my black journal - Hearts (Hurts) To Remember

Hello dear friends!

Today it is my turn to host the Finnabair blog :)

I love making pages in my black journal and today I want to share my newest one.

I think this is my first page themed with hearts in this journal. I usually enjoy making and painting butterflies and dragonflies...

I'm not really a 'hearts' or 'flowers' person and that's why I think I didn't like this page at first.

But I really wanted to try to save the page, so my good friend Heavy Black Gesso helped me to fix everything and turned this page to be one of my favorites.

I started by covering the page with Black Gesso as I always do in my black journal.

I used a plastic sheet to cut some hearts and glued them on the page as masks. Then I started working on my page.

I picked the Cobblestone stencil and one of the Stone Effect Pastes to create texture on the background. I love that it dries very quickly and you can work on it immediately after that.

You can still see the amazing texture these pastes give to the project, even that now they are covered with Black Gesso!

My idea was to paint inside the pattern of the stencil with different colors of the Sparks acrylic paints. I took my favorite shades and used a heatgun to dry them.

When the page was dry, I removed the mask hearts and... then was the point I started to not like the page so much... I tried to work a little bit more with white pens but nothing happened. I still didn't like it.

So, without a second thought I grabbed the Black Gesso and painted everything black.

I had nothing on my page but the texture of the Stone Effect Pastes and that was good enough to start creating a new page.

I also had aside the hearts I had removed off the page before. Thank God I didn't put them in the trash. ;)

They had on them all the beautiful colors of the Sparks I used before, so I glued them down and voila! The half of the work was done!

To decorate the page a little more, I added Art Stones and Mini Art Stones with the 3D Gloss Gel, some thread and made splashes with the Sparks here and there. 

I also used two chipboard words I had in my stash to title the project.

You can see in my video below how I built two pages into one. :)

I really love how this page turned out even if I had to make it twice.

I think the most important thing is to trust yourself and not to give up even when you think that you have reached a very dissapointing point.

There is always a way to fix things in life, especially a page in your journal - this is the easy part, right? :)

I wish you all a happy crafty day!

xxx

Athanasia

Prima BAP layout

Hey friends!

I created a Layout based on Prima's BAP August challenge.

I hadn't really created for a long time something just for myself, as I'm always too busy with the design teams...I enjoyed it :)

My page is based on Prima's BAP sketch made by Riikka Kovasin...

...as you can see I turned the sketch vertically :)

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Prima products used in this page:

Ledger pack 12x12

Forever Green - Botanical Garden 6x6 

Flower 'Coffee Break' collection

Art Alchemy Acrylic Paint - Metallique - Light Patina

Art Basics - 3D Gloss Gel

Art Basics - Heavy Gesso - Black

Art Basics - Heavy Gesso - White

Art Basics - Mixed Media Silicone Brush 1"

Art Extravagance - Rust Effect Paste

Art Ingredients - Art Stones

Art Ingredients - Mini Art Stones

Art Ingredients - Mica Powder - Copper

Art Ingredients - Mica Powder - Rust

Mechanicals - Rustic Washers

Mechanicals Mini Brads

Vintage Vanity - Clear Stamp - Seamstress

Vintage Vanity - 3x4'' Clear Stamp - Adverts

Vintage Vanity - 3x4'' Clear Stamp - Book

Elementals - 6,5x10,25 Stencil "Harlequin"

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Other supplies 

2Crafty Chipboard

stapler

wire

craft grass

charcoal pencil

black pen for journaling

Thank you for stopping by

Have a lovely crafty day!

xxx

Athanasia

Color your world - mixed media canvases

Hello dear friends!

Today I'm sharing a BIG project, the biggest I ever created lol

The whole project measures 1 meter (5 canvases 20x60cm each), it took me many many days to finish it and now I'm very proud it's hanging on my wall :)

I used lots of amazing Finnabair products to create it
- scroll down on Finnabair's blog post here to find the supplies list with links.

I was keeping for a long time two amazing resist canvases, designed by Finnabair, to make something special. 

The time came when I found incidentally on Pinterest some ideas with world map art like wallpapers, digital collages and art pieces. I was very excited, so I decided to make my own piece of art in my own way. 

Here is how I started

1. First I secured the 5 canvases together with masking tape. This made my work much easier in the next steps.

2. Then I cut very carefully with scissors the land pieces of a map that was the same size as my canvases and this way I created a large stencil. I didn't throw away the cut pieces...

3. I used them as masks to create the land for my project. I placed all the pieces one by one on the resist canvases and I draw the outline with a pencil. Then I cut them with scissors and put them aside.

4. When I was done with cutting the land, I placed my handmade stencil on the canvases and put each one of the cut resist canvas pieces in the right place. This was a little tricky as there were too many small pieces especially for the islands, but it helped me to learn some geography lol :)

5. Before I glued down the lands,  I used the Silicon Brush to give  the whole surface a thick layer of Heavy White Gesso  and let it dry. To glue the resist canvas pieces I used the Clear Sculpture Medium - it was really the perfect glue for this work! I let it dry outside for a couple of hours.

6. After it was dry I started working with the sea sections. I used the Clear Sculpture Medium again with napkins. I glued them randomly and wrinkled to create texture. This gave also depth and interest in the finished project. I left it overnight to dry...

((Unfortunately, from this point onward I haven't any more photos of the process to share as I was so captivated with the painting part that I didn't think to take some)

7. The painting part was so fun, it was really worth waiting for... 

I made custom paints with the Soft Matte Gell and Mica Powders and started painting all over the canvaces, here and there, without much thinking. I used mostly the Rust Mica Powder (I love this color), as well as Gold and blue shades of  Frozen Lake and Deep Waters. I also used some similar shades of Primary Elements.

