More minicollages.

Little things I made for a swap:

Daily inspiration.

Get your daily fix of inspiration at the Sepia Art Studio!

Get a hobby.

A little collage piece I made yesterday; acrylic paints and mag cut-outs. The text is kinda funny: "Spring is here. Nature awakes as does the housewives' cleaning frenzy. This year, try something different. Go for a walk. Get a hobby." (Kevät on tullut. Luonto herää. Niin myös perheenemäntien siivoustarmo. Kokeilkaapa uutta keinoa tänä vuonna. Menkää ulos kävelemään. Hankkikaa jokin harrastus.)

Luckily I don't get cleaning frenzies :)

Bookmarks?

Another set of altered playing cards, these would make cute bookmarks, I think.

Kid Art.

My DD is big on making cards, she made over 30 Christmas cards and for the past two days she has been working on Valentine's Day projects. The result: 29 cards, each with a hand-written greeting. Quite an effort for a 6-year-old.

14 of the cards had a simple design that involved a lot of work; she made strings of single crochet stitches, which were glued on to a piece of cardstock. She only needed 13 of these, but I cheated her into making an extra one so I can keep it :) Bad mommy!!

Altered playing cards.

Just trying out some ideas for a swap. I got these little playing cards from Skybluepink last year and they have been sort of waiting for the right idea to come along. This might be it! First added pieces of a napkin and then the cut-outs from my lovely 1959 Finnish mags. I love the way the suits show through the napkin! The fibers and the beads might be a bit too much -- what do you think, with or without?




Oh the texts are: on the left "mother does not reply to practical questions" and on the right "quiet sound". I love the image on the right, it's sooo much fun!

Who would have thought...

...that chopping up mags would be so much fun? I'm doing a minicollage swap and needed to try out some ideas; here's the first series I made. Not quite there yet, where-ever that is. The little golden things are watch parts and if you knew what fat fingers I have, you'd really appreciate the fact that I used them!

Say: Thank You, Say!

I'm doing a fun round of "secret sisters" with Hiekkaoliivi and my SAY sent me the most wonderful package. Look at all these seriously cool goodies I got:



Papers in brown and rich shades of orange, a fun accordion album and letterstickers.



Cute postcards and look at all the metal I got; I love the little swords!

Thank you, kiitos, merci, tack and danke schön!


Ja vielä varulta suomeksi, ettei vaan kenellekään jää epäselväksi, että SAYni on onnistunut valinnoissaan aivan loistavasti: noiden paperien sävyt ovat niin kauniita, ettei niille mikään skannaus tee oikeutta, tuo minialbumi on hauska ja metalli.... umm, minua ei turhaan kotona sanota metallimamaksi! Nauroin ääneen kun näin nuo minimiekat, aivan hulvattoman hauskoja!! Kiitos, SAY tästä upeasta paketista!

Dinner and coffee are now being served.

Here are the ATCs I made for the swap at Hiekkaoliivi. I got lovely cards back from Ansku, check out her blog!

She wore a flowered shirt.

And found a new home here. If you visit, check out the shoe card, it's on my wall now!!




With these torsos, I'm beginning to think they would be brilliant for Mother's Day...

All dressed up.

I made some torsos last week, this one was the first of them. She looks likes she's going to a wedding or somewhere where you need to be all dressed up. Gotta love the little rose she tucked under her waistband.



All materials, in case you want to know: the papers are from my collection of paper samples (wall papers and gift wraps), the beads etc. are from various swaps. Using my stash!

Oh, almost forgot...

Happy belated b-day to me! I hit the big 40 last Sunday :)

Preview.

I've been working on swaps, here's a little teaser for you all. I'm mailing these next week so then you will see the real things!

A Flower for You.

Here's a little b-day card I made for a friend using a fun background that you can learn to make here.

Minicollage.

Lisa Vollrath's work is so amazing that every now and then I just have to try to do what she does. I love the little collage squares she makes, and as I was cleaning my desk I realised I had to try them out.

These little babies are cut with my CM square punch, the bigger square is 1 1/2" and the smaller one is 1 1/4".

Pressies for Bro.

My brother has his Bday tomorrow and I scanned in some old photos for him, here's the cover I made for the CD. Keeping things simple.



My little DD, now 6 years old, is sooo into beading that she insists on making beaded pressies for everyone. Her uncle will be getting this:



Darn, the kid has more talent and better concentration than her mom... :)

A Page A Day.

This is so fab; check out mael's blog for her ongoing project "a page a day"; she's commited into doing a page each day, be it journalling, a photo or a note as long as she finalises it in a day. In Finnish only, but hey, art crosses language barriers!

Leave.

Today is different although it started like any other day: wake-up at 6.15, shower, coffee, head to DD's daycare at 7.35. But at 8, I didn't go to work. I have a 3-month study leave. Wow. Better get to it then...

Happy New Year!

What an exciting evening we had, watched a movie, drank one (1) beer, went to bed at half past eleven! Getting old ain't easy :)

Happy New Year everyone and hope to see more of you and more often!

Another small canvas.

This one was a pressie for a friend (say thank you:))

Merry Xmas!

Ah, we are sooo taking the holidays easy! We didn't do a massive last minute shopping spree, we didn't clean every corner of the house, we are gonna have lasagna for dinner :)

DD is happy, she got her "big present" a couple of minutes ago, the cartoons are on, the rice porridge is getting done and, oh well, it's Christmas!

I'm planning to catch up with my Christmas journal today and tomorrow; I'm already giggling over the Xmas tree entry. We are not gonna have a tree this year (unless DH goes and gets one like in ten minutes) so DD and I are going to decorate DH :) I'm not sure if he will let me post photos, though!

So, from all of us, to all of you, a very merry Xmas!

Canvas.

A small canvas, inks, chalks and magazine cut outs. "Looking for a good person."

Christmas Journal: Days 9 & 10

Ok, since Patience went out of order, so did I!

Day 9: Traditions



Journalling
We are still forming our own traditions as a family - last year was the first time we had a Xmas tree! Some things have been cleared out, however, e.g. no ham-eaters in our table. Our main course on Xmsa Eve is lasagna and we have vanilla ice cream for dessert. At least the rice porridge in the morning is a "traditional" thing.
We give out presents in "house style": Santa leaves little notes and hints where to find the hidden pressies.

(hidden journalling under the stamped image: "at this point in our lives, we are not quite as serene and peaceful as I'd like us to be, but getting there, maybe"


Day 10: Wrapping presents






Disclaimer: If you are particular about your Christmans presents, the following journalling may cause you some distress.

Oh no, another of my little secrets comes out... I recycle wrapping papers. DD's and DH's presents get the best of the pick and the more crumbled ones go to DD when she wants to wrap up the little pressies she makes.
The few presents that I give to friends get a brown paper with stamped images.

(the little parcels at the bottom of the papers are samples from my collection and the years... oh well, yes I keep papers from 2004...)

Christmas Journal: Day 6

Catching up...I've done all the journalling in time, so I'm not falling too far behind!

For the good and less perfect memories I went into two layers, the "good" page can be opened up to reveal the "bad" one. I'm not gonna go into details on the bad memories here, but the stamped image gives you a good idea as its title says "confusion".

Journalling for the good memories (some of the names have been faded out): Xmas has always been a time to be with family and relatives -- food, laughter, talk, tons of coffee and an endless mountain of chocolate.
At home, mom used to cook the traditional dishes and the kids with their families always gathered together, sometimes auntie's family, too. On the 25th, we always went to auntie's house, where all my cousins also showed up.
Presents were usually at least funny, sometimes even practical. The best one ever was my nephew's pressie when he was about 10, we packed up a camera in a box that came with a multivitamin drink. As he unwrapped the paper, he kept his cool and thanked us but it was really difficult to get him to open the box.
Oh Xmas, oh memories!

Christmas Journal: Day 5

How many days until Xmas?

