Butterfly Squad creative team: Melina!
Hello again lovely Butterflies,
Day three of our reveal. Today I'm happy to introduce Melina! I discovered her art journaling through our closed Facebook group France Papillon and Creative Butterflies and I fell in love with the bright, balanced composition. So I was absolutely thrilled when she applied to be a member of the team! Please join me in welcoming her :)
Hello!
My name is Melina. I want to start to say that I am so happy and honoured to be on FranceĀ“s creative team. France has provided me with so much joy and inspiration these last years since I found her YouTube channel, and she inspired me to start art journaling myself.
I live in Sweden, by the east coast a two hour drive north of Stockholm. I live with my husband and our four children, age 5-17. I love animals and have had dogs, cats and everything smaller than that I think. Right now we have a pack of pet rats and some Giant African landsnails.
I work as a Physical therapist/Physiotherapist. In my spare time I love to be creative - I need to be creative! I also love my garden and to grow my own vegetables in the summer.
I have always been creative. Due to illness the last years, I have not been able to work full time. This period with much pain and exhaustion has been really hard, but has also provided me with more time to explore my creativity. For me the creative process is therapeutic and now I canĀ“t imagine a life without it!
I got onto my first design team just about a year ago, and after that I suddenly was on many teams. I have learned so much this last year and IĀ“m so happy about all my new creative friends all over the world! I have also made my debut as a stamp designer this year. I canĀ“t help to think of the quote āWhen life gives you lemons - make lemonadeā.
1) What is well spend creative time to you? Some days I donĀ“t want to do anything but create. But, having four children, my stupid body, work and other obligations I have to tell myself that any time spent creating is well spent ā how long or short it might be. Just entering my craft room is soothing for me ā my sacred place. For me, the outcome is not as important as the process!
2) What is your go to technique? I have to say stamping and stenciling (in general). Almost all my work includes stamping and/or stenciling in some way.
3) 3 mediums you couldn't live without? Oh, this one is hard to answer! You did forget a 0 behind the 3, right France!? ;) Well, I have to choose ink pad, gesso and glue. And, not sure if it goes as a medium, but a permanent black fineline pen is a must for me too!
4) How would you like people to describe your creative universe? Well, that is a hard question too! I create what I feel like creating in the moment. IĀ“m not that good at using flowers and make sweet, beautiful stuff. A small part of me is grunge/steampunky, but a larger part of my creativity is colourful, playful and quirky. So, if people describe my work as playful and a little quirky I would be happy.
5) How do you overcome the fear of the blank page when art journaling? Actually that is not an issue for me at all. Most of the time I put medium leftovers in my journal, so the page is not often blank to start with. But if it is I just start with something. I follow my feelings and I never have an exact plan when I journal. I try to look at my art journal as a diary. What you write in a diary can never be wrong, right!? It is what it is that day. When I play in my journal it is what it is that day. If I donĀ“t like the outcome I donĀ“t need to show it to anyone, I just turn the page and know I enjoyed the process anyway.
Thank you so much for stopping by today, and I hope to see you soon again!
xx Melina
Some of you might know Melina as Minas kreativa on social media.
You can find her here:
We continue our reveal tomorrow. See you back then!
