Nikon D5100

Today I bought the Nikon D5100, yayyy!! So glad to finally have a decent digital camera. My daughter and I went to the store to get the Nikon with two lenses. Unfortunately it was sold out!! No panic I thought. But there was no good deal further and I definitely wanted this camera in combination with a second lens. After checking the computer the seller found out that the second lens also had a special price. So buying the camera with the standard lens and buying the second lens separately was cheaper! Well, that sounded like a better deal than the price of the Nikon set I wanted to buy. I can't wait to try the Nikon and make some fabulous pictures☺

Last week these projects were made:
A greeting card for a friend. I stamped the clock image and distressed the edges of the clock. The stars I cut with my Cricut Expression. A brad on the ribbon, a greeting stamp saying "Just a note to say HELLO" and voila!! A masculine handmade card is created.

For the swap on swap-bot named : Polka Dot Passion I created this page.

It has to be a fun page and it wasn't easy for me to come up with something. Then I came with the idea to look at my partner's profile. She loves and makes dotee dolls, so my page presents a dotee doll. She is very lovely, I think, and look at those dots:-)) The dots on the dotee is done with acrylic paint by using a cotton swab. The dots on the backgrounds .... well, I took my circle punch and patterned paper. I punched those dots and glued them on the background. You can see a bit of the colour on the dots. Cute, isn't it? The page is finished with a varnish layer for acrylic paints. The varnish layer adds a shine (or matt) to the painting and protects the painting from dust and other atmospheric contaminants.

Art journal pages for the month June

Prompt: "You've gotta dance like there's nobody watching, Love like you'll never be hurt, Sing like there's nobody listening, And live like it's heaven on earth." - William W. Purkey

 "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." - Les Brown
Hahaha, she's happy among the stars, or not?

These pages were sent in the envelope below. Why not recycle envelopes and make the so, so nice and surprise the receiver? Love this envelope.

Some 5x7" pages will be in the next post:-))

Oh, there is one more project to share with you

A short post .... I have to post this! A while ago I drew Alice in Wonderland for an ATC swap. Well, I like ATC's, but it is not something I do a lot :-D It is nice to play on a small card sometimes, but I prefer a bit bigger piece of paper to create. Once in a while I'll take part in a swap. As in this one, I was asked for a personal swap. This was the ATC I produced. I kept the original drawing, since I drew it large and planned to color it once.

Well, yesterday was the once. I took my Copic marker box (will do a post on this) and started. To color the background I used acrylic paints. I had to mix some paints to get a certain color and I had to use a lot of strange movements to get this look. Awkward moment, realizing I am not an artist ... lol... So it turned out a mixed media project. The drawing is done on marker paper (not the Copic brand). So the acrylic paint is also done on this marker paper. Yes, the paper took the paint and withstand my playing with paint on it. I did not used a lot of water. In fact, I only dipped the point of the brush in water, now and then, to let the paint flow a bit better.

And a fact is, I don't want to be an artist .... I just want to play .... with less rules .... make what I like ...., but enjoying myself☺

So busy,so... so tired!!!

No post in April and my first post in June!!! What's going on??? In April I heard terrible news and had to travel instantly to Surinam. My family lives in Surinam, yes, I'm born in Surinam. It felt good to be 'home' again, but the tragic story did not made us feel good. Still it felt good to be with my family again and mourn the tragic. So, no post in April.

June .... well, June has it's own story. I had to study a lot, so first things first, right? Beside studying I took time to create some projects for myself as for swaps (such as the round robins @ doll dreams, postcrossing and swap-bot). I had no art journals of the round robin @ millliande ... lurking and waiting☺
Unfortunately there was not time to do any mailart, but will in the end of June or in July. I did received some nice mailart from people I do not know; just random senders; like it!! Here a post of my work in the art journal of Angela. I started and could not stop until finished! I am satisfied and I hope the owner will be too☺

I will tell more about the process of my projects in my posts. A bit interesting and also for readers to see and know what medium, technique I used. Never done it before, so please ... no judging, but I would like to learn, so please comment☺

No special techniques in this painting. I dabbed the background of the page with light blue acrylic. Then I added the stamps. First I painted the face, but that was a failure. To safe the doll I colored her face with the pencils. I really, really had to safe the damaged face:-(( It was a relief to see the changes and I can say that her face coloring is nice☺ Added color to the hair and finished the coloring of the balloons, flowers and the journal space. The quotes are from yogi tea (with their permission☺)

Used medium: acrylic paint dabber, acrylic paint, Uni Signo white gelpen, Prisma color pencils, acrylic stamps, rubber stamp, patterned paper, gems.

My work in Round Robins .... created today and two art journal pages

Ready to be sent: two art journal pages sizes 5x7 inch.

Prompt: My favourite time of the day is ....

Prompt:  I love you, because ...

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday:))

My work in Round Robins .... created today and two art journal pages

Ready to be sent: two art journal pages sizes 5x7 inch.

Prompt: My favourite time of the day is ....

Prompt:  I love you, because ...

