Recipe Challenge! Or How You Can Find Inspiration In Everything.

Yes, it’s time for the weekly challenge card! The theme is a recipe: 3 designer papers, ribbon or twine, something circle shaped and we were asked to use an image from Delicious Doodle.

I requested the Robin Redbreast (who is a distant relative of me, Niina Itchynipple) and had some (a lot) trouble with the colouring. As you have seen in the past, my colouring skills leave a lot to be desired. I haven’t even begun to scratch the surface on what I could do with my ProMarkers. However, this time I couldn’t even decide what colours to use! I tried realistic colours. Nope. I tried leaving the image black and white. No, that didn’t work out either. I was getting frustrated. I stared and stared at the image until I suddenly got a feeling of familiarity. I’ve seen something like this before!

I did some creative Googleing and found it! A fabric print by Maija Louekari for Marimekko called Pakkanen:

See where I am going with this? After seeing the image, my card came together very quickly and here it is:

  My patterned papers are: the one on the background, the black paper is actually brown chevron I stained black and the blue circles were white but I coloured them blue with my ProMarker True Blue. The heart on the ribbon (twill tape) is also drawn with a ProMarker, colour Poppy.

I love the graphic style of this card and it’s already on its way to someone. Don’t forget to take part in this week’s challenge on Craft Your Passion where you can win 4 digi’s by Delicious Doodles. I’m also sharing this card in following challenges:

Crafty Sentiments Designs Challenge Blog: Snowflakes!
Creative Inspirations: Challenge #193- Contemporary Christmas Colours!
Simon Says Stamp Challenge: What’s Your Favourite? (ProMarkers, stitching, ribbon)
Divas By Design: Challenge #65- Use Some Red
C.R.A.F.T. Challenge: #185- Winter
Dutch Dare Card Challenges: #195- Snowflakes
Pin And Tack: Spark Your Creativity Now! Challenge #4-Anything Goes!
Paper Crafting Journey: Christmas Projects
Stamptacular Sunday Challenge: #194- Christmas Time!
The Squirrel and The Fox: Challenge #33- Christmas
Challenges 4 Everybody: Challenge #9- Anything Goes

It literally has taken me nearly an hour to link these babies up. I think I need to replenish my strength with some chocolate.

Related articles

• doodlin’ (givemeadaisy.com)
• Oh Deer! (thriftyfinn.wordpress.com)
• Deconstruction: Marimekko – Art of Printmaking Since 1951 (design-milk.com)
• A Conversation with Marimekko CEO Mika Ihamuotila (apartmenttherapy.com)

My Pinterest

The best time waster known to mankind; Pinterest. Oh, how I love thee. I’m quite frugal when it comes to pinning, or at least I like to think I am. At this moment I have 641 pins, on 20 boards and my biggest guilty pleasure are food pins. The more calories the better! There’s just something about nicely done food photography that makes you reach for the pin button, don’t you think? Also, lot of my pins are from my old Tutorials- bookmark folder, as I feel that Pinterest is more logical place to store those, especially when the tutorial was in a blog I didn’t feel like adding to my RSS-reader.

I feel like a junkie or an alkie explaining why their addiction is under their control and how it is NOT affecting their lives.

 Lot of bloggers lately have been discussing about Pinterest in their blogs, wondering what it does to productivity and creativity. Gathering inspiration is a good thing and thanks to internet, we can get inspired by anything, anytime and any where in the world but when does the gathering take the final steps to hoarding? Have I already passed the line? Do I have good friends that would tell me on that I’m one step away from appearing on Hoarders?

Oh dear.

My Sweet Edibles board has 93 pins in it and one of my cookbooks has a couple of hundred recipes, of which I only use a handful. The food board, on the other hand, has only recipes I’ve personally chosen because they appeal to my tastes. So clearly the food pins are not clutter. Then again, do I need a board named Gowns when there’s a not even a remote chance I’d be invited to a black tie event within next year or two? But then if removed that board, following that logic, I should stop buying any kind of design magazine as well. Why buy a magazine about interiors when I’m not going to buy an apartment?

I think the real question is, why am I making an issue about something that isn’t an issue? Pinterest hasn’t reduced my crafting time, I don’t get bummed out that some items on my boards will be forever out of my reach. I don’t stress out if a delicious recipe won’t get tested before I remove the pin to make way for something else equally delicious.

Pinterest is fun. It’s a virtual PINBOARD! Do you feel inadequate about a take away brochure on your real pinboard if you haven’t bought and eaten every single item off the menu? I hope not. If you do, seek help.  Seriously.

So please, oh please, stop writing about how your life is getting ruined by Pinterest. It won’t. YOU on the other hand ARE ruining my pinning mojo. And that’s something you should be ashamed of.

P.S. Go check that Vodka Popsicle out. It’s delicious, or so I presume. I haven’t made it yet.

P*skarteluhaaste #98

Latest challenge from P*skartelu. This time the challenge is to follow a sketch, this one to be precise:

The sketch was designed by one of the blog hosts’ daughter, who is 8 years old! Pretty good, huh! Anyhoo, I was inspired by a card made by a DT- member Ninarsku. Here’s my result:

I’m sending this card to my godmother to either for her to keep or to send to someone else. The picture is of her daughter (my cousin) so the card could be a nice gift for grandparents.

Till next time…Which might be tomorrow night or Sunday. Depending till how late will the city lights beckon…I’m going out! To par-tay! Because I’m cool like that.

Getting creative…

I’ve been in a crafty slump lately. I’ve started tons of projects but I haven’t finished them. Spring makes me nervous and agitated and I’m pretty much unable to focus on anything. Except Martha Stewart- show and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.  Today I remembered that before Christmas, I was planning to join HubBub’s Creative Revolution. I found the blog HubBub via another blog I follow, iHanna. Anyhoo, the Creative Revolution is a series of “nudges” to get your juices flowing, so to speak. There’s already 22 nudges in line and I’ve decided to start with the number 1: Fabric and/or paper collage. I think it’s a great starter as every crafter/artist ALWAYS has tons of scraps. It’s the hazard of “I might need it”- mentality. Or being a hoarder. Just a thought.

I really, REALLY should start focusing.

Back to nudges…I’m going to post my nudge creations here and hopefully you, my dear readers, will find them inspirational. If you want to join the Revolution yourself, just click on the link. As a final note…Since blog posts without pictures are boring, check out what I spotted via Craft Gossip:

Wheee! Loves it! These would go rather nicely with my Pretty Primaries- chairs. If I ever get to the point of finishing them…