August Ambassadors' Spotlight

 

Hello friends,

August Ambassadors' Spotlight host is Kasia Bogatko with theme: altered art with natural objects, like shells, branches, stones etc. Kasia Bogatko, Iwona Marchewka, Karolina Bukowska and Riikka Kovasin prepared beautiful projects, that you can see below.

Hello

Natural elements such as twigs, shells and moss often appear in my designs. Thanks to all kinds of media, we can easily adapt them to various works, in various styles. I have prepared a simple home decoration for this inspiration. I used ordinary sticks, which are the "staging" for the rest of the composition, and moss that completed the whole. Art stones pretend to be the real ones, very effectively. 

Colors are my favorite liquid acrylic paints, they work great in this technique, we can freely use other media on them. Gesso does not smudge paints, does not take on color, emphasizes all details very well. I encourage you to look around in your surroundings and try to use natural elements in your projects. In my opinion, they always fit.

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

Some months back I did an altered tin with a magical forest inside. So, when I read the theme of something altered, I wanted to use it as an excuse to create another tin. That of course set the limitations to the natural object as it needed to be small enough to fit inside the tin.

I love the sea and I could stare to the horizon for hours. Or scavenge treasures from the sand. One of the highlights of my trips to Norway and Denmark have been to see the wide-open sea. Finland is at a bottom of a gulf so while there can be rough sea at times, it’s nothing compared to the Atlantic Ocean. Me and my daughters loved poking around the sand in Esbjerg, Denmark and I carefully wrapped a piece of a tiny crab shell I found to several napkins to get it home safely. That piece lies amid other sea treasures near my craft table. 

There’s two natural elements here – a piece from what I think is an oyster shell in the left side and half of a blue mussel shell on the right. The shell piece is from Esbjerg for sure, but I think the blue mussel shell is from Finnish waters. Or the latter can also be bought from a grocery store many years ago, when I needed a shell to make a cast for embellishing a headdress. The man behind the grocery store counter took a funny look at me when I asked to buy one mussel. In the end, he gave me two mussels for free. 

The tin has a lovely turquoise blue lid, which I echoed inside as well. I painted the inside first black to have a shade-like base color. On top I then layered lace, tissue paper and found objects. I colored the tin with several Metallique paints, diluting them with water and Soft Body gel. I also added some sparkle, like the light playing on the waves, using blue glitter and micro beads. Same glitter along with some pale blue beads is inside the little bottle, nesting in the care of the mussel shell. 

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

Welcome,

It's time to add something natural to your design!

I think the season is good for us and we can go crazy with sea droughts, shells and twigs.

I chose a proven color palette. Turquoise beautifully intertwines with brown and gold. I love Liquid paints. have tinted the project wonderfully.

I found a twig in my garden, my daughter gave it to me, and she is like Ariel and a mermaid on my canvas. My little princess of the seas.

To create the project, I used media from the base line and I added cracking paste. I tinted the background with liquid and sparks, I added a bit of sparkle using art alchemic metallic paint.

I invite you to watch the tutorial where you can see how the canvas is made step by step

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

Altering items and using natural elements are definitely my favorite type of projects. I can't pass by old things indifferently and just as being on a walk I can't resist picking up sticks or feathers. It is similar with shells, but I buy these in jars, because I do not live by the sea. 

August is the month of holidays, so my project is also summer! I decided to altered a nautical-style frame. From shells of various shapes, I arranged compositions, filling the empty spaces with sand, pearls and artistic pebbles.

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

Hi there again loVely friends :-))) 

What a wonderful time I’ve had creating with just 4 little soft, smooth driftwood sticks, Finnabair’s new stencil ‘Documented’  And her Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints…  

I challenged myself to paint only using the spatula style Mixed Media Silicone Brushes (but I must admit to adding splatters with a paint brush…)

New out of the wrapper & the ‘Documented’ stencil has already been used 3 times!  A little beauty with its strong design lines, also the detail is small enough to add that little something you need to balance out a bare corner.  I just loVe it to bits already…

Anyways as always I’ve made such a mess buhahaha & I’m off to clean it up with my hot cuppa tea :-))) 

Take care loVelies, sending loVe and hugs to you all Kassa xoxoxo

Have a good evening!

Finnabair Team