Πέμπτη 5 Μαρτίου 2015

Remember the two cute little girls?




Do you rememeber the two cute little girls, I mentioned a couple of months ago? The ones with the two painted sketching journals? The ones that made me broke all my artist's rules? I have blogged about them here.

Just before receiving their sketching journals, their mum had an other fabulus idea. She asked for a journal for each girl, to use as a questions-answer diary. You know, questions that every little girl has, but is afraid/ ashamed/ scared to death, to ask/discuss even with mama. It was the first time I was hearing about anything similar, but as I've  told you before, the girls' mum was something like a kindred mommy spirit. 

Even before starting on the journals, my own little ("not-so-little mum - I am eleven officially") girl, asked for one. I made a quick one for her, and the magic begun to happen. I didn't even know that she had thoughts of this kind at her age. I had thought that perhaps she would ask a couple of questions about boys and she would forget about the whole project. Instead, she begun to write almost daily - most of the times not even questioning - but explaining - her views of the world around her. I was more than impressed.  She is writing long essays and expresses ideas and feelings  (thank God for me and her papa still) that amaze me. She is concerned for her small world of course, but also for local, society and even global issues, while she tries to shape herself to fit her ideas and  perceptions.

Our journal has become something like the pen pal friends we had when we were young, but augmented a million times. She is sure that she can write anything, as the recipient is the person who will never doubt her - her mom.

Anyway, I could continue to write about all this for many hours as I am still stunned, and I suggest you do it with your kids - you will be stunned too. 

The fact is, that this miracle had almost happened when I started with these journals. So instead of making  only what I had described in my listing, I tried to express all my gratitude to this amazing mama and her brilliant ideas. 

The results can be seen in the photos and the videos (Blue journal, pink journal)  . As my daughter said "When I am getting married, you will make a journal just like these for me"






Thank you Mirf one thousand times. I hope that you will receive the same love and hapinness as I , through these journals

Τετάρτη 25 Φεβρουαρίου 2015

Μεταμόρφωση αντικειμένου

*******Αναδημοσίευση από το Scraps n Pieces Challenge Blog *******

Γειά σας φίλοι

Αυτό το μήνα ασχολήθηκα να μεταμορφώσω ένα παλιό ξύλινο  βαλιτσάκι. Ήταν διαφημιστικό δώρο στην βαφτιστήρα μου, όταν άνοιξε τον πρώτο της λογαριασμό στην τράπεζα. Ξέρετε, εκείνους τους παιδικούς λογαριασμούς που ανοίγαμε σε κάθε παιδί κάποτε.... Άλλες εποχές θα μου πείτε, και θα έχετε δίκιο.

Το κορίτσι μας φετος, ετοιμάζεται για το πανεπιστήμιο, και ξεδιαλέγει τι θα πάρει μαζί του, τι θα χαρίσει και τι ανήκει στον κάδο των σκουπιδιών. Αυτό το βαλιτσάκι το διέσωσα από τον τελευταίο σωρό, αυτόν του κάδου, με τα διάφορα ανευ αξίας, χαλασμένα και άσχημα αντικείμενα

Με λίγο χρώμα και ένα απλό image transfer, το βαλιτσάκι που πήγαινε στα σκουπίδια, ξεκινάει το δεύτερο μέρος της ζωής του, ως το watercolor βαλιτσάκι μου. Τώρα πια φιλοξενεί το journal και τα watercolors μου, και όπου πάει, προκαλεί ερωτήσεις του στυλ " μα που τις βρίσκεις αυτές τις αντίκες βρε παιδάκι μου?"




Να και το βιντεάκι που τράβηξα τη μεταμόρφωση. Την επιγραφή την βρήκα στο thegraphicsfairy.com, όπου θα βρείτε πάρα πολλές vintage εικόνες και επιγραφές.






Εδώ θα βρείτε όλα τα υλικά που χρησιμοποίησα. Καλές δημιουργίες!



Πέμπτη 29 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Το κίνημα του δεκάλεπτου και ένα βιντεο - tutorial

*** ΑΝΑΔΗΜΟΣΙΕΥΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ SCRAPS N PIECES CHALLENGE BLOG***



Εδώ και αρκετό καιρό, στην ομάδα μας στο facebοok, παίζουμε ένα παιχνίδι δημιουργίας. Το έχουμε βαφτίσει "Το κίνημα του δεκάλεπτου" και προσπαθούμε να αφιερώσουμε έστω δέκα λεπτά την ημέρα για να δημιουργήσουμε κάτι.

