As most of my readers already know, my last passion are sprays and paints. I have two art journals and a technique book currently running , but as I have started to experiment with many layers, I needed a heavy journal.

As a faithful shopaholic, I tried to buy one at first. I made my research but came up with nothing. Unbelievable isn't it? Well, I found several, mostly in US, but they were similar to the ones I already own. The ones I really liked were expensive and their transport costs were a laugh( plus that I couldn't find anything else to intrigue me from these shops!!).

The night before the last,after watching some tutorials on You Tube, I decided to give it a try and make my own. I always keep a spare heavy paper pad (300gsm) at home, so I had my pages. For the cover, I recycled a used medical folder, reinforced it with chipboard and covered it with canvas.

And I used my new shimmerz to paint it - yes they arrived already! I am very happy with the result - I even managed a fair stitching! Unfortunately the shimmer does not show in the picture, but my new journal has vivid shiny colors!

And of course I had to make the first page immediately. I used my favorite stamp set from studio 2 mers, washi tape, punched clouds, coloringz and oil pastels. And believe it or not the technique that Kelley showed us (gesso only the middle of the page) is perfect with coloringz (while it does not work nor with color washes neither with glimmer mists).

Last week my daughter had her annual ballet performance. The show was extravagant,a great success. The girls were very happy - they were shining-, the choreographies spirited and the music superb! All in all a very good show.

I HAD to make a layout of the performance, so here it is :

I was inspired by Nadia's sketch and I used the following:

- Glimmer mists and glimmer glam for the background

- Grunge letters painted with both glimmers and acrylic paint

- Prima flowers

- Hero Arts butterfly stamp painted with mists

- Paper from Creative Imaginations

I absolutely LOVE diaper cakes!

They are cute, fun to make and a big surprise for the recipient. You see, I live in Greece, where diaper cakes are still considered an "artistic innovation".

This one is for twin girls - Να σας ζήσουν - so I had to multiply everything by two. As a consequence, I had limited space, so in order to recompensate its simplicity, I made the base a wall hanging for the babies' room. I had to keep the 3D elements at a minimal as the page should be flat to be a sturdy base.

As for blur on the tag, I used it to cover the name of the person that makes the gift.

Hi bloggers! Today I want to share a mini I made the other day using some art journaling techniques. The tutorial was by Heidi Kelley, and found about it through Eleni Gratsia's blog.

I love paints and sprays and I never lose a chance to buy and of course use a new color. The tutorial was about shimmerz but I do not have any (still waiting....- yeah of course I bought some or more...). Instead I used color washes and some glimmer glam, acrylic paint and oil pastels. The cover is lacking its title as I cannot find any at the moment(if you have any ideas you are welcome) and I photographed my first page before I added the journaling as it is rather personnal.

As everybody else, the last few days I had issues with blogger and could not post anything on my blog. Of course it is blogger's fault and not mine ( and has nothing to do with the fact that I was spending every single moment with my new mix media project!!!!) Ha, ha....

So, the mini book I will post today has been made a while ago. I mostly used the Once upon a Springtime paper pack that I bought from Lena, but also Fairyopolis cards, the new amazing art stamps from Studio 2 mers (I have almost all their papers and stamps- check them out they make art). What is not visible in the pictures is that most of the stamps are stamped in an intermediate acetat page and painted with a brush using Tim Holtz's alcohol inks. The result is really good!

That's all for now - off to work my art journal.

As the mother's day is approaching, I want to show you the mini I made for my mum.

I wanted to give her a means to identify herself as an individual and not as a mum or wife etc. So, every page is an envellope and contains a tag that prompts her to write about herself.

The mini has a minimal decoration , as I wanted to leave space for her favorite pictures as well as for more journaling. Nevertheless, I have used tons of glimmer mists, spray paints and of course gesso everywhere, to achieve the shabby look . The papers are from Prima and all the rest from my stash.

Sorry for not showing the tags but they are rather personnal, and I forgot to get a picture before the journaling. You have to take my word that they are complementing the mini, as I used many hybrid scrapbooking techniques to create them!

I will play to the following challenges:

Craft your passion, Creative Stamp Friends, Pollycraft Monday Challenge, Creative inspiration,

2 Sisters, Stamp Scrap & Doodle, CropStop, Enjoy Scrapping

Happy Easter everyone!

It is our custom in Greece to have a special white candle for the ressurection mass. The children get theirs by their godmother, along with a new pair of shoes, a special kind of Easter brioche and a chocolate.

Ιt is our family habbit the last years, to decorate the candles of our godchildren ourselves, but also make some candles for us, as we are too old to accept candles from our godmothers (My godmother almost agreed to the fact that I am too old for candles, but flatly refuses to stop bringing the chocolate and the brioche)

So here they are:

The next one, the best of all, is mine and is made by my daughter at school especially for her mom. See how lucky I am!

So, have a Happy Easter and do not eat too much!

Καλό Πάσχα!