Hi Everyone! I need your help today to say a friendly hello and welcome one of the brand new Team Members. :) Please meet Kassa whose incredible positive energy translates right onto paper and canvas. Warning: it's contagious! ;) Get ready for juicy colors and a LOT of really great tricks Kassa explains step by step. She claims: 'less is not more' and you will Love the fun she had creating her first project for the Team! Hi there lovelies Kassa here with my first post - totally over-the-top-excited-eeeeeeeeeeeeeeep! and feeling so blessed... Today I'm sharing with you all a page with 3 beautiful girlies who looksey sooo cheeky, also adding to the Fun, the page is bursting with vibrant color. Basically, I chose the main ingredients for my page and let everything organically flow and grow spontaneously. These simple and easy to follow layered techniques are one of the ways I create what I call my 'haPPy art'. Firstly, I give my bare page body, a few random strokes of Clear Gesso, a little Clear Crackle thinly pasted though 'Bubbles' stencil and Mini Art Stones adhered with a dollop or 2 of Soft Matte Gel. Let each layer dry before applying the next - trim out your Ephemera girlies too. Once everything is totally dry, I spray the page with clean water and quickly dab on a couple or 3 watercolors (all colors at this stage are similar i.e. all warm colors as shown here). If your colors are not bleeding, simply spritz with more water. To spread and blend the colors simply move your page around, hold it vertically and mop up any excess or pools of color you're not happy with using a paper towel. Add more of the warm colors in just the same way, building up transparent layers that overlap beautifully. Let everything dry (I prefer to let watercolors dry naturally when I can) - then adding the cool tone colors is easier (you don't tend to get that muddy effect). I like to add the cool tones to the areas of the page that are still white so they don't mix and contaminate with the other colors too much and the color shines through true. Once the page is dry I repeat the above watercolor steps perhaps 3 times or until I'm happy. Letting each of the layers dry is a way to build your overlapping transparent layers, plus with fresh eyes you can see clearly where you perhaps need to add/balance your colors. Another cool tip is to drip clean water from your fingertips onto the page - it disperses and allows the color around the individual drips to 'bloom' out. Try this in specific areas with a droplet from your paintbrush too! The beauty of watercolors is you can mop away and tone down areas that you are not happy with, remember this is only a background, more is to come... To add the shimmer and depth to the page, I added a few layers of Art Alchemy paints. I only lightly spritzed the page where I wanted to add a light stroke of this uber vibrant paint. If necessary blend with another spritz of water. I added a few 'Vintage Rose' splatters at this stage too with a lightly loaded brush and a flick of my wrist! At any stage of this process you can simply stop and call your background finished (just saying...) but I add more layers - here I have picked one of the cool and bold background stamps, scribbled various colors starting with the lightest color first of the Prima water soluble Oil Pastels, spritzed with water lightly and stamped randomly onto the page. Dab with a paper towel to blend it into your page, spritz with water and dab again if you'd like to lighten and blend this layer more. Now this next technique is uber kool, fun, quick and soooo natty - simply stamp out the butterflies from 'Dream On' set onto the Prima Watercolor Pad with Archival ink and scribble in the butterflies with the Oil Pastels. Spritz with water, a tip is to do a couple of the spritzes close in as the color moves more. Once the color has moved and blended, mop up excess water, repeat if necessary. You can also simply top up the colors lightly with a dab of the Oil Pastels but this time don't spritz! I love stitches and texture on my page, loose threads catching the draughts give a page movement, hence the wings being stitched on. The Mechanicals Tin Hearts are adhered over a coat of the Art Alchemy 'pinky' paint. A spot on the girlies' cheeks and lips makes their wee faces 'PoP!' I adhered the girlies to the page with a large dollop of Heavy Body Gel and more threads of sewing cotton in various bright colors. An old toothbrush is ace for dipping into the paint and adding super fine splats, just remember to cover up what you don't want splattered though and wear an apron! :) Extra layers are randomly added with the text 'Messy' and 'Jagged Lines' stamps using the brown and black Oil Pastels (spritzed) rather than ink - this way once stamped you can spritz the stamped images lightly and let the dark Oils 'bleed out' dabbing up any dark pools quickly! Add a few of the Mechanicals Vintage Trinkets behind the girlies, I went with the number 3 (3 girls). I added black Oil pastel to the trinkets and adhered them with 3D Matte Gel. Cover up and protect your girlies and around the heart splatter by lightly tapping a paintbrush loaded with black watercolor paint. Also once these splatters were dry, I stood my page vertically and added the black watercolor drips. A few white splatters and the cool 'Pure Sunshine' Art Alchemy droplets that are soooo easy to create - just load up a small headed paintbrush with the paint and let the paint drop onto your page, or carefully and lightly touch your page with the loaded brush. For larger droplets drop more and more paint over the droplet and for tiny ones, hardly any paint and an even lighter touch - I'm totally addicted to these raised and SUPER shiny Art Alchemy gems! A light dab of Soft Matte Gel to the inners of the wings for a sprinkle of Glitter adds a touch of magic to the page! Finally this is when I stand back and take a breather, look at all the devastation around me on my worktop from my day of Finnabair FUN heeheehee, have a cuppa and only then come back to check on the 'balance' of my page. :) I added a little Oil Pastel to one edge of my page, then added various colors of the Oil Pastels to the Mini Art Stones and a sprinkle of black Glitter in and around the black drips... 'haPPY art'. :) That's me finished! :) Like I said - at any point along the way you can call your background finished. The techniques are just simple layers and where to stop is for us to decide. I can't wait to see all your vibrant butterflies too! Stop by and share with us all if you like over in the warm and friendly Finnabair & Friends Open Studio facebook group - sharing our art is such fun... Mwah xoxoxo Kassa Products used:

December's here, My Friends! For many of us this is a month when a lot of creative things are going on - December Daily practice, crafty Advent calendars, cardmaking, list making, thinking about dreams, plans and resolutions for 2017. All this is obviously very exciting but... let's not run around too much! ;) Shall we pause just for a moment? Take a seat, take a breath and find a moment to appreciate this incredible art piece (or even 2!) that Gayle's sharing with us today... Do you have any special words that resonate for you? Any wishes for the world and yourselves? We hope you feel inspired to express them creatively. We'd love to see them! Drop by our Open Studio facebook group and share your Art with us! Hello lovely Finnabair friends. The last month of the year and of course for some of us, the celebration of Christmas. For my project this month I have been completely indulgent and worked with three of my favourite things - wooden blocks, image transfer and collage. But it’s Finnabair’s Texture Paste in Gold Crackle that has created the richness in these simple wooden blocks. For any of your Christmas projects this year, Gold Crackle Texture paste is a must. The process to these blocks is simple, I have included a few steps, but they are processes that I know you are all familiar with by now. For me, this project is about how just one medium, used very simply through a stencil, can add so much warmth, texture and a little bit of magic. :) Here are two more views of my Words Block - front and right side & right and back side: My blocks come from a friend who is a furniture maker. They are off cuts, all different shapes and sizes and often quite rough. No.1 The blocks get a coat of Heavy White Gesso. For my image transfer, I have chosen two “angel” images from the internet and printed them out onto regular photocopy paper. No.2 For the image transfer, give the wooden block a coat of Soft Gel (either Gloss or Matte) and the front of the image a coat of Gel as well. Place the image, face down onto the wooden block and smooth out very carefully from the centre to the sides, pressing out any air bubbles. Let dry completely. Once dry, use a baby wipe to gently rub away the white surface paper and reveal the image underneath (it will be in reverse). I love the muted, imperfect softness that this process gives. No.3 Once you have rubbed away all the surface paper to reveal your image, add some stamping. I have used the Vintage Vanity “Book” Clear Stamp on both blocks. No.4 Collage on some music note paper using Soft Matte Gel. No.5 Cover the sides and back of the blocks with patterned paper using Soft Matte Gel as the adhesive. No.6 Add extra texture and colour to the surface papers with Art Alchemy Acrylic Paints - they're so thick and in beautiful rich colours. No.7 Add more texture to the sides with Art Extravagance Texture Paste in White Crackle. No.8 Using a stencil apply Texture Paste in Gold Crackle. A muted, soft, imperfect detail of the transfered image. I added some metal and wire with beads. The beautiful stars come from Finnabair's Mechanicals Barn Stars set. First I painted the “Barn Stars” with Art Alchemy Ancient Coin paint and then sprinkled with Art Ingredients Art Sugar in White for some extra shimmer. All metal embellishments were attached using Heavy Body Gel. I have also used an old (but one of my all time favourites) Finnabair “Doily” stencil with red ink to add some pattern detail down the side of the block. Also some splashes of gold ink. Another view of the "Joy" block - a metal name plate, wire with beads and again - - Art Extravagance Gold Crackle Texture Paste used through a stencil. The back of the blocks. Art Extravagance Gold Crackle Texture Paste applied through a stencil and also in combination with silver embossing enamel, using Finnabair Vintage Vanity “Frilly Lace” Clear Stamp. My two words - “Peace” and “Joy” - have seemed very elusive and in short supply this year, in a world that at times seems to be out of control. But I genuinely and sincerely extend them to you all now, and, in whatever way you may celebrate the end of this year and the beginning of the new, may it be filled with only Peace and Joy. Gayle xx Products used:

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Hello, friends! One of my very favorite among my live workshops is my Imagine class. I love watching my students walk out of the room with artworks that are always beautiful and meaningful at the same

Zabawa bez pamięci i umiaru wszelkimi dostępnymi środkami ze stajni Tima Holtza w towarzystwie wszelkich mediów oraz kolorystyki Rangera ( Perfect Pearls, Colorwashes). Czy nie fajnie tak sobie czasem pośmiecić? Playing carelessly and madly with all possible Tim Holtz's products together with all the media and paints from Ranger ( Perfect Pearls, Colorwashes). It is so good to go messy from time to time, isn't it? duża fotka - big photo Więcej o scrapie mozna poczytać tutaj - na blogu Scrapki.pl. More details you can find here, on Scrapki.pl blog. A tymczasem u mnie praca wre... no prawie, bo co chwila mnie coś rozprasza, niestety... xoxo

Explore this photo album by finnabair on Flickr!

Hello and Happy Creative Friday! Karolina's presenting her charming new project that we hope will inspire you to do something creative this weekend! There's a video too so you will see ste by step how Karolina created all these luscious layers. Enjoy! * * * * Hi everyone! Like every proud mom I love framing the photos of my sweet little girl. My daughter loves singing and dancing and so I wanted to create a special piece that would correspond with the lively creative personality of my little Star. :) I decided to make a traditional scrapbooking layout with a joyful summer holiday atmosphere. I think this amazing Cotton Candy Dreams collection from 7 Dots Studio goes here just perfectly, don't you think? All the lovely shades of turquoise and green remind me of our family holiday photos and instantly make me smile when I think of those moments. I wanted to highlight the beautiful paper pattern and after adding a bit of light with Heavy White Gesso, I had a lot of fun playing with textures created with 2 different stencils and Art Extravagance Graphite Texture Paste. My projects are always heavy in layers because I'm a bit of a magpie and I love tucking in a lot of pretty trinkets and embellishments that make every project so unique. And it's even better when they sparkle and shine - that's when my heart starts beating faster! ;) In this project I used Glitter together with Art Pebbles. I used Heavy Body Gel as my adhesive but to make my process cleaner and faster, I poured some of it into a small plastic bottle. The gel dries quite quickly and then becomes completely transparent which means it won't dull the sparkle of glitter. Of course I couldn't do without the amazing Art Alchemy acrylic paints! I really love the fact that no matter which Opal Magic shades you pick, they perfectly complement each other which makes the whole process truly enjoyable. I chose the colors corresponding with the papers and used them to highlight my embellishments. I also painted some touches of pink to add some energy and contrast. Here's my video tutorial so you can watch step by step how I created this piece. Don't hesitate to leave any questions you might have in the comments below, I'll be happy to answer. Enjoy! I just love creating scrapbooking layouts - the idea of showcasing a photo and capturing special personal memories really speaks to my heart and is my constant source of inspirations. I hope my little Star inspires you too to grab some pretty papers and paints and express yourself. Don't forget to share your art in our friendly Finnabair & Friends Open Studio facebook group! See you there and happy creating! xx Karolina Products used:

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Hi, my dear creative friends! This is a moment I really hated to see coming - we have to say goodbye to our Creative Members... and our beautiful Gayle is one of them. I was always mesmerized by her art - so poetic, spiritual, beautiful, full of meanings. From the moment she joined our Mixed Media Place Team she never disappointed delivering the most amazing projects every time, so it was not a secret I was thrilled when she joined my own Creative Team too! Sometime later I was lucky enough to meet this beautiful soul in person and now I'm proud to call her my friend. I can't thank her enough for all she did for us - we will miss her dearly here... but soon she is joining my Brand Ambassadors so this is not a real goodbye! All of Gayle's stunning projects can be seen again if you will click this link! * * * * Hello lovely Finnabair friends. My project this month is a small “tiled” wall plaque made with some of my favourite Finnabair products and with a message I need to be reminded of often… ... for a life to be exciting, we need to leave security behind and take a leap of faith into the wild blue yonder, we need to explore the unknown, and “don’t forget to fly”. Here is a step by step of how I created this. No.1 To make the background “tiles”, I firstly dry embossed onto heavy white card and then cut the card up into 1.5” squares. No.2 I adhered the squares onto a thick chipboard rectangle. 3D Gloss Gel was perfect for this - the tiles, being thick card, needed a more “heavy duty” glue to hold them down. This Gel also allows for a little “movement time”, so I was able to slide each tile into the exact position to line up perfectly before the Gel dried and set permanently. No.3 Give the tiles a coat of Heavy Black Gesso. No.4 Give all the dimensional elements a coat of Heavy Black Gesso - the resin face, the beautiful Finnabair Mechanicals Butterflies, all the metal embellishments. Once the Gesso has dried, use your finger to rub over everything with Art Alchemy Metallique Wax in Vintage Gold. These waxes absolutely bring metal embellishments to life and make them glow. No.5 Going back to the tiled background which has a coat of Black Gesso on it, using my finger, I rub in some Art Alchemy Antique Brilliance Wax in Mystic Turquoise, just around the outside edges which creates a beautiful dark blue glow. No.6 Using Metallique Wax in White Gold, I rub over the rest of the background. The embossed card picks up the wax on the surface and highlights the patterns beautifully. I aimed to have the centre of the rectangle lighter than the outside edge so that the dark gold dimensional elements in the centre would stand out against the lighter background. No.7 This is the background so far with Black Gesso, Antique Brilliance Wax in Mystique Turquoise around the edge and Metallique Wax in White Gold through the centre. No.8 Next I dry brushed some Blue Patina Paste over the background for some extra little turquoise pops of colour. No.9 Lastly, for the background I brushed on some beautiful Green Mica Powder. It sticks to the wax surfaces and really adds a beautiful glow. No.10 Stamped out my message using Finnabair's 'Don't Forgett To Fly' cling stamp. No.11 The little gold pebbles were made using Melange Art Pebbles with their bases painted with Sparks Acrylic Paint in Dragon’s Eye. When stuck down, the gold paint radiates from underneath - so simple to do, but so effective. No.12 The gold halo around the faces comes from a foil baking cup - again, simple but effective in creating a “glow”. All the metal elements were adhered to the background using Heavy Body Gel. The combination of beautiful Art Alchemy Waxes, Sparks acrylic paints and Mica Powder create not just a “glow” but also give your project depth by highlighting dimension. As this is my last project for Finnabair’s Creative Team; my creative home for the past two years, I want to say a massive thank you to Anna and Andrew and Eliza for their encouragement and support and for giving me the opportunity to truly spread my wings and to fly. I have been so fortunate to have been a part of this team, to be given an abundance of some of the most beautiful and exciting art mediums in the world and be given free reign to do whatever my heart desires with them… so lucky and so thankful. I want also to sincerely thank all of you, lovely Finnabair friends, who have taken the time to leave for me, over the last two years, your beautiful comments. For every warm, kind and complimentary comment that you have left for me, know that it was read with absolute gratitude and that you have my genuine, sincere and heartfelt thanks. I look forward now, as I’m sure we all do, to seeing Finnabair’s new Creative Team and watching on as they spread their wings. Love xx Gayle Products used:

My dear Friends, as you know, last Monday was Prima's mid-release of my new products! You could see some amazing examples of how to use them creatively - presented by my wonderful Creative Team in this Prima blog post. This is all so exciting! One of the brand new produtcs is Sculpture Medium and here's my new work created to tell you some more about the possibilities of this new medium. You see, Sculpture Medium is a very clever trick indeed. ;) Like its name says, it was designed to let you create all kinds of 3D forms and shapes. It makes delicate materials (like fabric) hard, permanent and resistant and it's so very easy to use. In this canvas/assemblage piece of mine, I used the medium to create my background. As you can see, there are bits of lace and different kinds of fabric that were made hard and ready to work on without worrying that too much water, paint or spray might damage them. The medium also allowed me to create some really interesting new textures. The method is so easy - I simply soaked all the materials in the medium (you can use a brush to apply it but make sure you're generous with it), then I arranged them in the way that I liked and left to dry. You can also use a heating tool to speed up the process, but be patient, it might need a little while to dry properly. When my collage background was finally dry, it was hard and ready to work on with other mediums. I painted it with Black and White Gesso, glued on all the elements with Heavy Body Gel (foolproof adhesive! ;)) and then added colors with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays choosing green/blue/turquoises palette as I wanted to recreate a verdigris effect. I hope you feel inspired to try out my new Sculpture Medium. Let your imagination flow, the possibililties are endless... If you need more information, visit my Art ExtraVagance Art Files where you can read about the medium and other new products as well. Also make sure you see this Prima post where you will find crazy beautiful examples by Kasia and Gayle who showed their Sculpture Medium creations! If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I will be happy to answer. Happy creating!

Hi there, Creative Friends! Today we meet with Karolina who is sharing her breathtaking new canvas along with some great creative tricks that you could use too while creating your own art. Karolina's ideas are really simple ways to achieve some really spectacular effects - you should really try them out yourselves! * * * * Hey everyone! The Spring is already behind the window but melancholy is still sitting on my desk... Sometimes I think my desk resembles a mysterious art garden - it's always covered with creative materials and supplies, little trinkets and pretty embellishments. I always discover something that inspires me to action: canvas, bits of lace, metal elements. I love my artistic mess. :) Today I have for you a very delicate and subtle new canvas of mine with a sentimental melancholic vibe. To create it, I used many products from the Art Basics line. Did you know that all Art Basics media have adhesive properties? I love how versatile they are and how everything was carefully thought out when they were created. So for example I used Gel Medium to glue all kinds of elements to the background - moulds, lace, cardboard, papers, Mechanicals metal flowers and numbers. All the embellishments and the background were painted with Modeling Paste and then sprinkled with the magical Art Ingredients Art Stones. Then I covered the whole composition with White Gesso preparing it for the colors that I wanted to use. For that I used Art Alchemy acrylic paints and Mica Powders and created the character and the mood of my piece. I love the effect... You will find the selection of Mica Powders, Art Alchemy Opal Magic, Sparks and Metallique paints that I used in my video tutorial and the product list below. I used different kinds of very simple techniques to create some interesting effects - and you can use them in any work of yours: I highlighted all the dark elements of my composition with Art Alchemy Waxes and that gave a stunning effect. You should really try this trick! I built up colors creating a special 3D effect applying 3 paints on top of each other, separating each of them with a layer of White Gesso. The result was truly amazing! Finally, I did some stamping in the background. That way the work became really expressive and delicately connected the composition with the background. You should also try the combination of Glitter and Art Pebbles - I just love this effect! Enjoy the video! As you can see I based my composition on a triangle using contrasting elements and colours. I hope you like my new piece and feel inspired by the techniques I used. If you have any questions, leave a comment, I'll be happy to answer. And as always we all hope to see your beautiful projects in our friendly Finnabair & Friends - Open Studio facebook group - see you there! Hugs, Karolina Products used:

Hi there! Are you having a creative Monday? We're starting the new week with Gayle's breathtaking new artwork and an interesting mixed media challenge she set herself. And as always with Gayle's creations - it's not just about fancy techniques and tricks. I love the thought behind this piece and the soul of it - you will too! * * * * Hello lovely Finnabair friends. This month I’m sharing a little challenge with you that I set myself. There are some truly amazing and beautifully textured ART PAPERS available to us and they are a quick, clean and simple way of adding a textured look to mixed media projects. I was particularly attracted to a 7 Dots Studio piece from the Hazy Days collection called “Gelly” and I wanted to recreate it, to make the textures for real, using Finnabair’s amazing Rust and Patina Pastes, White Crackle Texture Paste and Impasto Paint and Art Stones. I was not 100% successful but I think I came pretty close, and it was a lot of fun. While I was working on this project, yet more horror and immense sadness was unfolding in Manchester and in London and as much as I love to try and create uplifting and positive pieces, the absolute futility and loss of innocent lives, particularly children, sadly became the underlying theme... ”when will we see the light”. This is an assemblage piece created on a thick wooden block. The faces have been left white to suggest purity and innocence. All other elements have been rusted with Finnabair Rust and Patina Effect Pastes, including the beautiful Finnabair Lotus Flowers, sacred to many cultures around the world symbolising enlightenment and rebirth and the Hamsa Hand a protective symbol in all religions. This is what I did: No.1 This is the piece of the textured look paper that started it all. I wanted to create that same texture. No.2 The wooden block that I worked on. No.3 The piece of wood given a coat of Art Basics Heavy Black Gesso. No.4 To create a fine gritty texture I mixed Art Stones into Finnabair’s new Art Alchemy Impasto Paint in Lemon Peel. No.5 I applied the mix of paint and Art Stones with a Double Sided Texture Brush. No.6 Next, I applied the red Rust Effect Paste over the top. No.7 Apply Blue Patina Effect Paste. No.8 Art Stones, acrylic paint, Rust and Patina Effect Pastes. This layer creates the underling colour and texture. No.9 To create the cracked and flaking surface over the base colours and textures, I added a thick coat of White Crackle Texture Paste. No.10 It dried beautifully, giving this amazing textured surface. No.11 This is the point where I hit a problem. I wanted to flick off some (and assumed I would be able to) of the cracked Texture Paste to reveal the rust and patina colours underneath. However, Finnabair’s Texture Paste is so good at adhering to any surface without flaking off (and that’s as it should be :) ) that when I tried to lift some off, the rust and patina surface underneath came off as well and I was left with the base piece of timber. No.12 So the flaking and peeling didn’t happen and I had lost all my beautiful underlying colours. So I sanded back some of the surface, added some more Art Stones and yellow acrylic paint and some more Rust and Patina Effect Paste and ended up with a surface that sort of resembled the piece of textured paper. No.13 My assemblage pieces, before being rusted. No need to gesso first, just dab the Rust Pastes on with a stiff brush. The beautiful Mechanicals Pocket Watch already comes in a rust finish and blends in perfectly with other elements that have been rusted using Rust Effect Paste. No.14 Rust and Patina Effect pastes work perfectly on chipboard. No.15 Metal and chipboard pieces with Rust and a little Patina Paste. No.16 I used some tea dye and thick acrylic paint and water to add some “staining” to the surface. No.17 All the embellishments were adhered with Heavy Body Gel. A piece of red velvet was woven around the rusted pieces and adhered with Soft Matte Gel. Some watered down, crimson acrylic paint added around the velvet. No.18 Using the original piece of textured paper that was the inspiration for this piece, I used it to cover all sides of my wooden block; the idea being that it would blend perfectly with the front. I added a little “real” texture to the paper in some places, to help with the illusion. Here I have added some crimson acrylic paint into the texture paste to make it more the colour of the paper, and then dabbed it on. Blending real texture with paper texture. Create contrast and interest by using opposite elements - hard and soft, rough and smooth, bold colour and no colour. Take the challenge... find a piece of paper that you love and try to recreate it. It doesn’t have to be with textures, it can be with inks, stamps, stencils all kinds of mediums. It will push you to explore what these mediums can and can’t do. Whether you succeed or not in replicating that piece of paper is not important. Whatever you end up with will be a fabulous background, ready to create on, made completely by you. Have fun. Love, Gayle xx Products used:

Hi there dear Friends! This Friday it's our talented Kasia who's putting us into a summertime holiday mood with her most adorable little mixed media house! Another one of her magical creations is also accompanied with a video so you can create your own little cutie like that! :) Don't miss my New Products Giveaway!! It's open till Sunday, June 11th so you still have time to join in for a chance to win some of my new 'art babies'! * * * * Hello friends! For today's post I made a project playing with my favorite nautical theme. While I was cleaning my house, I found this adorable little cardboard house and decided to decorate it and turn into a special keepsake box for the shells I once collected. I have always liked the style of traditional beach cabins and I wanted to create a miniature version of such a house. I used the amazing new Impasto Paints to paint my little house. They are so perfect for any kind of project - they come in a variety of rich colors and become permanent when dry - this is really important when you want to add more paints or mists later on. I wanted this cabin to look as if it was exposed to wind and water for a very long time. Different sizes of Art Stones, torn net and pieces of gauze are a perfect combo to achieve this look. A little bit of Patina Effect Pastes and White Gesso worked great for the finishing touches. You can watch the whole project in the video I made especially for you (see below). If you're wondering how I glued on all the dimensional embellishments like the starfish and the sea shells for example, you will see in my video that I'm using hot glue. This is the best solution, especially if you're an impatient person like me. :) The hot glue is very strong and you can be sure that your project will become unchanged for many years to come. As with many of my creations, I couldn't resist using the beautiful Art Alchemy Waxes. They are my perfect products! You can literally use them with every kind of project and they are a brilliant tool to add delicate brilliance to chosen elements of your piece, or to deliciously enhance the details and textures. Here's my tutorial video - I hope you'll enjoy! Here are some more details of my project: From time to time I like to make something useful but most of my projects are "just" decorations. You certainly know how much space you need to store them! :) So I thought that sometimes it might be also a good idea to combine 'pleasant' and 'decorative' with' useful'. :) Self-made items for storage are a perfect personalised decoration for your studio. So I hope you like my idea! xx Kasia Products used:

My Dear Readers - - last hours of 2016 - my wonderful Brand Ambassadors gathered round to have a very special blog post meeting - the last one this year. We can't imagine a better way to end the year than with beautiful art inspirations so I asked this fantastic group of Artists to sum up their creative year and to choose 3 artworks that for some reason were special to them in 2016. I'm sure you will love this post packed with so much gorgeousness! What were your favorite creations this year? We'd love you to share with us- make sure you drop by Finnabair Open Studio facebook group and leave a trace there. And now - enjoy this amazing art gallery of my Ambassadors! I'd like to share three different projects that best represent my artful year 2016. One of many special artworks that are really close to my heart, is this Mixed Media Altered Clock Photo Frame. This Metal Clock Frame is one of my faves! I truly enjoyed covering it with layers and layers of Finnanair's mediums and paints! I'm often inspired by my own old projects and it's one of them! This Mixed Media Notebook turned out to be one of my largest projects of the year. The notebook has a lot of pages and dividers which I have used to show my workshops students dozens of mixed media techniques. I am really proud of it! The third project I chose is a Mixed Media Layout. I love working with old photos and I particularly love working with the dark backgrounds. Here is the best example of what I get when I combine these two of my favorite things! :) This photo of my young grandmother awakens bright and warm feelings in me, I have tried to express them with the vibrant paint colors! Here are my favorite 2016 pieces: On a personal level, a lot changed for me in 2016. And it seemed that somewhere halfway, I had to put that in my art journal. With lots of layers and lots of cracks. But what makes this page so special is that I used the rusted washers my youngest son purchased and rusted himself as a birthday gift for me and that it was the finishing touch I was looking for. It's also the first page in that journal and coincidence or not, it was also the start of a new chapter in my life! 2016 is also the year of change on an artistic level. And that is why I like this little tag so much: it got me back in touch with watercolor. I guess I also need to thank Prima for that, as the watercolor videos that kept popping up in my instagram feed really got to me! Anyway, I've been practicing watercolor techniques for the last couple of month and I'm eager to learn more and more to incorporate in my mixed media creations. 2016 was a great teaching year. What can you ask for more than that awesome opportunity to travel and meet lovely people? I expressed my gratitude by sharing the secret of my little heart during a lot of those classes. But if you too want to know how I make it, make sure we meet during one of my classes in 2017! I wish you a very happy New Year, lots of love, warmth and light. xoxo 'Time on the Wings of a Butterfly' is one of my absolute favorite canvases. It shares with you a rare instance when everything all came together in a flash of luck. With the release of the Metalliques and Opal Magic Paints, metallic color became even more magical. The colors you can achieve on Black Gesso with these are nothing short of amazing. I used the Iron Orchid moulds to create wonderful pieces that blend perfectly with all the metal ephemera from a tiny lightbulb and a keyhole, to a heart brad and a pen nib. Adding color and contrast just makes me happy. Time passes quickly on the wings of a butterfly, and we must be ready to grab those moments when we can. My Steampunk Box is a fun piece where I got to put everything from my stash of wonderful metal pieces into a project. I love Steampunk. Having said that, I used the Mechanicals Heart as my center, my main place in my creating. I tried to show that the Gears were always turning in my head with ideas for my Art. The Keys are there to remind me to stay true to what I love. And the watch parts, clock hands, and the Butterfly remind me that time flies. The dusting of Mica Powders onto the Black Gesso background gives it a cloud of magic appearance. The Treasure Key Box started out as just a key, but what do you do with an elaborate key? Put it on a box that you can store all your OTHER key creations in, I guess. :) I was really caught up in making cold connections with metal pieces and adding metallic colors with Mica Powders to Mechanicals. The stamps on the box were perfect for creating a background. This one key led me to creating many other keys as pins and necklaces using the same great products. As many of my creative friends and followers may know I am a HUGE huge fan of Finnabair's Heavy Gesso. It is a 'go to' product for me with many of my creative projects, so I would love to share with you 3 projects that I created recently, where I have used this fabulous gesso. First is a canvas I painted using both the Black and White Heavy Gesso. I have applied the gesso using a combination of paint brush, foam roller and palette knife. I wouldn't call myself a painter, this painting is a bit of a 'translation' of what I have been creating in my art journal, and I very much enjoyed the process of creating what I do in my art journal on a canvas. My second project is a small air dry clay dish. I would love to be able to create with proper clay and fire, but that isn't possible at the moment, so I satisfy myself with creating small bowls and dishes using air dry clay. With this particular dish I sealed the underside with the Heavy Black Gesso and then sealed the inside surface with a thinnish coat of the Heavy White Gesso. I then finished the dish by embellishing it by hand drawing some freaky little people using a Signo gel pen. My third and final project is a little bit of creative fun I had using some bark that I found at the home of a friend, on Christmas Eve. To create a surface for me to draw on, I first applied a thick coat of Heavy White Gesso with a paint brush. Then to complete, I hand drew some fun peeps with a black Signo gel pen. These were then coloured using Prima Tropicals Water colour paint. Well that is it from me for now, I do hope you enjoy what I and the team are sharing with you today! I wish you all a safe and joyous New Year, Louise xox So hard to choose my 3 favourites! I do feel that all our makes are unique and special... But I managed to make my decisions and for today's post I chose 3 pieces that are quite important for me. First to share is a set of tiny mixed media assemblages. Those are most definitely my favourite things to create. I call them 'Tiny Art'. I enjoy creating on small surfaces - it's quite challenging but also such great fun! My second share for you is an altered frame. I love how you can turn an ordinary dollar store piece into a unique and special art piece. I always try to encourage all of you to recycle and resuse items that are no longer pretty or that went out of fashion. We can work magic with some simple items, just like here... a simple plastic frame. My last piece is a special small canvas. Why do I like it? Simplicity is what I also cherish. Paint tubes, canvas and some colour... not much is needed to create a meaningful project. I hope you had a wonderful, creative year... I wish for 2017 to be full of art, passion and love! Hugs, Marta x I chose these three artworks because of what they mean to me and how they make me feel. Each one of them is more than just a project, it has special memories attached to the making of it or the topic and works as a jumping off point to my memory. What these three also have in common is that there's more people connected to each one than just me. They spark a memory of togetherness, a connection. The snowy card started as a simple demo sample. I got asked to create something winter-like and use a couple of specific products (Mica Powders, Snowflake Paste, gesso). While I was then demoing the card during a craft fair in Finland, people loved it so much both on site and on Instagram where I shared the samples, that I redid the card back home and also recorded a tutorial to go along. I chose this card because of the enthusiasm it caused and created among other crafters and how that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The layout has a sort of similar story. It's a workshop sample, made while I was keeping workshops in Uppsala, Sweden. It combines some of my favorite mediums and materials as well as one of my favorite topics, my darling husband. It also serves as an example of my love to keep workshops, to meet people and to (try to) inspire. I'm so thankful to get to keep workshops and also grateful for my husband to being so supportive. The third project is a minialbum or more like a cover of one. It's done for a monthly series called "Inspired by" that my darling friend Marsha and me do. These posts and topics are always something I really look forward to. They are my playtime and they can be anything. I can do as much or as little as I want. But the main reason why I chose this as my third special project is the connection between Marsha and me. How I feel close to her at least once a month even though we live in different countries. For my part I want to wish an awesome, artful new year 2017 for you all and thank you for the splendid 2016! It's the people (and art) that matter! Hugs from Finland! Choosing just 3 pieces that are special to me turned out to be more difficult than I thought... However, it's easy to say which ones I like more - these are the ones when the final result made me happy and even surprising. :) Here are the artworks I'm especially proud of. What do they have in common? - Layers, stamping, atmospheric photos, limited palette and... painting with coffee. :) The first work I chose to share today is my 'Inwardness' layout in which I used all my favorite techniques and supplies. You know how much I love art journaling and here's a spread I'm really fond of. An old book, a vintage photo (Finnabair's Ephemera are just perfect inspiration) and a lot of mixed media always make my heart sing. Last but not least, my Wanderlust canvas inspired by 3 words that always resonate with me: Explore - Dream - Discover Don't you just love the passion that you can feel in all my Ambassadors' voices? :) Even though their styles are so different, their genuine love for Art and endless creativity are exactly the things we'd like to wish you in the New Year! :) Hugs & Happy 2017! Finn & The Team

Hello on Monday Dear Friends! Gayle - a true Artist - will move your hearts and souls today... Get ready for a mixed media feast of textures, tones and magical patina and rust effects. All this and more - this collage is also beautiful food for thought and surely an inspiration to us all... * * * * Hello again lovely Finnabair friends. I tend to “overthink” and this often leads me, as I’m sure it does many of you, to ideas that can be expressed through creativity - writing, art journaling, painting, song writing, poetry etc. My creation this month comes from the idea of oxygen - how it sustains life but also destroys it. How the air that we breathe, so vital for life, can be at the same time so destructive. How it corrodes metal, dries and destroys skin cells, how, over time, things that were once soft and delicate become brittle and sharp. No.1 As always, the surface is gessoed. The surface in this case is a square of chipboard. All the flowers in this project, except for one, are paper so the supporting background does not need to be as rigid or strong as if the embellishments were metal. No.2 I drew in an outline of where the face would be and then using a stencil and Art Basics Modeling Paste created a textured and patterned background. No.3 The face is photocopied onto plain copy paper and then collaged onto the background chipboard using Soft Matte Gel. It is then given a coat of Clear Gesso and the bottom section of the image (where the muslin cloth will be attached) is coated with Heavy White Gesso to create a whiter background. No.4 The rusty pipe representing the mechanical action of breathing, is a plastic dripper connector used for irrigating gardens. Given a coat of Heavy White Gesso first, it is turned into an old metal rusty pipe with Art Extravagance Rust Effect Paste and a little Patina Effect Paste. No.5 I love flowers, especially white paper ones that can be coloured. No.6 Using mists is a quick and easy way to colour your flowers any shade you want. No.7 Once the flowers have dried, I have added a little shimmer with Sparks Acrylic Paint in Mermaid Sparkles and coppery highlights with Acrylic Paint in Metallique Brass Hardware. No.8 I added some extra pattern to the face with some collaged tissue flowers (sorry, forgot to photograph this step, but you can just see them under the crackle paste). I then coated the whole face with a thick layer of Clear Crackle Texture Paste. This step was a little risky, as sometimes texture paste can be unpredictable in how it dries and the end results. I love the way it dried with very fine crackles where it was applied more thinly around the mouth and eyes. I left it to dry naturally overnight and did not use a heat tool; I think this gives better results. No.9 I then started the “ageing process”, rusting up the pipe and the face with Rust Effect Pastes and a little of the Blue Patina Effect Paste, by just applying the pastes in layers using a small, stiff paint brush. No.10 Finally, using acrylic paint I added colour, highlights and depth to the eyes, face and lips. Cracked and rusty detail using amazing Finnabair Clear Crackle Texture Paste and Rust Effect Pastes. Tiny cracks where the Clear Crackle Texture Paste has been applied more thinly; wider where the paste was thicker. Background detail and falling, rusted petals. Contrasts… the dull, crusty look of corrosion and decay next to the clear sparkle, shimmer and shine of life... The very element that keeps us alive is the same one that ages us. We cannot live without oxygen, so it’s maybe better to embrace the process of ageing and see the beauty in it. I like the Japanese concept of Wabi-sabi - a view centred on the acceptance of transience and imperfection; the idea that beauty can be impermanent, imperfect and incomplete... Gayle xx Materials used:

Today we have a stunning mixed media project designed by Anna Dąbrowska. She has created this canvas by using Prima embellishments and a blend of art mediums. Here a little bit from Anna about her work of art: "Inviting The Wind" My biggest love is...

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Mixed-media art, art journaling and scrapbooking by polish artist and teacher Anna Dabrowska aka Finnabair.

Hello Dear Ones! I hope your holidays are running smoothly among laughter, warm feelings, delicious food and hopefully some time and space for your creative self-care! :) In case you needed an inspirational video & a stunning artwork to wake up your creativity - Karolina comes to the rescue! ;) Enjoy and be merry! Welcome to this crazy Christmas season of overeating and spending time with our families. For me, this time also means time for creativity and today I'd like to share with you another mixed media work of mine. This piece was created thinking of you and my wonderful daughter. I made a canvas with my little heart in the winter scenery. I know I've mentioned my passion for painting parts of the background in black and white to get a different color effect of the same paints. Today I wanted to try something new and I ventured for one more element: Art Alchemy paints with the addition of Light Paste. It turns out this way the paint becomes half matte. Of course the entire composition was glued with Gel Medium and mostly covered with White Gesso. Next both the composition and the background were painted with Alchemy paints and while they were still wet, I sprinkled some Mica Powder and Glitter. You will be able to follow the whole process watching my video tutorial below. I am delighted with the result I got adding the shimmering Mica which gave my work a frosty look. The black Glitter from Ebony&Ivory set emphasized the composition and allowed the photo to blend in with the rest of the work. The white Glitter in the light of day gives a wonderful iridescent effect of a thousand particles. Personally, I think that the black adds a lot of character and depth here. Of course I couldn't do without the White Crackle Texture Paste and Snowflake Paste as the final touches to this wintery composition. I decided to use Finnabair's Stamps to make the whole composition more diversified. I think stamps give a lot of opportunities to create a more dynamic or calm composition, depending on what you want to achieve, but they always enrich your works with this special simple touch. Here's my video, I hope you'll enjoy it! Wishing you a very creative New Year. See you later! Hugs Karolina Products used:

Hi again friends, it's great you are visiting us again! When you are reading this post I'm probably somewhere on the way home from Prima headquarters where I had great chance to present my new Mixed-Media products to the group of lovely ladies during Prima Education Days for retailers. I can't express how exciting it is to see people playing with the supplies I was thinking of for such a long time and seeing your another dream coming true thanks to the great team effort and hard work of so many people. Thank you from the bottom of my heart - and thank you all my friends, students, supporters and followers for all the energy and love me and my CT are getting from you everyday! Last week was very special for Creative Team - 4 of our CT members were featured on Prima Blog with their projects inspired by Art Basics Line and providing ideas and techniques to all of us. Girls prepared a lovely variety of projects and I'm sure you will find something inspiring there - be sure to check it out! I decided to focus on one of the most underestimated and mysterious mediums from all Art Basics Line - and one of my favorite ones in the same time... Ladies and Gentlemen please give the warm welcome to one and only Clear Gesso! It's just amazing how helpful Art Basics Gesso - Clear is for mixed-media projects. Like any other gesso, it is a primer, which provides a matte surface which is so easy to work on. But, there is great difference too - this one dries transparent! You can apply it on any surface and have a possibility to work on the background with its colors and patterns visible. It's a perfect solution for projects where you want to work with inks, paints, or pencils on slippery surfaces such as glossy pictures, photos, or even metal or plastic... Let me show it to you in pictures! Here is the project I've prepared for Prima Blogpost: altered cabinet card and vintage metal camera plate or tintype element colored and embellished in my signature style: including stamping, a touch of watercoloring and of course spraying. You surely know how much I love all the flea market findings and collecting all the items that have history and this special magic in them... then I saw a bunch of these metal photo types I just had to buy them and try to use them - and this project seem to be a perfect choice! As an inspiration I took one of my "adopted family members" - beautiful young woman from Prague... I keep wondering who she was? I was sure my Vintage Vanity Stamps with old adverts will be matching this photo perfectly - as well as a bunch of fabric, lace and Prima Mechanicals combined with Junkyard Findings. Of course I couldn't resist and i opened one of my rubbish boxes with buttons and pins too! Final color of this project comes from Prima Color Bloom Sprays, touch of watercolor pencils and a bit of wonderful, shiny Inka Gold - and thanks to Clear Gesso it was really easy to apply all of my colored mediums! Now, let's look more into details: Are you ready? Here is new Art Recipe with step-by-step tutorial for you! 1. I started the project working on the old cabinet card I had in my collection. Because the surface was glossy I covered it with a coat of Art Basics Clear Gesso - and when it was dry it turned into beautifully matte, easy to work on surface (how cool is that?). Next I stamped it a bit with Archival Ink (Jet Black) and Vintage Vanity Stamps to create more artistic vintage look. 2. Clear Gesso makes it possible to work on your project with any kind of colored products - paints, inks, pastes. I decided to use watercolor pencils and I blended my colors blended with waterbrush to get nice and smooth, watercolor effect. 3. My next step was embellishing: I guess you can't go wrong with fabric and lace when creating something in vintage style, right? Of course as usual I wanted to add a bit of "heavier" look to my little collage so I used a selection of my Mechanicals and Ingvild's Junkyard Findings which I glued down to the plate and photo with 3D Matte Gel - medium which is not only great to create texture but also great dimensional glue. For Gluing in the Art Ingredients - Glass Beads I used my Soft Matte Gel. When it was ready I dried it for a moment with heating tool to make sure they will stay in place and I covered all my slippery embellishments such as metals or plastics with a coat of Clear Gesso to help my paints to stay on them. When the Clear Gesso was dry I spayed them with Color Bloom Sprays and dried them again. Here is an extra tip: Thanks to Clear Gesso you can turn your glossy, slippery surfaces such as photos or metal embellishments into matte - ready to apply colors! Here are the examples of the effects you can get using acrylic paint, Color Bloom Spray, and Colored Pencil working on metal covered with Clear Gesso and without it. So easy - and so cool! 4. My final touches to the projects were made with a set of watercolor pencils on the metal embellishments (yes!) - of course blended a bit with water - and Inka Gold, which is metallic rub in Gold color. I was so happy to see I was able to use the same set of watercolors as on my photo on my metal embellishments too! Great solution! For extra protection of the project you can always spray it with a bit of fixative. I just love how this project turned out - I hope you like it too! Any comments? I'd love to hear back from you! Here is the list of products from Mixed Media Place shop - for your reference: I will be back during the weekend with my next blog post - and please make sure you will check us out on Friday for the next great post from my Creative Team! I wish you all wonderful, creative time! Huge hugs

Hi my Lovely Readers! Kasia came up with the most perfect project to start the New Year with. You will love her beautiful mixed media reminder! We hope you will join Kasia and create your own pretty sign that will help you focus on whatever's important for you in 2017. Don't forget to share your makes in our Finnabair&Friends Open Studio facebook group! pssst... Don't miss my brand new Art Alchemy Waxes giveway! Still time till Sunday. Good luck you all! :) Hello friends in the New Year! As many of you, I too have my terms, dreams and goals to achieve. But this time I'm going to go after what I want, instead of waiting. I think this is the perfect plan. Keep fingers crossed! For a good start, I made this mixed media banner that is going to be my motivator, a driving force to action. Maybe you will feel inspired to create your own one, too. I used a lot of Mechanicals metal embellishments, some pieces from Prima moulds and crystals. Even though my banner is not large, I wanted to create a feeling of rich texture and deep space. I believe a little bit of Glliter is always a good idea. :) Once I arranged my composition, I covered it all with Heavy White Gesso to achieve a mysterious, foggy effect. It also beautifully highlighted all the details and "softened" the glitter effect. As for the color effects, I used Mica Powders that are such an amazing and versatile product! You can make your own pastes, paints and mists simply mixing in these magical powders - just imagine the possibilities... Or you can also simply sprinkle the surface with this shiny product and spray it with water. That's what I did here and I got some really beautiful color transitions. I made a video tutorial especially for you so you can follow my creative process. Enjoy! I hope I made you inspired to create your own inspiring signs like mine. Happy Creative 2017 to you all! Kasia Products used:

Hi again my creative friends! Are into the winter-festive mood already? Decking the halls, celebrating this family time? For us here it is really a magical time of the year - not only I'm home but we can focus on all the nice things people do in the winter time: decorating the house, keeping ourselves warm, enjoying the fire in the stove, drinking hot tea and working on the new things coming out soon! Following the winter mood I made a little fabric tag, which will decorate my living room - it has a good amount of Art Extravagance Clear Crackle and Snowflake Paste on, as well as tonnes of lace... did I mention already I love lace, crochet doilies and beautiful fabric? I guess the answer is yes! I was really focused on the cold, winter tones combined with charming vintage style - a marriage of an old, beautiful cabinet card and layers of lace and art mediums seemed to be the answer here. As my base I used a page from old Prima fabric album - I cut it to the desired size, distressed the edges and glued all the fabric and lace on. I used Art Basics 3D Matte Gel for this step - I dug in my boxes and baskets to find small, but pretty pieces and scraps of lace and I used it for my base layers. In the meantime I applied a generous amount of the Art Extravagance Clear Crackle on the cabinet card, avoiding the face area. This product is drying to produce delicate, a fine layer of crackle, similar to sugar icing. It was just perfect to imitate frost on the old photo! I covered some of the fabric layers with Art Basics Heavy White Gesso and then continued to work on the composition using some of the vines and flowers from older Prima collections, wire, more lace (!) and of course some metal scraps from my collection. I managed to find a perfect, floral chipboard from Scrapiniec which fitted in between the layers perfectly. I wouldn't be myself if I didn't use any of my rusty Mechanicals too - although this time I only used 3 of them! All of these elements were glued down with the same 3D Gel. To add colour I used my homemade tea stain (which is super-duper strong black tea infuse) and a tiny bit of heavily watered down Lindy's sprays. To make the project look it is covered in snow I combined a small amount of Art Ingredients Art Stones and Mini Art Stones with a generous amount of Art Extravagance Snowflake Paste. If you don't know this paste yet - you will fall in love for sure! It makes the most beautiful, natural looking snow effect ever! (You can see it on the edges of the cabinet card, for example). After my winter tag was dry I could display it in one of my rooms - here it is fitted into one of the frames designed by Tim Holtz. Isn't that just perfect? Here is the list of the supplies I used to make this tiny project. All of them are linked to our Mixed Media Place Online Store! When I was working on this tag I told my husband that flat projects just don't happen to me. In fact, I noticed, the smaller the surface I work on, the more dimension I'm trying to add to it. I guess you can't escape your nature, right? Sending you all warm winter hugs

Hi Friends! Get ready for another jaw-dropping piece of art from my uber talented Creative Team! Today it's Sanda and oh my... her mixed media creation is an absolute dream... And what a treat - you also get a video from Sanda so you can see step by step how this beauty was made. Enjoy! * * * * Hi guys, I’m back today with my new project for the Team. This time I would like to share with you a mixed media dream catcher like collage/assemblage I created on a wooden surface. The whole inspiration for this piece was this van Gogh’s quote: “I dream my painting and I paint my dream." I started by collaging pieces of old book pages directly onto my wood panel using Soft Matte Gel and a brush. When the panel was covered, I took a piece of pattern tissue, I crumpled it in my hand and then glued it down to create my first layer of texture. Dried the panel with a heat gun and then, with a dry brush and a light touch, I applied a coat of Heavy White Gesso. After drying, I mixed Modeling Paste with Texture Powder and pushed the mixture through the 'Stars' stencil with a palette knife. I saved the rest of the mixture for later. For the next step, I covered the rest of my panel with White Crackle Paste. Spreading the paste in different thicknesses will give you different crackle sizes. For the best crackles ever, leave the paste dry naturally, overnight. Finn’s Crackle Paste is by far the best I ever tried and believe me, I tried lots of them! :) Next morning, over the dried lovely crakles, I created some stars here and there, using the leftover Modeling Paste/Texture Powder mixture and Finn’s beautiful stencil. I dried the stars quickly with my heating tool, eager to start on the fun bit – painting my panel. 😊 As I wasn’t sure yet what colour palette I wanted for this piece, but I wanted to get rid of the white panel that was staring at me, I decided for the first layer to use watercolours. This way, if I didn’t like them, I would mop them out and start again. The very moment when I saw them staining the panel, I felt inspired and I knew exactly what I’ll do next. After the watercolours dried, I started on my composition. First, I created a coiled wire circle that I glued down using Finn’s fantastic Heavy Body Gel which is the most reliable glue for heavy pieces I worked with. The bond is quick and strong and when the gel is dried is rock solid 😊 Then, I built up the composition around the wire ring, using lots of Mechanicals and coated everything with a layer of Heavy White Gesso. When everything was dry, I started painting with my beloved Art Alchemy Impasto and Metallique paints. I added more texture with some Black Micro Beads that I adhered using 3D Gloss Gel. Next, I pulled out my Patina Pastes and continued painting until I was pleased with the result. I sponged some White Gesso with a very light hand, touching only the texture and help to bring together all the colours and then I added a bit of bling with some fabulous glitters from Finnabair. As a finishing touch, I made some splatters, put some highlights with Art Alchemy Sparks, stamped the sentiment and added a few clay feathers I painted with Art Alchemy Waxes. For the last step, I cut a piece of Ephemera and glued it down to the metal Locket Heart. Here is my video where you can watch my creative process and see all the products I used. Enjoy and have fun! I hope you like how my collage turned out and you are ready to create your own lovely piece of art. Keep dreaming, my friends, and keep painting your dreams! 😊 Have a lovely day, my friends, Sanda xoxo Products used:

Are you interested in hosting Finnabair classes? Email me: [email protected] and discuss terms and conditions! Latest classes: Pretty Patina – dark and grungy journal or book cover with unique, patinated finish Would you like to create beautiful, steampunk-inspired look on your mixed-media projects? This class is something for you – without using too many products and tons of art mediums you can get really great, eye-catching results! Dark shadows in the background, interesting textures and vintage-inspired look, beautiful metallic colours together with unique, patinated finish are the perfect way to make friends with a range of popular Finnabair mediums and coloured products and learn how to apply the presented techniques to almost every surface! In the classroom we will work step-by-step, focusing on building the layers, textures and interesting composition based on a good selection of various elements and embellishments. You will have a chance to try art mediums from Art Basics line - including gesso, and selection of gels and innovative, inspiring collection of Art Alchemy Matte and Metallique Waxes. All the techniques presented in the class can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class Time: about 3.5- 4h Rustical Artbook – beautiful, dimensional journal or book cover Let's dive in the dreamy, dimensional layers of tissue papers, various embellishments and coats of paints, waxes and art mediums! Let your creativity flow and create unique, artistic composition based on beautiful, rich textures and inspiring colour - all that to get one of a kind decorated journal which will be perfect to fill it with your personal pages, notes... anything you would like to keep secret! Step-by-step we will work on all the layers and textures to build our cover, using an interesting range of embellishments in combination with popular Finnabair art mediums and beautiful Tissue Papers. We will be trying products from my Art Basics and Art Alchemy lines including gesso, gels and Liquid Acrylics and Matte and Metallique Waxes. Thanks to this combination we will create the eye-catching, intriguing mechanical composition… all that means you are getting a lot of creative freedom combined with useful tips and inspirational techniques which you can apply to many future projects! All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class Time: about 4h Time of Decay – large altered clock frame It is all about the inspiring power of rust and naturally worn-out look! If you would like to try exciting techniques inspired by the natural process of rusting and peeling off the paint – this is a class for you! This finish is perfect for any vintage, steampunk or grunge-inspired project and will give you a chance to achieve a more heavy, masculine look on any surface. This lass is a complete mixed-media makeover which will change simple, metal clock frames into real, old and rusty treasures. During this class, we will be working on inside and outside of the metal frame. We will focus on altering techniques which will make your project beautiful and unique - adding details, textures based on Art Extravagance pastes and embellishments using the popular range of products from mixed-media collection by Finnabair. You will have a chance to try soft and heavy gels and gesso in composition with a range of Art Alchemy Matte Waxes and Liquid Acrylic Paints. Together we will build our projects step-by-step and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or journal pages. I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about the tools and products used. "Time of Decay" is an exciting way to dive into the world of 3D mixed-media and altering, working with pastes, paints and other art supplies. The teacher will provide a full set of art mediums and embellishments to finish the project inside and outside as well as the metal frame. Class time: about 4 - 4.5h Midnight Angel – dark, dimensional large collage with a touch of mystery Do you like darker colour palettes? You believe black gesso is your best friend? Or maybe you feel tempted to try making a project in a darker, more dramatic colour palette, but you are not sure where to start? In these cases “Midnight Angel” is a perfect class for you! There is everything you need to know about creating deep, mysterious projects: composition and bold design, good product selection and a touch of magic! Time to dive in! During this class you will see the whole process of building the dimensional collage step-by-step, from the bottom to the top. You will be trying products from Art Alchemy range including popular Metallique Acrylic Paints and Waxes, Matte Waxes and more. There will be a chance to make friends with a selection of Art Basics Gels, Heavy Black Gesso and inspiring selection of embellishments and textures from Art Ingredients collection. Together we will work on lights and shadows, special effects and a bit of wow factor – this class is a perfect choice if you want to leave your comfort zone of lighter projects and more delicate colours! As always, the techniques presented in the class can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided and - believe it or not – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: 4,5 - 5h Other available classes: Angelica – Full Day Collage Would you like to try using your imagination to build a full-sized collage project and create a statement piece you can hang on the wall...and learn a lot about the products at the same time? “Angelica” is the perfect project for you! This class is not only the chance to try a bit different way of composing and organizing your project but also finding a way of using the supplies we all have somewhere close in our reach: in our studios, kitchens, garages, gardens… with the presented techniques all these options are possible…and there is a high chance you will never throw a piece of plastic, metal or fabric away! During this full-day class, we will build the project together from the bottom to the top – I will do my best to break the process into easy to follow steps. We will try different art mediums from all of my Lines including 3 kinds of Gesso, 3 kinds of Gel, Art Alchemy Metallique Paints and Liquid Acrylics, Metallique Waxes and more! You will have a wide choice of finishing possibilities and colours to choose from. All the techniques can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. Project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 7-8 h total + break Shabby House – decorated panel (30 cm tall house) Do you prefer the “lighter” and more feminine version of mixed-media? Do you love working with paper and stamps, but would like to try a bit more adventurous techniques based on paints and aret mediums as well? Would you like to create a dimensional project which will add a special, personal touch to your house or make a perfect gift for those you love? During this class you can try it: step-by-step we will work on all the layers and textures to build our 3D object out of HDF bases and elements and a range of embellishments. We will be trying a range of products from my Art Basics and Art Alchemy lines including gesso, gels and Liquid Acrylics and using my Tissue Papers, paper flowers and metal embellishments we will create beautiful, composition… all that means you are getting a lot of creative freedom combined with useful tips and inspirational techniques which you can apply to many future projects! All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: 3,5-4h Magical Teapot - altered frame with beautiful textures and details (20cm tall frame) Simplicity and elegance is timeless, but many of us have also the love for the opulence and decadence, the richness of colours, elements and meanings all blended together to create one, truly baroque look. Let yourself be inspired by the visual abundance of layers, textures and metallic colours stepping a bit into the ground of steampunk, vintage and everything metallic and shiny. During this class we will be working on inside and outside of the metal frame. We will focus on altering techniques which will make your project beautiful and unique - adding details, textures based on Art Extravagance pastes and colours using the popular range of art mediums from mixed-media collection by Finnabair. You will have a chance to try such products as soft and heavy gels, gesso in composition with Art Ingredients and a range of Art Alchemy Metallique Waxes and Rust Effect Pastes. Together we will build our projects step-by-step and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or journal pages. I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about the tools and products used. "Magical Teapot" is an exciting way to dive into the world of 3D mixed-media and altering, working with pastes, paints and art ingredients of different kinds. The teacher will supply all the paints, mediums and elements needed to finish the project. Class time: about 4h Colours of the Past - dimensional collage (20x60 cm canvas) Negative space, texture, patterns and colours – all that can fit in one project which is the journey into the world of dimensional collage.“Colours of the Past" is a great chance to clean your head and keep your hands busy… simply follow your intuition and enjoy the process of building layers, glueing and painting. This class is focusing on a bit different way of composing and organising your project but also finding a way of using the supplies we all have somewhere close in our reach: in our studios, kitchens, garages, gardens… with the presented techniques and your favourite choice of colours you can create a truly unique artwork which will be a statement piece on your wall or shelf! During class, we will build the project together from the bottom to the top, building layers of the project and trying different techniques. I will do my best to break the process into easy to follow steps. We will try different art mediums from all of my lines including White Heavy Gesso, Icing Pastes or Heavy Body Gel, new Art Alchemy Liquid Acrylics Paints, Waxes, Art Stones and more! You will have a wide choice of finishing possibilities and colours to choose – and we will use such materials as Tissue Papers, embellishments created with the moulds and HDF bases and elements. All the techniques can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. The project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4,5 - 5h For the Record - altered vinyl record with a lot of layers and sparkle (30 cm base) Your imagination is the limit! Try dimensional mixed-media techniques on a bit unusual surface - a vinyl record - to create unique, rich and sparkly composition tased on Art Extravagance Pastes, Art Basics Gesso and Gels and a lot of embellishments including natural materials and elements created with moulds. During the class you will work on high-quality products from my mixed-media collection including Mica Powders, Glitters and Art Alchemy Liquid Acrylic Paints. Together we will build our projects step-by-step and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or scrapbooking layouts. I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about the tools and products used. The teacher will supply all the paints, mediums and elements needed to finish the project except the vinyl record! Class time: 3,5-4h Moonlight - almost unreal, beautiful double canvas collage based on textures, clusters of elements, dark background and non-conventional painting! Have you ever dreamed about making your own mixed-media landscape collage? During this class you can try it - step-by-step we will build all the layers and textures to build our small towns and villages out of chipboard elements, create the look of moonlight and stars on the night sky… all that getting a lot of useful tips and inspirational techniques which you can apply to many future projects! We will be using a range of products from my Art Basics, Art Extravagance and Art alchemy lines including gesso, pastes, gels and wax - our main colour substrate in this project! This project is not only a great way to jump into world of mixed-media but also create a blog, breathtaking statement piece for your home or studio. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4-5h Poetry of Patina - collage on canvas There is not a single touch of paint on this project - this large, beautiful collage on canvas is all about the rust, paint and metallic look! What a great way to try many techniques at once: building some truly dimensional, intriguing composition, using two amazing and unique Art Extravagance sets: Rust Paste and Patina Paste and finally finish it all with really beautiful (and user-friendly!) Metallique Waxes. Poetry of Patina is an amazing, statement canvas with a great range of innovative products on basis of some good mixed-media techniques - which can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4h Rust Painted - Large collage on canvas with tons of beautiful details, layers, rust and sparkle. During this class you will not only try building, rich, dimensional composition but also take the advantage of the negative space which will help your composition really catch the eye. Step-by-step we are going to build all the layers using a great selection of elements and embellishments and we will try different art mediums: Art Basics, Art Alchemy, Art Ingredients and more - selection of gels, gesso, acrylic paints and really unique effect of Rust Paste. Rust Painted may be done in a wide range of colours and it may be easily turned into composition with a small photo. All the techniques can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4 to 4,5h Art Celebration - collage on canvas Real mixed-media feast of transparency, textures, eye-catching elements and beautiful, rich metallic colours! This project is a great way to try working with gesso and different kinds of gels from our Art Basics range, building a dimensional, baroque composition including an altered object and tons of intriguing details and finally painting and rubbing on the colours of your choice from my Art Alchemy line to create one-of-a kind, breathtaking collage. Many ideas, tips and techniques combined with a lot of creative freedom - all that and more is included in this fantastic Art Celebration! All the techniques presented in this class can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4h Tangled - mixed media canvas with beautiful, deep layers Ready to try to go for more feminine, delicate and romantic mixed-media look? This vintage inspired class may a perfect way to start! "Tangled" is a mixed-media class focused on building textures, creative layers and using lots of bits and pieces which may be considered as simple, plain or not eye-catching such as scraps of papers, fabrics, twines and thread in composition with embellishments and all range of art mediums to create unique, vintage inspired look. We will add finishing touches using Art Ingredients such as Art Pebbles, Art Stones and more and highlight the composition using beautiful and delicate Art Alchemy Opal Magic paints. We will build our own texture pastes and play with stencils and wet techniques including gesso and spray or watercolour. "Tangled" is a great chance to try techniques which you can easily apply to other projects and get the experience in creating your own mixed-media canvas from the bottom to the top, with the process broken into easy to follow steps and all the tools and mediums explained by the teacher. All the elements, paints, and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4 h. The ARTifact - dark mixed-media collage full of texture and wonderful light. Great way of making friends with texture pastes and mica effects. It is all about light and texture... My inspiration for this project were old stone walls, rusted, corroded metal and that feeling of revealing a mystery which was hidden somewhere in the darkness for long centuries. “ The ARTifact” has it all – and during this mixed-media class I'll take you on a creative journey during which we will discover together, layer after layer, the amazing possibilities of using Art Extravagance Texture Pastes and Art Basics mediums. I'll share my ideas for building the dimension and creating a weathered, distressed look with a touch of dark, a bit industrial feeling. I'll guide you through the process of making 3D composition and painting it in the most interesting way focusing on creating a dramatic effect of light and shadow using such products as Black Gesso, Modeling Pastes, Soft Gels and Art Ingredients Mica Powders. During this class you will not only create an amazing project you can display on your wall but also learn a lot of inspiring techniques, discover possibilities of getting custom look and combining the products to get the best results. All these techniques can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. “The ARTifact” is an invitation to the world of mixed-media – will you enter? All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: about 4,5 h. Clock Keepsake - altered clock frame with beautiful colours, textures and rusty details. During this class we will be working on inside and outside of the metal clock frame. We will focus on altering techniques which will make your project beautiful and unique - adding details, textures and colours using popular range of art mediums from mixed-media collection by Finnabair. You will have a chance to try such products as soft and heavy gels and texture pastes in composition with Art Ingredients and a range of Art Alchemy paints. Together we will build our projects step-by-step and and you will see that presented techniques are very versatile and be easily used on many other projects such as collage or journal pages. I'll share my experience with you and try to give you plenty of information about tools and products used. "Clock Keepsake" is an exciting to dive into world of 3D mixed-media and altering, working with pastes, paints and art ingredients of different kinds. Teacher will provide all the paints, mediums and elements needed. This class is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: 4h Sparky Journal - Altered denim folder with a lot of amazing shine, texture and detail. This class is a great way to get familiar with a wide range of mixed-media products including Clear Gesso, gels, and all the beautiful mediums which give you this eye-catching, beautiful shine: Art Alchemy Sparks Acrylic Paints and Metallique Waxes. Together we will build all the composition explaining all the products used, giving a lot of useful tips and ideas and working with a range of colour choices to make each person in the room happy. All the techniques presented in this class can be easily used on many other projects such as home decor and altered objects or journal pages. All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: 3.5 to 4h Haze and Shine - decorated journal or notebook cover The softer side of mixed-media - a great way to get familiar with a range of inspiring techniques and products helping you create an a beautiful, delicate yet textured cover on your book, journal or notebook! During the class we will build the composition based on a wide selection of embellishments and paint the project using products from Art Alchemy Range: Impasto acrylic paints, Waxes and more! As always, I will explain the products, techniques and creative possibilities, give tips and ideas - all the techniques presented during the class are easy to transfer to other surfaces and projects. “Haze and Shine” is a great project to play with subtle sparkle and shine effects and delicate colour palettes - there will be a wide range of colours available for students to choose! All the elements, paints and mediums are provided – this project is suitable both for advanced and beginning students. Class time: 3.5 to 4h Retired classes - no longer available for booking: SaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave SaveSaveSaveSave