Craft Stamper Magazine: Meet the team

Welcome to the first "meet the team" feature for 2015! I hope you enjoyed the festive season and have the new year off to a good start. Our designer in the spotlight today is Riikka...

Hi there Craft Stampers! My name is Riikka Kovasin and I'm from Helsinki, Finland. I'm married to the love of my life and we have two daughters together, aged 5 and 4. I joined the CS team little over a year ago, in November 2013 and have been creating for the magazine ever since. I was originally a part of the Scrap365 design team and then got asked to contribute to CS as well.

Like most crafty people, I assume, I've been doing different kinds of things my whole life. Paper crafts, sewing, knitting, painting... It took me a while to really find my favorite supplies but after my first daughter was born I got into scrapbooking and fell in love with all sorts of paper crafts. I had used stamps before in card making and still do occasionally, but my favorite way to use stamps is to create a background using them and layer them on top of each other. My "go to" ink is Archival Ink in either Jet Black or in my new favorite, Watering Can.

Favourite Project #1

This project is blogged {here}

I chose this project for many reasons. It has many of my favorite supplies in it, a stamp that I absolutely adore but I guess the main reason was the topic as it's a turning point in my life. Long story short, it's about a moment when I learned I was a crafter, a maker and followed my passion in my studies.

Q: Do you have a signature style or favourite technique?

A: I'm a mixed media influenced crafter so I absolutely love to get messy! I adore mists, gessos and inks and layer them on the same piece. I tend to use analogous or even monochromatic color scheme in my projects and simply adore people who can join opposite colors to the same craft.

I guess my favorite technique would include a pencil. It's not as much a technique than a little thing I usually do in my projects - add loosely drawn pencil circle around the focal point.

Favourite Project #2

This project is blogged {here}

This piece shows my love to layer. In this card there's acrylic paints, mists, PanPastels and inks. I love when I can get messy and just try out different mediums. On top I layered some epoxy butterflies, painted over them with gesso and then wiped the shapes clean again. This was so fun to make!

Q: Where do you look for inspiration before you start on a project?

A: Everywhere! Or maybe rather "nowhere" as I usually do not tend to look for any inspiration but let it find me. And it usually does find me and I end up in a situation with "more ideas than time".

But anything can inspire. It can be a color combination, a texture I've seen, a new supply that just needs to be tested or when I have a certain assignment to fulfill. You can find inspiration in the works of others or from your own creations!

Inspiration is actually a thing that really intrigues me and I've been writing a series of blog posts about the different sources I've used and am using (you can see the posts here). I also have an ongoing challenge together with Marsha Valk called "Inspired By" that also may shine some light on the process and how I draw inspiration before starting a piece (those challenges are here).

Favourite Project #3

This project is blogged {here}

I chose these cards as my third favorite as they show my love for the different mediums but also as they represent my favorite color palette. Like the first project they also have some of my favorite mediums and brands in them and as a little treat, these come up with a tutorial, too! You can see it here.

Thank you so much for letting me to share a few words and some of my favorite projects here at Craft Stamper blog! If you wish to visit me, my blog is called Paperiliitin (Finnish word meaning paper clip) and I also have several social media accounts. It would be fun to see you around! Wishing you all a pleasant day!

Many thanks to Riikka for sharing a little of her stamping story and some beautiful projects and thanks to you for joining us today, we hope you're enjoying finding out a bit more about some of the designers!