Chunky pages

Another craft project I did for the first time: make chunky pages. I joined a swap on atcsforall. So we have to make chunky pages and there are themes for these pages. I joined two swaps: "Bright and colorful zetti chunky pages" and "Owl chunky page swap". These are small pages of 4x4 inches and some kind of embellishment, the chunky, can be added in the right corner above or anywhere at the bottom of the page. These pages will be bounded to a book, so a half inch margin from the left must be left free. I will join some swaps to collect some pages and bundle them in a chunky book. These pages are a real challenge, what I love and it is a lot of fun to make them.

Theme: Bright and colorful zetti chunky pages swap

Theme: Owl chunk page swap

My first chunky pages ever made. I like them so much, that I decided to keep them.
So these pages are my own contribution to my chunky book.

Thank you for visiting my blog!

La Calavera Catrina postcard swap 2

These Catrina postcards will be mailed on Monday. I made two postcards for the swap. These are beautiful postcards too and I nearly wanted to keep them again. But say, I can't go on making postcards for one swap and end up liking them so much. Today was such a sunny day and I enjoyed it very much. Not much happened today and I have not much to say. Oh, this morning I received my package with my atyou Spica gelpens, rubber stamps sayings from Viva Las Vegas rubber stamps (grab bag), some natural beeswax and a sheet Patterned Bugs of Inkadinkado clear stamps. All purchased at Viva Las Vegas. I am so happy with my new toys. What I am going to do with the beeswax? Keep on visiting and I'll keep you updated:-) I tried all the rubber stamps and I used the clear stamps on the Catrina postcards. Yay .....

La Calavera Catrina postcard swap

Let me start by saying that this is a whole new theme for me. Postcards are cards I already make, but the Day of the Death is something I only once heard of. Catrina is the feminine word for elegant and calavera means skull. These translations with the help of google. The theme is used to celebrate the Day of the Dead (Día del los muertos) The skull or face is decorated as elegant as possible. Taste differs, so that is not a point of discussion. I joined a swap for two or three postcards, but I will enter with two. No embellishment is allowed. One postcard is finished, but one problem occurs. My first calavera catrina is so beautiful, that I decided to keep it. It is still a doubt, but if I decide to keep it ..... I will have to make another one. Point is that now I am that crafty I try some projects in swaps. These projects come out so beautiful and then I have to send it away for a swap partner. I am talking about projects I do for the first time. In an older post I mentioned my first canvas painting I made for a swap, yes I did make another one for myself, but still I love the first painting. Nothing to cry about, but tell me: am I right?

Time for a picture of my "La Calavera Catrina postcard":

The second postcard is not finished yet. When finished it I will post a picture. I will also make a pic of the back of my postcard to give you an idea of how I send my handmade postcards:) I would like to know what you think of my postcard. Have a nice sunday:-)

Round Robin art journal

Yesterday was Saturday and the second Round Robin arrived all the way from Australia. Each of the Round Robins are from different swaps. I will not put the pictures here, but I could tell you they are full of inspiration; so creative of my partners. I am the first partner to journal in their RR... so it will be a month of art journaling. There is always a first time they say and aiaiai, I go for it! I will try to give you some sneek peeks, but as the RR have to go round and my website may be read by partners it will be better to keep things as a surprised. There are 7 partners in this swap and everyone has a month to do the pages. The RR swap of dolldreams.ning.com will go on for at least 8-10 months. Let us say a year as one can be delayed.

The second RR I participate in is the 17 Artist, 17 Journals, 17 Months Round Robin at milliande.ning.com. This one will last for at least 17 months. Every artist keeps a journal for a month, so with a little math I expect my RR to return in the year 2013. So, I will not see it for more than a year, since I have to mail it before the 1st of Novembre 2011!

Another mixed media painting on canvas

Art is a way of expression. A way one can create and put his thoughts, feelings and emotions in his work. Hahaha, that goes for the hers too, you know! I had a terrible week and I had no need to pick up anything to create a piece. A friend of my daughter is giving her birthday party and my daughter asked me what present she could give. Creative as I am I gave her some ideas and one of these ideas was that I could make her a canvas painting. Imagine her being very glad and surprised. Okay, yesterday I started AND the party was yesterday at night. You feel it coming! No haste, but my first drawing disappeared with the wind, I guess .... It was on the floor of my balcony and thoughtless of me, I did not put something of weight on it. It flew away (I think it did, since there was a strong wind) and it was no where to find. I even got on my bicycle and made some rounds around here to see if it was somewhere on the streets. So, not motivated I wondered if I should start all over again. No, I would not. But I did not want to disappoint my daughter and between us, I wanted to get my fingers dirty:) Here some pics of the mixed media painting, which the receiver loves very much.

