Featured Artist: Athanasia Me and Myself

Hello!

I am very happy to be hosted here, thank you so much for the invitation!

My name is Athanasia, I live in Greece, I have a 5 years old daughter, a 5 months old son and a very supportive and understanding husband. I am a music teacher in elementary school and in my spare time, when I am not playing the piano, I love making handicrafts, felting, altering things and of course scrapbooking.

My love for arts and my cultural worries pushes me constantly into researching and producing new ways of expression and creativeness. My first steps into scrapbooking began with some videos on YouTube. I can't remember exactly what I was looking for, but out of nowhere I run into a 'how-to' video for making a mini album. And that was it! I started searching for more related tutorials (I love watching and learning new techniques) and on the very next day I found myself surrounded by papers and scissors making my first mini album. It has been 3 years since then and although I took a year's brake (due to my pregnancy) now I am back.

I love scrapbooking because it combines such a vast deposit of media types with memories of my life and my family. Inspiration always derives from the photograph I use and the open choice of combination of mixed media techniques. I love to use gesso, mists and stamps and I love tearing papers! Through scraping I think I have found the best way to express myself and exploit my spare time in the best way.

Today I am going to show to you 3 of my favorite techniques that I love doing on my scrapbook pages.

Tearing pages from an old book. I love to create layouts composed by yellowed pages that have been torn from old books. Ι tear them in pieces and place them around my photo in order to create a frame. In my most recent layouts I use pages from an old chemistry book that a good friend of mine found dumped on the street!

http://athanasiameandmyself.blogspot.gr/2013/02/my-best-friend-and-surprise.html

2.Stamping and masking with gesso or modeling paste. After I glue the paper chunks, Ι choose the stamps and masks that best fit to the photo's subject. Firstly,I remove the photo from the working area and I stamp randomly around the photo's space with several stamps, then I mask with gesso on the stamps. Sometimes, when the gesso gets dry, I restamp over it to create a connection between the different media. After the stamping, the photo is placed back in position and I choose the embellishments that fits into the theme.

http://athanasiameandmyself.blogspot.gr/2013/01/beautiful-moments.html

3.Altering embellishments and chipboard pieces. I like altering things, a common practice in my scrapbook projects. I like to cut into pieces all the flowers, stickers and chipboard elements, so as to give them new and unique shape. I then stamp on them, gesso them, or both. In my opinion this gives character and style to my work.

http://athanasiameandmyself.blogspot.gr/2014/02/my-boy.html

Now it's time to show you a bonus tutorial for you. I have created a simple layout with few embellishments following these three steps!

I place the photo, the torn vintage pages chunks ans the big embellishments that are going to be used in my layout.

I remove the photo and start stamping.

More stamps!

Time for masking with gesso...

I place the painted and stamped chipboard pieces, I do some doodling around the tags and stickers, a little misting at the end and that's it!

I hope you liked my work and my little tips.

For more details and closeups please visit my blog: http://athanasiameandmyself.blogspot.gr/

and don't forget to check on my channel on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/athanasiapap/videos?flow=grid&view=0




Athanasia