Syksyn kurssien ilmoittautuminen alkaa!

Hello! Today's post will be in Finnish, about my coming workshops.

Hei kaikki! Minulla on tulevana syksynä ilo ja kunnia opettaa jälleen mixed media -askarteluja Espoon työväenopistossa ja lisäksi uutena opetuspaikkana Vantaan aikuisopistossa.

Kaikille kursseille ilmoittaudutaan Ilmonet-järjestelmän kautta joko netissä tai puhelimitse. Ilmoittautuminen Espoon kursseille alkaa tänään 15.8. klo 12 ja Vantaan kursseille klo 13!



Art Journal- luovuutta arkeen
Vantaa (Tikkurila) 28.9.−26.10.2017

Maalit, musteet, leimailu, painaminen, värittäminen, sekatekniikka... lumoudu värien ja kuvioiden maailmasta!

Teemme oman Art Journalin (englanniksi taidepäiväkirja), valintasi mukaan joko vanhaan kirjaan tai helpolla sidonnalla erilaisista papereista. Art Journalin pariin uppoutuu helposti koko päiväksi, mutta opit myös nopeita tekniikoita, joita ehtii tehdä silloinkin, kun aikaa on vain vartti. Mixed media -askartelu on eri tekniikoiden yhdistelyä ja kokeilemisen iloa ja siihen sopivat hyvin kierrätysmateriaalit.


Mixed media - jouluaskartelu
Espoo (Tapiola) 7.11.-19.11.2017

Mixed media on eri tekniikoiden yhdistelyä ja kokeilemisen iloa. Viikonlopun aikana opimme useita helppoja tekniikoita, joilla saa aikaan persoonalliset joulukortit, lahjapaperit tai pienet lahjat. Käytämme mm. sabluunoita ja leimasimia, akryylimaaleja ja leimasinmusteita, ja kierrätysmateriaalia kuten kirjansivuja. Samoilla tekniikoilla voit tehdä monenlaista, kuten kortteja, jouluisen minialbumin muistoille tai ruokaohjeille, tai tuunata valmiin esineen kuten pienen peilinkehyksen. Voit tulla myös kokeilemaan tekniikoita, oppimaan ja ihastumaan!



Joulukortit mehiläisvahatekniikalla
(Yhden päivän kurssi, kolme eri ajankohtaa)

Espoo (Tapiola) 25.11.2017
Vantaa (Myyrmäki) 26.11.2017
Vantaa (Tikkurila) 2.12.2017

Tule oppimaan mielenkiintoinen tekniikka, jolla serveteistä ja silkkipapereista tehdään sulan mehiläisvahan avulla herkät, läpinäkyvän kerrokselliset kortit. Käytämme silitysrautaa mehiläisvahan sulattamiseen ja kuvien kerroksittain kiinnittämiseen. Tällä tekniikalla loihtii nopeasti kauniita kortteja ja lisäksi saa nauttia ihanan jouluisesta mehiläisvahan tuoksusta!

Lisätiedot löytyvät ilmoittautumislinkeistä ja päivittyvät tuotapikaa myös blogini Workshops-välilehdelle. Vastaan mieluusti kysymyksiin myös sähköpostitse, salla.porra (at) saunalahti.fi.

Kurssit soveltuvat niin uusille kuin kokeneemmillekin askartelijoille. Lämpimästi tervetuloa!

Mixed Media Summer ATC Swap

Hello! Here's what I made for an ATC swap here in Finland, themed Mixed Media Summer and organized by Taru.



I had plenty of gelli prints with summery colours, so I began to work my backgrounds from them. I also added some mists in different shades of green, and was happy with the colour palette that reminds me of a summer evening just before dark.

For inspiration, I had several challenges, starting with Mixed Media Place and their gorgeous mood board, also with a feel of a summer evening.



The mood board has some delicate white flowers and seeds, and I decided to decorate my ATCs with lily-of-the-valley shaped chipboards from Wycinanka.



