New Journal and Canvas with Matte waxes and Stencils - by Finnabair

Hi my dear ones!
I'm on the point of leaving for the CreativeWorld in Frankfurt where I will have time chance to see some of you in person and demo my latest art products which I've released together with Prima Marketing! It has been a very exciting weekend and you can see the full reveal in the two posts we've pulled together for you - here and here, check them out!

In the meantime let me show you one of the first samples I've made with my new products - and I even managed to put a bit of everything on it!

My newest Art Daily Chipboard Journal is just perfect size to fit into my Art Daily Folder and the thick and sturdy cover makes so easy to alter. I've started with a coat of Art Basics White Heavy Gesso and my new Tissue Paper. On the top, you can see two of my new Stencils - "Mind Games" and "Gothic" used with Art Extravagance White Crackle Paste and Art Basics Modeling Paste.

The initial colours I've made with my Art Alchemy Liquid Acrylics - great quality, concentrated acrylic paints which I watered down a bit and let them flow on the Journal cover. My next step was adding my new and  - oh so exciting - Art Alchemy Matte Waxes: Rusty Brown, Rusty Red and Charcoal Black.

The antiquing, matte and permanent finish of the Matte Waxes is just a perfect solution for the book cover! They added so much depth and grunginess to the journal and if you want you can easily use them with my Metallique Waxes too! How cool!

There are so many inspiring possibilities of using my new products - I so want to play more, but what I really want to see is you all playing with them and discovering new ways of putting them into good use! Soon they will be available in the stores - Prima will start shipping soon!

If you'd like to learn more, here is recorded and edited FB Live Show from last Friday, where I'm showing all the new products and ways of using them... for example you can see how to make cool canvas like this one!

So - ready to watch?
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and sharing the video with your friends!

Sending love your way
xxx

Ocean's Tales - Altered Book FB Live Video - by Finnabair

Hi, how are you my Dears?
It's been a while since I've posted my project here - it is all because I'm drifting somewhere between recharging batteries, planning new creative adventures, catching up with emails and tasking the advantage of the best season of the year - Summer. If you are interested what I am up to, the best way is to check private Instagram, updated daily - especially if you are a fan of Irish landscapes and a bunch of random thoughts :)
If you were able to see some of my latest photos, you can see I was on Aran Islands, spending most of my time walking on the cliffs, listening to to weaves and inhaling the salty air. This is my favourite way of relaxing for sure - Ocean has truly magical powers and it is so very close to my soul... I could spend days just staring at it, but I not much would be done this way, right?

Speaking abut the ocean, today I've got one of my older FB Lives for you - and it is all sea and ocean inspired  of course! If you like altered art as much as I do you will be having great time trying similar ideas on the books, boxes, canvases panels... literally everything!

I've picked a really nice selection of art mediums to create effects on this cover: Art Extravagance Graphite Paste for the lovely, gritty texture, Art Basics Heavy Body Gel as the super strong adhesive and Black Gesso as the background. All that together with a bunch of a bit unusual elements was perfect start before adding some amazing, metallic colour!

The final look is a mixture of one of the most versatile products in my range - Mica Powders with a tiny bit of Art Stones, Metallique Paint and pinch of Glitter... it may sound complicated but I promise you, it is all much easier than it seems!

Check out this FB Live Video recording - all edited and uploaded to my YT Channel for you!

I hope this project will inspire you to make some new, cool altered items for your home collection - maybe it is time to think about finding something special during your vacation travels and turning it into personal art piece? Why not?

Sending you love and all the best creative vibes
Finn

Art is the Answer - Altered Tin and You Tube Hop! - by Finnabair

Hi my dear friends!
We've been hiding the news for a long while - but now it's finally time to share it with you and invite you to join the fun! After some brainstorming and debating inside our Creative Team we've decided to offer you a chance not only to learn some intriguing and inspiring techniques and maybe get out of the comfort zone a little bit but also a possibility to win some cool prizes both from me and from our partner - Prima Marketing.
Sounds tempting? I hope so because we've put together a pretty good selection of video tutorials, all inspired by one theme - Art to Go.

What does it mean?
It can be any mixed-media project which is easy to take with you wherever you go, portable and compact, but still beautiful, uplifting or full of memories. The other option is including the packaging into the piece of art itself - and recycle the elements and parts which would be normally left alone, considered to be useless and unwanted... so are you ready to join us?

Our You Tube Hop has simple rules and following all of them will give you a chance to win one of the prizes from Finnabair or Prima. You can see all the details and start the YT Hop HERE - just make sure you will follow the instructions and visit all the listed videos!

I've made for you a video showing the whole process of alteration of an old tin - and I hope you will have a great time watching it, and maybe try to create something in the similar style?
There are so many possibilities! Also, all the techniques you can see in this video you can easily adapt to other mixed-media projects... how cool is that?

I hope you will enjoy our You Tube Hop - please let us know what you think about this idea and if you have any suggestions and wishes. We are waiting to hear from you!
Enjoy watching  - and jumping through the YT Channels of me and the Team!

Now, join the fun - click the image to go to the video!

Sending love and wishing you a great, creative week

Inspired by Klimt (and Icing Paste!) - by Finnabair

Hi again my friends!
Have you seen our latest mood board for April at Art Daily Cafe Blog? If not, you should check it as it is absolutely gorgeous! I was waiting impatiently for this month to come as I was sure the project from the team and you, our online friends, will simply blow my mind...
Speaking about Art Daily - every Monday, following the topic of the month, we publish a new prompt for you. And I just have to show you how I got inspired by one of them!

"If you could have your portrait painted by any artist in history, who would you pick?"
I was thinking about this sentence for only a short moment - the answer was easy for me and I think it won't be too surprising, when I will show you my journal spread.

Klimt's love for patterns, bold designs and colour stole my heart right away.
His most popular paintings are known by almost everybody... but there are so many more of his works showing his amazing talent, sensitivity and an amazing eye for detail. If only I had a chance, I'd love to be his model without a blink of an eye... only to be able to look over his shoulder when he was creating!

When I was working on this project I had a quick look through the album with his paintings and as a result, I've put some of his signature elements together. I know how far I am from his masterpieces, but I wanted to try anyway!
The whole spread is one big experiment with metallic textures, glossy acrylic paints and bold patterns - and I have to admit it was great creative exercise. I've used a lot of art mediums to get the finish I liked - but my pages are really durable thanks to this process!
I've started with a good coat of Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel over the printed paper - I've picked 2 pages from an old book. I've added more paper layers and metallic skins a bit alter using 3D Gloss Gel - it is a bit thicker and it was easier to stick thicker elements with it.

Most of the dimensional patterns in this spread were done using a selection of stencils and 2 colours of Art Extravagance Icing Pastes - beautifully creamy, metallic gels which added the most beautiful effects to my pages. I've used Fire Ruby and Vintage Gold colours to create my palette. 

For final colouring, I had to use the product matching my super shiny finish of the project - and here my new Art Alchemy Liquid Acrylics were absolutely the best solution! I've added shades of brown, pink, red, purple and yellow and I fell in love with them once again!

There is a special technique bonus to this page - for creating some of the textures, especially the "dress" of the main character I've used pieces of Icing Paste Skins I'd prepared before. You can see them on the picture above - they are flexible, durable and very easy to make if you have plastic embossing folders and Icing Pastes of course! Just think about all the possibilities of using them not only on the canvases, covers and pages but also bottles, boxes and pots!
You can see the tutorial on making them in the short video below - I hope you will get inspired to play with this concept!

Here are some of the products I've used to work on my journal page 
- all liked to Mixed Media Place Store:


If you feel inspired by Art Daily Cafe mood board - don't forget to tag us #artdailycafe when posting on Instagram! This way we have a chance to see your beautiful art and maybe repost it as well!
Thank you so much for visiting me today - happy creating!

Magical Teapot Class - by Finnabair

Hi, how was your week?
I hope you found time to make something for yourself - remember every little act of art counts! Even the smallest one - it is still a step forward.
I didn't have a chance to work on anything bigger than just a bunch of notes and sketches - I was between 2 travels, straight from Africa I had to go to beautiful north of Italy and all my time was consumed by emails, orders for classes and organising my travels. It's not my favourite activity - it really sucks sometimes... But tit is the only way to get closer to you and be able to meet you in person.

Speaking about classes - we've opened bookings for the workshops in Mexico, Norway,  Estonia, UK, Ireland and The Netherlands now - and there are my NEW classes included in these! You can check the booking info and schedule here - remember the seats may sell out fast, so don't wait too long!

One of the new classes I'm teaching is the altered metal teapot frame from my winter release. I couldn't resist - I had to make something including it. It was one of my favourites frame designs I've made EVER! In the end  I made this project based on the design I've created for Creativation 2019.

What can you learn in the class?
"Magical Teapot" is inspired by the visual abundance of layers, textures and metallic colours,  stepping a bit into the ground of steampunk, vintage and everything metallic and shiny.

During this class we will be working on inside and outside of the metal frame. We will focus on altering techniques which will make your project beautiful and unique - adding details, textures based on Art Extravagance pastes and colours using the popular range of art mediums from my mixed-media collection. You will have a chance to try such products as soft and heavy gels, gesso in composition with Art Ingredients and a range of Art Alchemy Metallique Waxes and Rust Effect Pastes. 

As always we  we will build our projects step-by-step and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or journal pages. I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about the tools and products used. "Magical Teapot" is an exciting way to dive into the world of 3D mixed-media and altering, working with pastes, paints and art ingredients of different kinds!

Does it sound like something for you? 

Check my schedule to see where are the upcoming classes located. 

Maybe I'm not as far as you think?

I hope you like this class idea - let me know what you think!
Would you like to try to create a project similar to this one? Or this is not your "cup of tea"?
Sending warmest hugs

For the Record - altered vinyl record - by Finnabair

Hi my friends, how are you?
Finally I'm closer and closer to the moment when I can reveal some of the secrets I was working on in the meantime... do you know what they are? If you think new CLASSES - you are right!

In the next weeks I will be revealing new projects I'm starting teaching this year - all based on the fun and exciting mixed-media techniques I love to play with, on the range of my favourite products and of course - new, inspiring ideas! I hope you are excited - because I am!

Buy the way - if you'd like to check my classes schedule for the coming months - follow this link to my "In-person Classes" tab of the blog - maybe I'm closer to you than you think?

The first class I'd like to share is based on the project which I've made for the display during Creativation 2019 in Phoenix - but it has a bit unexpected twist. I've used a real vinyl record as my base!

What do you think about this mix?
We've got a whole range of ideas and effects here - starting with beautiful shiny textures, going through dimensional layers build on natural sticks, metal embellishments, elements made with my new moulds... and more!

In this project your imagination is the limit!
You can bring your own photo and try dimensional mixed-media techniques on a bit unusual surface - vinyl record - to create unique, rich and sparkly composition tased on Art Extravagance Pastes, Art Basics Gesso and Gels and a lot of embellishments including natural materials and elements created with moulds.

During the class you will work on high-quality products from my mixed-media range including Mica Powders, Glitters and Art Alchemy Liquid Acrylic Paints to work with the colour palette of your choice. This is a perfect chance to create a beautiful, eye-catching project and learn a lot about new range of products from my collection!

As always - we will build our projects step-by-step and and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or scrapbooking layouts.
I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about tools and products used... sounds interesting?
Check where you can join my classes - here! This class is already conferment for South Africa, Estonia and The Netherlands... but more locations is coming son!

Sending you a huge hug - and stay tuned for more updates!