Two Sides of Digital Creativity

My new website has been published and the blog has moved to the new address.

Check it out: www.peonyandparakeet.com

The location of the new blog: www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog

And a new blog post is up! Go to the new blog to see it: Two Sides of Digital Creativity

From Art Journaling To Fabric Design

My new website has been published and the blog has moved to the new address.

Check it out: www.peonyandparakeet.com

The location of the new blog:

www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog

And a new blog post is up!

Go to the new blog to see it:

From Art Journaling To Fabric Design

Yearning for Beauty

My new website has been published and the blog has moved to the new address.
Check it out: www.peonyandparakeet.com

The location of the new blog:
www.peonyandparakeet.com/blog

And a new blog post is up!
Go to the new blog to see it:
Yearning for Beauty

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!

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?

Digital Art Journaling Hit Me!

It really hit me hard: digital art journaling! I have enjoyed digital scrapbooking for quite a while but now I have tried digital art journaling. Oh, I love it!

Part of the enjoyment has been Tangie Baxter's Art Journal Caravan which I joined few days ago. She organizes challenges that really challenge both intellectual and creative sides of the brain.

I know that there are digital art journaling elements for sale as digital scrapbooking supplies but I have a huge strorage of my own stuff so these are all my own copyright. 

The challenge: Impervious. My interpretation: Impervious to sadness.

The challenge: Game of Life. My interpretation: The checkers game with the logical and the intuitive parts of me. 

The challenge: Apolaustic. My interpretation deals with the controversal issues of the word.

There's a Little Girl In All of Us

Have you ever wondered why women's faces are so popular theme in mixed media and collage? For example Suzi Blu's book Mixed Media Girls has not even published yet and it's already high in ranking at Amazon.

I know the answer why drawing faces is so popular. It is getting back to the state where women where little girls. I was not a big fan of dolls when I was a child but still - I loved my paper dolls. And I also drew faces on small pieces of paper and gave them names!

So no wonder I still draw faces occasionally when I want to be playful. This page is for my "Pretty Art Journal" and it is about women loving drama with historical costumes. "The drama stays the same even if the centuries vary" I wrote here and made the text be part of her hair!

Masking Tape Magic

This is the old blog from Peony and Parakeet. 
Welcome to follow the new blog at www.peonyandparakeet.com
This post is also found in the new blog, go to: 
http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/masking-tape-magic/

While reading the morning paper I saw this painting from Paivi Takala. It is made using masking tapes. Masking tapes! Surely I can do something for my art journal with them ...

I made a page about Japan and wrote how I love all the tiny stuff they produce from bonsai trees to small boxes. Instead of layering with paint I used masking tape.

Here are some snapshots from the process.

Here you can see the masking tapes and how I have doodled over them. I started with black marker and color pencils.

Then I added some glitter paint.

Now I have removed the tape.

Here's the final page again. I have filled some of the areas with handdrawn patterns but used most for journaling. Will definitely used this technique again!

Pretty Art Journaling

This is the old blog from Peony and Parakeet. 
Welcome to follow the new blog at www.peonyandparakeet.com
This post is also found in the new blog, go to: 
http://www.peonyandparakeet.com/pretty-art-journaling/

I have started to wonder: is there only one style in art journaling? Is it only for those who are ready to explore with paint and who are not afraid of getting messy. And scrapbooking: is it about using commercial products and aiming for pretty pages?

Can't there be pretty art journaling?

I bought this pink Smash book some time ago. The pages were so pretty I could not put any mess over them. And my style of making scrapbooks was not suitable for them either. But after getting fed up with messy mixed media, I dared to open it and just make it pretty!

So why not glue all the pretty stuff to your art journal? Add lace and frills and anything you find beautiful!

I added both commercial products and my own handdecorated papers to the page. Even my handwriting is a bit more controlled than how I usually write.

Happy journaling!

Using Hand Decorated Papers

A greeting card, available at Etsy

One of the most popular posts in my blog is How To Make Your Own Patterned Paper. If you have made some, I want to encourage to use those!

Or buy some that I have printed from my artwork, available at Etsy!

In one of the previous posts, I gave a glimpse of an art journal that I made recently. I want to show better pictures this time! In this journal I have combined my artsy photos with the papers, some printed, some originals.

I hope you enjoyed the art journal!

Sneak Peek

If you have followed me on Twitter, you know I have been preparing for the craft fair in Helsinki like crazy. Have a sneak peek with these photos!

The Biggest Challenge in Any Art

I have started to believe this: the biggest challenge in making art is to relax and let go. No need for stiff lines or regular shapes. That's my rule anyway.

Today I was not feeling relaxed at all. So I created a mental wall, trying to assure it's safe to doodle whatever comes to my mind. I think the protective attitude shows in the result but it does not really bother me too much.

When making these collages, I try to be quick and not to calculate too much. I love fast strokes as they leave no time for consideration. Lately I have started to concentrate more on the intuitivity of the process than the plan that I am going to accomplish. It gives me so much pleasure when I am not analyzing every move.

I have noticed that art journaling is becoming more and more popular. No wonder. It is something not to be taken too serious. And what I have seen, people are often more successful in their fast made sketched pages than in their really serious canvas paintings. It is a bit ironic sometimes but that is art: relax and let go!

Art Journaling With Bad Taste

I have many strict rules. Let's just say my mother was strict and I inherited the personality. However, there is a little rebel inside me. Today, I got this stupid idea of cutting letters from magazines and incorporate them to my art journal. I tried to get rid of the thought of ruining all my handmade papers by glueing cheap lettering on them.

If you have read art journaling literature you recognize that I had a conversation with my "Inner Critic". I strongly believe in inner criticism and I am actually pretty fond of my Inner Critic. She always knows what's best for me and the life with her is very simple: toss toss toss away... No second thoughts.

But today I had the day off from work and my Inner Critic was feeling lazy too. So I did it, grabbed the scissors and chose carelessly the words "Talo" (house) and "Valo" (light). It sounded like a small poem and suited to my mood as I was enjoying our new home and all the light that comes through its huge windows.

Needless to say the page did not really satisfy my Inner Critic. But as it was made to a Moleskine journal and it was difficult to tear the page off without breaking up the journal, she decided that the page would be treated as an evidence of bad taste that anybody can have in their weak moments.

Colorful Music

This art journal page is called "This is how I see the music". It is inspired by my favorite artist Tracy Chapman. For me, music is a very visual experience. I see lines, shapes and colors when I listen to it.

Speaking of Tracy Chapman, I made a scrapbooking layout last summer about me listening to her music. This was my very first digi layout, the template is by Cathy Zielske.

Scrap Journaling

Ok, I confess, am more and more into art journaling when speaking of paper crafting. I do still love scrapbooking, the whole non-commercial and commercial ascpect of it. But spending a day buying scrapbooking stuff and scrapbooking in a crop at the annual scrapbooking event in Helsinki, made me get back to basics. I realized that the best shop I can ever find is the one I am able to keep for myself.

I imagined walking into an art journaling shop where I have hundreds of little circled packed in cellophane bags. Would I like to pick the spring colored ones or the mix with the handmade buttons? Or perhaps I would like to browse background papers, all neatly arranged and made by ... me! This shop would be me-me-me, I-I-I, and perhaps something made by a friend, an artist that I love, but all handmade, and in components, ready to be scrapped ... I mean art journaled or put into a collage!

I woke up early in the morning, eager to start the manufacturing process. I began creating circles, flowers, leaves and backgrounds. And found some handmade buttons as well. I did not have the time to make something from textiles and yarns, I was too excited to get to the buying mode. Well, this shop had great service and everything was free, it was easy pick up all the pieces needed.

Then I could not hold myself anymore. More is more! Well, this is what you get when you get overboard with shopping!

What if your scrapbbook and art journal would be almost the same thing ...

Tell me what you think? Did you get the idea?

The Last Page

Here's the last page of my first ever art journal. I am little worried about the lack of text in the last journal pages. Also, should I use more realistic illustrations? I guess there are no rules in art journaling but I still want to question and seek my way in it!