Before glueing them in place, I gessoed the chipboards to make them completely white and heat embossed them with an embossing powder that has a particularly lovely golden white shade. It's called Angel Wings Gold by Lindy's Stamp Gang, and it is indeed white with a hint of gold. The colour was very hard to catch in the photos, I'm afraid. But try them if you get a chance. I only have a couple of Lindy's powders but they both are this kind, shining in two different colours and with a high gloss, enamel-looking finish.



At Art-Piaskownica, the challenge theme was Stamping.



The stamped part in my project are the dark blue leaves. I first stamped them on a tissue paper, tore pieces of it and glued them in place with acrylic medium.

I have previously used stamped tissue paper on my beeswax collages, and recently I realized they are a cool thing to add to other mixed media projects, too. The white tissue paper becomes invisible and the stamp shows very well, even on uneven surfaces where it would be harder to stamp directly. You can also prepare these papers in advance, if you feel like trying some new stamps but can't think of a project just then, for example.

Like this:



I'm also joining the challenges at

Craft Stamper: Anything Goes
and Mixed Media Monthly: Altered Embellishments

(For the Craft Stamper magazine, I hope my submission counts as one project, since this is a set of very similar cards. If I were so incredibly lucky to be picked as the winner, I do have three of the ATCs still left that I could mail for publication.)



A few more photos to follow...







I'll end today's post with the full set of 12 cards, photographed with my unfinished acrylic painting as background!



Thank you for popping in and commenting, as always. Welcome back next week to see another post with the cards I received in this Mixed Media Summer ATC swap!

Nature Prints Journal Spread

Hello, and happy new week to everyone!

My biggest inspiration of this year has been the year-long Wanderlust 2017 online class. I've started more projects than finished but at this point, this doesn't feel like a failure at all but instead one of the main teachings of the whole class so far.

When I feel good making art, the important thing is to do it as often as I can, and not count the finished projects. This goes at least for the kind of period as I have in my life right now - my to-do-list seems very full also without art deadlines and blog posts. The main thing I'm sorry for is that this has also meant neglecting my blog.

Anyway, today I have a Wanderlust inspired project to share!



A while ago the class theme was Nature Prints. Kasia Avery, the sweet and super talented main teacher of Wanderlust 2017, inspired us with a video of Gelli printing with objects from the nature.



I've used household items for Gelli printing before but hadn't thought of trying something like flowers or leaves. I got really hooked on it right away so I was lucky to have picked plenty of different leaves with the help of our three-year-old! It was a good idea to let them straighten overnight between a newspaper, under a weight of books or something.



I still have some of those leaves from a week ago but I suspect they may get too dry at some point, becoming more fragile, so I may want to gather new ones for my next prints.



The photo above is of the spread before adding the photo and the final touches.



I am also joining the challenges at Eclectic Ellapu: Everything Goes and Art-Piaskownica: Plant/Floral Motifs.



The last few photos are detail shots where you can get a better idea of the see-through beeswax technique!



I made my prints on tissue paper, wanting to try them for the beeswax collage technique I've done a lot lately. Beeswax technique is so special in how it leaves the different layers quite transparent, and I thought this might be the perfect way work with my nature prints!



I just realized I only have photos of the finished project and none of the individual prints. I have gotten the memory of my phone nearly full so I'm afraid I have to spend the rest of the afternoon organizing my photos. I'll post pics of the prints as soon as I have time!



Thank you so much for your visit!

Mixed Media Greenhouse ATCs

Hello springtime, flowers and greenery! To welcome the new season, I enjoyed joining a Greenhouse swap at ATCs for All. This was a mixed media swap and another cool twist was that the cards were to be actually house shaped. They were so much fun to make and I can't wait to see the returns I get!



I was inspired by the following challenges:

The Artistic Stamper: Springtime
Crazy-Lab: Spring Feeling
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Layer it Up!
We Love 2 Create: Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes



For the spring themed challenges, the inspiration is quite obvious, I guess! As for Simon's Layer it Up challenge, I actually tried something new with layering. I'll get back to that a bit further down!



