Creative Squad

Creative Squad: A Tale of Two Colors – Riikka Kovasin

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing her project for our new monthly theme: A Tale of Two Colors – Think about two different colors, one you love using and one you find more of a challenge to work with. Use them together in a project and see what happens. Riikka is using my Grove Street foam stamps in her project today.

Those, Who Imagine 

Hello there! It’s Riikka here today with my take on the month’s theme about colours. My current favourite was an easy task, but the other colour took me by surprise!

My “go-to” colour scheme is and has probably always been blues, teals, and turquoises. Those warmer blue tones, like summer sea. When I’m taking a class, I usually tend to use those colours as they are my safe zone. I used to dislike pink a lot but since my two girls were born, it started appearing to my projects and has stayed since then. Well, I did dress them in pale blue or other colours as babies, but when they were old enough to make their own choices, the colour started to please my eyes, too. Teals and turquoises are my usual “go-to”, like I said earlier, but lately I’ve been using more and more of a sapphire blue colour. Partly because of that, and partly to give myself a bit more challenge, I picked that as my current favourite. 

When I was thinking about what colour I don’t use, I would have normally said bright red or yellow, but this year has been a bit strange as I’ve done projects using both! So, to see what colour I haven’t been using lately, I took to Instagram. By skimming through my profile, I realized that at least a yellow green, a lime colour was missing. So, I picked that for the other colour and like that I had my combo chosen!

I’m not actually totally sure how the idea of the pair of cards was born. Probably I was pondering what to do with the colour combo and Nat’s Grove Street foam stamps. But I actually draw a little sketch of the card for myself at some point. At that stage I was thinking of using an old button as the focal point, picked from my inherited stash, but when I then pulled the other materials to the work table, I realized I could make my own buttons!

This project was so much fun as I’d never have picked this colour combo otherwise! I did use quite a lot of white to make the end project airy as the colour combo is quite intense. I also wanted to use the stamps on different surfaces, to bring extra interest to the project with just two colours, so that’s why I picked not only paper for this project but also white cotton. For the buttons I used the shrink plastic as I could then use the Grove Street foam stamp in two sizes in a way. If you want to see how I made the cards, please see the video below.

I had more materials made but ended up doing just two cards – kind of mirror images of each other. The “left-overs” I then put in my stash and can use those later for a journal or another card project. So, don’t be surprised if you see a button like this in another project or a piece of that green and blue patterned piece I created as the first step! I often make more collage material than I use in the project I created it for. That makes creating another project then faster as I have the mixed media papers and embellishments already done! 

As you could see from the video, I finished the cards with lines from an old book. This does bring a new color to the mix, but I thought it to be so neutral and such a small detail, that it’s ok. And it goes nicely to the warm green. I often do my projects in English, but I’ve been using more of my mother tongue lately. The other card reads “What’s the reason for this cause” or “Why such a goal” and the other “Those, who imagine”. I picked the latter also for the title of the video, because we all need to imagine to create. 

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a sweet May!  Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka – such a sophisticated combination of colors and I love how you repeated the Grove Street stamps in different ways.

Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to old book pages, here are some of the supplies Riikka used:

Looking for more projects? Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram

Nat

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Creative Squad: Celebrate the Season – Riikka Kovasin

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing some lovely cards with us using my Church, Hydrant, and Grove Street foam stamps and our theme: Celebrate the Season – Many cultures celebrate in December so let’s do some celebrating ourselves with our favorite art supplies and the holidays that make this season so festive.

Peaceful Holidays

Hello there everyone! Can you believe it’s already December? I think I say this at least once every month, but it really seems that time is flying. 2021 seems to have passed in a blink of an eye. It was just weeks ago when it was summer, and I was filming my CJS22 video!

This month we’re “Celebrating the Season”. Winter is my favourite season. I would take minus degrees Celsius over hot temperatures any day as then I can just layer clothing and snuggle with my cup of tea. With sub-zero temperatures I can cope, with blazing hot, not that much! In my mind winters are cold and white. I don’t like the warm winters which are dark and gloomy, with sun barely visible, but the white snow and brisk temperatures are the thing!

I also love Christmas time – the preparations, anticipation and hustle to get everything done and then the lovely peace when the Turku Cathedral chimes twelve times, and the Christmas Peace is declared from the old capital of Finland. I grew up in Turku, so this tradition is important to me, it marks the transition from the preparing to the enjoying. The Christmas Peace has been declared from Turku since the 14th century. The wording of the current document is from 1827, though, when a secretary of the magistrate wrote it from memory after the Great Fire of Turku.

