Finnabair: August Ambassadors' Spotlight

Monday, 31 August 2020

August Ambassadors' Spotlight

Dear friends,

This month host for our monthly Ambassadors' Spotlight is Reniferove. Her idea was creating something magical with glitter and natural objects :) So here they are - our talented Ambassadors: Reniferove, Riikka Kovasin, and Kassa with their fabulous projects!

This month I came up with the topic, and because I love magic and magic without glitter cannot exist, the theme of this month is magic and glitter. I have fallen in love with ATC recently, they are a beautiful and small form, but despite their small size, ATC can be rich in compositions.

I used mold castings, metal elements, and the color was given by metallic paints that shimmer beautifully. To make the project truly magical, at the end I added glitter from the 'Luminous' set and my favorite Art Ingredients-Glass Glitter. To create a magical atmosphere, absolutely nothing else is needed.

I really loved this theme, so I signed up for it immediately. But after that I then faced a problem - what to actually do! I thought about a layout, altered piece, canvas with some natural elements in there, but couldn’t decide. So, I thought first to go outside, find that piece of nature I’d incorporate and go from there. It was a smart move as when I had picked up this piece of bark, I knew I’d make some kind of scarab beetle on top of it.

I’ve been fascinated by ancient Egypt from an early age so choosing a scarab for the magical creature wasn’t that big of a jump. I used Art Pebbles partly in the make, but topped that with air drying clay. It’s not that visible in the finished piece anymore, but there’s a full moon stamped underneath the body of the beetle. That’s why I call him a blue moon beetle.

Hi loVelies, hope you are all keeping well & safe. As always so wonderful to be back here again. What fun I’ve had creating this months theme ‘Something Magical’ (use glitter and some natural elements) Thanks Iwona Marchewka your chosen theme was a creative gift, a license to let your hair down and have a fun time (messy too teehee with all that magical glitter eeeeeeep!)

Now I had an urge to create a little tea-party magic (which would be such fun to create with children!) The cupcakes, a combination of a polystyrene ball, a grey board base & inner, wrapped with AB Studio’s thick & crisp patterned paper. The frosting a mix of Finnabair’s Opaque Matte Light Paste mixed with any choice of Finnabair’s Mica Powders creating your own custom coloured paste - I thicken the paste with Finnabair’s Texture Powder so it holds a shape when scooped or even piped on top of the cupcake case/polystyrene ball. Decorating is a total joy...Glass Glitter, Micro Beads, Glass Beads, Glitter, yummy Art Pebbles - truly these Art Ingredients are perfect for cake decorating teehee x I adhere Finnabair Tissue Paper with Soft Matte Gel to the cake stand, when dry I ‘swiped’ lashings of Art Extravagance Texture Paste Clear Crackle with Finnabair’s Silicone Brush - I only swipe the same area once and this technique always produces perfect crackles, using lashings of Crackle I leave to dry for 24 hours & the crackle picture shows it is worth the wait!

Whipe White Gesso on then off the dried crackles to fill in the crackle gaps thus making them stand out more, spray Mica Powder mixed with a little water & various misting sprays for amazing colour ‘PoP’ Daubs of Sparks golden Dragon’s Eye paint to catch the light adding extra special magic with its sparkle. The waxes are amazing for emphasising all the texture created with the tissue paper & crackle paste, also they add the perfect guilding edge feel, a rich depth for any creation. The Old White & Charcoal Black waxes add hi lights & shadow which can push or pull areas of your artwork into the foreground or back thus creating more depth detail.

I loVe tiny details so I had to add the butterflies, at the moment I’m all about the blue butterflies. I picked out one of the Cupcake colours so there was some cohesion and colourised the butterflies in hues of that shade, keeping them all one colour so they would stand out from the mix of colours already present. Flags are a real favourite of mine, I use all my itty bitty leftovers, wrap Carte Postale Washi Tape around cocktail sticks, the face on this Washi Tape is so dreamy so I had her on most of my flags too, along with Art Pebbles, Glitters, Micro Beads etc And the Finnabair Stick on Sentiments are a go to for me for tiny artwork as just one word used can stand right out...
The Metal Mechanical Mini Stars evoke a magical feel and just a few dotted here and there filled in those bare (what can I do to fill this space) areas. Metal Lotus Flowers are so very beautiful filled with Glass Beads, Micro Beads, Glitters etc.

A few more sprinkles of Beads, Glitters, extra spritz’s of the colourful mist/sprays and splatters of watered down White Gesso and my job was done.... Areal feel good fun creation, a haPPy colourful creation, a labour of loVe. As I pass by this little yummy cupcake creation how the light catches all that magical sparkle & shine from the glitter, waxes, Sparks paint, glass beads etc My heart just fills with big smiles, teehee it’s brought the ‘big kid’ out in me!

‘tip’ the Finnabair Texture Paste is a real treasure, I’m never without it, my biggest use for it is creating coloured pastes to pull through stencils. Just mix with a little paint then use very quickly as it dries über fast (and wash everything fast too). But oh boy it’s simply the best for custom coloured pastes and a sprinkle of glitter before it dries is diVine x