Doodling, sewing and photographing

The front page of the deco "Flower Doodles".


I have been doodling a lot lately. It seems that the more I make drawings at my day job, the more I want to grab the pen on my spare time too.



A Greeting Card.


I have also been really excited about using little pieces of paper for paper patchwork. In this card I have combined both doodling and patchwork. It is so much fun to "sew" with the pen!



A page for the Free Expression deco.


Third thing that I am so into right now is photographing. I am currently attending an online photographing course called Picture Spring. Taking photos each day is a good way to study light and it really has had an impact on my collage work as well. The course lasts the whole April and if you want to follow my shoots, bookmark my Picture Spring folder at Flickr.

Feelings About Fabric

Sometimes I think that the life is about fabric. It is like a the mother of all materials. Those who sew collect fabric. Those who prefer knitting to sewing make their own fabric. And you can even make fabric from fabric, by quilting that is.

The fat quarters of the fabric I have designed from my hand knits were sold out for a short while, but now I have added them again to my Etsy shop. I could not resist taking a photo of them, they looked so bright and so Scandinavian.

Some may remember the hedgehog bag I made quite a long time ago. I got a request of the hedgedog bag and had just enough fabric to replicate it. I do not buy huge quantities of fabric in time, so it is often difficult to fulfill requests where an old bag should be replicated.

My next project is to design a bag inspired by Sirkka Könönen, a Finnish textile artist. If you do not know her, I can tell you that she is a real artist in stranded knitting and colorwork. I would call her Finnish Kaffe Fasset! Have a look at one of her cardigans. It is going to be so much fun to get inspiration of her work!

Speaking of fabric, check out the recent post in my papercrafting blog Peony and Parakeet where I have used pen as a needle and paper as fabric. Happy sewing, everyone!

Small Wonders of Everyday Life

A scrap book page "Hearts in Everyday Life"

I am taking part of the weeks Inspiroidu challenge with this layout. The challenge was to make a page showing life's wonders. I think that the everyday life is filled with little things that really make life wonderful. The patterned papers used here are from Bella Blvd and Cosmo Cricket.

More Cards

I have really enjoyed making cards. Here are a couple of the new ones.

Flowers and Poems

A Greeting Card.

I have made quite a few cards lately. This one is very flowery with a poem, again. The poem talks about flowers on the path:

Kukkia polulla,

sydämen matkalla.

For me making cards with little poems is returning to the old fashioned world of girl novels like L.M. Montgomery's books. I find that world so enchanting.

Style Talk

A Birthday Card.

This is a birthday card that I have made for my sister. I also wrote the poem. It is in Finnish and tells about a ladybug who wishes for summer to come:

Juhlapäivänä lennähtää kädelle kerttu.

Sanoo se olevansa Kevään serkku.

Kukilta kuulleet terveiset toistaa:

ONNEA ja Kesä jo tuokaa.

Bella Blvd stamps and patterned papers look so cheerful and bright. I love Bella Blvd stuff more and more every day, it really fits my style.

Talking about style, I read Omuli's blog post and watched Stacy's video about personal scrapping style. It made me analyze my own style. First, I have questioned it only once. That was when I was in the beginning of my designer studies and thought everything has to be plain and simple and felt that my own style was too complicated. Soon after that I realized that what I design at work does not have to restrict my free expression when I am off.

My style is very detailed, colorful and well ... full. I love to add small dots and lines everywhere. I try to make good use of contrasts in colors and often have design elements that have very different origins. There are two major things in the past that have affected my style. First was icon painting course took when I was 10 years old. That introduced strong colors to me. Another was learning how to make patchwork with fabric. I was around 20 then and it really has affected the way how I like little details to match with each other. I am also fascinated by materials and get many ideas by watching materials and their relation to another.

My goal is to make balanced pages where there's a lot to look. After seeing Alfonse Mucha's exhibition some years ago I have tried to adjust elements in a way that there's a distinct path for the eye to travel.

If I had to name one supply that I cannot be without, that would be my marker pens. I think that using them really adds the necessary assymmetry and vividness to the pages. Another thing that I favor is white correction fluid. I use it to add bright white color to the page and it really works better than any artistic acrylic paint.

My latest tool: Corner Chomper

Recently I have purchased a new tool: a corner chomper. Big tool that does not do much, but really adds the finished look. It makes the corners round and it's so cool to have neatly rounded corners!

One Summer There Was a Puppy ...

A scrapbook page "One Summer There Was a Puppy..."

I am taking part of Inspiroidu scrapbook challenge with this layout. This is the first time I use stenciling and Glimmer Mist spray in my pages. These photos have been taken years ago but I do not mind scrapping about things in the past. Actually, I really enjoyed spending time with these puppy photos of my beagle Cosmo.