I chose to do a little Christmas scene for my cards to celebrate the inky blue skies of winter and the Christmas time. I chose to use the “Church” foam stamp, probably inspired by Turku Cathedral. To add a little something to the background, I added a halo or a rose window kind of pattern using “Grove Street” foam stamp. And to decorate the church for the winter, I stamped a huge wreath using a part of the “Hydrant” design. If you wish to see how I made the cards, please see the video below!

I use acrylic paints as my “go-to” medium so this time I wanted to use another medium instead. As you could see from the video, I chose inks this time. One reason was the way dye inks react to water – I knew I could use that to my advantage to make a starry sky! Just apply a layer of ink and then lift it up with water splashes. I then emphasized the look more by adding some white paint marker doodles on top. I placed the bigger stars on top of the splashes so that the lighter area makes kind of a halo to the star.

With these cards I’m wishing you all Peaceful Holidays and a warm, heartfelt times with your loved ones whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali, Christmas or any other Holiday! 

I’ll see you next year with another project for Nat’s Creative Squad!

Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka – love how you used the Hydrant stamp to make your wreath! And hearing about your traditions was such a treat.

Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Riikka used:

Looking for more inspiration from the Creative Squad? Follow them on Instagram here.

Nat

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Creative Squad: Extracurricular Activities

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a special roundup of Creative Squad Extracurricular Activities that I’d like to highlight for you. My Squad is awesome as you know – so much talent and creativity, and on top of all that they are just really, really good peeps :) And they often post extra stuff they are working on on their social media and It stops me in my tracks because it just shows how much they all love what they do. They can’t stop creating lovely things!

Let’s have a looksie at some of the projects that caught my eye.

Riikka Kovasin posted this beauty and I love the magical layering she creates on the dark background with my Grove Street, Triple Play, and Mini Hex Set foam stamps. It looks very space age and cosmic – sooooo cool!

What did you do with your leftover Halloween masks? Judi Kauffman connected her trio of Masquerade masks from last month’s project into this nifty hanging decoration that she can bring out for Mardi Gras too!

At the start of this year while Maura Hibbitts was playing along with Creative JumpStart 2021, she created this art journal page with her word for the year, Harmony. Love the botanical background she created using my Art Deco Wallpaper stencil and leaf motifs, a reminder to live in harmony with the Earth, others, and herself :)

Jordan Hill posted this art journal page featuring collage elements, one of her distinctive character drawings, my Space Oddity foam stamp, and a beautiful peachy color to tie everything together. The mix of floral with geometric is really interesting in this spread!

Let’s end with some love and this card from Robin Seiz. I think the muted colors and bit of grunge make this a pretty sophisticated design. She is using a gelli plate and my Love Knots rubber stamp to get her message across.

I hope you enjoyed this roundup of Creative Squad Extracurricular Activities! Please follow our team (their links are above) and also be sure to follow Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram for weekly content from this stellar group of artists!

Here are the supplies they used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Robin

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    Thanks for featuring this Nat! Your stencils and stamps are a pleasure to work with; such great designs!

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Creative Squad: Masquerade Party – Robin Seiz

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have some fantastic cards from Robin Seiz who is using my Grove Street, Central Avenue, Valley Road, and Park Blvd stencils and our theme: Masquerade Party – Let’s play with disguises, the technique of masking, or maybe creating a bit of mystery this month. Not everything is what it seems, and it can be an interesting artistic trick to obscure or reveal in your artwork.

Hi friends, This month’s theme is Masquerade Party. I’m not a big fan of Halloween (I know I must be the only person in the US) LOL So I decided to interpret this theme in the broadest sense of the word. (One of the many great things about being on this Creative Squad is that we have license to do this! )  I thought about what the word Masquerade means — to conceal something  — and I decided to use the mixed media “masking” technique for my project. 

I find “masking” a bit challenging, both in terms of the layers of paint and really thinking through and planning in advance the results that I want. I am more of a “put it down and see what happens” artist typically, but that doesn’t really work with masking. How about you? Do you find masking easy or challenging?

I am committed to working with supplies that I have in my studio rather than buying new things. As a result, I decided to use the paper from a 12×12 paper pad that I had on my shelf. I love using patterned paper for Gelli printing. The paper I chose dictated the size of the Gelli plate — 12×14. 

If you have read my recent blogs for the Creative Squad, you know that I have been loving Gold Gesso. I believe gold adds so much to a piece of art. I began this project by putting gold gesso down on the Gelli Plate and pulling a print. I wanted enough paint to have good coverage, but I also wanted the pattern to show through.

I cut out nine circles the same size as the patterns of the 4×4 stencils I planned to use (Grove Street, Central Avenue, Valley Road, and Park Blvd) These became my masks. Next I placed them down on the Gelli Plate, remembering that the pattern would be reversed when I printed it. Sometimes taking a “practice print” at this point is good. You can rearrange the masks if you don’t like how they turn out when printed. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement, I spread orange and yellow paint with a brayer over the masks. 

Next I removed the masks and now gold circles were visible where the masks had been. These circles were my guide to where I wanted the stencils and provided a lovely gold background for each stencil. 

The next step is the one I find most challenging — determining which stencils to put down first. The rule of thumb in masking is to complete all the pieces in the foreground first. Once you do that, and your stencil is dry, you can then place the mask back over what you just stenciled to move on to the next piece that will be concealed. On my page, I started in the upper left hand corner with the blue Valley Road stencil.

Then I did the Magenta Park Blvd stencil on the right middle and then the brown Central Ave stencil on in the lower left hand corner because all of these were going to be in the foreground. Once these were dry, I could move on to masking each one and stenciling the ones next to them that would be concealed. (In this case the two Quinacridone Magenta Grove Street circles on the right middle and upper left and the Quinacridone Magenta Valley Road Stencil in the lower left).

The most important thing to remember when you move to your second piece (or the piece that will be concealed) is to place the mask about 1/8” inside the first stencil — so 1/8” of the masked stencil  is showing outside the mask. If you don’t do this, you will get a gap and the conceal won’t look natural. You will have white space (or in this case gold space) between the two pieces. I used washi tape to place the mask on the page. 

Just a note about applying paint to the stencils. I first tried a makeup sponge, but found that I am too heavy handed and the paint tended  to glob up. I used one of my Tim Holtz applicators that are made for distressed inks or alcohol inks. I found rubbing the paint over the stencil worked best for me and gave me a clearer image. You may be skilled at the make up sponge, but I’m a heavy paint user!!!! LOL

I repeated this technique, masking the second stencil so that the third would be concealed. (see the middle center three.) 

I’m realizing this is a hard process to describe in words. I hope it’s clear. Just send me a note if you have questions.

When I was finished with all the masking, the page looked like it needed a little something else. I laid down some black and gold splatter on the  page. This always gives a piece a finished look.

This page, since it’s large, could be used as a journal page, gift wrap, emphemera (if you cut out the stenciled pieces), or greeting cards. I chose to cut the paper into 4 sections and make  6×6 greeting cards. I love the size and how vibrant they turned out. I sometimes like my work more when I cut it into smaller pieces. Don’t be afraid to try this! You might be surprised at the results. 

I hope you try this Masquerading project. Please post your projects. I can’t wait to see them! 

Thank you Robin and I love that you chose the more abstract interpretation of this theme and showed us a masking technique!

Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Robin used:

Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram for weekly posts, artwork, and inspiration.

Nat

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Creative Squad: Dear Mother Earth – Riikka Kovasin

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing her mail art project and guess what??? You have a chance to receive one of these lovely envelopes from Riikka herself – read on to find out how :) They are a fantastic bunch, using my Grove Street foam stamp set and our theme this month: Dear Mother Earth – Our planet Earth is an amazing and beautiful gift to all of us. Let’s write her a letter, telling her just how we feel. This could be an actual letter/mail art, an art journal page, or some other mixed media project.

Bee Nice to Mother Earth

Heippa! It’s Riikka here with my project for this month’s theme of “Dear Mother Earth”. The theme mentions mail art so I jumped to this idea and decided to do a set of decorated envelopes to be sent out.

Mail art is an art movement with the idea of sending small works of art through postal services. The movement started in the 1950s and 60s. Mail art can take various forms such as postcards, envelopes or parcels. Some artists concentrate more on the envelope than the piece inside. Artists also can create their own postal stamps, called artistamps. 

As I plan to send the envelopes out, I needed to create flat layers. I’m usually drawn to dimensional pieces and assemblages, but that kind of work wouldn’t hold through the mailing process without the protection of a parcel. According to some, mail art becomes mail art only after it is dispatched. Even though I actually am looking forward to seeing how the envelopes change in the mailing process, what kind of wear and tear they get, totally losing the added elements isn’t the thing. So, I made small, flat collages on the envelopes with the help of last month’s goodie – Grafix Double Tack Mounting Film.

I first added a paint layer to the envelopes, masking off the placement of the address. I also made a separate collage sheet which I die cut to bees. I also die cut some leafy stems and a piece looking like dry wall tape. I collaged a piece of book paper underneath the die cut elements and added some stamping in there, too. If you wish to see how the envelopes came into being, please see the video underneath.

When thinking about the theme of Mother Earth, I had no option but to choose the “Grove Street” stamp set. I really like the pattern, but more important, the stamp was round and thus reminded me of Earth. As there’s been a lot of talk about the declining numbers of bees and insects, I felt that a honey bee would be a nice focal point in the layering. It somehow resonated with the nurturing Mother Earth theme, maybe partly because of the importance to the ecosystem as pollinators, but also through the Finnish national epic, Kalevala. There a honey bee flies to the heavens to bring a drop of golden honey to mother of Lemminkäinen so she can heal her son. I recently made an assemblage piece with that theme, you can see it here if you like.

And now comes the fun part! I’m sending these envelopes out and you could receive one. It’s first come, first served styled thing so if you wish to receive an envelope from me, please send me your mail address in an email. My email is rkovasin (a) gmail (dot) com. There’s a catch though – you need to send me a photo of the envelope when it has reached you as I want to see how it traveled! To make it worthwhile, I’ll pop something inside the envelope, too – a little note from me on a postcard picturing Finnish nature.

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a beautiful July!  Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka – these are such lovely little artworks and I love that you will send them out into the world!

Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to vintage book paper and postage stamps, here are some of the supplies Riikka used:

Follow Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram too: Each week we post projects, ideas, and inspiration for mixed media art.

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Riikka Kovasin

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    Thank you for your emails! All the envelopes are now called for. :)

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April ArtFoamies Challenge – Day 15, 16 & 17

Are you playing along with Nat and Sarah’s April ArtFoamies Challenge ? You can follow along on my Instagram feed daily with videos and photos, and I post updates here on the blog too from time to time throughout the month. Today I’m recapping 15, 16, and 17. Enjoy!

Day 15 – Plant – I love plants but unfortunately I am a really bad plant owner …so maybe printing a plant inspired pattern is a better idea ;) While my Jazzed and Groovy ArtFoamies were not designed with a plant pattern in mind- they definitely can stand in for that and I love the outcome. Wohoo for easy maintenance plants ;)

 

Here is a look at Day 15:

 

April 16 – Dots – Grove Street Positive and Negative Stamp is going to show off its dots today and since the Grove Street Path Station in Jersey City def. Is a route to get to Broadway… the Broadway Fan stamp made an appearance as well. I felt it needed a little bit of extra red omph, so for good measure I threw in one of my Rubber Stamps called Valley Road …because you know… sometimes you gotta change your plans.

 

And here is a look at Day 16:

 

April 17 – Layers – I love using the same patterned stamps but in different sizes, like my Batik 3 and Mini Batik 3 and then my Batik 4 and Mini Batik 4 – this was fun to stamp …and yes, the ledger is barely visible but it still adds to the whole. Keeping every ledger page pristine is overrated because why even bother stamping into it if you do. #myledgermyrules

 

Here are some looks at April 17:

Follow along with the challenge on instagram  and post your artwork too with the hashtag #artcollabChallengeAccepted

Everyone approaches Challenges differently. This ArtFoamies Challenge that Sarah Matthews and I came up with has had me thinking about how I want to approach it. In the past my Foam Stamplifier Challenge #foamstamplifierchallenge I used all kinds of different media, so I didn’t want to repeat myself. I also thought about how Sarah usually uses ArtFoamies with ink pads, while I use acrylic paints and the first parameter became clear: I will only use ink pads for the challenge. The other challenge is that I purchased an old ledger journal and I want to turn it into a pattern book. I usually make my own pattern books by binding loose printed papers into a book. This method has the advantage that if a print doesn’t turn out too great it can be discarded. By printing directly into this 125 year old ledger I have no out. So using my foam stamp designs to create patterns into a ledger book with ink pads is my challenge for this month.

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Play along with us and our daily prompts:

Nat

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Henrietta Maria Art Journal Page from Riikka Kovasin – Guest Post

Excited to share another gorgeous Guest Post from Creative JumpStart 2021 teacher Riikka Kovasin! Today she shares a stunning art journal page using my Grove Street and Fairview Fan foam stamps.

Enjoy Riikka’s artistry!

Hi there! It’s Riikka here with my third and final guest project! I hope you have enjoyed them so far. They are all quite different, but that’s just to show that Nathalie’s stamps go so well to different projects and styles!

As my final piece I made an art journal page. I really love how versatile the “Grove Street” stamps are. In the card they reminded me of a sun with the rays of light, in the earrings they made me think about Nordic patterns and Marimekko and here I turned them into a crown and neck ruffle! All with the same stamp set!

I recorded a little video this time, too:

https://youtu.be/_RYaQx9HaMA

I started the page by making some patterned paper of my own. The stamps make it easy as you can combine them in various ways. I created one bigger pattern and another smaller one. The bigger one then became the background for the page whereas the smaller one ended up being a piece for the dress. I used the Grove Street foam stamps and the Fairview Fan foam stamps.

The character I made for the journal has a head from an actual painting. The painting is by Anthony van Dyck and it’s of Queen Henrietta Maria, done in the 17thcentury, 1638. I printed the head a couple of times as I wasn’t sure about the size but went with the middle size one.

The part that’s not visible in the video is the collaging or adhering. After I have the background painted and the elements embossed and printed, I collaged them all together using an acrylic gel or a glaze of sorts called Izink ICE. This way I could make the background older looking by using a tea-colored glaze there and make the blue dress even more vibrant using blue gel. I’ve added a link to a series I made as a Seth Apter Creative Team member about ICE to the description box of the video, so you can see more, if you wish.

Thank you for this chance, Nathalie! I hope you have enjoyed these projects and thank you for stopping by today!

All the best, Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka -absolutely love how you used the foam stamps for that collar and dress! Henrietta has some serious style :)

Want to give it a try? You can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Riikka used:

Nat

Comments (6)

  • gbp2019

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    Riikka lovely video and gorgeous results

    Reply

  • rarebird

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    Beautiful! Love the rich palette and how much the white really pops. Nathalie’s stamps work so well, especially for the ruff! Just gorgeous. Thx for doing this guest tutorial.

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Love it! The words are an especially nice message.

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Sunny Home Card from Riikka Kovasin – Guest Post

Happy to have another Guest Post from Creative JumpStart 2021 teacher Riikka Kovasin! Today she shares a card celebrating a new home using my Queen Anne rubber stamp and my Grove Street foam stamp.

 We are so excited to share some projects with you from Riikka. Enjoy!

Hi there again! It’s Riikka here with another project! This time I made a card. The rays in the “Grove Street” stamp made me think about a sun, so I combined that with one of the beautiful, detailed house stamps Nathalie has. This one is “Queen Anne”.

When I started, I was thinking of going with yellow tones and instead of black embossed the stamped house first with pale yellow. When I then started adding colors to it, I realized that it won’t work. The pale yellow looked odd with the stronger colors coming on top. So, I ended up using black anyway.

I recorded a little video while working with the card so you can even see my two takes with the outline color:

After getting the elements done the card was easy to put together. 

I used white on white in the background where I added a strip of embossed white cardstock as kind of an anchor. On top I then added the warm sun and then the house.

Like I write in the video, the house just couldn’t float on the card front, so I stamped some grass, too. For that I used the “Queen Anne”, too, stamping the lines multiple times on top of a strip of white cardstock. The intersecting mishmash creates an illusion of a texture stamp!

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a sunny day!

Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka – love watching you work in the video to figure out the best solution!

Want to give it a try? You can find all my Foam Stamps and Rubber Stamps here in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Riikka used:

Nat

Comments (4)

  • robinseiz

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    This is such a lovely card. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Cheery, bright colors and such a wonderful use of the stamp!

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Shrink Plastic Earrings from Riikka Kovasin – Guest Post

Today we have a very special Guest Post from one of our Creative JumpStart 2021 teachers: Riikka Kovasin! She is bringing us 3 different shrink film earring ideas using my Grove Street and Fairview Fan foam stamp sets. Before we get into it though, let’s hear a bit about Riikka:

“Heippa! My name is Riikka Kovasin and I am a mixed media crafter from Finland. I live in Helsinki with my darling husband and our two sweet daughters. Creating is my passion and a way of self-care. Besides family and crafts, my weeks are filled with a full-time job.

