Freedom Is A State of Mind

Happy Monday, Everyone!

I just love Monika's new project - first of all, she proves in her tutorial that you don't have to spend hours to create an amazing looking journal page and secondly... it makes my heart sing to see my new "art babies" in action! :)
Oh, and Mr Fox is "Just Perfect", don't you think? ;)

 

Hello!

Today I'd like to show you how to create a quick mixed media art journal entry.

I had a chance to create with new Finnabair products and believe me... it wasn't easy to decide which stamps and stencils to use first... ;)

I decided on a white base, I glued a page from a vintage prayer book using glue and a band-aid that has a fantastic texture. Then, I covered everything with a coat of Heavy White Gesso.

I used White Hot paper from Sunrise Sunset collection - I cut it into small pieces that I stapled together. Then, I added a thin coat of of White Gesso again.
I printed my photo and distressed its edges with the scissors. I added some color to the edges using a tea bag and also squeezed it a little bit to leave drops on my papers and create some nice stains.

Then I applied Light Paste through a new Grungy Grid stencil and dried it with a heating tool.

I decided to use two new stamps - Don't Forget To Fly and Messy - and what can I say... It was love at first sight! I just adore these stamps!

I glued my stapled paper composition in my journal and reached for another new product that I just had to try out right away - Copper Mica Powder. I delicately sprinkled the powder over my work and sprayed it with water. It created really beautiful stains. I added some more stains making drops with Old Paper Distress Ink and diluting it with water.

Then, I added metal brads and flowers, some thread and a frame by Tim Holtz with stamped word "Freedom" from this set.

And then it was time to add the photo and glue the whole composition in my journal - ready!

I had so much fun and I hope you like my project!

Have a great week!

Monika

Materials used:

Who is Finnabair? - journal pages

Hi there my dear friends!
I hope you are having a great weekend, with some time to do the things you really love!
Myself, I'm doing my best to remember about creating something "just because" and as soon as I will be done with the super-confidential-projects i'm working on now I'll be happy to come back to my journal and canvas I've got still in progress somewhere in my studio.

Below you can see one of the journal pages I've made in the last weeks following the challenge on "Kawa i Nożyczki" (Coffee and Scissors) Art blog.  This time we were focusing on our names or nicknames - and the element we should include was the lettering.
I didn't really have to think twice - I knew I will be doing pages about my nickname (and now also  brand name) as I was trying to explain many times during my classes to my students - on some point of my life I started to feel Finnabair is my name. Somehow. It's unique, its pretty exotic... and it is me. Maybe because my real name - Anna is so popular among my crafty/artsy friends and we needed to make sure which Anna we are talking about? So here it goes!

How I got my name?
The story is pretty plain - it was just a coincidence. Years ago before I was doing any crafts I was in a desperate need of finding a good, not taken login to internet forums, services - and everything based on my name and surname was taken. Every. Single. Time. (If you name is John Smith you now what I'm trying to say, right?)
So in a moment of frustration I just picked a random female name from the book I was reading at that moment - and it was one of the best known Celtic legends called "Táin Bó Cúailnge" which translates to "The Cattle Raid of Cooley" - story of a war between Connacht and Ulster started with a small argument between the king and queen of Connacht... with a lot of pride, jealousy, family connections, friendship and complicated politics involved this story full o heroic duels and battles is considered now to be one of the most important in Irish Mythology . You can find information about it in many places, but I can't promise it will be an entertaining read (sorry!).

Finnabair was the daughter of the Queen Medb and King Ailill and she was one of the second-plan characters in the whole legend. I was sure her name wouldn't be taken by anyone yet - and I was so right! From this moment I kept using it whenever I needed to log in somewhere. I never had a clue it will stick to me like this, but hey, I'm not complaining!
Finnabair is one of the possible spellings of the name and the most possible meaning of it is White Spirit or Shadow... Fay or Ghost - and is connected tightly to the concepts of possibly supernatural nature of some of the ancient Celtic female figures. From this point my explanations would get really complicated and I don't think you are as mad about Celtic Mythology as I am, so please, let's stop here! You can check more here and don't blame me if it is a bit muddy water!

For this post it will be more than enough to word "finn" is old version and is tightly connected to the Irish word "fionn" which would be translated into English "fair, bright, blonde". It's also one of popular Irish names - for boys! (again - with the connection to Celtic hero...). Oh well.

Anyway - I did my best to show all these Celtic influences in my page: I used pages from book written in Gaelic (Irish language) as a art of my background and stamps with Celtic knots, very popular decorative element - which I stamped with my gesso. The text stamp I used - from my new Prima collection has something in common with it all too ;) Finally - white dots surrounding the photo are idea taken from old Irish manuscripts... am I slightly obsessed? Indeed.

In general all the textures of the page were build with Art Basics Heavy White Gesso, Modeling Paste (with combination with lovely TCW "Alhambra"stencil), sprays in shades of yellow, orange, pink and purple and touches done with watercolour pencils. I've also used Art Basics Clear Gesso over my photo to make it easier to paint and stamp - I love the beautiful matte effect it gave to it!

Here is the list of the products - all available in Mixed Media Place now:

I hope my blogpost answered for the questions many people wanted me to ask: Why Finnabair? Why Ireland? Well, the answer is: for the love of books and Celtic mythology. That's it.

Sending you warm hugs from this side

Color Riot

Hello, Friends!

So many of us are longing for spring, more light and color... I think Elena's new project is just like a gorgeous ray of sunshine in the middle of bleak February... Enjoy! 

Hello!

Today I would like to inspire you to experiment with alcohol inks. I have created a mini-album using bright vibrant colors of inks. That is what I really need to do on cloudy and moody days.

1. I covered cotton fabric with Heavy White Gesso. You may also use canvas instead.

2. The next step is to glue this fabric to the firm chipboard base using Soft Matte Gel.

3. Then I folded the fabric to create nice angles.

4. To create the texture I applied Light Paste through a stencil.

5. Then I painted with Alcohol Inks and used Alcohol Blending Solution to get smoother color transitions and gradients. 

Here are a few pics of the proccess.

7. When I was happy with the result, I started adding different embellishments adhering them with Soft Gloss Gel. 

For the final touches I added some delicious Art Ingredients: Sterling Glass Glitter, Zinc Glass Beads and Antique Silver Art Sugar.

So the cover is ready! Then I added some embellishments to the pages, created a handmade binding and added my pages into the cover.

Now I am waiting for the bright summer days to take photos of my kids and put them into this album!

The Alcohol Inks colors which I used are:

• Sail Boad Blue
• Stream
• Eggplant
• Butterscotch
• Denim
• Ginger

I hope I managed to inspire you to try out some alcohol inks from your stash. Thank you for reading!

Have a great creative time!
Elena Morgun

Materials used: