Ambassadors' Product Picks

Hello my Friends!

We are right in the middle of 2017 and what a half of the year it has been for me...

This time has been filled with classes (including my very first 'Imagine' online class with Everything Art!), LOTS of traveling and teaching in all the corners of the world, inspiring meetings and new experiences... Im sure some of you could see me in person, some may follow my Instagram and FB - so you could see how busy it really was! Every ay I will repeat - I'm blessed with the chance to do what I love, the most rewarding job I could ask for - encouraging people to be creative and to spread their wings... Thank you so much for making it possible!

And also: brand new Finnabair products that saw the light of day. :)

I'm so proud to be seeing so many of you enthusiastic about my Art Alchemy Waxes, new lines of Acrylic Paints (including Sparks and brand new Impasto Paints), new Mechanicals, Art Stones, Patina and Stone Effect Pastes and also my own special Apron & Sleeves! :)

Today I'd like to leave you with my superbly talented Brand Ambassadors who kindly agreed to meet again and talk about their personal favorites among my products and present some of their gorgeous artworks to inspire us all!

Their creativity knows no limits....

Art Alchemy Waxes.

Though at first I wasn't convinced, they slowly became my favorite of the year: the Waxes!
I'm not much of a bling girl and considering all the wax colors contain shine to them, I had to tame them, learn to know them and most of all, discover ways to make them work within my universe.

But once I got there, the result just made me swoon. And as they do smell so nicely, you just want to leave them on your table! ;)
This project is one of my Journal on Monday videos, it's called 'So emotional'. Unfortunately... I completely forgot to turn the camera back on when working with the wax... Like I said, they make me swoon! So you can see the whole page come together, except for the wax part, right here. :)

Impasto Paints.

I LOVE color and contrast.

I work a lot in muted colors; lots of browns and blues. But highly intense color outlined in black always grabs my eye.

You cannot dilute down the color in these great paints with water. The color remains intense.

But the thickness is great for complete coverage on almost any project. I used a bit of water here to make them glide on easier into tiny spaces, but as you can see, the color is still great. And the black used to outline or edge the colors really makes the colors pop.

Read more about my Paintbrush Doll on my blog.

Metallique Paints.

Today I would love to share with you my creative love of using one of my favourite new release products: Art Alchemy Metallique paints.

For the project pictured below I have used the new release ‘Dark Forest’ green.

What is to love about the Metallique paints?

Well, for me it is the fast drying and waterproof properties I get when using them to finish my air-dry clay projects. Because I don’t have access to glazes and a kiln I use the Art Alchemy Metallique products because I can emulate and/or reproduce the finish and look of a glaze, with the added bonus of being water repellent.

Above is a picture collage of a quick little project I created just for fun and shared on my Instagram account. It shows a small air-dry clay pot, that I coated in Metallique paint. When it was dry I potted it up with some small cactus pups. [The cactus will survive for about 6 months before I have to re-pot them, and for now to water them, I just use a pipette].

These next two photos show 2 air-dry clay bowls that I created and finished with 2 of the fabulous first release Art Alchemy Metallique paints.

The first bowl I have used the Metallique paint on both the inside and outside of the bowl.

With the crackled finished it was used to highlight the cracks. It is important when creating this effect to work fast, and to use a moistened cloth [I used a baby wipe], to buff off [remove] the Metallique paint as it has a ‘fast drying’ quality.

With the second bowl I used the Metallique paint on the inside surface.

When I use the paint as a colour or finish coat I like to ensure that the clay surface is first under coated with Art Basics Heavy Gesso. The outside surface effect of this bowl was achieved by using Stone Effect Paste and Heavy Gesso.

So... what is not to love about Art Alchemy Metallique Paints?!!! :)

Art Alchemy Waxes.

The products that totally stole my heart in 2017 are the Art Alchemy Waxes.

They work perfectly on both light and dark surfaces making every kind of project look spectacular highlighting chosen details.

They are really subtle and very easy to apply + they smell delicious... :)

I usually like to apply the Waxes with my fingertips - this allows me a better control of where they go; I use a little paintbrush for the spots that are harder to rich.

My personal number one is Metallique Wax in White Gold! :)

Art Alchemy Sparks Paints.

So hard to pick one product as my favorite! I mean they all are awesome - new colors to the wonderful Art Alchemy paints, the new Impasto paints, bigger jars of Rust and Patina sets... But I really, really like Sparks! The magpie in me goes crazy when I see their shine and shimmer!

My tip to using them would be to mix in some matte in the same project to really show off the shine. What I usually do, though, is mix the Sparks with Art Alchemy paints so it's shine all the way!

I've used these paints in numerous projects of mine: Heart of Gold, this Sparks card, the Carpe Diem journal cover and many more - they are simply always on my desk. :)

P.S If you're anywhere near Helsinki, there's a great opportunity to meet Riikka in person during one of her live classes in August!

Aren't they ALL amazing?
I'm glad that I don't have to pick my favourite products from my latest releases as I truly love them all, and watching my Creative Team, Ambassadors and you all creating with them makes my heart flutter and sing! I keep checking Instagram for new, inspiring projects on the daily basis - so if you'd like to show me projects you are proud of - don't forget to tag me! It will be much easier for me to find you and your beautiful art!

Jumping Off Cliffs * Developing Our Wings

Hello my dear Friends!

I'm waving to you from a plane returning from my dream India adventure, and today I'd like to share a special journal spread I made a while ago.

This piece was made in a round robin art journal of a Polish friend of mine.

Our starting point was this beautiful quote by Kurt Vonnegut:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs
and developing our wings on the way down.”

You must admit these words are very inspiring. Here's what happened on my desk: :)

I decided to start creating the mood with the atmospheric Cold Country papers from 7 Dots Studio.

Then, a little bit of base texture action with Modeling Paste + stencil, beautiful Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays and - as usual -> some home made tea stains I simply can't do without. :)

Then it was time to create the focal points of my piece - clusters of all kinds of delicious bits and pieces. I looked around my desk and collected bits of chipboards, lace, scraps of different papers and fabric, thread, buttons etc. I believe that these little things can magically carry all kinds of stories.

The main photo comes from 'Flow', one of my favorite magazines, I also added some of my Mechanicals here and there.

The final touches are splatters with white and red Art Alchemy acrylic paints and a pinch of Mini Art Stones and Glitter.

Here you can see the products I used - all available in our Mixed Media Place store:

I really like how these pages turned out, it was a huge joy to create them - expressive without too much of technological fuss - a great way to put some feelings on paper -

- I hope you experience the same joy during your creative process and I hope I inspired you to do some journaling as well!

xxx

Between The Pages

Hello everybody!

I hope you had a creative weekend and that you are ready for some more art making! :)

We have so  much beauty waiting for you here today as we meet with John and his stunning book art talents!
I'm sure once you see the gorgeous patinas in this project, you will want to join us creating your own special artwork - and John explains how. :) Enjoy!

*   *   *   *

I’ve seen so many different book art projects lately and it inspired me to grab one of my old books and have some fun!

I started my artist adventures long ago in the 'altered book' days and I thought that I would put my spin on how I like to transform old books. For this project I used an old French text book that I picked up at a library sale to get creative!

I’m not going to go into a huge amount of detail in how to create the finished book block because that would be a very long blog post in itself!

Basically to create the book block (all of the pages of the book adhered together) I used Soft Matte Gel to glue all of the pages, applied around the edges of all of the pages.

You can then use clamps or even painters tape to hold the block together until it has dried completely. 

Once the block has dried, you can begin carving out the windows into the book block. For this project I cut a larger window to begin with, and then a smaller window part way down into the pages.

Once I was done carving out my windows, I again used Soft Matte Gel to hold them in place.

I wanted the entire background of the book (pages and covers) to have a more subtle look to them, so I decided to create washes of color using the new Impasto Paints.

I’m in love with all of the colors, and although they are great to apply texture right out of the bottle, I simply added water to them to give a more antiqued tea stain look.

I used Jade Impasto as my base color, then layered with a wash of Azure followed with Dark Chocolate. I absolutely LOVE the end result!

There were some great images found inside of the book and I couldn’t resist incorporating them into this project!

On the inside cover of the book, I used an image of a chateau that I crumpled up to give it some texture. I then adhered it to the inside cover using Soft Matte Gel, then applied a thin, even coat of Metallique White Pearl across the entire image.

This is a great technique to use when working with black and white images because it adds an iridescent quality to the image!

Next I placed down the Elementals 'Weaving' stencil and with a palette knife used Jade and Azure Impasto paints to create color and texture.

Once dried, I used a palette knife to add more color and texture first with Mint Green Patina Effects Paste followed by Blue Patina Effects Pastes.

While the pastes were still wet, I added Frosted Mica Flakes along with a touch of Grass and Splash Micro Beads. To add a little more color, I dry brushed Metallique Soft Satin for highlights.

For my embellishments used in this project, I used Heavy White Gesso as my primer for all of my pieces and then used the same color wash technique for coloring the embellishments with the Impasto Paints as with the background.

To adhere the embellishments to the background, with a palette knife apply a generous amount of Mint Green Patina Effects Paste to the backside of the embellishment and then put into place, spreading the excess paste around to add texture and then heat set.

Highlight the Mint Green with Blue Patina Effects Paste followed with Metallique Soft Satin. If you’d like to add some inclusions, add those while the paste is still wet.

The front cover of the book actually lifts off to reveal an inside image on top of a sculpted material background created with muslin that was shaped using Clear Sculpture Medium.

To give this image used inside of the box a little more stability, I mounted it onto a piece of mat board before placing it over the fabric background.

The possibilities of creating your own artwork from old books are endless!

There are many different variations to this project – you can adhere the entire book together to create a single block (with the covers adhered to all of the pages) and then carve a window/shrine through the front cover of the book.

Another variation that I like to create is to create two book blocks, each one adhered to each book cover and then carving windows into each of them.

I hope this project inspires you to get creative with those old books laying around the house!

xx

John

Products used: