Scrapbooking

Inspired by | Talisman

| Marsha.

Inspired by: a monthly creative blog series by Riikka Kovasin and Marsha Valk

Hi! It’s the 10th of February! Can you believe it?! Feels like January 1st was just last week… Although nature is weirdly acting like it’s Spring already in these parts of the world.

Anyway… It’s time for Inspired by!

Inspired by is a blog series my friend Riikka and I started over 3 years ago. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material) and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.

We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th, when we show you and each other our creations.

Finding our theme

This time the theme is something that came by in one of the many, many videos that flooded the internet during and after Craft & Hobby Association (CHA) Trade Show in the US.

Riikka send me the link to the video in question. It was an interview that Scrap Time Videos had with Susan Lenart Kazmer and Jen Cushman from Ice Resin. It’s kind of long, but if you are into (mixed media) jewellery making it’s definitely worth the watch!

I think Riikka was in love with everything she saw in the video. But I was thinking: what can we do with this? I have never worked with Ice Resin, I don’t have it and I have no quick way of getting it here. How can we be inspired by a video about a product that we don’t have access to?

I jotted everything down that I heard or saw watching the video. One of the things that stood out was ‘talismans’, something Susan mentions only briefly.

Now that’s something we can work with! So this month’s theme is…

Talisman

According to the Oxford online dictionary, a talisman is: ‘An object, typically an inscribed ring or stone, that is thought to have magic powers and to bring good luck’.

My first instinct was that I could make myself one. A talisman. But I thought I should know more about talismans in general first. So… I went to the library to get a couple of books.

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Talisman

Which were very interesting looking… But I didn’t have a lot of time to read… So I just leafed them through.

I also thought about talismans… What does a talisman mean to me? Do I already have one?

I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t. Not a real one. I have a couple of ‘lucky charms’ hanging from my wallet, but they’re just there for fun. I wear the same jewellery most of the time, but not because I think they bring me luck. I don’t even own a pair of lucky underpants!

So if I don’t have one now… Did I have one in the past? Ah, yes! One in particular comes to mind immediately. I will tell you what it is in a minute!

Remembering this talisman made me realize that there is no way I can make one. At least not without a purpose in mind and certainly not one for myself.

I could be wrong, but I somehow feel a talisman is something that is either gifted or something that becomes a talisman over time.

Wiskundezakje

So what about that talisman of the past? Here it is:

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Talisman

Yes… That’s a little pouch… Made out of a sock… LOL!

Don’t even ask me who’s sock it originally was… I don’t think I have ever given that fact a second thought and I have had this pouch for almost 24 years. 24 YEARS!

Pouches made out of old socks apparently made perfect sense to me back then!

Anyway: this little pouch, made by my best friend, accompanied me during my final math exam at secondary school in 1992. I sucked at math (I still do) and I had to sit through many, many hours of tutoring to help me make more sense of it.

My friend knew that. She knew my tutor too. And she knew that I would need all the help I could get to pull through this final.

This is what’s inside:

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Talisman

Isn’t that sweet?!!

And… better still: it helped! I didn’t exactly do well, but my score was enough to pass the exam! I was so happy!

Looooooooooong story short: a talisman doesn’t always have to be pretty or sacred… It just has to be special and precious. It’s the thought that counts and that makes it work.

The result

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Talisman

This story begged to be scrapbooked… How else would I explain to someone why there is this intriguing little sock pouch among my most prized belongings?!

I can’t wait to see what Riikka has made! You can visit her at Paperiliitin.

Have a wonderful day!

Inspired by | Deko

| Marsha.

Inspired by: a monthly challenge by Riikka Kovasin and Marsha Valk

Oooh, it’s November 10th already! Which means I have another instalment of Inspired by to share with you!

Inspired by is a monthly challenge my friend Riikka and I started over 3 years ago. We decide on a theme (and that theme can be anything from a film, a book, a painting, to an item, colour scheme or material) and then we create something with that theme or thing in mind.

We keep what we’re making a secret until reveal day on the 10th, when we show you and each other our creations.

For this month’s theme Riikka sent me an envelope that I shared on Instagram.

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Deko

In the envelope I found some awesome goodies and… the October issue of the Finnish home decor magazine Deko!

I love all things magazine and I’m especially fond of home decor magazines. Flipping through the magazine I immediately saw plenty of jumping-off points.

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Deko

As it happens I also had my own home decor on the brain. This has everything to do with Marie Kondo’s magic tidying up method. I read the book in May and I dove right in: not a thing in my home was left unturned.

After a while I became less of a fanatic and there is still plenty to de-clutter left, but… Loads and loads of stuff was purged and most rooms and closets became a lot more spacious. And although that was the point, it also became painfully clear that some of my stuff and some of the rooms are in dire need of an update.

So if I’m honest, seeing the clean and perfectly styled Scandinavian homes on the magazine pages made me a bit sad. Because I wish I could update everything in a flash. And I just can’t…

I can also partly blame this on Marie Kondo, because after reading her book I became much more conscious about what I buy and even where I buy. In a nutshell I’ve discovered that there really isn’t much stuff that sparks my joy. Also: the stuff that I do think is amazing usually is high quality and doesn’t come cheap.

And then there was something that came up in a conversation I had with Petra last week. We spoke about scrapbooking, journaling and documenting life among other things. I’m not really documenting anything on a regular basis right now. Not in a journal, not in a scrapbook, not in a planner and not even here on the old blog!

Petra gave me more than a couple of things to think about and when I came home I went through my 2015 photo library. I was curious to see what events I had photographed, what events I probably would have scrapbooked in previous years and if there were any photos that would make more sense if there were some words written about them.

Cue Marie Kondo again… In my May/June library there were loads of photos of piles of stuff, tidy shelves and neatly folded towels! And I had a story to go with them!

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Deko // scrapbook page

Accompanied by some of the decorative elements that I found in Deko – of course! Like black and white doodled wall paper, yellow accents and blonde wood. I even formatted the text like in a magazine, just because it sparked my joy!

Do you have a favourite home decor magazine? Tell me in the comments, so I can check it out!

Then go to Paperiliitin to see what Deko-inspired project Riikka has created!

I’ll be back later today with an Elizabeth Craft Designs project, so be sure to check that out too, especially if you’re looking for an easy peasy Christmas project to make!

Inspired by | Not Before Sundown / Troll – A Love Story

| Marsha.

Inspired by: a monthly challenge by Riikka Kovasin and Marsha Valk It’s the 10th today! And that means Riikka and I have created something with a particular theme or thing in mind again and it’s time to reveal the results in a new Inspired by post!

It has been a while since we read a book to inspire us, so I asked Riikka if she knew a book by a Finnish writer we could choose for this month’s Inspired by and Riikka chose: ‘Not Before Sundown’ by Johanna Sinisalo.

I read the US version of the same book, titled  ‘Troll – A Love Story’ (You can read a full summary of the book in this last link!). Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love Story When Riikka suggested the book, I read the description and I immediately knew that this isn’t a book I would have picked up myself. I’m not drawn to the fantasy genre at all and I had never read an adult fantasy book before. I’ve read the entire Harry Potter series… but that is as close as it gets.

Reading this book, I figured out exactly why I’m not drawn to fantasy books. I can cope with fantasy films, but I can’t cope with fantasy books, because… When it says that a creature looks part cat, part monkey and part human, my brain just freezes up like a troll bathing in sunlight.

And as the book was about this very creature, the fact that I couldn’t figure out exactly what it looked like kept bothering me until the very last page.

What I didn’t realize when we chose this book, was that I would have another disadvantage: the book is interwoven with Finnish folklore. The original title ‘Not Before Sundown’ for instance is a reference to a Finnish song. The song text is in the book, among (semi-)scientific excerpts and I had no way of knowing which parts were fantasy and which were well-known folk tales.

I’m curious to see if Riikka mentions this in her post and if maybe she saw these excerpts in another light.

Don’t be put off by my negative comments about the book. I think it’s well-written and I appreciated the set up, but it just wasn’t for me.

That said… I did have a task: I had to make something with the book in mind!

There was no way in the world that I was going to draw a troll… But fortunately I had put a couple of sticky notes in between some of the pages and there was one passage in particular that had resonated with me.

Ecke, one of the characters, thinks: ‘Odd how there can be cities and cities. Cities within cities. The dogs’ city is built up of smells. (…) Then there are different people’s cities. There’s the city of a certain kind of woman, who judges a street by the kinds of shops there are (…) An alcoholic’s city, on the other hand, consists of pubs, sausage stands, liquor stores, alleys where you can piss without being picked up for indecent behaviour (…) And he doesn’t even notice the designer boutique because it’s got no function for him, just as the fashionable lady doesn’t see that sleazy dive – it doesn’t exist for her.’

So, I started to think about my city and someone else’s city… And I started rummaging: Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love StoryFound this: Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love Story Decided that it wasn’t pretty enough, so I created another map with Stamen: Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love Story … and created this:Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love Story … a double page scrapbook spread about ‘my’ Helsinki! Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Troll - A Love Story This made sense to me, because A. it’s Finland, B. I know the way to the Karl Fazer Cafe, the railway station and a couple of the sights, but I’m oblivious to anything else that’s there and as an extra bonus: C. I was able to incorporate Thickers with a denim print.

This is important because the denim is my only reference to the book. Although in my journaling I also mention Tove Jansson… who of course is famous for books about trolls…

Anyway… I really, really, really want to know about Riikka‘s experience with the book and I can’t wait to see what she’s created. You can visit her here!

Have a wonderful day!

Inspired by | Birdman

| Marsha.

Inspired by: a monthly challenge by Riikka Kovasin and Marsha Valk

It’s Spring! It’s March! And it’s the 10th of the month!

Which means today my wonderful friend Riikka and I are going to show what we’ve been working on for our self-imposed challenge Inspired by! We challenge each other each month to create something with a particular theme or thing in mind.

This theme or thing can be anything: a film, an object, a painting, an artist, a city… and for this Inspired by we decided it would be fun to take the Oscar Winner for Best Picture.

This was a risk, because we usually know our Inspired by themes well in advance, but as you know the Academy Award Ceremonies were only two weeks ago. And there were 8 nominees, so we had 8 potential themes on our hands. What if the winner was a film that wasn’t in viewable in our local cinemas? What if it was the one we already had as a theme? Or what if the winner would not inspire us?!

Luckily for us, the winner was Birdman:

But we were also unlucky, because… oh (Bird)man!

This film is a mammoth as Riikka likes to call it. This was a huge theme to deal with for one measly Inspired by project. Not in the way of costumes, colours and décor, though there certainly is something there too. But what I mean is that it’s huge in the sense of the theme(s) the film addresses.

This is what I wrote down the morning after I had seen the film: It’s about the inner critic, it’s about that there is no escaping your faith, it’s about fathers and daughters, about putting human life in perspective, taking risks, humiliation, failure, preconceived judgement. Your worst nightmares. Fame measured by the amount of Twitter followers.

There is so much that I’m still thinking about what I saw… But what stood out for me was the inner critic. Because I have one. A nasty one. And it has been really loud recently, so I decided to write it a letter. On a scrapbook page.

I had to start silencing my negative inner voice right away because I haven’t scrapbooked anything in a while… The mantra ‘I’m not listening to you’ helped. A bit.

I decided to use one of my gelli plate prints. I love how intuitive gelli printing is and that the result (almost) always looks good. I also decided I didn’t want to over-think embellishing and to use some discarded bits and pieces that were already on my desk.

