Retro cards and art courses

Making cards again... This time I used old pictures and ads from 1950's and 1960's magazines. They had a lovely sepia tone, which I love so much. There's a pause in my crochet projects, because I had to order some more yarn.


Next two weeks I'm going to be busy busy busy. I'll be teaching art courses for children. The first week will include ceramics, paper sculpture, painting and lino block printing. Sounds fun, but I'm also a bit nervous. I hope there'll be no bad injuries from lino cutting, especially for the younger kids. The students' age vary from 8 to 15 years. Quite a range!

The other week will be about computer graphics. We'll learn some scanning and image processing, basic stuff really. Children can use their own drawings and paintings, add text, turn them into posters and do different layouts. We'll see how it goes.

Little amigurumis

Making one of these little amis from Ana Paula's book takes me only a couple of hours. It's fun, I can make many of them, use leftover yarns and play with the colors. They are about 6-8cm tall each. I was missing plastic eyes, so I gave my creatures embroidered ones.


Crocheter also needs a coffee break, and a yarn muffin.

New books!

I've been yearning for these books and now I finally went and ordered them from here. They arrived very quickly and I absolutely love them all! These collage books by Gerald Brommer and Claudine Hellmuth are very informative and comprehensive. I especially like Brommer's book because it has more of a fine art style approach to collage. Hellmuth's book is more casual and sweet, and it also gives very clear and inspiring instructions to different technicues.


Ana Paula Rimoli's book is a real cutie, and all the crochet patterns are very easy to understand and follow. I can't wait to get my hands on yarns and hooks. Chee... my hands look ugly in the photos by the way.

Anna and Virginia

TMTA had a lovely theme this week: Women in art. I couldn't choose from two of my favourite women in literarure, so as a compromise, I made two atc's. Anna Akhmatova is a great Russian poet and Virginia Woolf is one of the most interesting modern novelists of England. I've always been very inspired by these women, their work, their personality, and also their tragic and melancholic lives.

The elegant profile pictures of these ladies are image transfers. I added some crayons and used metal leaf as their crowns, although the scanned images don't show the golden glow properly.

Cards and pretty images

I've been making some cards using images from here. Except the one card above left, which has a stamped face from Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps. I just recently found this wonderful Graphics Fairy blog that offers free vintage clip art images. And what comes to the terms of using their pictures, they are an Angel Company. It means you can use the images also in projects for resale - within reason of course.

Day 10/10: On the sea

We've come to the last day of this great challenge. Thank you Jaana for organizing this again! My sailor here is looking for land even though he's standing on the shore. He's kind of lost it.

Ollaan tultu tämän mainion haasteen viimeiseen päivään. Kiitoksia Jaanalle kun taas jaksoit järjestää tälläisen! Merimies tässä etsiskelee maata, vaikka seisookin parhaillaan rannalla... mennyt kai ihan sekaisin.

Day 9/10: By car

Cars aren't really my thing. I don't even own one. But again, for some funny reason, I've saved these old pictures of Porsche and Mercedes, and now they found their final places.

Autot eivät varsinaisesti ole minun juttuni, en edes omista sellaista. Mutta taas olen jostain kumman syystä säästänyt nämä kaksi vanhaa autonkuvaa, ja nyt ne sitten onnekkaasti löysivät tarkoituksensa.

Day 8/10: Emperor

I've had this picture of Louis XVI lying around for a long time, just waiting for the right occasion to be used. Well here it is. I embellished it a bit, but kept it quite simple.

Tämä Ludwig XVI:n kuva on pyörinyt nurkissani jo jonkun aikaa odotellen sopivaa käyttötarkoitusta. Tässäpä sellainen nyt olisi. Hieman koristelin, mutta kaikenkaikkiaan pidin sen aika yksinkertaisena.

Day 7/10: Romance

This gentleman has bought his dame a bottle of Eau de Cologne. She is mesmerized by love, or maybe it's the strong and perky smell of the 4711 that got her head spinning.

Tämä herra on ostanut daamilleen pullon Eau de Colognea. Leidi on aivan lumoutunut rakkaudesta, tai ehkäpä kölninveden pirtsakka tuoksu on vain saanut hänen päänsä pyörälle.

Day 6/10: Dangerous temptation

I skipped one day, but here I go again. Presenting a dramatic love triangle; Christian fell in love with another woman and poor Linda was left alone. Love can be dangerous indeed.

Yksi päivä jäi väliin, mutta nyt olen kehissä jälleen. Tässä onkin sitten kolmiodraama meneillään; Christian rakastui toiseen naiseen ja Linda-rukka jäi yksin. Rakkaus se vasta vaarallista onkin.

Day 4/10: Friday's salvation

Miss Fortune was kind and there was luck in games this Friday. The bingo sheet I used here is received from yellow house alice.

Neiti Onnetar oli suosiollinen ja tänä perjantaina oli onnea pelissä. Tuon bingokupongin olen saanut yellow housen alicelta.

Day 3/10: Happened once by the river...

This was an interesting theme. Somehow my card turned out very darkish, it's more like a PJ Harvey kind of river. And what are these guys doing there? Something shady?

Tämäpä olikin kiinnostava aihe. Jotenkin tuosta kortistani tuli vain kovin synkeä, vähän sellainen PJ Harvey-tyyppinen joki. Ja mitäs nämä tyypit sitten puuhailevat tuolla? Jotain hämärää kenties?

Day 2/10: Light Spring Dance

Yey, there's a new ten-day-atc-challenge by Jaana! Actually it already started yesterday, but I missed it. Today's theme is Light Spring Dance, and I'm in now. I used this lovely couple you might remember from my earlier atc. The Mrs has a shorter haircut here though.

Kivaa! Jaana julisti taas uuden kymmenen päivän atc-haasteen. Eilinen eli ensimmäinen päivä hurahti tosin minulta täysin ohi, mutta nyt olen jo juonessa mukana. Tänään aiheena siis Kevyt Kevättanssi. Innostuin taas käyttämään tätä jo aiemmasta kortistani tutuksi tullutta pariskuntaa. Rouvalla on tässä kylläkin hieman lyhyempi kampaus.

Sweet summer reading

I'm reading Moominpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson. I think there's some deep wisdom of life included in all the Moomin books, although they're categorized as children's reading. This book is particularly charming, because there's a mysterious and isolated island, a lighthouse, beautiful seahorses, the horrible groke and of course the sweet Moomin family. Elements of a Great Story indeed.


The simple black and white illustrations are also magical.