I have been doing all sorts of crafts my whole life. I really got into papercrafts after I found scrapbooking when my older daughter was about 6 months old – that’s over 10 years ago. Since then my style has evolved to more and more mixed media direction and nowadays, I tend to go dimensional and do more altered and mixed media pieces than regular layouts.

I absolutely adore getting my hands into paints and mediums! To me the process of creating is equally as important as the finished project.”

We are so excited to share some projects with you from Riikka, and this is the first of a few that will be coming in the next few weeks so check back for more :)

Hi there! It’s Riikka Kovasin here today to share a guest project with you. I actually made a couple projects, so you’ll be seeing me a few times in the course of next weeks.

As my first go I made some jewelry pieces. I really love the patterns of the foam stamps and love how satisfying it is to stamp with them, but on their own they are maybe a touch too big to be used as jewelry. As a pendant, maybe, but as I’m more into earrings the images seemed a bit too big. But no worries, I can always use shrink plastic! That way I’m getting the pattern and the feel of the foam stamp, but the finished piece is half the size! So satisfying!

For these three pairs of earrings, I used both white and black shrink plastic. I used acrylic paint to stamp the images and then colored them using alcohol and paint markers. The first pair is made using both the Grove Street and Fairview Fan foam stamp set. The circular piece has an earring stud at the back. 

The dangly parts are made using both positive and negative version of the fan stamp set. To make the center fan a little bit longer than the other two I added a red glass bead between the circle and the fan.

The second pair has even more glass beads as there’s just the fans that are stamped. Again, there’s a stud piece at the back.

The last, but not least, is maybe my favorite. I made that using the Grove Street stamp, just alternated the color I was using on top of black shrink plastic. The first one is done with inky blue metallic acrylic paint, the second one pale blue metallic acrylic and the one nearest to the ear is then white acrylic paint. 

These dangle all the way as I added a stud earring with a little ring on top.

I’m not a jewelry maker but these were so easy to do even I managed them! Now the only trouble is to decide which pair to use!

Stay safe everyone! Xoxo Riikka

Thank you Riikka! Wow who is excited to try foam stamps with shrink film now? I love all three of these possibilities and I love how they could work for a variety of different fashion styles.

Want to give it a try? You can find all my Foam Stamps here in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Riikka used:

Nat

Comments (8)

  • robinseiz

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    Great lesson. Thanks so much… Who even knew there was black shrink plastic?!!!! I really love the effect you get with that! I’m going to add it to the very long list of things I must try.

    Reply

    • Riikka Kovasin

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      Thank you Robin! In my craft store they had this selection of four different kinds of shrink plastic sheets in a pack – black, white, glossy transparent and mat transparent :) That was perfect as I didn’t have to choose which color to pick :D

      Reply

  • Kath

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    Awesome post. You read mind. I’ve been wanting to make earrings with shrink plastic for the past few weeks but was struggling with drawing a decent image and coloring so that it wasn’t smudged or looked good. Your stamps and the type of paint solved my roadblocks! Beautiful, beautiful earrings that I think I can actually make. One question, did you sand the plastic first?

    Kath

    Reply

    • Riikka Kovasin

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      Hi Kath! I didn’t sand the plastic first so the earrings are bound to get some wear and tear. Sanding helps the paint to grab the surface better. Or then just add more paint when it seems to wear off :D

      Reply

      • Kath

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        Thanks for that input. I just seem to smudge the colors. However, I noticed when I sanded, you could see the marks, which I do not like. I can’t remember what people use to glaze the plastics.
        I’ll have to check it out. I just love how the paint you used worked with the stamp and it didn’t look like it smudged at all.

        The stamps you used are sold out. I’m gonna wait for restock. That’s how much I liked your earrings!

        Thanks for inspiring me!

        Kath

        Reply

        • Riikka Kovasin

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          I’m so happy to hear that you liked these so much Kath!.

          As you are stamping on top of a sleek surface with a slippery paint, it may slip and smudge. If you look closely to the other of the white stamped circles (with gesso), it’s a bit thicker than the other. A slight slip or turn caused that.

          My tips would be to use a heavy body style paint, more gel-like, use just a little of it, and to use light pressure when you lay down the stamp. Another way is to actually put the stamp to the table, pattern side up with the paint added and carefully place the shrink plastic on top.

          Hopefully this helps when the stamps have been restocked and you get to make your jewelry pieces!

          Reply

  • Anne Lawver

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    Love this idea! Rikka…you are always so clever and original, combined with a dose of practical. Thank you both for this “bonus”! It was a nice surprise.

    Reply

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