Always True to Yourself - altered toothbrush butterfly canvas by Aleksanda

Hello dear Finnabair friends, 

It's my time here, on Finnabair blog again to bring you some inspiration.
It's still summer here, but we will be slowly saying goodbye to it. Today we are starting our last part of a few-day vacations with my family and in just a little more than a week my kids will be sitting in their school classrooms again. So it's kind of starting to smell a bit like autumn almost. And my today's project smells a bit like Autumn too - with its warm green, brown and yellow tones. 


I had totally different project in my mind for today.
But last night, while brushing my teeth, I was wondering what to do with all of the used toothbrushes. And this gorgeous Altered Toothbrush Butterfly came to my mind. So I decided to go with the flow and make this project. I thought you may find it interesting. I'm always fascinated on how used everyday object can turn into a beautiful piece of art with just a bit of a Finnabair magic. Isn't is amazing? I hope you'll like my today's inspiration.

I first covered my canvas with some clear gesso to prepare it, so the colors have a better "flow" on it. Then I started adding some colors in the middle of my canvas - Liquid Acrylics "Avocado Green", Metallique paint "Dragonfly", a bit of a Sparks paint "Green Goblin" and just a hint of Metallique paint "Dark Forest". With the same colors I colored some chipboard pieces.
I colored my toothbrush with a mixture of Brown Impasto paint and some black gesso. I then arranged everything into a composition on my canvas, added some natural materials like green moss and dried tree lichen and added butterfly wings with a Finnabair stamp.
I also added some beautiful Prima flowers and Finnabair mechanicals and for the finishing touch I added some glass glitter, some glitter and some splashes with different acrylic paints. 


I also prepared a video tutorial for you:

List of products used:

- Prima - Art Basics - Gesso - Clear
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Liquid Acrylic - Avocado Green
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Metallique - Dragonfly
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Sparks - Green Goblin
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Metallique - Dark Forest
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Impasto Paint - Victorian Green
- Prima - Art Basics - Heavy Gesso - Black
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Impasto Paint - Dark Chocolate
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Sparks - Chest of Gold
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Sparks - Ginger Magic 

- Prima - Art Alchemy - Metallique Wax - Firebird
- Prima - Art Alchemy - Metallique Wax - Vintage Gold
- Prima - Finnabair - Mechanicals - Old Plates
- Prima - Finnabair - Mechanicals - Woodland Leaves
- Prima - Mechanicals - Mini stars
- Prima - Art Ingredients - Melange - Vintage Art Pebbles
- Prima - Art Ingredients - Glass Glitter - Copper
 - Prima - Art Ingredients - Glitter Set - Abloom
- Prima - Cling Stamps - Dare to Dream

Here are the links to selected products in Mixed Media Place Shop:

 I hope you enjoyed my today's inspiration!
 


Enjoy your days and see you back soon.

Hugs, Aleksandra

Angelica - why BIGGER is better (sometimes)! - by Finnabair

Hi again my friends!
I'm slowly going into my usual "teaching mode" which will start in September and I'm going through my spreadsheets, orders and class samples... and look what I've found! It's a class-made sample, so it is full of imperfections, but  this also will give t you the idea what are we REALLY doing during the workshop.
I don't think I was showing you this project on the blog before, and it is really one of my favourite ones to teach! Why?

Angellica Collage is a big canvas which is also a full-day class.
This means we can focus on one project for longer than just four hours! It's great to go deeper in details, techniques and options working at a bit slower pace. In my classes I'm doing my best to use the time to maximum, trying to guide the students through the whole process smoothly and as fast as possible, so they can take home a finished project as a future reference... its also true that if you won't finish in the class, most probably you will never come back to this project again, and this would be such a shame, right? I have to add from myself that most of my mixed-media artworks without the final touches look much worse than you could expect... so adding last bits and pieces is crucial!

Angelica is full of textures, details and metallic colours - it is a real mixed-media collage in my signature style and with the size reaching 60 cm it really is a statement piece you can put on display - but it needs a bit of time and love! 
At first, I was a bit unsure if such a long class will be well seen by my students, but after talking to many of you I felt encouraged to try longer, full-day projects as well and now I'm happy I did!

The benefit of working on one project longer is not only making something bigger in size but also getting more time to think on the placement of the elements, choosing colours, adding those" perfect touches". Just imagine putting every layer with love, adding next elements and seeing it all coming together in the end - it is really rewarding, empowering process! 
If you are one of those independent and artistic souls you won't be disappointed - during the class you can also add your personal elements if you wish and there is always a choice of patterns and colours, so each and every project is really unique.

 "Angelica" is based on techniques which are easily adaptable and transferable to other surfaces - and this is, in fact, the case with all of my classes. during the creating process, you can try a range of art mediums, starting with Art Basics: gels, gessos and then moving to various embellishments and Art Ingredients to finally work on the colour palette using my Art Alchemy range of products: paints and waxes. Sounds fun? It is!

For me longer class means more time to share not only product and technique information but also some more personal tips and tricks or just get in touch with my students, making this class a bit more special for both sides. Teaching is truly my element and as much as I don't like the paperwork and the time I have to spend on all the preparations the moment I'm stepping into the room is just turning into pure magic... so double treat for me!

If you were wondering if this kind of class is for you - I hope I could help!
You can check the schedule of my classes for the next months here, in "In-person classes" section of the blog.
I hope to see you in the classroom!

Vintage baloon by Olga Bielska

Hello friends :)

Olga Bielska here with new August project that includes amazing and my favorite launched Finnabair products.

This time I created for you a mixed media canvas on a balloon-shaped base.

I used White Gesso for my background .

When everything was dry, I added more texture with Paper Paste.

I got a colorful background thanks to mica, which I mixed with water.

I painted MDF elements with Liquid Acrylic and resin castings with Texture Fantasy paste.

After arranging the composition of resin elements, MDF, sisal, metal accessories and flowers from foamiran, it's time to add art stones mixed in a white gesso.

You can see my video tutorial below:

Enjoy your day and I can't wait to be with you again next time!
Hugs, Olga <3

Products I have used - all the images linked to Mixed Media Place online store: