Dream House

Hello Dear Friends!

First of all, I have to thank you for all the beautiful heartfelt words under my Creative Team Farewell Giveaway. I know my Team is reading all of it and we are all very grateful... There's still only one more day left to leave your comment if you haven't done that yet!

And today it's time for Kasia whose brand new art project is absolutely charming and carries many beautiful meanings. You will love it!

Hello,

today I have for you quite a simple project, but it's important and symbolic for me personally.

This is my home, my dream home, where I live with my husband. We love our place on earth, among the meadows and forests, without people around. And this house of ours is just like this project - a bit messy, in our favorite colors, full of love and inspirations.

Recently, I was in a bit of creative rut but creating this piece allowed me to open again.

I hope that you like it. I made a video tutorial too, so if you feel inspired - please try it out and I hope you will have as much fun as I did!

My base here was a simple piece of wood but you can also create your own special little house using Finnabair's House Metal Frame.

I used a lot of metal embellishments and some leftover bits of paper, gauze and lace to create the structure on the front of my wooden shape.

I blended all the elements in with White Gesso and added Mica Powders for colors. You will be able to see the whole proces in my video below.
The sentiment comes from a new Cotton Candy Dreams collection by 7 Dots Studio.

Don't you think that this Mechanicals Pocket Watch is perfect for displaying this little shell?

It is a very importat symbol for me. I was born and I've lived all my life by the sea. I love its strength, size, boundlessness, autumn storms and summer waves. I could do marine themed projects non-stop, but I don't want to bore you, so here I allowed myself to use just this one tiny shell. :)

And here is my video, enjoy!

Have a creative week!
xx
Kasia

Materials used:

Farewell Giveaway!

Dear Friends!

I feel this last term of my wonderful Creative Team was so amazing and so inspiring that it should really end with a bang, wouldn't you agree? :)

So I thought we'd celebrate it with a special giveaway to make one of you a happy owner of some of Finnabair goodies. Of course, I asked the Team what their must-have favorite products are and the Artists never hesitated. :)

Here are their picks:

ATHANASIA - Mechanicals Butterflies

Mechanicals are metal elements and embellishments inspired by unique flea market findings and vintage pieces.

They are extremely easy to assemble: they may be joined with brads or glued together, they can be painted and sprayed although you might already like their rusty finish and leave it as is. ;)

Mechanicals are extremely versatile and great for mixing and matching to create a unique and personal look in all kinds of projects - custom made jewelry, mixed-media arts, home decor and altered art.

GAYLE & Soft Gel

Soft Gel comes in 2 versions: Matte and Gloss. It's transparent, flexible and permanent after drying.

It can work as a collage adhesive, can be used for varnishing and is fantastic for transfer technique.

It can also be a great base for custom gels and paints - simply mix it with pigments, inks or acrylic paints.

IRINA - Glitters

Who doesn't love a little bit (or a lot!) of sparkle and shine? :)

We have a wide variety of great quality Glitter sets in coordinating colors. Such sets make it so easy to create a gradient effect by using the coordinating colors.

You can use them with our Art Basics Gel Mediums or Pastes to adhere glitter to any project or create custom paste if mixed with Gels or Pastes. You can also achieve a great effect mixing Glitter with 3D Gels - it creates a beautiful, sparkly and dimensional paste which you can easily apply with a palette knife.

KASIA - Heavy White Gesso

An absolute must-have for any mixed-media artist! Heavy White Gesso is an opaque, matte ground acrylic. It dries very quickly and works perfectly with a variety of color products.

Most often Gesso is used as a primer suitable for literally every kind of surface leaving a permanent, smooth, chalky background. Then it's super easy to apply any kind of media you wish.

It is also great for covering and preparing a background for art mediums: it neutralizes colors on previously painted surfaces to provide a new painting base.

LINDA - Heavy Black Gesso

The basic use is the same, however, the main difference between the White and Black Gesso is that the latter may work very similar to chalkboard paint: you will be able to use chalks, white pens, pencils and the colors will really pop! And all this with just one layer.

Black Gesso makes color stand out when used as a background. Linda especially recommends using it with the Opal Magic paints. Nothing works better than black gesso to get the gorgeous colors with a dusting of Opal Magics on top.

MARTA - Art Alchemy Paints

 

Art Alchemy paints are great quality metallic acrylics, highly pigmented, rich in color and permanent after drying. They give really good coverage; will work more like glaze when applied in a thin coat and full colour in thicker layer.