When the first layer of paints was dry, I used a couple of warm colors of Art Alchemy Paints, Pure Sunshine and the Fresh Orange, as well some white acrylic paint to lighten the project.

 I love how all these colors blend together, highlight the texture of paper napkins and contrast the beautiful lands of the resist canvas pieces!

I hope you got inspired from my project.

Thank you for visiting,

have a lovely crafty day!

xxx

Athanasia

love yourself - art journal page

Hello! Today I'm sharing an art journal page for ColourArte blog. 

This month all the designers of ColourArte have been asked to work with the Think Pink Twinkling H20s set in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness. For this project I used:

ClolourArte products:

• Twinkling H2Os Watercolors: three of the five colors of the Think Pink Twinkling H20s
• Primary Elements: Black Ice, Red Pearl 
• Silks: China Black 

Other Supplies:

• Finnadair circle stencil
• Finnabair Light Paste
• Finnabair star brads
• Finnabair background stamps
• 7 Dots stichers and tag
• Prima flower
• thread
• rice paper

 Let's get started!

First I sprayed with water the three pink shades of the  Think Pink Twinkling H20s to activate them. Then I used the circle stencil with the light paste.

When it was dry, I painted the small circles with the three colors randomly. These colors are so shiny and bright like a lip-gloss - I love them!

I let it to dry...

Then I made a small heart to use it as an embellishment in the composition.

I stamped the image with VersaMark (it's a glue ink pad) on rice paper and spread some PE Black Ice. I removed the excess with a paintbrush. The powder sticks on there and reveals the image of the stamp.

Then I spread some PE Red Pearl to make it more shiny and removed the excess with the paintbrush.

I cut the image with scissors.

Here is my heart ready to use on the project.

After I glued everything down, I made some splashes with China Black silk. 

***buy a journal like this at The Journal Shop

That was all for today.

If you are interested to do something nice about Breast Cancer Awareness, this important issue, you can send donations to National Breast Cancer Foundation - they provide health Services to women in need!!!

For more inspiration you can see my first project I created for Breast Cancer Awareness here.

Have a lovely crafty day!

Today is the Day

Hello dear friends!

Are you ready for new adventure ? 

New Creative Gym is up at Mixed Media Place, hosted by me:

"Today is the Day'

This quote is one of my favorites because, even it is simple and short, it shows splendidness like something very important is about to happen and you can complete this quote however you like as well!

I decided to use the photo of the moodboard on my canvas and write with my permanent pen my version for the end of the quote. 

I also got inspired by the colors, shine and glory of the moodboard...

For this project I used a white cardstock, coated with white gesso as a base. To create the background I used a circles stencil by Finnabair with 3D Gloss Gel and gold Mica Powder and Finnabair background stamps with black ink.

After it was all dried, I glued the embellishments: some 2 Crafty Chipboard pieces, a flower, gold thread and Finnabair mechanicals. I glued all these with 3D Gloss Gel.

The next step was to spread some Rust Mica Powder here and there and spray it with water. I dried it with the heat gun and then I glued the paper embellishments: two butterflies (made with rice paper, stamp and black embossing powder) and the photo.

As a final touch I spread several art ingredients with 3D Gloss Gel. I really love the sparkle and texture they create on the project!

***all products by Mixed Media Place store

***chipboard pieces by 2 Crafty
***you can buy this canvas here

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With this project I'm entering the challenge at Paper Maraca 'Gold'...

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I'm looking forward to see your projects for our challenge at Mixed Media Place!

Have a lovely crafty day!

Don't be scared to be alone

Hello mixed media friends! 

Today I'm sharing a page on my black journal Ι created for Mixed Media Place. 

The purpose of this journal-book is to keep all the inspiring quotes I find on internet. I always try to make flat pages because I want to keep it thin, as it has quite a lot pages to fill in... 

This time I used silks, primary elements, 3D Gloss Gel, two stencils, two knitted flowers, a photo and black permanent pen with white paper to write the quote: 

Don't be scared to be alone. Don't be scared to like it. 

People say that artist are lonely creatures who love being alone with their thoughts and making art. Well, I think some times we all need to be alone for a while, even just to hang out with ourselves, at least that is something I love to do very often.

I found this photo on Pinterest. While printing my photo, I didn't notice that the black ink of the printer was finished. I was very disappointed  when I saw the printed photo looking not right.  Nonetheless, after a while I had some second thoughts about it... The photo didn't look bad anymore, instead it looked to me very very interested, so I decided to use it as it was :)

To create the background, first I made a custom paste with the 3D Gloss Gel Finnabair Art Basics and the Sunflower silk and used it with the rhombus stencil.  When it was dry, I used the script stencil with the Guatemala Green silk and let it dry. After that, I used the Iridescent Green and Gold silks with the old credit card. I think that iridescent paints are the best choice for dark background. They shine beautifully and create a unique effect on your projects! When the paints were all dry, I glued the photo and the white pieces of paper with the handwritten quote.

Last thing to do was to glue two small knitted flowers to give a little bit of dimension to the composition. I spread some Black Emerald primary element on them and also on some desired spots of the page. I sprayed them with water and just let the magic happen :)

(In the photo above you can see my little friend keeping company to me while I was taking the photos lol - I always take my photos outside because of the better light)

***all products by Mixed Media Place store

***see full products list on this post

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With this page I'm playing at Fashionable Hobbies challenge 'My favorite Material'

Iridescent silks are my favorite ever product to use when I'm working on my black journal. They shine so beautifully and I think they are the best choice for dark background!

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I hope you got some ideas today on how to use colors on dark surface.

Till next time,

Have a lovely crafty day!