Weird People

A page for the deco booklet "My Family".

There's no real Cousin Cathy and it's not snowing in Finland yet. I sometimes enjoy making these weird imaginary people by following Claudine Hellmuth's concept. You just need to paint the background, then cut a head and finally add some clothes from small leftover paper scraps.

This is the first time I participate Theme Thursday. The theme is script writing. I had a script stamp that looks a bit like crochet, especially if it's laid diagonally like in the hat.

Back to Claudine Hellmuth. If you consider purchasing her book, I would recommend the sceond one, Collage Discovery Workshop - Beyond the Unexpected. It is all about making weird people and does not require much skills, the concept is more about imagination.

New Envelope for the Vintage Card

An old postcard with a new envelope.

I love old postcards and collect them for my collages. I had to make a birthday card and came up with the idea of using both the original card and the copy of it. First I made an envelope using one of Elle's Studio free templates. Then I made the background for the card and fold it in half. I designed and printed the back side of the card based on the original picture. I use Adobe Photoshop for processing images.

Back side of the card and the envelope.

After this project, I am quite excited about envelopes. They can be great backgrounds for collage work.

Sarah Kay and Her Relatives

The front page of the deco "Sarah Kay".

I was a child in the 70s and teenager in the 80s. Sarah Kay was very popular that time. Now, when her drawings are making a come back, I find them so appealing, mostly because of the nostalgia connected to them. I could not resist buying a couple of Sarah Kay stamps in the summer and I still love to use them.

I also think there's a lot of patchwork style in Sarah Kay. I have been quilting for tens of years and find all those calico fabrics so sweet and pretty.

A small quilt presenting Sunbonnet Sue.

Here's a photo of one of the little quilts I made over 10 years ago. I find Sunbonnet Sue very similar to Sarah Kay characters.

Another character of the 70s is Holly Hobbie. She has been modernized nowadays but the original Holly Hobbie is definitely a cousin to Sunbonnet Sue and Sarah Kay's characters. Very cute, wearing cotton dresses and big hats.

Summer Memories

A page for the deco booklet "Summer Feelings"

As I am so inspired by scrapbooking at the moment, I wanted to make a deco page using an old photo from my photo album. First, I scanned the faded photo taken in 1972. There's me and the biggest carrot of the summer! Then, I decorated the page with the papers and cut outs from my stash. I used mostly papers that I have painted myself, some with watercolors, some with acrylic paints. Even if I do buy papers for my papercrafting projects, I find it difficult to get the similar strong effects and hues what hand painted papers can hold.

In The Garden

The front page of the deco "In The Garden".

I love tulips and this spring I had some exceptionally beautiful ones. I made a deco booklet where my tulips are at the front page. First I painted the background with watercolors. Then I printed some of my photos on the watercolor printing paper and made the collage. Home made polymer clay bead finishes this little booklet.

Four Seasons

A glimpse of my newest bag, still unfinished. It's about trees and seasons and quite big. I was supposed to make small bags for Christmas, but got this so tempting idea and after some sketching I just had to start it!

I also have a new blog called Peony and Parakeet. It is about papercrafting. I have been especially keen on collage work and such for the last three years.

And like there's not enough to do with all the hobbies and the rest of the life, I just got a message from France that the spinning wheel I've ordered is now on its way to Finland. How exciting!

From Vintage to Cuttlebug

A page for the deco booklet "Unthemed".

I make a lot of vintage style collage. Here's one with a copy of an old photograph found at my family's old photo album. I do not know if she was one of my father's girlfriends or who - my parents have passed away and there aren't many notes in the album. A long time ago my mother told me that after she married my father she found a pile of women's photos. She finally decided not to throw away the potraits, but to glue them on a photo album. They weren't hers, after all.

From the vintage to the very modern: I have a Cuttlebug! It came just a couple of days ago. I love it! How did I ever managed to do without? The only thing that is bothering me: the cost of the cutting dies! I only bought few and am already desperate to get more more!

Peony and Parakeet now at Bloglovin

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Starting with Tea

A page for the deco booklet "Tea".

I became so inspired by scrapbookers' blogs that I wanted to join the papercrafting community by starting the blog of my own. I am more of a deco swapper than scrapbooker but I think we have a lot in common. The major differences are that my pages are usually smaller, post card size and I do not always use photographs.

The name of this blog originates from my other hobbies. I love peonies and enjoy gardening. I also have pets, including two budgies. Some may also find resemblance to my other blog, Kukkilintu, where "kukki" is very similar to a finnish word "flower" and "lintu" is a finnish word for "bird".

Kukkilintu in Bloglovin

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Inspired by nature with Faberge

Here's a detail of one of my collages, it just suits the theme of this post so well! Yes, the theme is Faberge. This is all about the the company who originates from the House of Faberge, which made the famous decorative eggs. As many of you might know, the famous Carl Peter Faberge's family currently live in Finland and thus most Finns are very familiar with the beautiful pieces made in the House of Faberge in Russia in the 19th century.

I was not going to write so much about the history but the present time. I read about the morning newspaper that the company called Faberge has been bought buy a man who really believes in handcrafting luxury items and he has changed the concept of the company greatly from what it has been lately. The new products of Faberge are displayed on the internet only. If you are interested in any of these luxury items starting from 40 000 dollars, the items will be delivered to you personally. This goes a way further like having the sales person fly over to you but I do not explain any further, I am sure that those of you who consider purchasing will find out the necessary details ....

Talking about the products: they are beautiful, I love them! My ultimate day dream would be designing for Faberge! They are filled with little jewels, have strange forms, a lot of details and they all represent nature: flowers, birds ... I assume few people might think they are a bit overwhelming. I think they are just wonderful!

I also love the intro of their web site. It is an animation with hand drawn fairy tale like characters. You would never imagine that the company of luxury jewellery would use a naive story like that to market themselves. But it really works and is just a reminder that in design sometimes breaking the rules can lead to an amazing result. All in all, go and see the rabbits and brooches on Faberge.com.