Viva Las VegaStamps! DT Tryout

With this post, I'm applying to the Design Team at Viva Las VegaStamps! I like their funky and versatile stamps a lot so I'd really love to be a part of that team.

Here are three of my recent favourite stamped projects. The call is on until May 30th, in case someone else is interested!

Last Days of Disco Hand

At my favourite site ATCs for All, we’re also trading Hand Art, where you make your art on hand shaped pieces of cardboard. This one is for a trading friend who requested a Pink and Sparkly Hand.

The neon pink of my acrylic paint reminded me of the 1980’s fashion, and the combination of black lace and bright pink in particular. You know what I mean, if you remember Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan!



I wanted there to be a ring chained to a bracelet and knew I had exactly the stamp for that: Record Face On 1 1/2 x 1 1/2 I just got in the mail from VLVS! I stamped and heat embossed the row of vinyls on top of the lace glove I had printed with a stamp from Stampendous. The bracelet and attached ring are cut from star shaped punchinella ribbon, and the other rings are circle shaped die cuts from sparkly papers.

Mixed Media Medusa ATC

My favourite style in ATC cards is mixed media collage, and here’s a card I’m particularly happy with! She’s a Medusa, the Greek mythical character with a female face and snakes in place of her hair. Medusa’s look could turn the lookers to stone, and she can also be seen as a symbol of mistreated women’s anger. In the designer Versace’s logo, on the other hand, she is said to represent beauty, art and philosophy. A many faced figure, then!



The face stamp I used is from Lost Coast Designs. I stamped her on a piece of a map to add a bit of an edge to it. She comes from the dark underwater, after all! The background is painted with acrylics on a music sheet. For the snake skin pattern of the hair, I used punchinella as a stencil to spread Golden Modeling Paste from the German supplies brand Lukas.

Lady with a Snow Globe: Mixed Media Wall Art

This wall hanging is actually an altered book cover. I knew I wanted the focal image to be my new Lady with a Snow Globe from VLVS! But first of all, I wanted to make lots of layers.



This will be a present to a friend across the ocean, with whom we first became pen pals as young girls. With the postal theme in mind, I picked some used postage stamps and borders from airmail envelopes.

I also pasted a lace border at the bottom of the piece and small sun or star punch-outs here and there. The doodled flowers are patterned tissue paper decoupaged onto the background. Apart from them, the collage background does not show through much in the end, but I like how it gives depth to the piece anyway!



I gave the piece some gesso and several layers of acrylic paint and stamped a bit here and there before stamping and heat embossing the Lady.



Though she's actually looking at a snow globe, I think her face is so kind and knowing that she might also be a good fairy or fortune-teller visioning happy years for my friend on her birthday!

Lyhyesti suomeksi

Tällä kertaa tuli aika pitkä postaus ja pelkästään englanniksi. Uskaltauduin hakemaan Viva Las VegaStamps! -merkin Design Teamiin ja toivottu hakemusmuoto oli blogipostaus kolmesta parhaasta tai parhaiten tyyliään kuvaavasta leimailuprojektista. Seuraavalla kertaa kirjoittelen taas suomeksikin!

Hand Art, Part II

These are for a Pick-a-Theme swap at ATCs for All. It means the recipients of the cards have chosen the themes for me to make, and they were Birds, Native American and Odd Colored Giraffes! The last wish was indeed so odd that I sort of had to draw it myself, didn't think I'd find an image elsewhere. But it was a good challenge and in the end the Giraffe is the one I'm happiest with!

The green background is painted with acrylics and the earth yellow one is made with industrial liquid watercolours. Before applying the watercolour, the pattern was embossed with white wax crayon with an industrial steel plate under the paper.

Your hand can be in any position when you draw it, and this time I tried to take advantage of the unusual shapes of the hand cards!







Käden kuvia, osa II

Nämä kädet tein ATCs for All -yhteisön vaihtoon, jossa vastaanottaja sai määrätä aiheen. Vaikein aihe oli Kummallisen värinen kirahvi, mutta tästä kortista tulikin lopulta suosikkini! Halusin näissä töissä myös hyödyntää sen, että käden voi piirtää missä asennossa tahansa.

Vihreä tausta on tehty akryylimaaleilla. Keltainen on maalattu nestemäisillä vesiväreillä paperille, johon on ensin raaputettu valkoista vahaliitua kohokuvioidun pellin päällä. Peltitekniikan neuvoi Soili Kokkonen Helsingin työväenopiston kurssillaan.

Hand Art

Do you remember, as a child, tracing your hands on paper and then coloring and cutting them out? This seems quite popular, as are all kinds of little keepsakes with children's handprints. Why are we so attracted to hand art, I wondered. With children, it's probably because handprints are such concrete memories of that particular moment. But we grown ups can enjoy leaving our handprints, too, so why not try hand art! These are also being traded like ATCs.



The background for both hands is napkins glued with white gesso, and the Christmas hand has some more layers of paper scraps and stenciling. I got myself the embossing heat tool for Christmas, and used that on the poinsettia. Young Frida Kahlo has a background of one single napkin that looks like patchwork, and frames made of a rub-on.



Kädenjälkiä

Muistatko, piirrettiinkö sinun lapsuudessasi käden ääriviivoista kuvioita, jotka sitten väritettiin ja leikattiin? Moni on tehnyt tätä, ja vielä tutumpaa on lasten kädenjälkien painaminen kortteihin ja pikku lahjoihin. Mietin, mikähän niissä käsissä niin viehättää − lasten kohdalla kai ainakin se, että kädenjälki on konkreettinen muisto ohimenevästä hetkestä, jolloin se on tehty. Mutta näitä on kiva tehdä ja tallentaa oma kädenjälkensä aikuisenakin, huomasin! Opin äskettäin, että näitä myös vaihdellaan ATC-korttien tavoin, ja innostuin kokeilemaan.

Molempien käsien taustakerroksena on gesson päälle liimattuja servettejä. Joulukädessä on kerroksia enemmänkin, sabluunapainantaa sekä erilaisia papereita revittyinä ja ympyräleikkurilla leikattuina. Ostin itselleni kuumailmapuhaltimen joululahjaksi etukäteen, ja sitä testailin joulutähtileimasimella. Frida Kahlon nuoruudenkuvan taustana on tilkkutäkkikuvioista servettiä, josta tuli gessolla aika pastelli kontrastiksi mustavalkokuvalle. Kuvan kehykset on leikattu siirtokuvasta.