Journalling: I think I always had an advent calendar when I was a kid, often one made by my sister, with little pressies! After mom died, I skipped several Xmases but of course DD has brought back the waiting for the holidays in our lives.
In 2002 Anja from Germany surprised me with a lovely star shaped calendar... and with 24 little goodies! Now I fill the same little boxes for DD, with hair pins, stickers and candy.
My regular calendar always fills up for December; Bdays, DD's hobbies, get-togethers with friends. Not too much time to clean or shop, but it's fine with me!
And this year I have a chocolate calendar, thanks to Kaya!




Oh and I did the challenge part by adding number 19 (here we get the presents on the 24th so it's 19 days until Xmas for us) by sketching the numbers, inking them and embossing with clear embossing powder).

Christmas Journal: Day 4

Dream Christmas?

Journalling: This photo might not represent my dream Xmas as such, but it has some of the elements: peace, clarity, simplicity, light, space, but the most important element is missing. The people.

Christmas Journal: Days 2 and 3

Day 2



Journalling: Dashing through the snow
The Finnish winter is all about snow and coldness. It's December, the temperatures are above zero and it's raining. It's dark.
If there is no snow on Christmas, I don't know what becomes of our plans. DD dreams of sledding, I'd like to take a little walk before coming home to hot coffee and chocolates. Also Aksu the Cat is usually taken for a Christmas walk, he doens't like the snow but hates the rain so there better be snow before Christmas Eve.



(I need to apply some more chalks on this one, lol, it looks bland!)


Day 3


Journalling: Christmas cards

Some years I make more cards than others, last year I topped 50, but I don't think I'll make as many this year.
DD has learned the cardmaking from me, and some of the best pre-Christmas moments are when we take out our supplies, put the candy somewhere near and work away. One needs energy!

Attached is the prototype for 2006.

Christmas Journal -- Thank you!

Wow, thanks everyone for your kind comments on my first Xmas journal page! I am trying to visit as many blogs as possible, but there are quite a few participants... I love all the different styles and viewpoints I've seen so far, the talent you all have, it's simply amazing!

I'm off to bed now, more pages will pop up tomorrow!

Christmas Journal: Day 1

I've started, supersimple but I figured this is the only way can I keep the thing going! A lot of inking and chalking, a black pen a couple of stamps should do it.



Journalling (quick translation):
Christmas declaration
This is my Xmas journal for 2006. It's strange that I'm doing this because I don't even really like Xmas. However, I want to look at the past and tell those stories on to my DD. She loves Xmas!
I'm doing this journal for Shimelle's online class so the topics follow her prompts but the contents are all mine. I'll be sharing some pages with the world but some will be for my eyes only, and well, for DD.

For my office wall?

Cheap fun, a small canvas, some inks and chalks and one of my old magazines from 1959. I love the lines: "work builds character" and "I ended up here by accident".

Christmas journal

Manifesto: Noun. A declaration of one's intentions.

Starting December first, I will keep a Christmas journal. In it, I will write something every day to reflect on the holidays of my past, enjoy the holidays of the present and dream about the holidays of my future. To some, this will be a stack of papers and trivial scribbles, but not to me. I am taking back my Christmas, I am letting it be something I relish and, most importantly, I am giving at least fifteen minutes every day to myself no matter how crazy this season becomes. I hope you will share, encourage and understand as I make something with my own hands, my own words and my own memories.

I may post some or all of my entries here. Other artists are doing this with me, and you can see their work here. Or you may
join us .

Above all: enjoy the season. I will try my best to do so, but you gotta understand something, I used to love Christmas as a kid, these days I have such mixed feelings about it... Maybe working on this journal will bring back the joy of Christmas for me, and also give me a chance to share some fun memories with my DD.

/minna

Rub-ons.

I love rub-on letters :)

Sunday sermon. Kinda.

So my desk is clean and I'm ready to finalise the album from our family holiday to Germany in 2005. I had the photos printed like two weeks after the trip and I've started to work on the album many times, you know, well planned work.... Here comes the but, I never kept a journal during the trip, and it's really difficult to produce wonderful, deep and meaningful journaling when all you remember is that it was really hot and you carried huge bottles of water around. So I called a family meeting, we sat down and looked at the photos and managed to squeeze out a couple of fun memories. DD journalled on one of the pages, as did DH, that was cool.

Jotting down notes every day of the trip would have helped. Finishing the album after the trip would have helped. Being brave and just getting to it finally helped.

If you wanna read more about journalling, go e.g. to Ali Edward's newsletter.

My treasure.

14 vintage portraits of men and women, from my grandmother's belongings. Unfortunately I have no clue who these people are, presumably her relatives and friends. (the reason I don't know is that she died before I was born and my dad died when I was 15 and at that time family history was not a priority...)

Almost done.

Ah, I can see my desk now, as everything is on the bed now... an hour or so and I can have a cup of coffee and then get on with my planned projects!

Is my trash your treasure?

I'm cleaning my stuff, in a desperate attempt to create a space on my desk that would allow me to work on something larger than ATCs... So I'm filling up an envelope with smallish pieces of paper, fibers, punchies, stamped images, what-have-you. Wanna have it? First person in Finland to comment to this post gets the goodies!

Much better.

Ah, the cute little Xmas ATC was just not enough for me, so I stole an idea from Violet and hung it up! And as I cannot bear to part with scraps, I made a small tag to be used later on :)





Go and adore Violet's work right now!!

Is it time to be jolly yet??

It's raining and I'm having difficulties in getting into the holiday spirit -- I'd like to get my Xmas cards done but... here's a sample of what I'm thinking, and oh yes, it's an ATC :)

I'm still blogging! Promise!

I know, I've been quiet for awhile. Tons to do at work and at home, but there are some cool things cooking up, so please don't unsub or remove me from you bookmarks yet! Pretty please?

Circle Journal -- Fall.

We have snow and a fall-themed circle journal was sitting on my desk waiting for my entry. Here goes:

You Think You Know Me -- Cover.

Ah, finally I got started with the actual album for Shimelle's class! I'm doing a small 6 X 6 album, still don't know if it will include photos or not!

Superquick update.

I'm off to Freiburg, Germany on Sunday, and before that have about a zillion things to do. I'm working on my "you think you know me"-project, but have nothing to post yet... But you can head here to see the amazing creations the other participants have been posting!

If I can get to a computer in Germany, I will stop by next week to say "hi" :) Oh, must add one more thing to my to-do list: google craftstores in Freiburg!

Oh Look, Another ATC.

This one did not come out the way I imagined... oh well, what else is new these days?

Notebooks.

I was going through at some old files and came across this: two little notebooks I decorated for friends two years ago. Hopefully they are filled with good thoughts :)

My entry for a little book :)

There have been a bunch of books travelling around Finland lately, here's what I did for a little nature book. The dragonfly is not quite as red in real life, lol!

Since I have no-one to scrap with....

...I signed up for this.

1959.

Give me an old magazine and some glue, and I'm happy for a long time. This time the outcome was some ATCs.

Lazy days.

We're taking it easy this weekend; DD had her figure skating practise yesterday, followed by a nap and a movie (my bag of candy was empty before the movie even started...). Today it's gymnastics for DD, two loads of laundry for me and then I'm making two sets of brown ATCs! Gotta love a weekend like this!

Minibook: 5 favourites.

I did another challenge. A minibook with five of my current favourites. I went spesific, so these are my favs on September 28, 2006.



Supplies: Bazzill mono mini book (3" x 3"); inks and chalks, and the corner stamp is from Finnstamper.

Same supplies, many looks!

Remember the little scrapbooking challenge I talked about a while back; the final results are in, go and see what the other ladies did with their kits.

Here's my main layout; the bottle cap came off, it didn't belong there in the end :) The scan is horrid because the tile on the top is superthick!

Spend Less in September: The End?

Last day of September and the time to wrap up my ”Spend less”-month… Moneywise I did ok; I kept my shopping budget and while I did have a few coffees and beers along the road, I still have a few euros left. My in-laws stopped by with a huge sack of potatoes and bottles of home made blackcurrant juice and berries and oh yes, they brought coffee, too, so we have a great start for October!

I didn’t buy any craft supplies and somewhere along the third week I stopped visiting my fav. online stores. I’m halfway sorting out my current stuff and quite a few things will be sold or donated! (and contrary to my previous MO, this will not mean that I can buy new stuff, lol)

Did I get to spend more quality time with my family? Yes and no; this was a rough month for us all for many reasons which I will not explain here, but there were some beautiful moments that I will cherish.

Did I watch less tv? Oh well, Grey’s Anatomy started so that added an hour a week to my preprogrammed viewing. But it was ok, because I knitted at the same time!

This was never just about the money, not for me or for any of the other people who were participating. For me it was about looking at my spending habits and realising that comfort does not come in a pretty package at 9.95 only.

Please excuse me, I will now go and make my donation to Save the Children.

I don't think I will crop another photo...

So I went a little overboard when I thought it might be fun to crop a photo :) This little 6 x 6 page is one of the things I made for the "sama supplies"-challenge described below.

Congrats Roni!!

The 2007 Ranger Design Team was announced yesterday and one of the talented people on the list is Roni Johnson, a supertalented, supersweet lady whom I've met at the about.com forum -- I've been in her swaps, so I've seen her wonderful work IRL, too!
Congrats Roni, can't wait to see what you come up with next year! In the meanwhile, you can see Roni's work e.g. here.

Waste no Scraps.

I've been working on my challenge layout (see previous posts for details) and here's a little teaser; a card I made using scraps.




Stamp from Finnstamper.com says "Congratulations".

Spend less in September: 30€ Totally Wasted.

I spent about 30€ on something that easily counts as unnecessary; I went out. No excuses, it was money wasted BUT I had a lovely time. Had two drinks, and shared a coffee with a friend (as I ran out out money, lol).

I'm a little bit dissappointed in me but I will not hold this against myself; I've still spent 0€ on craft supplies, and spent a lot less in food than normally.

It's a Challenge: Update.

I've almost finished my "same supplies, many looks"-challenge" but I cannot get a bottle cap and the green foil into the page; I have no ideas of how to use them in the LO I have... I will go back upstairs and stare at them some more.

Spend less in September: Dental Care.

OK, I will not cancel my dental appointment because it's September, I will pay the approx. $50 that it costs and be happy that I only have one chipped tooth rather than several cavities. DD had an appointment today, and that was free of charge. Most days I really appreciate the taxes we pay and the services we get in return; today is one of those days.

Oh and my shopping yesterday went well, got milk, bread, bananas, carrots and eggs. Will go for minced meat today. Been using up a lot of things in the cupboards (we don't have a pantry in the scale most people do) and discovered some out of date items that got tossed. Will try to clean the linen closet this evening.

Spend less in September: I don't want to shop.

I need to go to the supermarket today and I don't want to. Very strange.

Swaps.

Again, some ATCs for a swap. Romance and nostalgia.



Oh and I normally don't bother with cool techniques, but did use masking to add the little angels to the canvas :)

It's a Challenge!

Some time ago I signed up for a "same supplies, many looks" challenge at my fav. forum at about.com. I got my amazing kit today, you can see it here -- if the link works, that is! I got the kit #12. I'm trying to come up with ideas this weekend, but you see, there's the patterned paper that I fear :)

Spend Less in September: Temptation.

I think I will need to limit my online time because I keep coming across wonderful sites that have lovely things that tempt me, like these stamps. As it is, I have many stamps I rarely use, so I will go upstairs, dig into my stash and see if there is anything I can sell or give away. Wish me luck!

Spend less in September: Oatmeal Success.

Another babystep: DD is generally very good about eating her oatmeal, she has it in daycare every morning and enjoys an occassional bowlful in the evening at home, but lately she's been asking for more "fun" breakfast items during the weekends. This weekend, however, oatmeal was a success because I called it "the ultimate breakfast that many figure skaters enjoy". (DD has just started skating lessons.) She even drank a glass of milk, which is very rare!

It's all about the marketing, isn't it, creating the want and the need. Hey if I can pull this off with a 5-year-old, no wonder the marketing professionals can make me crave for all sorts of weird and unnecessary things :)

Fading Memories.