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday:))

Easter fairy, flower fairy .... a peek on my projects

So many kinds of fairies. I love fairy tales, but I don't believe fairies exist. It is a lot of fun, though, drawing and painting these creatures. They are part of our literature and it is so funny to see how human imagine about how fairies look like. We imagine a lot about fairies.... How they dress, how they move ... and they always seems to have something sweet, peaceful on their appearance. I am open minded and just enjoy these moments of creating them in my art journal.

I just forgot to take pictures before sending my art journal to Australia. So all I have at the moment are these pictures of my unfinished pages. These pages are all finished now. The pages art part of my Flower Fairy art journal in a Round Robin, so of course the pages are finished and beautiful and sent to Australia. Well, after a couple of months I expect it to return back to me:))

This time I decided to bind my journal afterwards. How did I sent my journal? Well, it is a package of pages, cut out of a Canson mix media XL acrylic block. I made the covers out of cardboard. Back and front of the cardboard has a fairy on it. For this journal we only use Tom bow markers. But I am a bit stubborn and I used (had to) acrylic paint for the Christmas fairy at the inside of the back cover. Well, I don't have any red and white Tom bow and I just wanted her dress to be red and white. Hopefully I will be forgiven:))

Front cover of my Flower Fairy art journal.

Inside of front cover
Not so glad with the face of my Easter fairy, but after she was coloured her face lightened up.

Inside back cover

My coloured Christmas fairy

Back cover: Flower fairy in black & white. Some gray dabbed in the core of the large flowers.

Butterfly Fairy page

It's a wonderful day! The sun is shining .... no, it's still a cold wind, but at least we have the sun☺ I could not withstand to do a project of this fun workshop. Teacher Adriana had a template, but I draw my big eyed dolly myself:-3 Trying my best with these Tow bow markers and I'm not disappointed ... Yayyy!! The colours are so vibrant!! And the markers are very juicy. Used with water it gives a watercolour look. An alternative to watercolouring?? I don't know, but I like the effect.

Hehehe... the post before this one would be the last of today? Well, I couldn't stay away from my blog☺☺

Sea life and flower art journal pages

My last uploads for today. Hope I uploaded all the projects of the last two months:-)) Here two paintings made on 5x7" mixed media paper. There were not themes or prompts; the pages are based on the profiles of those I had to sent to. Wish I could keep them .... no time to overdo, so they're sent!

This first page is based on sea life. I love how this sea horse looks ... does she has an attitude??hehehe...
Used: acrylic paints, tow bow markers, Copic multiliner.

The second page is based on flowers. The sun hasn't show us much of its strength, so here a sunflower. It's just me hoping for a bit warmer weather☺
Used media: acrylic paints, paint dabber, prisma color pencils.

Birthday cards made for the group at milliande

 These birthday cards are postcards. Forgot to scan the back to give you a view. Next postcard project??? All cards are sent.

Art journal pages for Rhelda, Karen and Debs

The art journal pages I made for the Round Robins @ milliande and dolldreams. Rhelda couldn't stay and join the RR and one participant came with the idea to create pages for her. So her my two pages for Rhelda, wishing her strength in these days.

For the first RR at dolldreams I created this page for Karen. It was the last art journal to receive in this RR. The page is based on a project in one of the workshops named "Azulita". So, closing this project with a smile and grateful for all the art journals in which I could play in and see all the fabulous works of the wonderfull participants. Thanks to all the ladies and the host Tania.

The Round Robin, now going on, is the Round Robin based on the workshop Doll Dreams Basic. I was the first to work in Debs art journal. Suddenly I went for a fairy, which is, I think, not part of the DD Basic workshop, but well ...... that is what came up and that is it going to be☺ I am very, very proud of this page.

Made in April and May: art journal pages

The pages are made one month ahead, so that every participant can finish the pages of December and we don't have to rush in a busy December period.

Prompts of April were: 

1. If you only had one more day to live, what would you do?

2. If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be?

Prompts of May:

1. Express on your art journal page what animal you would like to be or express your totem animal on your   

    art journal page.

2. Express on your art journal page what home means to you.

Prompts of June:

1. Create the page using different shades of your favourite colour(s)

2. What does CHANGE mean to you?

Different mediums used: acrylic paints, templates, napkin, rubber stamps, embossing technique, free drawing, ink, Chinese marker, calligraphic pen, punchenella, embellishment and A LOT OF FUN.

Wishing you a great Mother's Day☺

Chunky page swap at Dolldreams.ning

A quick post to upload the pictures of these lovely chunky pages I created. Two for each player in this swap. And since there were 11 players (me included), I created twenty pages and chunked them up, hehehe fun part of making these pages. Later I created one chunky page for myself:-)) The back of each page has a pocket with a label on which I wrote some info. All pages are different and I created the embellishment myself.

I used different mediums s.a. cardboard, acrylic paints, Prismacolor pencils, Copic sketch marker, Copic multiliner, Copic spica gelpen, Uni Signo white gelpen, Faber Castell pen, rubber stamps, fibers, gems and handmade jewellery.

Little Red Riding Hood for postcrossing

I have been away for a while. Life certainly has its own way to get attention:-)) Family matters and for that I left The Netherlands for two weeks to visit my home country Surinam. It was so good to be there and in the second week I could enjoy my staying there besides all sadness.

Well, then back here and there are projects waiting to be done. I took two projects with me with the intention to finish in and mail them from Surinam. I took some material with me, not much, and I assumed I could find the rest there. A nice wish, but matte acrylic paint isn't easy to get here in The Netherlands; so how did I ever think of finding it easy in Surinam?? So finally I finished my handmade art journal (I was so busy to make the book, so I could send it that I forgot to take any pictures!), but in Surinam they sent packages two days in a week. Normal post/mail daily. As I had to return to The Netherlands the week before the day they would send, I just returned to The Netherlands with my art journal to mail here. That gave me the chance to sent the art journal three days earlier. Sounds crazy, doesn't it?

Busy organizing and still not in my daily rhythm ... but I'll catch up☺

There are some projects I want to show off here, but still organizing .... Today I created a postcard for a girl/lady who wears a red-hooded cape like the Little Red Riding Hood and now she is called Red Riding Hood; funny I thought and as I created a chunky page with this theme, the idea arise to make her a handmade postcard. Here it is.

I left the card simple as shown here to keep the attention on the girl. I hope she'll like the postcard. Medium used: cardboard (an old package from something once bought), Copic multiliner, acrylic paints, Prismacolor pencils, Uni Signo white gelpen and a rubber stamp. I used the rubber stamp to make the back similar as an ordinary postcard. I'll have to remember to post a picture to give you an idea. All of my postcards look like an ordinary postcard on the back. Does that make my postcard a real postcard? What is a real postcard by the way??? Does anyone know the answer?

AJ page for Deedee

Once again a short chat today... I finished another AJ in the Round Robin at milliande.ning.com. To my satisfaction I will mail Deedee's journal; her journal will continue it's world tour to the UK. Her theme is: Nature, Dreams and Visions.

AJ page for Deedee

Once again a short chat today... I finished another AJ in the Round Robin at milliande.ning.com. To my satisfaction I will mail Deedee's journal; her journal will continue it's world tour to the UK. Her theme is: Nature, Dreams and Visions.

AJ page for Vi

Not much time for a long story... Maybe later, I don't know, but here my entry in Vi's fabulous journal in the dolldreams Round Robin. This journal will be mailed definitely today and will be sent to Australia.

Painting for my sister

Some weeks ago I started a painting for my sister. I am originally from Surinam (South America). Have I mentioned that already? So I will have to send this painting to Surinam. I am still working on the background and I suppose to make the painting as a page in my journal. It doesn't have to be exactly the same, but the theme is the same. To mention one difference: the background and the material. I am working on canvas, which measures 30 x 40 cm (11,8 x 15,7 inches). That makes the painting a bit larger than my Moleskine journal. The theme is Sisters. I miss her a lot and this is my way to tell her that. This is the journal page with the theme Sisters. I'll post a picture of the finished painting, of course:-)

Some old pages. Challenges, challenges .... they are to take, I guess. For me challenges are not easy; not at all, but they bring me somewhere. "Places" I never experienced. These "places" are in my inner. And in this inner a lot of things are possible. These challenges keep my mind off work. I work fulltime and I go to school two days in the week. The school starts at 16.00 o'clock. A lot is happening at work and these challenges open my eyes, make me live, create, enjoy.

What went on in my mind thinking I could draw the famous "Girl with the pearl earring". I don't know ... there is something in that painting, in the story of this girl (I watched the film once, but I don't know if it was the original...) that makes you wanna know her story. So I took the challenge and this is my project. I was a bit shocked that I succeeded and still have not added any colour:-(

Can I create more than girls faces? Appearantly, yes I can.

That was my chat for today. Hope you have a wonderful Sunday:-)

Journal page swap and finished painting

Hello dear friends,
Again a quiet Sunday. That gives me hours to play with paint, paper, glue, etc. I started to finish the chunky pages for the Circus is coming swap. I continued with the journal page swap for which monthly journal pages are to be made. The prompts of the month February are: "All you need is love - John Lennon and Cupid. Thought it would be easy, because one thing to use in both prompts are hearts. But that doesn't make a page yet.... I did not want to draw any face or Cupid and that was a challenge. I don't know why but I had the idea to make a page on which the paint is smeared out. Sound a bit strange? Now I just did my thing and of course I had some mistakes, but I totally love this page. Instead of a neat page I have a smeared page with the message under neat. Now I cross my fingers and hope that Deedee, for whom I made the pages, likes my messy page?!?! Let me know what you think☺

I also made a painting for my second daughter. It was finished in January this year. Love it!! She wanted a somewhat gothic painting. She is not gothic herself. The canvas measures 60 x 80 cm (23,6 x 31,4 inches). For me that is quite a large project. Now both of my daughters have a painting I made for them. The oldest didn't want such a large one, so she got a small painting. After seeing her sister's she pleads for a larger one. Should I? Help me on this one:))

For a postcrosser I created a postcard. She preferred handmade and that gives me another reason to play with paper and glue:-)) The image was painted a very long time ago and finally founds its spot.

Have a nice Sunday:-)