Three Unicorn Sisters

I would like to introduce you to three sisters: Courage, Dream and Joy. They are made on small tags and can be used as book marks or something that I call “motivational tags”- you simply put them in your wallet or between random pages of daily diary and they will come back to you with a message when you need them. I love to find them in my diary and then stop and think about something deeper that just daily routines. They all are Unicorn ladies as well as the magic always helps;)

I stared with covering tags with Dina Wakley Media Line White and let it dry. The background was built as a mixture of Dylusions Ink Sprays. The colours I used were: After Midnight, Crushed Grape and Vibrant Turquoise. The trick I learnt some time ago was to spray them randomly on the plastic matt and they pick the colour up with a tag held upside down.

The next step was to use oil pastels to build lines around the edges and some stokes on the tags. I used amazing Sennelier Oil Pastels in green medium, pale blue, and lemon yellow.
Then the time for my ladies came: I cut them out from a wedding magazine (this is actually the same model wearing different dresses), glue them to the tags and started altering their faces a little bit. I added some pendants, earrings and stronger eyelashes by using Sakura Pigma Micron Pen and Posca Paint Pen in white. Then just finishing touches: horns from a newspaper and small circles - again from DIY box-please do not mention that to my husband;)

Hope you like them and will be encouraged to create your own to keep in secret places for the time you need them.

And here is the message from my three sisters:

Have Courage to live your Dream with a Joy in your heart!

Big hugs xxx

Honorata

Bunny Love...

Hello!
As this will be my closest DT project to Easter, I thought I would be a little seasonal!
A bit of artistic licence needed.... pretend these hares are actually Easter Bunnies!

My background is a colourful smeared paint type affair (again...I promise I'll do something different next time!), stencilling and stamping..

I've used washi tape in coordinating colours to add detail...

You may have noticed...I have a 'thing' about using washi tape, I just can't use it without ripping it first! I much prefer the irregular look!
My bunnies (OK, they're hares...) are from Crafty Individuals

I punched out a heart from red text paper, and added a few white dots...

I doodled around it, again to make it look a bit less regular!
So...Happy Easter!!!!!
See you soon,
Trish xxxxx

Spring birdie canvas

This mini canvas has been recycled from a project I made a few years ago which featured a bird, then stamped using a Tim Holtz stamp and a little nest made from torn strips of paper.

Well, the bird has evolved with confidence into a hand drawn and collaged image and the nest has become significantly more sophisticated along with the background.

My background is simply finger painted with acrylics but it's the addition of the Finnabair White Crackle Texture Paste through my favourite Balzer Designs stencil Fleur de Lis which really made the background interesting.

I used a mini 6X6 pad of papers by Basic Grey called Spice Market to collage my bird as I thought the designs and colours were a bit spring like. I added some extra interest by stamping with one of the lacy borders from a Finnabair stamp set called Lace and Doily by Prima.

A touch of doodling with Posca pen and it was finished. I now have it hanging above my desk to help cheer up a plain wall.

Have a good weekend.

Jaine x

A recycled boat. TUTORIAL.

Hello everyone!
Here with you Elena Arts again with my new project.
I love to recycle and give a new life to objects that have already exhausted their function. So, I want to show you what you can do with a boat of milk powder for baby. My daughter is now 4 years old and since I finished giving her milk, have passed some years :) I have reserved this pot for "just in case" and finally the time has come to take advantage of that container for other purposes.
I have made a container to save my art tools such as brushes, scissors, cutters, etc

 To start, I covered the recipe with white gesso.

 Then I glued using Finnabair Art Basics: Soft Gloss Gel some fabric, a bit of lace, chipboard and I wrapped around the boat a little of cord. 

 Then I played with the beatiful colors of  Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist: 573829 Worn Leather, Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist: 573737 Cotton Candy and Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist:573898 Colbalt 

 I added some accent with the acrilic gold paint.

and painted some parts with Finnabair Art Extravagance: Gold CrackleTexture Paste and Finnabair Art Ingredients Glass Glitter - Gold Rush. It is a very very nice effect!!!

To finish I applied some short touches of white gesso. This allows highlight the textures and it always  looks good in our Mixed Media works. Also I added some freehand stamping,  made the flower composition and used  Finnabair Vintage Mechanicals: 961121 Plate & Label

All materials you can get them right now here in the store and below you can see more photos with some details.

 I hope it was useful for creating your projects and you have been inspired for  recicling :))
Thank you for your attention ;)
Bye, see you later,
xxx

Dance In The Rain - Tag

Hello my lovelies, so good to see you here!!

Today I have a tag to share with you. I was thinking recently that quite often we do Tim Holtz inspired tags, but what would a Finnabair inspired tag look like? So I thought why not have a go...

I started off with a basic Manilla Ranger Tag size 8 and then used two sheets of 7 Dots Studio 6 x6  Cold Country Paper to fit over it. Once down, in place (with Art Basics Soft Gel Medium) and dried, I used a bubble stencil to create my background using Archival's Jet Black Ink. 

Then over again with Art Basics 3D Gloss Gel to give the circles a slightly raised effect. Whist this was still wet I used Art Extravegance Glitter in Luminous - one of the black ones. I let this dry naturally.

                                       

Next came a little paint to add some colour amongst the 'rain'. I wanted moody but hints of colour. I used Tim Holts Distress Paints in Vintage Photo and Pine Needles, just very lightly and watered down. 

Then... came the goodies! Don't you just love it when you can crack them open, let go and play?!! I love, love, love the Prima/Finnabair Bottle Caps, they are the perfect vessel to hold an explosion of colour and sparkle. In this case I used some larger beads (from my own stash) and graduated back with the size. So next was regular sized seed beads from Art Basics Ingredients and then Art Basics Glitter Glass... 

The black Poppies/Peonies are from Prima's Sculpture Flowers, which started life in yellow, so in came two light coats of Art Basics Black Gesso, then I added in some more black glitter from Luminous Glitter pack. Then I touched the tops with Peacock Feathers Distress Paint, to highlight. 

Then I finished up with this gorgeous sentiment is from 7 Dots Studio Illumination Word Stickers. I LOVE these, I'm not good at stamping a sentiment perfectly (or even imperfectly) as I would like so these are great if you're in the same boat as me, and I will be using them more often in projects and layouts in the future.

Hope you enjoyed today's post. Please check back with us soon to see some fabulous makes and inspiration from our DT and don't forget we have our challenge, up for grabs is a £10 gift voucher for the shop :)

Hugs

Georgie

Let's get Scribbly !!!!

Well good morning you lovely people out there. I'm feeling kinda scribbly today !!!

I'm quite scribbly on my journal pages and tend to steer away from stamped images as they just look odd, too neat and uniform against the random messiness of my journal...... But then I  purchased the fabulous Dina Wakley Scribbly birds stamps a while ago and love her style sooo much and at last I have stamps that complement my pages....yay !

I love this cute little fella and wanted to create a beautiful garden for him to sing his song !!!!

I started with a layer of Gesso and then used Dina's 'tracks' stencil and Finnabair's 3D gel matte medium by Prima to add some texture to the left hand side of my page.....

Once dry I used Dina's luscious paint colours in Magenta, Lime, Turquoise and Ruby adding them randomly all over the page using my fingers to spread the paint. To tone down the vibrancy a little I went over areas of the page with Dina's 'Umber' paint colour. 

I stamped Dina's Scribbly bird stamp directly onto my journal page along with one of the quotes included in the stamp set and then gave him a new colour so that he stood out. Isn't he the cutest ???

I then painted some flowers in Dina's ruby and Lime paints and used a black gel pen to scribble in my outlines and to add some doodles, along with details in white gel pen. To finish off I highlighted a few areas with white paint. 

Really pleased with the result and hope it encourages you to give a Scribbly journal page a try..... But be warned.... It's addictive !!!!

Have a great day

Tracy

X

The Persistent Dreamer

Do you dare to be a persistent dreamer? I mean this one who never gives up, even when all obstacles seem to be constantly in front of you? That is my opening thought for the first post as a member of DT here!
The dreamer's courage is a focal point for this art journal page. The dreamer stands there, immersed into colourful background of inks, sprays and marks.
The journal page was created in a big, old ledger that I found during one of my car boot hunting sessions. 

After covering the page with Dina Wakley Media Line White Gesso I decided to use my favourite inks to build a very rich background. I have this weakness and secret love for Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks that I use in many different ways.
On this page first I mixed the ink with water and put in small spray bottles. I used Violet, Aqua and Teal from their range. I decided to start with spraying through some random stencils and covering the whole page. Once the page dried the dreamer's face was created and gentle blending of colours on the face was required to give it more structure. As I am a big believer that any art is a spontaneous act I didn't want to make a face perfect or covered in layers of paint, I wanted the fusion of inks to be visible...I hope you can see that as well.

For the dynamic hair style I used the fantastic combination of Montana Acrylic Markers in Green and White and Posca Paint Pens in Violet and Light Blue. I also drew bits of hair with Dr. Ph. Martin's Bombay India Inks by simply using its dropper as a drawing tool.
The finishing touches were stolen from DIY box small parts and bits of old jewellery.

I hope that will encourage you to be a persistent dreamer every day...

Big Hugs!

Honorata – The Dreamer ;)

It's time for a brand spanking new challenge.

We are so happy to be back with a new team and and a brand new challenge each month and we're hoping you'll join us and play along.

Just to be different we've changed things around a little bit and each month instead of a colour the challenge is open to anything goes, however, it does need to be a Sprinkle challenge and so you're entry must use something which is sold in the shop. Not too difficult.

The winner will receive a £10 voucher to spend in the shop however they wish. 

Full details can be found on the challenge page, either click on the link at the top of the page or follow my link here. 

There you'll find inspiration from the team plus the link up button to enter your art work. 

We can't wait to see your entries. 

Jaine

If Finnabair did shoes... :)

...They'd probably be the best shoes in the world ;)

Hi Everyone!!

I'm so excited to share with you my first DT project, it's such an honour to be here (I still can't believe it)!

One of THE biggest inspirational people out there for me is Finnabair, I love her style! So when this wacky idea came into my head for up-cycling a shoe, my vision was almost crystal clear... did I dare to do it? Yes I did!!! :)

I love to up-cycle objects and we're so lucky with all the yummy products now available to us that it is so easy to do. This was a black suede shoe and it took the Art Basics Black Gesso really easily, after a couple of coats of that I dabbed on the Art Basics Light Texture Paste to add interest and gave the bottom section a good dose of Art Basics White Crackle paint.

As this is a high heal and the sole of the shoe is exposed, so I went in with my Papillon Tim Holtz Stamp (the large stamp with the french text) and some good old reliable UTEE. I actually really loved how this turned out!

To add extra texture I used some glass beads with Art Basics Soft Matte Gel to apply them.

I cracked into my Finnabair trinkets, Vintage Mechanicals: Flowers (Large), Flowers (Small), Bottle Caps, Mini Roman Numerals, Plate and Label, Mini Brads. Plus some Tim Holtz: Word Bands, Mirrored Stars, Keyholes and intertwined them all with a flower vine. 

Once everything was stuck - I used hot glue for most of it - the whole thing got another coat of Art Basics Black Gesso. Once dry, the magic began... Using Tim Holtz Distress Paints in Chipped Sapphire, Aged Mahogany and Seedless Preserves I applied the colour to the embellished parts, building it up in layers. As these paints are permanent I started with the darkest and layered up to the lightest.

I then dry brushed Tim Holtz Metallic Distress Paint in Tarnished Brass just hitting the raised areas to allow the colour too peek through, finally going back over with where it all started (Art Basics Black Gesso) to tidy up or knock back some places that seemed to strong.

The whole process was like playing with magic, and I heartily encourage you to try something like this, firstly it is great therapy, and secondly you will have a blast!! ;)

Hope you enjoyed visiting today, see you soon.
Hugs
Georgie xx

Tags "Spring is coming" and TUTORIALS

Hi everyone!

My name is Elena and I am so glad to share with you all my art creations :)  I hope you are in a very good mood and ready to creat! I would like to inspire you with this 2 tags I have made thinking about the spring, wich is already coming!!!
Also I have prepared tutorials how I made them.

I used the great products from the store A Sprinkle Of Imagination.
I started with putting some washi tape on the Ranger Manila Craft Tags, no 5

Then I covered the tag with the Finnabair Art Basics: Soft Gloss Gel using Prima 6x6 Stencil: Lattice.

While the gel was wet, I sprinkled Finnabair Art Extravegance Glitter Set Ebony & Ivory on top.

Then I added some paper of an old book and a bit of Doily.

I made the flower composition and added other decorative pieces.

Finally I glued Finnabair Art Ingredients Glass Glitter - Pearl with the Soft Gloss Gel and added metal embellishments like Finnabair Vintage Mechanicals: 961121 Plate & Label

The second tag is made by similar way. 

Ones the gel was dried, I colored some parts of tag with Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist: 573829 Worn Leather and Prima Color Bloom Spray Mist: 573737 Cotton Candy 

More textured paste with the a stencil.

To have more contrast I added some stamps and gold acrilic paint.

I put some flowers and to finish I added Finnabair Art Ingredients Glass Glitter - Pearl and a little Finnabair Art Extravegance Glitter Set Ebony & Ivory I love this effect with so beatiful texture and shine!

That is all! I hope you liked my projects today.

Have a nice day and see you soon :)

xxx