Τα δέκα λεπτά ίσως φαίνονται αστεία. Θα αλλάξετε, όμως, γνώμη αν σκεφτείτε πόσα projects δεν έχετε τελειώσει, και πόσα περισσότερα δεν έχετε  ξεκινήσει γιατί δεν βρήκατε ποτέ χρόνο. Αν, όμως, κάθε μέρα αφιερώνατε ένα μικρό, τοσοδούλι δεκάλεπτο, για να δουλέψετε το project σας, πολύ γρήγορα, θα το βλέπατε να ολοκληρώνεται. Και αυτό και πολλά άλλα.

Δοκιμάστε το και θα εκπλαγείτε πόσο καλύτερα θα νιώσετε, αν αφιερώνετε λίγο χρόνο την ημέρα, για  να δημιουργήσετε κάτι όμορφο.

Πολύχρωμα φιλιά και να δημιουργείτε πολύ

Μυρτώ




Δευτέρα 19 Ιανουαρίου 2015

Spellbook


A spellbook for a lady in North Carolina. All the pages are distressed, hand stamped nad antiqued.










Τρίτη 6 Ιανουαρίου 2015

The story of birds and owls, and cute little girls that melt your heart

Today I will show you two special books.  What is so special about them, I hear you ask- they are only two childern journals. Well, the special about these journals is that these two little girls made me break  many of my rules. 

To cut the long story short, girls' mom contacted me just before Christmas to ask about a journal for her elder. You know that as a rule I may accept a custom journal if  I find a. the client or  b. the subject intriguing, but I never ever make journals according to instructions. I charge a higher rate as it is custom work  with all the experimenting and design and such, and I allocate a making time of about 3-4 working weeks .  I never show my work as it progresses. The customer agrees to accept the finished product and see it when it arrives at his address. Well, most of you as my readers or students, know all the above, as I never cease to stress their importance, if you want to be an artist and not a mass-production worker.  In this case I violated every rule and I enjoyed the whole process.

*****Warning: If you do not live with a little girl, you have no idea what I am talking about, so just skip the following *******

The girls, chose their colors and theme. Not just indicated a favorite color and let me build the combos, but asked for specific combinations. They even asked for specific details, such as a heart and birds and butterflies etc.  And luckily changed their mind only once.
 If you have more that one little girl at home, you already know that it is not wise to give something to one and not to the other. So,  I accepted to make two custom journals, in a week's time. And then, I assumed that an owl can "pass" for a bird. You realise that this can only  mean disaster - especially when your sister's signature bird is the owl. 

 I do not dare continue and  tell you about the other rules I broke, because I am very near to lose my credibilty over my students, about the artist's set of rules when accepting a commission. I only want to tell you, that the two girls sent me a photo, sitting in front of their tree, holding their pencil cases, waiting for their journals. Even if you never had a little girl at home, your heart would melt at this point.

I had painted this cover for Izzie who asked for birds. But as I told you,  I was unaware that Allie's signature bird was the owl, so the cover had to change name and owner.



So,  I had to make an other canvas for Izzie. But she is only six and her chosen color pallete very limiting. Only blue, purple and silver, but she wanted birds, butterflies and flowers, all creatures of light and colors.  I had to oblige, so I made  exactly what she asked. This is the point when I received the photo of the girls with their pencil cases. The moment I opened the photo, I realised that Izzie's cover needed a third remake. Although it had all the elements Izzie had asked for, it simply was not her.

With the new advantage of having a face behind the name, I produced this, and this time I think I captured something of little Izzie,  in her book 




In the meantime, the girls' mom, was anxious and  was not sure that she had made the right choice. But she was such a sweet and kind person, and deeply in love with her little artists (exactly like myself with my DD),  that she touched a cord. 

After all, it seemed that it was right to accept this order. It was proving a highly satisfactory one - one I really enjoyed. I decided that the girls deserved some extra features. So I changed the binding to a sturdier one. I added extra pockets and scrapbook pages, scattered among the sketching paper for extra interest. A closure would be handy, and a bookmark and some ribbon to decorate the spine. Every girl loves sparkle, so I decorated with beads, glitter and charms. I even tested the new Kraft Tex ( a new sturdy material - something in between paper and cloth), for a back cover pocket for each of the girls. And in the meanwhile, I die-cutted. Letters and shapes, hearts and flowers, butterflies and grass, even some boats. A stencil would be useful for the 6 year old, so I designed and cut one with simple elements. After adding scrapbook paper and a pen and a stamp and some glitter, and stickers, to each journal, I realised that all these would not fit to their pancil cases, so I added a journal bag as well.



I know that it seems that I could play and play and play with these journals, but I had to send them to the girls - they were waiting. Fortunatelly, although I had only five working days, I had 11 actual (throwing Christmas and New Year vacation in the count) and DH was sick with the flu, so no family activities. Me and my not-so-little artist  (mom I am nearly 11), spent many hours at the studio, Playing with Allie's and Izzie's journals.


Girls, I hope you like them and  fill them with your fab art!


Have a fab and happy and artsy new year.

Myrto