August Time Memories

Hello my Friends.

I'm sure you'll agree that any kinds of albums are priceless memory catchers. Irina create an amazing family album (attention: it's mixed media and it's flat! ;)) that will help her hold this summer in her heart for many days to come.

I'm sure you'll feel inspired to grab some paper and paints and follow Irina's instructions.

Hello everybody! I'd like to present my new project - an album. It is dedicated to last August which was a special time for my family.

This month was full of moments I want to remember forever and so I decided to capture them on paper - beautiful, bright and full of life. I hope I managed to express this atmosphere with paints and stamps. :)

I started with cutting several sheets of watercolor paper for watercolor to 15 * 15 cm in size.

I chose some of my favorite August photos and printed them in color.

Right from the start, I decided that all the album embellishments will be flat this time, but at the same time multi-layered.

I started to create layers with ink blots - I simply splashed some black ink with a calligraphy pen.

The next step was using a black marker and stamps from different Finnabair's collections.

I planned the layout of my photos on the pages and then added a bit of texture using White Sand Texture Paste and a silicone brush.

Then I worked with color and composition. I distinguished the compositional center using sprays, alcohol inks and Art Alchemy acrylic paints. Each page has its own vibrant color!

After the paint dried, I added some decorative elements - small tags and labels from 7Dots Studio.

On each spread the black ink lettering duplicates the sentiments from the embellishments.

Finally, I collected all the sheets in the right order and then added the sawing machine stitching around the edges.

Then I made the cover and put all the pages together. For the cover I used paper from 7Dots Studio, acrylic paints, again White Sand Texture Paste and Granite Mica Flakes.

My album was ready. Here are some more photos of the pages and the details shots.
I hope you enjoy them and feel the atmosphere of this very special August time.

Enjoy your creativity!
Irina

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Joys of DayDreaming - collage

Hi again my dear ones, I hope you are having a great week!
Your submissions for our Creative Team Call made us very busy - emails flooded the mailbox and we were trying hard to catch up with confirming we got them from you - so please be patient if you didn't get confirmation yet... we are trying hard! Thank you so much for this huge, overwhelming response - this makes me feel so proud and humbled at the same time. Thank you so much for your amazing support, my friends!

Today I'm back with one of the projects I'm doing during my classes - Daydreamer Collage. I have to admit this is one of my favourites classes ever, this kind of project, which always makes my heart sing, bringing joy and creative excitement!

20x20 cm (8x8'') collage on canvas

I just love the concept of building all the layers and textures using Gel Mediums, which give beautiful shine and depth and then constructing the crazy floral-industrial head decor, which puts me somewhere between Art Nouveau, Steampunk, and portraits of women of Renaissance...Or somewhere else? Just name it - I'm waiting  to see what you think!

I could be using this profile image over and over and I'm always able to  get inspired and create something a bit different. I'm so glad I asked my husband to take this shot!
With all the elements used, all the colour added - I'm able to feel like an actress in some sort of crazy theatre, being able to try all the costumes I could dream of... isn't that great? At the same time, a portrait like that is a chance to tell a unique, personal story, experience or concept... or it's a way of expressing feelings I love the most!

In fact - this set of techniques works miracles on big scale projects - it is, of course, the matter of longer process, larger number of layers and elements and more patience while painting... and here I'm coming to the point I keep trying to tell my students every time when I can notice they start to stress out while working in the classroom: try the process and techniques, take them home, then think about it all and then use again or repeat on a larger scale!
Trying to create elaborate, dimensional, fully painted project during 1 short class is simply impossible. It's much better to think about the classroom project as an exercise, experiment, even "trial version" and then take it to the next level in the familiar space of your own home studio... Does it make any sense?

I was just thrilled all the projects done by my students in Tours, France this weekend. They certainly were able to let go, create and enjoy - just look at this mind-blowing mini-gallery! Every single one is different, special, personal - yet we all used the same products and techniques!

If you'd like to join me during one of my classes - check my schedule here, in "Live Classes" section of the blog. You can always find the updates on my travels and new class projects there!
More photos from the classroom - as well as creations by me, my super-talented Creative Team and amazing followers - are all together on my Finnabair Instagram account. Enjoy!

Sending you all huge, warm hugs

Circles And Butterflies

Hello Friends!

Mondays are always such a great moment of the week with my Creative Team sharing their artworks and inspiring us all.

But before we show a new stunning creation, I'd like to tell you about a pretty great giveaway on prima_mixedmedia instagram (which by the way, is filled to the brim with mixed media amazingness!).

So take a look at what you can win and don't hesitate - head right on to this post, follow the instructions and I hope you will be the lucky one to play with these goodies soon! ;) No time to wait, the giveaway's open till Wednesday September 28th. Good luck you all!

And now let me present Athanasia and her beautiful art journal page with two of her favorites: Circles and Butteflies - I know you'll love it!

Hello dear friends!

Today I'm sharing a new page I created for my Denim Journal. I really love that I can add more and more pages in there and they can be worked out of the journal - it makes my job easier!

For my page I used watercolor paper which I cut to Denim's size. I incorporated the two things I enjoy most having on my journal pages: butterflies and circles.

The circles are the leftovers from a chipboard board I had in my stash and I used my favorite shades of Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints to color them.

In order to create a mixed media background I used Heavy White Gesso with stamps to create texture (you will see this technique in my video below) and Modeling Paste with the Honeycomb Stencil. I also used some clear stamps with black Archival Ink.

The butterfly is handmade and I love this tiny Star Brad I used to decorate it, it's so cute!

For my quote I used a die cut element from the 7Dots Studio Verano Azul collection, as well a sticker with a big star to embellish my page with some black thread.

Last thing to do was to glue three Melange Art Pebbles to add more interest to my page. Luckily I found in the jar the perfect size of pebble to fit the chipboard circles. I love how they look in there!

In the video I made especially for you, you can watch how I put together this journal page.

I hope you got some inspiration from today's project and create your own page in your own Denim Journal!
Thank you for visiting
Have a lovely crafty day!
xxx
Athanasia

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