafe

Moikka moi! Today I'm showing my take on the month’s Art Daily Cafe theme and colors. The theme was “in search of land of unicorns, on the other side of the rainbow”, technique 3D and colors all the colors of the rainbow. You can see the theme announcement post here (link).

I drew my inspiration from two sources. The background was inspired by Iris Fritschi-Cussens‘s Creative JumpStart lesson (a post about it here, link) and the cluster on top got its inspiration from the challenge collage. You can see similar sticks on it, in the bottom left corner. It was so fun wrapping some branches with the colorful threads! They also bring the required dimension to the page. Actually, they bring so much dimension to the page that the journal won’t shut properly anymore. But that’s not a problem – I love my journals chubby! That makes me feel they’re really used and filled!

Another source for the dimension is the background, that was inspired by Iris Fritschi-Cussens’s Creative JumpStart lesson, like I said. The texture is more subtle of course than the highly dimensional branches, but still, the background isn’t flat! Iris used a brayer to convey texture and that blew my mind! I’ve been now adding colors using a brayer so much more than before seeing the lesson. Of course, I used brayer with the gel printing plate, but otherwise it’s always been a palette knife or a brush. It’s so important to open yourself to new things, don’t you think?

As you can see, there’s no unicorns on my page. I first thought to make one as my focal point but couldn’t find an angle. I also was distracted by the color choices as I hardly ever use the whole rainbow palette in a project! But when I decided just to do a representation of the rainbow, it got easier. That way I could just play with color and didn’t have to worry about the rest.

For the sentiment I combined a couple of different ones from the Art Daily sticker pad. I love making little stories like this – using word stickers or cut out words from old books. This time the story is more like a guideline than a story: “Be with those who help your being your own hero”.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a rainbow filled week!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Wennström, A.B.Studio

Just Breathe - Art Daily Cafe

Moikka! Today I'm sharing my Art Daily project with you. It's my take on the July theme and colours - you can see those here, in the theme announcement post (link). Should you wish to see this post in the Art Daily Cafe blog, here's the link to that (link).

I’ve recently grown an addiction to crackle paste. I usually use the white one through a stencil as a dimensional pattern, but this time I wanted to do something else. So, after adding some colours, splashes and stamping to the background and cutting it to size fitting inside my journal I then coated it with clear crackle paste. What I always do with crackle paste is to try to make an uneven layer so there’s bigger and smaller crackles in it after drying. Here I highlighted them delicately by adding a layer of white gesso on top and then wiped the most off, so the paint only stuck to the cracks.

The dried flower was a bit harder element to tackle. I didn’t have time to actually gather flowers and put them to a flower press, so instead I needed to think about something else. Pondering about what to do, my eye happened to wonder around my craft space and saw this little piece I made some time ago (link). In it I sewed a little plant on top of cotton fabric, and I really liked the look. So, I copied myself and used the same thing here. I added a dried hay on top of cotton but added another plant element in the page as well. There are some dandelion seeds locked underneath the Art Pebble. Like the stalk of hay, these were more or less dried already, so they were ready to be used!

The month’s colour palette was white, yellow, and green. All the three colours are present in the background. I guess the white and the green are the easiest to spot, but I did use a pale yellow in the brayering and added some more vibrant, yellow-coloured splashes in there. Those show better in the detail shots.

I wanted to keep this art journal page sedate, keeping the main focus on the hay and those few stitches. It was a fun page to do, as much of the layers in the background are done using different acrylic colours on top of each other. Other elements are limited, just backing the plant elements.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a wonderful day! Stay safe, everyone!

Materials: Prima Marketing, PaperArtsy, Ranger

Seeking, finding and being true - Art Daily Cafe

Hi there! Today I'm sharing my take on this month’s Art Daily Cafe theme and color palette. You can see the theme announcement post here (link).

I was first playing with the idea of doing an altered book cover or book but went with an art journal spread instead. I’ve somehow decided that Art Daily projects should usually be a journal project. Maybe because of the original product line and the fact that journal projects are doable everyday things unlike bigger altered pieces, perhaps?

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” – such an important phrase. We often jump to conclusions based on appearances and our preconceptions. But, I took a bit a different route of self-knowledge. If you’re confident, you might not mind what others think of you (judging you by your cover), but you still should know yourself. And that’s the hard part. We can be so blind to ourselves, too. Maybe we judge ourselves too easily, too? So, I went with that angle, knowing your “inner pages” and not just the cover and used some text stickers to write “Seeking yourself, find yourself, be true to yourself” to my art journal spread.

I loved this color combo of old paper beige, darker, chocolaty brown and pale blue! I brought the light beige tones to the page with patterned paper but also with used tea bags. The dark brown is actually pieces of product packaging that happened to fit the color scheme perfectly. And the pale blue is a chalk-like acrylic paint which I used to the background as well as to color the chipboards. I added some white to the mix to lighten the spread.

Thank you for stopping by today! Stay safe everyone!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Tim Holtz, PaperArtsy, Posca

Less Perfection - Art Daily Cafe

Moikka! Today I'm sharing my take on this month’s Art Daily Cafe theme of “Mistakes v. Perfection” and colour combo of pink and green. You can see the theme post here (link).