In all the four cards, I began cutting the background and roof from different papers. I included both DIY papers, like Gelli prints, and scrapbook papers and magazine pages.



I then added collage elements like postage stamps, washi tape, magazine cuts...



And some colour with Gelatos and Crayola crayons.





And then to the last layer! I had done some stamping on tissue paper and other nearly see-through papers earlier this week. I've been wanting to build a pre-made stash for beeswax collage, which is where I have previously used stamping on tissue. The thing is that the paper becomes invisible with wet media, and only the stamping shows. This is a cool way to add stamping on surfaces where the stamping ink alone might not show very well, or might bleed, depending on what you're going to add next.



I usually only make beeswax collage when I can dedicate a whole day or longer stretch of time for it, since it takes a while to take the supplies out and clean afterwards. Mainly it is that I use the same ironing board that I use for clothers so I need to cover it properly before I get started. Anyway, I'm glad I thought of using the stamped tissue in another way! And acrylic medium worked in a similar way as beeswax - the paper seems to completely disappear.

Remember that for both beeswax and acrylic medium, the stamping ink has to be permanent! I always use Staz-On.



Thank you for your visit!

Beeswax ATCs in Detail

Hi again, and happy Sunday! I just realized I didn't include these detailed images in my Beeswax ATCs post on Friday, so here they are! (For more information, check also all earlier posts labeled Beeswax here.

I made these for a swap at ATCs for All, and kept also a few to myself, as I feel I have maybe kept a bit too few in the past.

However, cards number 3, 4 and 6 are still available for trade - if you're interested, just let me know either here in the comment section or on Facebook. I'm happy to trade!
Edit: All cards are traded now!

1 and 2




3 and 4


5 and 6


7 and 8




9 and 10


Thank you for coming to see my cards!

Beeswax ATCs with Chipboard

Hi! I'm participating in a napkin themed ATC swap at ATCs for All, and decided to make it beeswax collage again! I wanted to add something extra on my cards this time and chose to use pieces of this tiny heart patterned chipboard from Wycinanka. I painted the pieces black to begin with.



I cut smaller pieces from the chipboards, which would have been wiser to do before the painting, but I didn't. So I had to add paint onto the edges where I had cut. I then sorted suitable pieces for each card and used Glossy Accents glue to attach them.



I am also joining the Dimensions themed challenge at Mixed Media Monthly.

ATCs are a bit of a challenge in regard to 3D embellishments, if you swap them internationally like me and have to think of packing them for mailing. So I was super glad to realize these chipboard decorations from Wycinanka are thin enough for ATCs!



For more information on beeswax collage making, check this old post of mine and all the others under the label beeswax!





Thank you for looking and happy weekend, everyone!

Easter − Layout for Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge

Hi everyone, and happy April! The sketch at the new Scrap Africa Challenge inspired me to scrap a photo of our Easter decorations.



Here's the lovely sketch by Scrap Africa owner Denise van Deventer.



I am also joining the challenge at Scrapcraft.ru themed Wood and Decorative Tape.

I used wood in the embellishments − firstly, the heart that was silver coloured in the beginning but I sanded it to let the woodgrain show a bit more and inked the sides to suit my colour palette.



The bird I glued on the photo is also of wood veneer.



I'm not sure if it counts for the wood theme, but the challenge also inspired me to use birch bark! You can see it as a strip on the right side of the photo and in the die cut flower on the left side of the photo.













Here below is the photo I used in the layout so you can see it from a bit closer!

In Finland, willow twigs with decorations are a typical Easter thing to do. Feathers and flowers made of colourful tissue papers are the traditional ways to decorate the twigs, but I was using washi tape and eggs covered with foam clay. Those were super easy and fun to do with kids, by the way. Even pretty young ones, like our 2-year-old, was fine doing it with just a little help!



Thank you for looking in and Happy Springtime to each and everyone who's reading this!