Art Journal Page: Capture The Moment

Hi!
I have just returned home from the beautiful island of Malta on which I had a fabulous and hot (!!) holiday week with my family. Due to all the travel hazzle my Wednesday Visible Image post is published late this week- sorry for that!

When traveling I love to take pictures. Lots of them. I usually take my big Nikon with me, but this summer I decided to travel light and shot only with my iPhone. A few of the photos can be viewed on my Instagram feed, and all my favourite pictures will end up in a mini album I've started creating. I will show that to you later once it's finished.

For a photography enthusiast (and a Nikonist) like me the Visible Image stamp set 'Capture The Moment' is just a perfect match. I love it! I used a plain stamped image and a heat embossed version on two projects; for a single art journal page and for a little ATC card:


The art journal page background is made with Bister powders. Bister works like watercolour powder (e.g. Brusho), but it is an organic product, made made by boiling the soot of wood or walnut shells. Colour range is more limited than of the artificial powders, but it's more affordable, very easy to use, and the earth tones are gorgeous!


For decorating the tag on the background I used another Visible Image stamp, Visometry Set 5.

After finishing the art journal page I still had some leftover material on my table, and they ended up on a little collage ATC:



I hope you have had a chance to take lots of summer photos, too. They will bring the warmth and lightness of the summer days to the long winter!


For more information on the stamp sets I used please click on the pictures below:




Wishing you a wonderful day!
Hugs,

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Cards for July MMCC: Sparkle!

Hi!
Even if the Finnish summer has not shown it's best during the past two weeks, I'm truly enjoying my summer holiday. I can feel that my batteries are recharging and I'm bubbling of inspiration! Theme for July Mixed Media Card Challenge is just perfect for my current mood:


Over the past few days it has rained every day, but with the right mindset the bad weather will not spoil the day:

Cardmaking: Stamped cards with inked background

The backgrounds of these cards were first inked with Distress inks and the patterns were added with plain water: On the larger card I let water just drip down creating light vertical lines. Once dry I added more water on the bottom of the card, and splashed some drops on the upper part of the background.


On the smaller ATC card I first inked the background, and placed a stencil with vertical dot lines on the cardstock. I misted the stencil with water, pressed dry with a paper towel, and removed the stencil. Creating fun patterns on your project background could not be easier!

Cardmaking: Stamped ATC card with inked background

On the larger card I stamped and fussy cut the quote text, but for an ATC sized card the text was too big. I used the same lovely quote, but wrote it with tiny rub-on letters. I have bought the letter set from craft flea market and I love it! The set is years old, but the rub-ons still work well. Originally the set was needed for correcting machine writer typing errors- a little piece of history, isn't it!


On the ATC card I stamped the image with Archival ink. For the larger card I used black embossing powder that had a hint of sparkle in it.
The 'Sparkle' word on the larger card was heat embossed twice; first using black powder and then a second time with a hint of glitter powder.

The stamps are from Visible Image: 'Sparke In The Rain' and 'Smile Sparkle Shine'. Love them!

Cardmaking: Stamped card with inked background


I hope our lovely sparkling theme will inspire you to play along! See all the challenge details here.

Despite of the rainy weather I wish you a sparkling day!
Love,
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Card set for Visible Image: Bubbling With Joy

Hi and happy Wednesday!

Today I'm sharing with you a series of cards I've made using a trumpet player stamp by Visible Image and Distress Inks. All cards have different sizes: The large horizontal card measures 18 cm x 9 cm, the green vertical card has the dimensions 10 cm x 15 cm, and the smallest is a standard ATC (2,5" x 3,5 ").
For the background I used heavy white office quality cardstock with a bit glossy surface-- I think that's the absolutely best paper for inking projects. It also tolerates water fairly well which was important for the technique I used.


I started with inking each card front with a few Distress colours. Then I stamped the trumpet player on top, using black Archival ink. For avoiding the black ink to smudge I quickly heat set the stamped images with my heat gun.


The fun feature of Distress Ink is that it reacts quickly with water. I took a small watercolour brush, dipped it into plain water, and touched the inked card front with the wet brush. I let the water react with the ink for a few seconds, and then pressed the cardstock dry with a paper towel. Don't those little dots look like soap bubbles?


After drying I highlighted the dots with a gel pen, and sew a simple stiched frame around the card.



Tip: Even if the Archival ink is heat set, it is safer to protect the image with masking tape before sewing. Especially when working on a glossy cardstock the sewing machine presser foot may smudge the ink. You can sew over the masking tape and tear it off when finished.


I like my multi purpose card set a lot; the trumpet player is such a fun image to play with. Hope you like my cards, too!



For more information on the stamp set please click on the picture below:




Wishing you a nice day!

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GDT for CASEplorations July challenge!

Hi!
I was so happy and excited when I was proposed that my card would be used for CASEplorations July challenge. What a honour! I was so much looking forward to seeing how the design team would CASE my card, and I think they all did an amazing job! I'm so happy!


I CASEid my card too, so here's a new version of the bird card, with quite the same elements and a similar layout:


The background was inked with few shades of pink Distress inks. Before inking I stamped a few swirls with Distress paints, and was happy to see how beautifully the Distress inks resist the paint. Such a fun technique!



I used the very same techniques also on two ATC cards. I love playing with stron colours and fun patterns!


I hope that you play along this fun challenge! Read all the details and see the amazing DT projects here.

Wishing you a wonderful day,
Hugs,
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Art journal page inspired by Adele

Hi!
Finnish challenge site 'Jehkotar CRAFTChallenge' inspired us with an Adele song and a moodboard:


I'm a big fan of Adele. I love her strong and beautiful voice and her charismatic presense, and her empowering songs mean a lot to me. These thoughts inspired me to make a bold, bright, meaningful, and feminine art journal page:


The background was painted and stamped with acrylic paints. As the background was quite busy even after cooling it down with white acrylic paint, I decided to stencil the text with white texture paste on black cardstock and glue on the page. The cool stencil is from Ranger/Dina Wakley ('Affirmations').


The picture is from an advertisement I saw in a magazine. I fussy cut it, glued down on the page with gel medium, and added some shadowing with Neocolor II crayons. I like the contrast between the quite monotonous image and the crazy bright background.

Wishing you a wonderful day!
Hugs,
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