Butterfly.

This is so not my regular style, but fun to make! It's a little box for Ansku, who is the hardworking hostess behind our current circle of secret friends.

Anskulle meni tämmöinen loota, joka ei ole yhtään samanlainen kuin työni yleensä, mutta iloisen keväinen!!

More matchboxes!

I had forgotten how addictive these little things are! The photos are fuzzy, I used my mobile's camera...

Edited: The first one was the blog giveaway and the second one my contribution to a swap hosted by Kaisuliina and found its home at Hemmamamma's.

Ylempi laatikko oli blogini arpajaisvoitto ja toinen meni Hemmamammalle Kaisuliinan järkestämässä swapissa.






DD loved making them as well and we dug into my stash of stickers to decorate hers and to fill it up, too. Isn't she a darling??!!

Giveaway! Arpajaiset!

Edited: The winner is Ingridha! Voittaja on Ingridha!



I have a decorated matchbox filled with small goodies to give away. Leave a comment by Tuesday 9 am (Finnish time...) and you will enter this draw :) Please leave a link to your blog if you have one, so I know who reads mine and can pay a visit to you, too!

Arvon tiistaiaamuun klo 9 mennessä kommenttinsa jättäneiden kesken koristellun tikkuaskin, joka on täytetty pikkuylläreillä. Kipinkapin kommentoimaan ja jättäkää mahdollisen bloginne osoite, että mie tiijän kuka täällä käy!

Matchbox shrine.

Here's what I made for my "secret sister" last month, a little decorated matchbox with an inchie inside.

Hers and mine.

My DD is very dedicated: she makes cards for all the kids in the daycare group for Xmas, Valentine's and Easter. These are her 20+ cards:

This is mine. I made one card this Easter. How pathetic is that?!

And there was more!

My secret friend sent me another package today, with lovely vintage images to be used in various projects.

SAYni muisti minua tänäänkin: postissa tuli ihanaisia vintage-kuva-arkkeja, joista suuuuuri kiitos!

SAY2 is on!

Yesterday was a wonderful mail day, I got cute stuff from Hemmamamma and a lovely package from my secret friend (round 2)! I asked for some miniatures for a project and I got them along with lovely papers, a cute card and chocolate!

Kiitos SAYni, paperit ovat ihania, ja nuo pikkukupit juuri sellaisia kuin toivoinkin! Suklaa maistui illalla salaa lapsen nukkumaan mentyä, kun eikös tää ollut kaikki salaista?!

Create in peace.

Ok, this is a bit of a Sunday sermon-type of a posting, so be warned :)

I have a few blogs that I follow on a regular basis and a bunch of others I visit every now and then. What breaks my heart is people commenting without realising that words can be read in so many different ways: if you're having a bad day, it doesn't take much to get hurt over a comment that you in any other day might laugh at. I just finished a round of blog reading and ran into a "but she said, that they said"-type of a situation that involved quite a few people being hurt. Very sad.

But here comes the sermon; I want to believe that we all create to the best of our abilities and with sincerity. I've come across work I don't necessarily like, but I appreciate the effort the person has put into the work. Everyone's vision is different. I've come across swaps where someone's input has left me wondering if they might have put more effort into their work, but since I don't know them in real life, I can't know if they just had the worst week of their lives and tried to keep going by creating. Who knows, maybe someone is looking at my work and going "what the heck is she doing and why?!". I do my best to create in peace and would like to see everyone else get their peace and space to do their thing.

Am I being naive? Sure! I am the first to admit that I my faith in people backfires way too often, but if being naive gets me through the day... :)

Go create something now. In peace. For you.

Greetings from Vuokatti!

Ha, this is the kind of vacation I like, a fully equipped house with a fast internet connection! Having a wonderful time :)

Look what I got!

My secret friend did it again, she sent me the most amazing goodies, including a sweet little maze-book! Thank you so much... mrs vsop! The scan above is horrid and as soon as I lay my hands on a camera or get confirmation from mrs vsop that she has posted the maze-book, I'll come back and edit!


Tuhannet kiitokset sinulle SAYni, mrs vsop, kaikista upeista lahjoista ja muistamisista ja eritoten tuosta maze-kirjasesta! Piditpäs jännitystä yllä viimeiseen asti! Mulla ei ole just nyt kameraa käsillä, jos sulla on tuosta kirjasta parempia kuvia, niin postaatko blogissasi, niin linkkaan sitten sinne??

Tuo kuva yllä on tosiaan kamala, mutta paketissa oli paperipaketti ja nauhoja (ruskeita, kuinkas muutenkaan), tarroja, höyheniä, lisää paperia, Scrapbook inspirations-lehti, jonka mukana tuli vielä lisää tarroja ja paperia ja vielä oli ohransiemeniä pääsiäistä varten ja viimeisenä, mutta ei vähäisimpänä, maze-kirjanen!


Oh and whose secret friend was I? I had the pleasure to spoil Hemmamamma.
Ja mie oli Hemmamamman SAYna, joten kaikki on nyt paljastettu mitä paljastettavaa on?!

What the heck!?

My photos are gone! What the heck.... Will look into this, but hopefully they will be back....

Edited: Ok, Photobucket is having issues, let's see if the photos will work later on, if not, I will upload them again like I did below :) Keep your fingers crossed!

Another set of ATCs.

Still playing with fibers and inks and having a wonderful time! I used pop dots on the lingerie one to give it extra dimension, it turned out kinda groovy!

More metal for me!

What a perfect way to start a week that has been otherwise miserable (got a cold): a letter from my secret friend! Everything was wrapped in shades of brown and orange, so she must have read my details carefully :)



Kiitos SAYni tästä loistavasta viikonavauksesta, olen kotona kuumeessa ja pakettisi totisesti piristi!

Aha, that took me long!

Ok, so I had to come back and post this one:




I'm doing an ATC-swap with fibers included and been toying with ideas. Not the most original outcome, but works for me!

Ready, set, go!

DD's preschool has next week off, so we are getting ready to spend some quality time over at her grandparents' house! I might stop by with an update on a few small pieces I'm working on now, but no promises made :)

Inchies.

The minicollages I've been doing have been 1.5" x 1.5" so when I saw that Hiekkaoliivi had a swap on inchies (1 x 1 inch collage pieces) I figured it's not that much of a difference. Well, it is!

Frustrated.

I'm frustrated with the mountains of supplies that are taking over my desk and the floor.... Just spent an hour sorting things out and there is no end to it. This is it, I will not buy a single sheet of paper or another pretty little thing before I have finished all projects I've started, that's three (3) albums and a bunch of ATCs and possibly a few minicollages just to use up the leftovers. Will report back accordingly :)

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!