Sending best wishes to you all - and heading to Israel now, to jump into mixed-media reality again!


P.S. Did you see?

Hi my friends!
This post was planned differently - in fact I had a collage scheduled for today, but as I've just got back from long and beautiful, soul-nourishing travel I decided to  follow that path and make a note for you about art journaling... when you are away from the comfort of your own studio or table.

For me this "art journalling on the lap" - on the train, in the hotel room, in the cafe or even on the plane is one of the most rewarding, natural and back-to-roots form of art. And I have to admit after a longer break I'm re-discovering it again. I used to do it before I moved, then the craze of my life took over... now, following the impulse I packed my "art journaling travel kit" with me and the magic happened. And you know what? I want more. And I promise myself to do more.

What was in my kit?
Not that much - especially if you keep in mind my love for texture, layers, found objects... I couldn't take my beloved rubbish boxes so I decided to focus on easy to pack and not too heavy paper scraps: old labels, book pages, images, receipts, tags - and I put in a set of my Ephemeras - Vintage Photos. Not only because they are inspirational, but they are meaningful to me too...
Then I made a basic tool set: scissors, pencil sharpener, glue stick, masking tape and some washi tapes, bunch of brushes and water brushes... and a set of pens (black and white) and pencils - I prefer soft, dark like 6B or 8B.
Art mediums and colour? I've decided to take Art Basics of course - in handy tubes: 3 kinds of gesso, Modeling Paste and Soft Gel were enough. Then for colour I picked 1 tin of Watercolor Confections (The Basics) and a basic set of watercolour pencils. As an act of extravagance I added selected colours of Water Soluble Oil Pastels from Prima, but I know I could easily work without them.
I was a bit missing black permanent inkpad and 2-3 stamps, but I survived without them and I was fine in the end.
In general it was a very refreshing, mind-stretching experience - as I keep telling my students: limiting your options is in fact very good for you from time to time!

When we arrived to our beautiful house where we were staying for couple of nights I simply took them out and left on a small table, waiting for the right moment... and the second night I felt I had to create something! I started simply making some backgrounds using paper scraps, gel and gesso, then the following night some finish pages appeared...
Here are the examples - not too bad for a limited supply, away from comfort zone moment. I enjoyed it so much.
Don't get me wrong - I love taking my time working on the journal spreads - I mentioned that a week ago posting my latest page inspired by family stories - but there is something absolutely liberating, fresh and almost surreal in this moment of creativity that just happens against all the odds, just in this moment when you can connect with your heart and should and listen to yourself.
Journal is not about being perfect or eye-pleasing - it is about being REAL. And those moments of reality are very precious to me.

Just look below - would you believe I made these? I guess it is not something you would expect to see on my blog or Instagram, but it is still, me. Somehow, these pages happened, not planned, not forced - I just had a moment of "what if..." and gave myself a chance to try. Because I wanted, and it is MY journal only. No rules, no guidelines except one: do what you want to do at this very moment and put your heart in it. 
My first thought was not to show this journal to anyone, like I did in the past, to keep it just personal, but then, after a moment I had a thought it can be in fact helpful and encouraging to some of you to see this side of my personality too. And maybe push you to be a bit more bold and relaxed about your own creativity. Remember - you create for YOURSELF first. So please, please make sure you have fun and you are trying new things, new ideas and in fact - listen to your inner voice.
I wish you all a lot of creative, blissful moments - just like ones I had last week.



I hope that was useful and inspiring... what is in your Travel Kit?
or... what would be in the Travel Kit of your Dreams?
huge hugs!

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'.

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...