Nefarious

Here's my take for the current Art Journal Caravan's challenge. The inspiration word was nefarious which means wicked or criminal.

I wanted to make the image shiny and beautiful but still add some tension there too. There's a shadow for every light and sometimes it is difficult to keep the good and the bad far from each other.

Mixed Media Collage, Some Phases

Here's how this evening's creative time began: random alcohol ink spots on a paper.

Some layers were drawn on the computer and printed as layers. And some doodling by pens is a necessity for me to get really started!

I have recently been pretty obsessed about the composition. I used to aim for balance only but now I have began to want more. 

Here's the finished collage which I intend to include in a new art journal.

Digital Flow State

Here's a digital art journal page that I made for Art Journal Caravan's weekly challenge. The theme was "Machination".

I wanted to make a page with interesting asymmetric composition with both geometric and free shapes. As always I started with a plain white background and started adding my own digitalised elements and photos. While creating the page I thought about how powerful the nature is. It truly is the biggest machine of all and the greatest source of imagination!

Many people say they work with computers and do not want to create anything with them in their free time. So did I. But within time I have noticed that it is more the question of if you really can get into the flow state on a computer or not. For me, the big thing was to get to know the program very well (I use mostly Adobe Photoshop). After that I have been able to forget the tool and concentrate on creating.

Photo Album Art Journaling

I have tried to find easy ways to do art journal pages when I only have little time for it. I had a couple of small empty photo albums so I thought why not! People already scrapbook by inserting photos and journal cards to photo pockets so there's not much difference to that!

These are all 4 by 6 inches pages!I do still art journal in bigger size too. Here's a new page for my "pretty art journal". I think it goes fairly well with the page I made earlier.

And here are some greeting cards that I have made recently. The world really is full of color and that inspires me every day!

Getting Creative With Gel Printing Plate

I have been playing with some new toys. Gelli Arts gel printing plate and an electronic die cutter Silhouette Cameo. I made background papers by using die cut shapes and several layers of paint.

This one could work as a pattern itself:

The next one is a bit brighter:

The last one is a collage that has monoprinted papers in the background.While making this I realized that my love for fiber arts really shows in many of my collages. I think is like embroidered lace. But that was not what I was thinking about when making this. I thought about the creativity we all have and that we should cherish. It's always there waiting. Just let loose!

Handmade Collections

I like to keep things organized. Art and crafting supplies included. I like neat compartments and piles and putting everything into its own place. This summer has been really rainy and cold in Finland. So I have got a lot of time for organizing!

I browsed the photos that I have taken the past couple of months and I see grids and piles in most of them. Even the cards that I have made are showing the strict order. Another things that I see there are collections, all handmade. I have grown the flowers from the seeds, picked the berries and potatoes from my garden, dyed the yarn, carded the wool ... The pictures from summer are like well organized shelves in my house.

There was a time when I was desperately avoiding grid patterns in my art. The free and flowing line surely is the sign of creative spirit. I wanted nothing to do with symmetry or squares.

Now that I have found some of the freedom I was seeking for, I get the permission from myself to space the small circles evenly instead of throwing them to the background. It is like in knitting I tried not to knit simple patterns to learn the complicated ones. Nowadays after tens of years of knitting I enjoy simple projects the most. Sometimes it's laziness but most often it's being able to do something more from the less of stuff. 

The last picture is a simple neckwarmer that I made. I started with the carded roving, handspun the yarn, then dyed it, and finally knitted the piece using a simple pattern. It's not like the most ingenous knitwear ever but it has a story unlike many store-bought items do.

Still Playing?

I read this from the editor's column of the Finnish handcraft magazine Taito: The girls that make hobby horses and play with them did not want to be interviewed for the magazine. They thought that they would be considered too childish. The magazine is a very respectable one and it is an honor to be interviewed for it. Actually, many handcrafters dream about it!

But that was not the reason I was touched deeply by the fact why the girls refused. I love hobby horses. I do not own any now but used to when I was a little girl. I rode with my horse every day. And my best girlfriend had one too. I even made a scrapbook page about the horses a while ago.

I would have loved reading about this hobby and how it is today when it's easier to find others who love the horses too!

I was about to write to the magazine: "Try harder! Make the girls say yes!"

But then I remembered a moment, just few months ago, when I was interviewed to the very same magazine by the very same editor. She wanted to take photographs of the doll clothes I make and sell. "NO", I said. "People think I am crazy. They don't understand!"

My dolls must have been very upset by that. They are fashion models in their heart anyway!

I began to think where does the playing end and the serious stuff start. I remember that when my childhood friend and I grew, our play with the horses became more secretive. We tried to ride so that no one sees us. It became pretty stressful. We had to give up.

But the funny thing is that when I grew I went back to playing. And I know that most of you who read art and craft blogs have done the same.


If you don't collect the dolls like I do, I bet you have put clothes on an art doll, or a paper doll or a digital image. Maybe you have made illustrations with women's faces like when you used to as a child. We might not ride with the hobby horses anymore but we surely play in our own way. Picking the pretty colors, buying ink, making something that is really not that useful and where the end result actually does not matter so much.

Like what I did today. Cut a head of a fashion model from an old Vogue magazine and doodled a dress. Thinking: is the world of play black and white. I claim it is not. Whether a child or an adult, we all play. I hope the girls with the hobby horses realize this sooner than I did!

Tell me, how do you play? What makes you play?