I’ve tried out new supplies and (new to me) techniques in the last couple of weeks and there was more than enough to choose from. None of these try-outs were intended to become ‘something’ and it was fun to make ‘something’ out of these ‘nothings’.

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Birdman

The particular ‘nothing’ I used was a piece of card on which I had applied alcohol inked Elizabeth Craft Designs Shimmer Sheet, Silk Microfine Glitter and Wow! Fab Foil with the help of a Elizabeth Craft Designs Transparent Double Sided Tape Sheet.

Even the photo I used was one I had taken for an Instagram challenge, but hadn’t posted because the voice in my head said it was stupid…

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: Birdman

Conclusion: I loved the film. It’s really powerful and it was interesting to use a film like that for Inspired by. Especially at this time, for me, with my loud-mouth inner critic! Who BTW came back from recess the minute I noticed a spelling mistake on the layout… After I had scheduled this blog post… So I had to correct it and take a new photo… Oh boy.

I want to write: well, that’s it from me today! But that’s not actually true. I’m over on the Elizabeth Craft Designs blog today too, so there will be another post up in a couple of hours!

But first visit Riikka. I’m sooo looking forward to seeing her Birdman inspired project!

Inspired by: The Nutcracker

| Marsha.

inspired1

Hello! The holiday season is in full swing and I’m dashing by for the next instalment of Inspired by!

Inspired by is a self-imposed monthly challenge Riikka and I started together almost 2,5 years ago. We challenge each other each month to create something with a particular theme or thing in mind. This theme or thing can be anything: a film, an object, a painting, an artist, a city… and for this Inspired by I, off the top of my head, suggested The Nutcracker.

I’m not sure what I had in mind when I suggested it… I didn’t pin it down to the ballet or just Tchaikovsky’s music. I was just looking for something seasonal, but not something that would force me into creating something Christmassy. (Hmmm… funny how that worked out!)

Anyway: Riikka and I didn’t discuss which particular version or production to use. So the first thing I did was trying to remember if I had any specific memories of The Nutcracker. I know I must have seen it on TV at least a couple of times and I might have seen one real life performance once, but I’m not positive. I know I went to see a ballet performance once when I was a kid, but I cannot remember what it was exactly.

I also know (parts of) the music very well. I think I have to blame years of ballet lessons for that, though I’m sure that hearing snippets of it over and over again in the media helps me to never ever forget.

We also had a LP at home, that I’ve dug out for the occasion:
Marsha-Valk-Inspired-By-The-Nutcracker-LP

I felt I needed some visual reminders too, so I did a YouTube search for the ballet and I’ve found quite a few versions. I watched this one.

After watching, I had a vision in mind that involved tutu-like circles, silver glitter, silver stars and definitely some ballet pink. I had my heart set on something not related to Christmas, but I guess watching the ballet lured me into the Christmas spirit.

It reminded me of how much I loved ballet as a little girl and how I must have loved to watch The Nutcracker around Christmas time. So here’s what I created:
Marsha-Valk-Inspired-By-The-Nutcracker

Conclusion: I had a couple of revelations during this Inspired by and most of them aren’t related to The Nutcracker at all. I won’t exhaust you with them, but I will share one thing:

I had to change the colour of my photo to black and white. I’ve come to believe the colour pink did not exist in the seventies. I don’t remember anything but my ballet shoes being pink and those weren’t even pink-pink, they were more of a nude colour. Everything else was red, yellow, green, orange, blue, brown or even purple… and everything in that original photo just looks horrible combined with pink!

Marsha Valk | Inspired by: The NutcrackerAnd now… we get to see what magical fairytale Riikka has created with The Nutcracker in mind! Oooh, I just know it’s going to be good!!!

Edited: almost forgot to share this Pinterest board with more Nutcracker inspiration!