ATCs for a swap. Did he walk away from her, leaving her with a goodbye note, or is she reading and dreaming of him... (I'm tempted to add "who can say", an inside joke, sorry)

Proceed with caution.

Here's a little something I made last night: acrylics and magazine cutouts and dymo on a canvas panel (12 x 18 cm). The texts say: "Are you confident with your personal hygiene when you meet her or go out" and "is it forbidden from young girls".

Stretch.

Remember to stretch daily. Here's Aksu the Cat:

Spend less in September: Pancake revelation.

Ok, so this might not be a huge revelation in the sense of "a manifestation of divine will or truth" but it was certainly an eye-opener for me. I made a small batch of pancakes for DD and DH last night and realised there was no jam in the house. Rather than doing what I would normally do, i.e. put on my shoes and get some from the closest store, I asked, "hey is sugar ok since we have no jam?" and they said "sure". So, here is the revelation: we can do without.

Naughty me.

I had a fish burger for lunch. I did tell my friends that they better not ask me out to lunch next month because I seem to have little will power when it comes to junk food. Oh well, I forgive me.

Why oh Why.

Why is it that I cannot learn to close containers with lids? Having just spent 5 minutes crawling on the bedroom floor looking for eyelets, brads and other little objects you'd think I'd know better from now on...

Getting ready for September.

I feel good about the decision to spend less money next month. A lot of my purchases are for comfort rather than need so it should be interesting to see how I will react during the first days; will I catch myself almost buying stuff or will I end up avoiding shops as much as I can.

Bookmark.

Forgot to post this one yesterday; it's a bookmark I made for a swap. I decided I didn't want to make a tag-type of a thing, so I found a large paperclip, some fibers and beads. It's kinda cute!

Spending less.

I came across this. I'm doing it with the parameters that I will cut "luxury items" from our grocery list (no sodas or candy or anything we don't really need) as well as trips to the closest take aways and cafes. I will not buy any craft supplies during the month of September. I will spend less time watching tv and more time with my family (they don't know I'm doing this yet...). Let's see how it goes.

As to the why, it makes sense, doesn't it. I can live with less, my family can live with less. There are others who need more, so why not try to create some balance. If you think it's naive, then try it first.

Oh, and at the end of the month I will make a donation to Save the Children.

Wanna join the challenge?

Gratification.

Ok, I'm taking babysteps here. Finalising some swaps, simple stuff to give me instant gratification. Here's a little something I made this morning for a retro-swap, found the image online, the rub-ons say "those were the days..." and as a final touch I added a hairpin with a little ribbon tied to it.

Inspiration.

I'm in a rut. I've looked at my materials, I've tried a few things, nothing works. So I go and look for inspiration online. Here are my fav. blogs at the moment, in no particular order: Francine, Ali E., Violet, Breanne, Susanna and Elsie F.. Go visit these ladies' blogs and be inspired.

A Quick Present.

It really pays off to hoard things like little notebooks and pretty boxes, you never know when you need make a quick pressie for someone. This notebook is for a colleague. Sincere apologies for the lack of any photo quality, I took this one with my phone...





Supplies: cheapo notebook, thick handmade paper, ranger distress inks, flower stamp, some fibers and a cute little bead.

Perfection.

This is where I went on Thursday, an exhibition of the works of Fabergé. The details, the precision, the perfectness. They had two of the easter eggs on show; the Uspenski Cathedral one and the Alexander III Equestrian one . Fascinating stuff!

Change of plans.

I was supposed to get some "me-time" and scrap, but instead I'm getting on the train early tomorrow morning and meeting my SIL in Tampere. Might check out the local craftstores... So I bid y'all fairwell, see you on Sunday!

Back home...

...phew, we had one hot train ride today, the train was jampacked and the AC was out of order or running on superlow. Next week DH has promised to mind DD so I can do "something". I want to scrap!

Off to meet the Moomins.

This is where we are going this weekend... taking the train to Turku (almost 8 hours), just to spend a day with the Moomins. DD has been waiting for this trip for almost two years now, so hopefully she will enjoy it...