May 29, 2016

tiny canvas #2

Happy Sunday!
Today I’m sharing a tiny canvas I created for ColourArte. It’s really a quick and easy project to do, it only took a few minutes to paint it!
To create this project I used:
ColourArte products
Other products:
  • small canvas 8×7 cm
  • Finnabair Black Gesso
  • Finnabair white crackle paste
  • Finnabair white sand paste
  • Metal embellishments
  • chipboard embellishment (for the roof)
  • wire
  • screws
  • word sticker (7 Dots Studio - Domestic Goddess)
  • package card stock
  • craft glue
First I cut the package chipboard in a house shape and glued it on the back side of the canvas. Then I covered everything with Black Gesso. When it was dry I applied the two texture pastes (crackle and sand paste) here and there. I placed the chipboard and metal embellishments in the wet pastes (they work as a glue) and left it dry naturally for 5 hours.
After it was dry I spread with a dry paintbrush the three colors of the Primary Elements here and there. I sprayed with water and dried it with a heat gun. Then I applied a thin coat of Clear Glazewith a paintbrush to make the Primary Elements permanent.
Next step was to highlight some spots with the Vintage Mint. I applied it with a dry paintbrush here and there. I really love this color because it gives a vintage touch at the project.


Last step of the painting process was to make some splashes with the Siam White H2O. You have to spray some water in the jar to activate the color and wait for a couple of minutes. Then your color is ready to use.


At the end I added two screws and twisted the wire in order to create a hanger for the little canvas. I also glued a sticker with my tittle: ‘Unknown’.
Here are some more closeups…







This is the first tiny canvas I created,
you can see it in this post


Thank you for visiting,

Have a lovely crafty day!

xxx
Athanasia

May 23, 2016

Bunny in a hat *with video

Hello dear friends!
Today I'm sharing my new project I created for Finnabair Creative Team!

This is the second card I'm altering from a card set I got from Ikea a long time ago.
I had so much fun painting and decorating this cute bunny and I'm happy to share the whole process in a video with you.

I started with covering the background with Heavy White Gesso in order to mute it a little bit and used some Art Alchemy acrylic colors in shades that matched the card's colors: Fresh Orange, Royal Red, Steampunk Copper and Black Berry. 

I also used all these beautiful colors to paint the chipboard pieces and all the metal embellishments...

I love doodling on my projects and this time I used a black permanent pen, as well a white pen.

The several stamps I used created a really messy and interesting background and helped me create even more texture with a fun technique I did on White Heavy Gesso - you can watch all these tricks in the video below.

I hope you will enjoy my video and maybe get some ideas to create your altered card!


Thank you for visiting,
have a lovely crafty day!

xxx
Athanasia


May 15, 2016

wooden houses

  Happy Sunday dear friends!
Today I'm sharing a fun project I created to decorate my leaving room.
I had so much fun 'building' these cute houses and painting them with ColourArte pigments.

Here are the supplies I used to create them:

ColourArte products


Other products:
  • White Heavy Gesso
  • Black Gesso
  • paintbrush
  • pyrographer
  • sandpaper
  • wood blocks (I used the legs from an old cheap ikea table)
  • jigsaw

The whole idea came when I saw the wooden legs of an old cheap ikea table standing at the corner of our warehouse. They had the perfect size to create some houses. I knew that we weren't going to use this table never again, so with no second thought I cut them in pieces with the jigsaw. I didn't do any measuring, just started cutting in different sizes.
Next thing to do was to use the sand paper to soften the edges and make them look old. 
After that, I used the pyrographer to create the doors and windows. That took a lot of time but it really worth it! If you don't have a pyrographer you can simply use paints to draw doors and windows. 
Then I started painting the houses.

I made my own Glaze paints by mixing in the Clear Glaze Medium my favorite arte-pigment colors. 

Again, no measuring at all, just keep in mind that the more color you add, the more opaque look you get or add more Glaze for Extra Transparency. Just play with the paints and have fun!


I didn't use any container to blend the paints, I just added some Clear Glaze on the corner of the house and spread the pigment in there. It's pretty easy to apply it, the paint is so smooth, I just love it! I kept adding some more pigment here and there and just blending with the paintbrush and when I was happy with the result I let it dry naturally and kept going with the next house and so on...

I used on three of the five houses blue/green shades of Primary Elements pigments and on one house the Fuzzy Peach shade. I also painted two houses with White Heavy Gesso and all the roofs with Black Gesso.

Last and very important step for me was to sand all the edges of the houses with sandpaper, to create an aged look. I also used it on all the sides of the houses to remove most of the gloss of the paints.

I really love the result, they are already standing on my shelf :)
***you can find all ColourArte products here 

Thank you for visiting,
have a lovely crafty day!

xxx
Athanasia

May 7, 2016

steampunk cat

Dear friends
today we are celebrating International Scrapbooking Day!
Together Finnabair Creative Team with Prima have prepared a lot of exciting things - make sure you keep an eye on the Prima blog and all our social media!
Each lady of the Finnabair Team chose a quote on creativity that was close to our heart and created an artwork inspired by it.
I hope you will join in the fun and take part in the challenge we came up with at Finnabair Blog - scroll down to  Finnabair Blog post to check out the prize and what to do to win it!!!

My creative quote:

'It's never too late to be what you might have been'



Scrapbooking came into my life 4 years ago and today I feel so happy and honored that I can celebrate it here in this incredible team with my scrappy friends all around the world!

I chose this creative quote for my project because I think it represents all these amazing things you can do through art and consequently through scrapbooking. I love that I can be on the paper anything or anybody I desire and I can achieve that only with my pencil, paints and all these magical media :)



To create this tag I used a card I got from IKEA. There was only a cat on it with some dictionary background which I covered with Heavy White Gesso. I glued with Soft Gloss Gel all the mechanical, chipboard and paper pieces and used three different acrylic paints to color them.
I wrote the quote with black and white pen and used a stamp to give more interest to the background.
***Chipboard pieces by 2Crafty Chipboard





Make sure you visit the  Finnabair Blog post to see what created the rest of the Finnabair Team!
We hope you will enjoy our "conversations" about creativity in our lives.. 
We'd like to invite you to join in and encourage you to celebrate your creative side by taking part in our challenge. :)
Your task is to take a quote that is especially close to your heart, the one that motivates you in any way, basically any words of wisdom that move you.
Create any piece of art - it can be a layout, collage, canvas, card, anything you feel inspired to make. Feel free to interpret your chosen quote any way your Muse tells you. ;)
Then simply add your link using inlinkz tool below and then our Team will vote who the winner is.
The prize is waiting!!! I hope it will add a pinch of creativity into someone's life!

You have time till May 21st to send in your beautiful art here in this post.
Good luck and enjoy your time being creative!!!

xxx

Athanasia

May 1, 2016

'Memories' in a frame

Happy Sunday everyone!
Today I'm sharing a small project in a frame I created for my art wall
with ColourArte Silks acrylic paints.

For this project I used:
ColourArte products
Other products:
  • White Heavy Gesso
  • craft glue
  • wooden canvas sticks
  • 7Dots Studio 'Domestic Goddess' collection word sticker
  • black frame

So, let's get started.

First step was to paint the wooden sticks with the Silks. I chose some of my favorite colors in green, blue and grey shades and used a paintbrush to apply them on the sticks. They dry pretty quickly and I love how rich the colors look after they are dry!
I also painted some of the sticks with white gesso. 


After they were dry I used the craft glue to glue them down randomly. 

I wanted to keep it simple with a clean and clear look, so I didn't use any paint on the background. 

The only thing to do after the sticks were in place, was to glue a word sticker.


That was pretty much all! I really love the finished look and that Summer feeling it gives at my wall of art :)

Thank you for visiting!

Have a lovely crafty day!

xxx
Athanasia