Merry Christmas!

Wishing you all merry, happy, healthy, fun everything :-)

Giveaway winner!

Thank you for participating in the giveaway. It was really fun getting to know you better. The winner is a lovely lady from Austria. Congratulations Susi! I hope you'll enjoy the class :-)

101 BIRDS - Painting #38

Is it bad to say that I love the paintings from my 101 Birds collection? Whenever I finish one, I think it is my favorite. But then I look back and feel like a mom and her children... I love them all. I'm waiting to come to a "full" number, like 40..... or be half way - 50, and then I'll show them all together. It will be like a big, colorful and whimsical bird quilt.

PS - I am LOVING comments on my giveaway! So much fun to read what your favorite soul food is - both the real food kind, and one for the artistic soul. Thank you!

Soul Food Class spot Giveaway and Interview

You might know that I am one of the 39 instructors in Soul Food Workshop. It starts really soon... Each instructor recorded a lesson in which we share techniques that make our soul sing and recipes that make us happy. 

To be honest, I had more trouble choosing the recipe for the workshop than the actual art. We can't show the finished art pieces, but little snippets are allowed, so that's what I am showing here. In my videos I will show a wonderful, very versatile technique for which you need only 3 art supplies (and I am almost sure that you already have at least two of them). Then I will show three projects made using the technique. I am really pleased with how my videos turned out, and hope that you will too (if you decide to join us - more information HERE).

Here is a link for a little meet and greet interview with me:

http://sparrows-journey.blogspot.com/2013/12/soul-food-meet-and-greet-zorana.html

If you want to win a free spot in the class, please leave a comment to this post (if you already paid for the workshop, don't worry, you will get a refund). There are only two things I would ask you to do:

1. Tell me what is your favorite soul food

2. Make sure that there is a way for me to contact you if you win. Almost every time I host a giveaway, a person without an email link wins, and never shows up... which probably means that she never wanted the prize in the first place, and that makes me sad.

I will announce the winner next Wednesday (Dec. 18th)

How I used the acrylic skin

I love it (the acrylic skin)! You don't really see it, unless you are looking for it - it just melts into the collage. I found an old painting, cut it in half and used it as a base for my collage. The only remaining visible part is the heart. Everything else is a mixture of different papers I had on the desk.

I often sketch little birdies on anything available. They are quick, simple sketches, but I can't make myself throw them away. The above one was sketched on a napkin, the other one on sticky paper.

 I wanted a little journal with soft covers for a while now, and couldn't find anything "exactly" as I want it in store. Don't know why I didn't think of making it myself in the first place. My stitching is not the best (working in almost complete dark is my excuse)  but it is still good enough to make me happy.

Danielle wrote that acrylic skin looks like a wax painting, and I smiled when I read it because at that moment I was adding an encaustic layer on top of my collage. 

I love how the sketch done on a napkin disappears into the collage...

At the end - a quick answer to Heather (as I don't have her email address, and don't want to seem rude by not answering her question). The crackle I used on my angel is the same or similar crackle to the one you describe - the one you rub a darker color on when it is dry and cracks show up. You can find more information about different products I use in a post I wrote here. Hope this helps!

Acrylic skin (for Julie)

I think I never made acrylic skins before. I often marveled how simple it seems and how fun it must be, but I don't think I actually had that "push" to do it. Until I read Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's post yesterday. She wrote that she saw a technique in THIS video and was desperate to try it, but couldn't because she is traveling. I understood that feeling so well - when you see something and you itch to try it immediately, but can't because you are at work, or have other stuff that must be done... 

I thought I should do it for her, because at that moment I was at home, had the time and the few materials needed for it. You will see it in the video - you need gloss medium (I used Liquitex Gloss Gel), some dimensional paint in a squeeze bottle (I had Scribbles 3D fabric paint), and a page protector.

 After letting it dry overnight, I was able to peal a thin (rather sticky) transparent layer of black scribbles. How fun!

You can put it over anything! Here it is just laid over the bird painting I'm working on. You can see the brush strokes clearly, but they will be lost once they are layered in a finished piece. This is just a quick example, the "I must do it now" kind of thing. I can only imagine how cool can it be with different colors, thought out shapes... 

I used pieces of it already, but am not done yet, so here is just a snippet of it.

Let me know in the comments if you ever used acrylic skins in your art.

Textures make me happy

- 19"x11.5" - mixed media on watercolor paper -

In her hand

I finished one of the angels, but didn't have time to take proper pictures, so this little detail scan is all I have to show today.

Week-long cyber SALE

Happy December!
I hope you enjoyed my blogging activity in November :-) At the end, I skipped 4 days, but it felt good to think about posts, make videos and show up almost daily. I am not much of a planner and list-maker, but I might be better off if I tried to be... it seems that I manage to do more when I have a list or a plan. I guess the rest of the world figured that out long ago....

Anyway, jumping into the Cyber Monday Sale thing a bit late, so I am extending my sale for a full week. As I have 2 different etsy shops, my sale and coupons are a bit different too.

When you visit THIS shop, you will see that all of my collage sheets and digital collage kits are 25% off. Also, my one and only Online workshop is 25% off too.

I still remember how much fun I had creating these collage kits, and then creating with them. If you are new to this blog, maybe you'll want to see videos that show how I made them:

For the next week (ending 12/9/13) coupon HAPPY25 will automatically reduce the price for 25%. As I said, including the workshop (video HERE).
My other etsy shop, where I list my paintings will have a similar sale. All paintings are 20% off for the following week, if you use HAPPY20 code at the checkout.

Now is time of me to do some cyber shopping of my own! And tomorrow, hopefully, I'll be back to painting my angels. After 5 days of not working on them, who knows where the brush will take me!