Hi! I'm Elina, a scrapbooker, card maker, handcrafter, photographer, and mixed media artist from Southern Finland. I'm so happy you stopped by!
Hand crafts have always played an important role in my life. The busier my work days are, the more time I try to allocate to my favorite hobby. After a hectic day in the office I love to get my hands messy with paints, stamping inks, and gesso. Being able to take even a short moment to myself and create something beautiful and tangible is very important to me. I strongly believe that paper crafting is the best cure for work stress.
I have been scrapbooking since summer 2009. When browsing through paper crafting blogs I found a link to a Finnish scrapbooking challenge site and got hooked right away. Since I started my hobby my personal style has developed quite a bit. Today I tend to use more layers, mixed media elements and various materials on my projects as I did in the beginning. Selecting the color palette and matching the photo and the elements to the chosen palette is pure mindfulness. I'm quite a slow scrapbooker and hardly ever finish the layout in one evening. But that's something I don't mind at all. The creative process is far more important and meaningful to me than the outcome and the finished project.
Back in 2009, scrapbooking gave a new kick start to my other dear hobby, photography. Nowadays I grab my camera almost daily and take pictures to document my everyday family life. I like to develop my skills in the photography area, and in addition to continuous practicing I love taking classes and attending workshops. Noting how your skills develop is very rewarding and motivating!
I also teach scrapbooking, card making and mixed media classes, and in addition you might meet me also at trade shows in which I arrange demos, make-and-takes etc. I've also organized three times a weekend long mixed media event called 'Creative Journey', and had the pleasure to invite amazing foreign teachers to Finland. Inspiring other paper crafters and sharing my love for crafting and mixed media is very important to me. Most of my posts contain a step-by-step tutorial explaining how I made the project. Hope my projects will inspire you, too!
I have been very happy and fortunate to cooperate with many great companies in the industry. Also designing for various challenge sites has inspired me and given me a chance to get new friends who share the same passion for crafts. In the past I’ve had the pleasure to create in these great design teams (either as design team member or as a guest designer):
I have been very happy and fortunate to cooperate with many great companies in the industry. Also designing for various challenge sites has inspired me and given me a chance to get new friends who share the same passion for crafts. In the past I’ve had the pleasure to create in these great design teams (either as design team member or as a guest designer):
- Carabelle Studio (French manufacturer of stamps and stencils)
- Sizzix Europe (as Creative Designer and Creative Blogger)
- AALL&Create (UK stamp manufacturer)
- VivaLasVegaStamps! (US stamp manufacturer)
- Mixed Up Creative Academy (one lesson for Wellspring 2019 online class)
- Visible Image (UK stamp manufacturer)
- 13 Arts (Polish manufacturer for paints, mixed media mediums, stencils, papers, and embellishments)
- Mixed Media Card Challenge (North American card challenge site)
- Jehkotar Craft Challenge (Finnish paper crafting challenge site)
- Paperilla (Finnish paper crafting magazine and a paper crafting community)
- Sketchabilities (Canadian scrapbooking sketch challenge site)
- Creative Scrappers sketch challenge blog (Canadian scrapbooking sketch challenge site)
- 123 Get Scrappy! (US scrapbooking challenge blog)
- Allt Om Scrap (Swedish crafting blog & online magazine)
- Inspired Blueprints (Australian sketch challenge site)
- 3rd Eye (Polish stamp and stencil manufacturer)
- Fiskars (Fiskarettes design team & corporate marketing support)
- Scrappassion (Dutch scrapbooking challenge site)
- Amalia, Skräpteekki (Finnish paper crafting companies)