Guest Designer Natassa Blazaki

From time to time we like to invite one of our followers to be a Guest Designer for a month and in March our Challenge prize was to be our Guest Designer in May.  Natassa (Anastasia) Blazaki was our winner and today we want to introduce you to this great source of inspiration. Please join us in welcoming Natassa to the Canvas Corp Brands blog. Every month the Crew hosts a different challenge that everyone is welcome to enter and have a chance for prizes, gift cards and even the opportunity to be a guest designer.  Follow us on Instagram, Facebook or join us in our Facebook Group the Canvas Corp Brands Collective for all the details and new challenges.

Dear ladies/ sirs
My name is Natassa Blazaki and I am from Greece.

I’ve been attending art journaling classes since 2014.
I love making vintage and grungy mixed media projects. I like taking an old forgotten object and turning it into something different and even more old and worn out!

What is more, I like making mini albums from scratch, without following any particular templates, and I always try to use the easiest binding method. I just want to make the most out of my papers and not let anything go to waste.
I like using some materials again and again, like Tesa Aluminium Tape. Such a handy product! What I really pay attention to, is sealing and protecting my art work the best possible way.

The creative slump, we all face it at some point. What I do to overcome it? I take my camera, go for a walk and take some random photos. It really helps me a lot. When I go over those photos, I can draw inspiration from the different shapes and colors or even the scenery, like in the case of my “Persephone”. I was very much inspired by some photos I had taken at a trip to Epidavrus.
Most of the times I make up a story, like a fairy tale, and that is where I draw my inspiration from. What I create could be an object or a scene from my story.

I create spontaneously, without previous thinking. I rarely write down my ideas. However, I keep notes as I am creating, so I can remember later what I have done.

As an artist, I am very much affected by my emotions. When I am happy, I can never stop painting or making things. When I am sad, my mind “shuts down” and I cannot draw a single line. In the past, I pushed myself to overcome these difficult situations. But that only made me sadder. Now, I have learned to let myself take some time off and relax for a while.

On average, I try to make 2-3 projects every month. In the meantime, I try to take good photos of my previous projects, in order to upload them on my blog. I only created it a couple of months ago and it still needs a lot of work.

As for the social media (apart from facebook ), I have recently created accounts and soon I will be using them to promote my art work.
I really enjoyed participating in CCB Blog challenge, and once again thank you for the honor.

I absolutely loved the products you sent me. The Architexture Collection is magnificent!
It was great pleasure for me to create for your blog.
I hope you like my projects.

Blog /Facebook /Youtube /Instagram/Twitter

The Captain’s Diary

I was totally fascinated by the Naked Starter Journal and the Canvas Cover that goes along with it. Moreover, I was so inspired by the CCB Blog May challenge theme “Old is the New”! Instantly, I had the whole story in my mind. I am walking on a deserted beach, where I find this amazing, breathtaking ship wreck. I go inside and it feels as I’m walking through a time gate. And there I find it! The Captain’s Diary!

In order to achieve this worn out look on the cover and pages, I made some strong filter coffee and soaked everything in it. The canvas shrunk a little bit, but that was ok because it added more to the vintage look. I let everything dry completely.
Of course the journal’s pages fell apart, after soaking. I decided to bind them again, by using strips of burlap and cotton fabric, which I distressed to match the whole look.

Using a nautical themed stencil, I applied some ARTex Iron paste on the cover. Then I took some chipboard elements and covered them with Pentart Stone Effect Paste color dark grey.

I used Media Fluid Acrylics “Transparent Red” and “Yellow Iron Oxide”, Media Antiquing Cream “Patina” and Media Fluid “Titan Buff” to create the effect of rusted surfaces on my elements.

I used Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist “Verdigris” and Simply Sheer “Peoney” to create all the blue-green and red stains.
For the inside of the diary, I used free printables and decorative papers from my stash, as well as several clear stamps with nautical themed images. To distress even more the pages edges, I used Distress Inks.
I absolutely loved this project!

Natassa will be back later this month with a second project! Be sure not to miss it!

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