My first thought about the colour combo was beach. Somehow the turquoise-like minty green combined with the pitaya pink made me think about soft sands, sunshine and exotic drinks. I even rummaged some seashell shaped die cuts from my stash to be added to the page, but in the end, they didn’t fit to the composition after all. But you can still see the echo of the beach theme in the focal image I chose from the Art Daily sticker pad!

The technique in this one was to highlight the mistakes and not hide them. This made me think how to cause mistakes or guarantee them. I thought that drawing something might cause a mistake or something I’d normally either re-do or hide, so I took a mist, added pink colour to a baby pink cardstock and after drying started drawing leaves on top. And yes, I absolutely loathed what I got! Perfect for this project! Instead of cutting the leaves out and using them as embellishments, I tore the cardstock and used the pieces to back the focal points of the composition. In that they worked marvellously – I really love the black markings on top of the candy coloured background.

I painted the background with my fingers and then added a dimensional pattern on top using Modelling Paste. No actual mistakes there. But I did leave the self-made stencil uncleaned and then cut it into pieces and used as layering material. Not that I would ever cut a bought stencil but this little self-made version out of transparency worked nicely like that.

There’re no more mistakes in the spread to share but I did add elements with stories to it. The main cluster has found ephemera in it. A clothing tag with the twine and two little check-up tickets from products are hiding among patterned papers. The big squares lining the way from the bigger cluster to the other are from another project, left overs given a new life. Maybe you could think it would have been a mistake to throw those items away?

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a nice, warm day! Stay safe everyone!

Materials: Prima Marketing, PaperArtsy, Ranger, Cricut, Lawn Fawn

Enjoy Silence - Art Daily Cafe

Hi there! Today I'm sharing my take on the “Enjoy the Silence” theme by Iwona for Art Daily Cafe. I really loved the colour scheme she picked, too, as I just made a page inspired by DeeDee Catron’s Creative JumpStart 2022 lesson and used almost similar palette. I used some of my current favourites while making this journal spread. You can see the original post here (link) and the theme post here (link).

I started this spread by creating the background pieces. I added white gesso on top of cream coloured cardstock. While the gesso was still wet, I adhered a couple of pieces of old book paper there as well as used it to make a transfer of sorts. A few of the pieces I adhered firmly between layers of white gesso and other I let stay put for a while and then tore the paper away, leaving just the text or parts of the paper behind.

On top I then added dimension by using one of my favourite stencils and modelling paste. Next, I added a more subtle texture by adding strips of painter’s tape and washi tape to the page. Then it was time to add colours! I used one of my current obsessions – little dye particles and combined that with watercolour as I often do. I used brown dye crystals and black watercolour and let those mix. I really love the effect they create together!

On top I then added a little cluster of used teabags, a vintage photo die cut and little golden stars to hint to the fourth colour in the colour palette. The character reminded me of a door-to-door salesperson with his suitcase. Not that the top hat and flowers go to that scenario… Maybe he’s a magician after all?

The silence part for me was included in the process – just silently creating and enjoying the moment, but more in the topic of the page as well. My first idea was to include two characters to the opposite ends of the spread with tape piece over the other’s mouth. But I couldn’t find a good text to fit that, nor did I like any combination of the characters I tried. But then I found that snarky phrase from a sticker pad: “Today was going great until…people.”. I work full time in customer service and if you have done any kind of job like that, you know how some people just can bring the mood down so fast. To be fair, others can lift you up just as easily and most people are nice. But then there’s those days that the phrase “today was going great until people” fits perfectly. Then you miss the peace and when at home or on a break, really enjoy the silence.

Thank you for your visit today! Wishing you all a wonderful day and stay safe!

Materials: Prima Marketing, Tape Garden, Paper Garden, Tim Holtz

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

Silent strange pull - Art Daily Cafe

Hello there, today I'm sharing my take on this month’s Art Daily Café theme of love and letters. You can see the theme post here (link) at Art Daily Cafe's blog.

I actually made this page one morning before heading to work. As I didn’t find the dusty rose acrylic I own then and there, I squeezed two colors to my piece of paper and spread those using a dirty brush. The end result is probably more interesting than if I had found the right color! There’s more variation of the baby pink and tea colored acrylic here as well as those streaks of almost lilac as the pink mixed with the remains of black gesso in my brush.

To have the letter and word theme, I covered the background with some foam letters before painting it. I also stamped letters and text there and even used a script like stencil with texture paste to add yet another text themed layer. I really love using text and writing as an element in the background. Especially text looking like old handwriting as you can’t make out the individual words intrigues me. It goes to any project!

On top of the text heavy background I then added my focal point of a vintage photo. I made her a big bow and belt using thin satin ribbon. I also backed the figure with a piece of a gelli print in pink and a couple of chipboard florals, also painted pink.

I was really happy to find another quote from Rumi from the Art Daily “Words You Need” sticker book to go in my page. It even had the same love theme than the inspiration quote. I also included two pieces from the square sticker near the edges of the page, highlighting the diagonal composition. To me, they remind of decorative tape pieces.

Thank you for stopping by today! Give yourself a couple of minutes to create something today, follow that strange pull of the craft table.

Materials: PaperArtsy, Prima Marketing, Ranger, American Crafts, Tim Holtz