There are two lines available: Metallique and Opal Magic.

Opal Magics are unique two-tone iridescent effect acrylic paints that change tone from different angles - which gives you amazing different effects on dark and light backgrounds.

Art Alchemy paints are very easy to work with and great for both beginners and professionals.

DENISA - Clear Crackle Paste

Crackle Pastes make everything better... ;) They are thick, permanent pastes which provide antique-looking, crackling effect. The size of crackles will vary depending on the thickness of the layer - the heavier the coat, the larger they are.
The Pastes work on most surfaces, including canvas, wood, paper, metal, chipboard, fabric, plastic, etc. and can be painted with water-based paints.

They come in many beautiful colors but the Clear Crackle Texture Paste propably gives you the most creative freedom, especially when you want the vintage effect and still have certain elements see through.

OLGA - 3D Gels

3D Gels add texture and dimension on any surface and work great with texture tools, palette knives and stencils. They are a great clear dimensional adhesive perfect for collage and assemblage including 3D objects such as embellishments, found objects and ephemera.

3D Gels are not too heavy so they're a perfect base for creating custom-made gels and pastes and work great with Art Ingredients line (glitters, flakes, beads).You can also mix them with color mediums like pigments, inks watercolors and acrylics.

*   *   *   *   *  

So how do you like our Team's selection? :)
I decided to put all these products together, add a nice silicone paintbrush for good measure and give it away to one lucky person!

I hope it looks inspiring and makes you feel like creating - this has always been our point! :)

Don't think too long - you only have time till November 1st and I will draw one lucky winner on Wednesday.

All you have to do is to leave a comment below - you can just say hi but also treat it as a good opportunity to say thank you for this year of Art to my beautiful Creative Team in their final post together...

Also note that you can find all the useful product info in the Art Files at the top of my blog: Art Basics, Art Ingredients, Art Extravagance, Art Alchemy.

If you have any doubts or questions, make sure to leave a comment and all of us will be happy to clear things out for you!

Happy creating, everyone!

and

My Ugly Buttons

Dear Friends!

First of all, don't you just love the title for Athanasia's post today?! :)

Not only is this art piece creative, but it's also a true Art Alchemy paints feast and also I just love the whole idea behind this project, so very much after my own heart. You know me - always diving into forgotten drawers and countless junk boxes piling high on my shelves. :) And then, there's the magic of turning seemingly useless objects into Art...

 

P.S. It's been such an exciting week! I hope you didn't miss the big reveal of my new Creative Team!

There's also a new Art Recipe by my Team on Prima blog and... keep an eye on this spot - there's a very special giveaway coming tomorrow! :)

And now - all you magpies and collectors, get ready to be amazed and inspired! ;)

Hello dear Finn friends!

I'm very excited and thankful to be invited back in Finnabair CT! I'm looking forward to share my new projects and ideas with Finn's amazing products and I'm sure it will be a fantastic journey for all of us!

Today I want to share an assemblage I created with buttons and Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints.

I love collecting cute stuff like keys, coins, gems and all kinds of interesting little objects that come my way.

I've been collecting all these buttons for years, some of them are very old and I got them from my grandmother... So, I decided to create something with them.

Even though I wasn't sure how it would turn out, I knew from the beginning that I was going to cover them completely with paints, so I decided to choose all my ugly buttons and kept my favorite ones in the box.

Although it took me ages to find the right place for each one of them, I had so much fun playing - it was really like the 'Tetris" game! ;)

You can watch the whole fun part in my video below.

I used the 3D Gloss Gel to glue them down to a wooden base and covered everything with Heavy Black Gesso.

The most fun part of the whole process was to paint all these buttons with the Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints!

I really love how all these colors highlight the textures and different designs of the buttons.

I liked the result so much that I decided to add nothing more, not even one single embellishment, but the tittle.

I used a chipboard word 'CREATE' and painted it with the White Crackle Texture Paste to add more texture and the Emerald Green Acrylic Paint - my favorite color shade.

To add even more texture to the assemblage, I used again the White Crackle Texture Paste on several spots.

As my final touches, I made splashes with all the colors shades I used before to paint the buttons.

Here is my video with all the fun process. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did :)

Thank you for visiting!
Have a lovely crafty day!
xxx
Athanasia

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