We Wish You...

Hi there my dear friends!
Than you again for visiting our place in the web, we love to see you here any time!

It is just a moment before the very special time of the year, days filled with love, joy and happiness and no matter how crazy our life is now, no matter how many unexpected twists and turns our plans and routines had to endure, we are here with you to tell you how special you are to us, how much we appreciate your support and presence and to wish you all the best for this wonderful Holiday time! I hope your life will be filled with all that you need, and we wish you love and peace, tons of positive energy, courage to create whatever your heart will tell you and great people around you who will give you support when you need it the most.  I hope you will find time to play, to enjoy whatever you like to do and the sparkle of inspiration will shine brightly for you! Warmest hugs from us all!

I guess I own you a long story of moving houses and studio just before Christmas, story of last minute redecorations and repainting, lost hope and hope restored, story of living in boxes and creating on the boxes, long days without internet access and pulling out my hair because all the unexpected things going on around me... add to it the joy of living in a very old house for the first time in my life, (almost 300 years old, yeah!), 2 overexcited dogs and 1 stressed cat, 1 car broken on the motorway on the way to the airport (to pick up my husband's parents) and the Grand Rescue made in great style by my dear friends, bleeding fingers, sore back and the priest who lives next door and  happened to be an angel who literally saved our family Christmas celebrations today giving us a Christmas tree as a gift (as we didn't have a chance to buy our own yet and it seems to be to late to get one...) ... take all that and more and you will have a story of our life after I got back from Australia and NZ! I think a sneak peek of my Christmas inspired Steampunk Reindeer project above gives you the impression of how unusual or even weird our Christmas is going to be this year... but hey, there is certainly a lot of  beauty in this weirdness too!

But this is not the end... you will see more of the Steampunk Reindeer on the weekend, as a treat after the Holiday time, and now, we all got something very special: the whole Finnabair Creative Team created their personal artistic Christmas wishes for all of you...

Each project coming straight from the Artist's heart and as unique as each of these amazing, talented Ladies who have been inspiring us all and making us want to spread our wings..

We hope all these wishes will come true for you. Enjoy and feel inspired!

We wish you:

Wishes from Denisa:

Wishes from Gayle:

Wishes from Irina:

Wishes from Kasia:

Wishes from Linda:

Wishes from Marta:

Wishes from Olga:

Did we manage to make you smile? :)
We have a special surprise for you today - a Christmas reunion of six super talented Artists who used to be part of Finn Team and now are coming back for this special Holiday post to wish you:

Wishes from Lena:

Wishes from Elena:

Wishes from Monika:

Wishes from Rebecca:

Wishes from Riikka:

Again, I'd like to say huge thank you: first of all to my wonderful, supportive Creative Team whose projects continued to blow my mind in the last months... I feel so proud and grateful I can work with you! Next - let me say thanks to YOU ALL - for continuous support of not only this place but also coming my classes, my FB page and our Finnabair and Friends Open Studio group. You made it all happen, you give it the reason to exist, thanks to you dreams of many of us do come true... Thank you.
Sending warmest hugs for the Christmas Time

Beneath the Sea

Hello, Friends!

When I saw Rebecca's final project for my Team, my heart stopped. 'Epic' is the only word to describe what she's created - a magical underwater fantasy... A real treat and amazing inspiration!

Hello my lovely creative friends...

Well today brings closure to my time on the Finnabair Creative Team, this will be my last project for this amazing team.
As I type I am feeling mixed emotions, I feel a little sad, I feel excited to see what the new team will bring and I also feel happy to keep on creating new and funky projects, the craft journey is never over is it?
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Anna from the bottom of my heart for choosing me to be a part of her team, receiving that e-mail letting me know I was accepted was such an amazingly joyous moment in my life. I will let you all in on a little secret. I applied for this team knowing it was a long shot, thinking in my head it was a slim to none chance of making it through, I really had serious doubts in myself and in my work. However I made it, I was chosen.
My point here (I do have one), ALWAYS believe in yourself, believe in your work (others do!!), challenge yourself, set goals, do not doubt yourself, reach for the stars....you never know, you just may grab a couple of those stars!! (they are not out of reach). 

Ok moving right along to my project this month, let me introduce you to my second edition ocean themed mixed media OTP. In late July I created a mixed media canvas called Oceania.
At the time I did not make a tutorial but by popular request I am happy to bring that to you now but the project this time is on a much larger scale. Please note the below tutorial is for the outside of the box only, the inside of the box will require a whole different tutorial. 

This case is a Julie Nutting Alterable Doll Luggage Set by Prima. I had been hoarding this in my stash for quite some time and this being my last project, it was time to take this epic challenge on. Isn't this case amazing?

and the inside:

To begin I applied some Art Basics Modeling Paste with a palette knife through the Prima Elementals Bubble Stencil. I applied to the front, back and hinge side of the case. Allowing ample time for air drying before moving not to the next step. 

I am always head down over baskets and and boxes in thrift shops collecting little treasures such as the ones you see below. I adhered some dangly beads from the top and twisted cheese cloth from the bottom. Also from the thrift shop I picked up this ball of thready wool, using a palette knife I applied a stack of Art Basics Modeling Paste to the top and bottom of my case, then taking looped sections of wool I begin to push it into the paste with my fingers. 

As my paste was still obviously nice thick and still very wet I begun placing beads, these beads were beads from an old broken necklace. They make a perfect ocean floor don't they? For some of the larger beads I added a dot of super glue behind the bead before pushing it further into the modelling paste, just for that extra support.
Randomly amongst my ocean floor I also adhered in bronze embellishments, seaweed, anchors and fish. As my paste was REALLY thick this section took at least 3 days of full drying time, keeping in mind it was rather cold here in Australia (summer would have been a different story). 

Let's take a moment to look at my fish, what you are looking at here is two pairs of old earrings.  The fish tails are one pair, the fish bodies are another pair. Art can be made from so many different things, never go past that box of old weird looking old jewellery in your local thrift store without having a little look.

My fish gills are made from a cut bronze flower, in the second photo below you will see the fish lips have been cut from the flower stamen. 

Below you will see as part of my background I have also adhered some Prima Mechanicals Jump Rings, this just adds further texture (and will later hold micro beads).

The next step is time consuming but also I think therapeutic and relaxing. I took some Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso and covered the entire outside of the box. You need to really get into everything with the gesso, use a large brush for the larger flatter sections and a small headed brush to get into all the small fiddly sections. 

Once the black gesso had completely dried, it was then time to apply some gorgeous colour. I really wanted lots of different shades of blues and green so I did use quite a few different paint colours.

My paints of choice were Lumiere Halo Blue Gold, Lumiere Pearlescent Blue, Lumiere Metallic Olive Green, Silks Teal Zircon, Silks Bolivian Blue, Silks African Jade and also Art Ingredients Mica Powder in Teal (which had been mixed with a small amount of Art Basics Soft Gloss Gel). 

If you zoom in on this photo and now have a look at the jump rings you will see they contain Art Ingredients Copper Micro Beads, these are held in place with a small amount of glossy accents. 

Upon close inspection you will see the ocean floor contains more treasures in the form of extra beads. You will see more colour!! Art Ingredients Glass Beads in Cobalt Blue and also Black Micro Beads. 

To further accent the colour and add even more dazzle dazzle I sprinkled on very small amounts of Art Ingredients Gold Mica Powder to the top and bottom of the box. Spritzing with water until the desire look was created. I allowed some to drizzle from the top to create a gold shimmer through the water. 

Using a black watercolour pencil from Prima The Basics collection I circled around my larger raised circled and smudged my pencil marks with a damp finger. 

Upon closing I would also now like to thank my fellow Creative Team ladies, you have made being on this team amazing, enjoyable, fun and entertaining. You have all taught me different things and supported me in many ways, for that I thank you from the happy dancing place in my heart x x.

As always my friends keep happy and always keep creative. 

~ Rebecca ~ 

Materials used: