On-line course AJ4Everyone and Giveaway!

Here we are! I made it, I translated my first on-line course about ArtJournaling in English! And I assure you, it will be fun, at least because of my hilarious accent and madeup words :-)
This course is made for people who:
-want to start ArtJournaling with a small budget (no need to buy expensive art supplies to wet your feet and see if you like it)
-advanced Artjournaler...a new way to look at stuff that is around you and never thought it would become a new craft tool
-who lost the feeling to create and needs a gentle push and inspiration to start again.
The course goes live Monday, 4th May.
There's a chance for two of you to win a place to attend the course, by just leaving a comment on this post; sharing this post in the social network will increase your chances of winning and I would appreciates it :-).

Per tutte le crafter Italiane, c'è sempre la possibilità di iniziare il corso in Italiano quando si vuole, qui tutte le istruzioni.

Antislip mats, cereal boxes, talcum powder, old credit cards, old doilies, markers...and other stuff from everyday life: these are the things we are using to create our ArtJournal!
We're going to create vibrant, colourful, funny pages that reminds us all of our personality, our mood, our Art.
This course will introduce you on the journey into Artjournaling and MixedMedia, with few cheap materials needed, all you need to do is look around your home or your local stores.
Stencils and stamps are handmade, gesso and embossing paste are made with less than a euro, upcycled support, to take the first steps you need to create, or to find again the inspiration that you may have lost over the years.
There are lots of videos to watch with detailed explanations and pages showing step by step instructions from start to finish, where we can gain inspiration, learn about the colour wheel theory, texture and upcycling.
Along with the videos you can download and save on your PC the E-books (PDF format) relating to the videos.
The on-line course will be available from one year since the purchasing date, and you can watch the videos at your convenience and as often as you like.

The course will be held on a private blog, where you can be always in touch with me and the other participants, through comments or email. There will be a FB closed group where you can share your artwork, doubts and questions.
The course costs 25 € .

For any further information or other payment options, please write me here: giogiocraft@gmail.com

Australian-Italian coffee maker!

First of all, a great news, I'm on the DT of the Take it Make it challenge, the challenge blog of CraftStamper magazine, my favourite craft magazine ever. So, more stamping samples from me, starting from May. It's a great group of talented ladies, I'm very happy about it! :-)
Una bella notizia, sono nel DT del challenge blog della mia rivista preferita: CratfStamper! Insieme ad un gruppo di bravissime crafter, e ne sono felicissima. Da Maggio, nuove possibilità di mostrare i miei lavori con i timbri. Spero mi seguirete in questa nuova avventura.

My fame about altering coffee makers has crossed the ocean. One evening I was having dinner when I saw from the window a friend of mine coming with a coffe maker under the armpit. At first I thought she wanted a true Italian espresso...I was wrong! She just visited my blog and wanted her coffee maker altered! I warned her that she couldn't use the coffe maker anymore, but she didn't care. So, she choose the colours and I did my dirty job :-)
Anche qui dall'altra parte del mondo mi viene chiesto di alterare mini caffettiere! D'altronde a Melbourne c'e' la più grande comunità di Italiani in Australia. Una sera, mentre cenavamo, vedo dalla finestra una mia amica con una caffettiera sotto il braccio; pensavo avesse preparato il caffè per tutti, no no. Voleva che alterassi la caffettiera: aveva visto il mio blog e ne voleva una per sé. Scelti i colori, mi sono messa al lavoro.

Cover with tissue tape/Ricoprire con washi tape

 Glue down some metallic charms and micro beads/Incollare degli charms e perline

 Cover with gesso/Coprire con il gesso

 Scribble some Gelatos/Pasticciare con i Gelatos

 Spread and blending the pastels, wth the fingers and water/Spandere con le dita i colori

Add the rub-ons and brush some mica powder/Aggiungere i trasferelli e delle polveri metalliche

I participate on  the challenge Everything Goes at : Inspiration emporium blog

There's still time to catch on the April issue of my new brand newsletter! The free e-book is all about Gelatos and altering books:

C'e' ancora tempo per ricevere il numero di Aprile della mia nuova newsletter. Contiene un free-ebook su come alterare un libro e l'uso dei Gelatos:

Subscribe to my newsletter, with news, free ebook and more!

Face & Panpastels page

I've never drew (and showed) a face on any of my several artjournals, eventually I took the plunge, maybe inspired by the beautiful artworks of Jane Davenport, a well famous australian artist and teacher.
Anyway, I made a step by step here, not a tutorial at all, I am really a beginner and the pastel fixative helped me a lot! The butterflies cover the awful hairline...another helper :-)
Non avevo mai disegnato prima una faccia sui miei numerosi artjournal. Perche? Boh, troppo impegnativo e psicologico...stavolta ho detto o la va o la spacca, forse ispirata dalla bravissima Jane Davenport. Ho usato i PanPastels e la matita a carboncino, ed il fissativo per non contaminare i colori, un sacco di fissativo!

I drew with a pencils the face above a background where I cleaned my stencils from another project and I gessoed the shape.
Sono partita da una pagina sulla quale avevo pulito gli stencils, ho disegnato il viso e gessato per schiarire l'aerea

I  drew the main features with a charcoal pencil and started to colour it with Panpastels
Sono partita col carboncino ed i PanPastels, e qui mi sono accorta che avevo bisogno del fissativo spray.

At this stage, to avoid messing the Panpastels with the pencil I used a fixative

And I finished to colour with the PanPastels
Ho finito di colorare il viso e le foglie

Since I didn't like the hearline I covered it with butterflies cutted from an old scrapbooking page
Ho ritagliato e gessato delle farfalle per coprire l'attaccatura dei capelli che proprio non mi piaceva

I wrote the journal using a black Gelato and a waterbrush
Ho scritto il journaling pazientemente con il Gelato nero ed un pennellino.

Hope this inspires you to draw a face, it's fun, no matter the result!
Ammetto di esserne soddisfatta, anche se è un pò stranina...

I participate on the Panpastel Challenge: anything goes 

And since I wrote the journal just in the middle, I hope this fits the new challenge "In the middle" at Simonsaysstamp blog Mondaychallenge.

Free E-book, Newsletter and Gelatos

Gelatos are now my first choice for my projects (even for altered art) because these come in wonderful colours, are easy to use and versatile. But first of all they are small and light, so they were the only medium I could put in my luggage when I left Italy. So, since I'm using them extensively, I decided to make a free e-book with a tutorial how to make this with Gelatos:
I Gelatos sono la mia nuova mania, anche perchè sono gli unici colori che ho potuto mettere in valigia quando sono partita. Ci timbro, ci faccio gli sfondi, li uso per colorare. Quindi ne ho approfittato per fare un tutorial sotto forma di e-book per alterare un libro:

The e-book is a PDF format, in English and in Italian, and you can download it directly from my brand new Newsletter. This will be monthly: every month I'll update you with what's happening on my blog, provide you with a tutorial that you can download and keep, made especially for the newsletter, and let you know about my day to day creative activities here in Melbourne.
So, without further ado, here where you can sign on, if you like:
L'e-book è in formato PDF, in Italiano o in Inglese, per scaricarlo è necessario iscriversi alla mia nuova Newsletter, dove ogni mese farò un breve resoconto di quello che succede nel mio blog, un tutorial sotto forma di e-book e news dalla mia vita creativa qui dall'altra parte del mondo.
Spero vorrete iscrivervi. Qui il form:

Subscribe to my newsletter

I think this Altered book fits with the new challenge over at Simon says stamp blog Monday challenge "A is for..."

And I hope it's coloured enough ( I'm pretty sure) to enter on Craftstamper Take it make it challenge :Colour.

Cinderella and ArtJournal

Cinderella 2015 is in the air, and I can't wait to go to watch the movie! I just cut the image from a magazine and let be inspired by the colours and the story.
Cenerentola 2015 è nell'aria, ed io non vedo l'ora di vedere al cinema la nuova trasposizione. Me lo consigliate? Ho ritagliato l'immagine da una rivista e mi sono fatta ispirare dai colori del vestito e più o meno dalla sua storia.

 

 

 

To make this page  spread with the fingers some Gelatos on a gessoed book page
Per creare lo sfondo ho gessato la pagina e spalmato dei Gelatos con le dita

Cut the image from a magazine
Ho ritagliato l'immagine ed una scarpa un pò più comoda.

Spread some embossing paste through stencils
Spalmato della pasta da embossing attraverso degli stencils

Evidenziato la texture con il Treasure Gold
Highlight the texture with some Treasure Gold

Paint a large cicle with black gesso
Dipingere un grosso cerchio con il gesso nero

Spread some glitter paste through a floreal stencil
Spalmato della pasta glitterata attraverso uno stencil floreale

Glue the image to the page and add the quote by Marilin Monroe and the journaling.

Incollare le immagini e scrivere il journaling e la citazione.

I hope this page fits the challenges on the Simon says stamp blog Mondaychallenge: Pastel
and on the ArtJournal Journey: Favourite quotes and Poems