This is the final piece. Her dress is cut out of patterned paper. I sprayed some home made glimmermist on her hair, which you can not see on the picture.

And though I had no feelings of being creative, it felt good. My odd thoughts were taken away and I felt happy with who I am at the moment and of course I felt good because I loved how my painting came out. Love it!

Round Robin art journal

It was a nice and sunny weekend. A lot of things to do, but I enjoyed those days. It is the first time I tried to make a book. It started with swaps. One at dolldreams.ning.com/ and one at milliande.ning.com/. There are seven participants and everyone has one month to journal. So this book may be travelling for seven to eight months. The dolldreams Round Robin had to be sent no later than the 12th of octobre. Sadly enough I could not mail the art journal before or on the 12th of this month. It was on Saturday (yesterday) that I was able to mail my Round Robin art journal. The front page, the first page and the last page is decorated. Very satisfied and so curious on all the arts, journal and techniques I'll see when I got my art journal back.

The second Round Robin did not start yet and this art journal is waiting to be sewn and decorated. It is called 17 Artists, 17 journals, 17 Months Round Robin. Everyone had to pick a theme for their art journal. So this Round Robin divers from the one I mentioned above. There is some speed needed on this art journal, because we have to mail them on the 1st of novembre. Speedy, speedy .... Here some pictures of the Round Robin made for the dolldreams swap. Picture of the second handmade art journal will be here:-)

These are not the best pictures, but gives you a good peek on the Round Robin art journal (handmade).

This is the front.

This is also a piece of the front, but it is hidden under the one above. and the flap you see is the inside of the front cover. There is a pocket for goodies incorporated. The round sign has the words thank you inside.

This is the inside of the front cover and the first page of my Round Robin art journal. Under the dolls legs you see a pocket. In this pocket I included some handmade cards I have received from swaps. These are presents for the participants.

The last page in the art journal.

The inside of the back cover and you see a piece of the side in the back.

At the spine of the art journal I wrote; you can see what I wrote, hahaha.

Are you ready for a new workweek? Enjoy it and make the best of it!!! Ciao...

Short post ...

It is late, but I just wanted to post this image. A postcard, drawn and colored with black acrylics. It is black and white and the cardstock is cardstock you find in boxes of boots. This dreamy lady is on her way to Australia. She has a long, long way to travel.

Art journal pages

A quick post. These are art journal pages to send out. They are heading for the USA. A lot of my swaps are going to the USA. but this is a swap I joined at milliande.ning.com. If you are a woman, feel free to join us and explore your artistic talents. So here are my second attempts to make art journal pages for some I personally don't know, but who I will reach through my art pages. Have a splendid day!

Theme: A moment in time

Theme: Mythical Gods &/or Goddesses

Black and white handmade cards

Yet another swap. This time a challenge to use the colors black and white only, but a dash of other colors is allowed. I was thinking too difficult and after a while it went well. The card slowly was built up and it came out beautiful. These will be sent out today to the USA and Canada. It is a swap so what will I receive? Surprise, surprise ..... There will be less cardmaking for me. I noticed that quite some people asking me to make them a handmade card. Till so far I did, but I can not make cards for everyone. I wish I could. I am joining some Round  Robins and I had to make the art journals myself. It takes some time, so you know where most of my time is spend on:-) I finished one art journal and it is now time to paint and decorate the cover and the first pages. I'll update you on this journal. It is a lot of fun making an art journal by yourself! What am I writing about art journal? The title says handmade cards! Here are the pics, guys. Thank you for visiting and reading.

Some other works 2

Blogging in a super long post did not feel good. So I split chapter. Now the last pictures for today. I had to sent my first canvas painting I ever made for a swap to the USA. So I did my best to create another canvas for myself. Yes .... I am so glad with the first canvas for ME, MYSELF!!!:-) I just feel like I have not yet discovered my own style .... Maybe this is my style .... But to be honest .. I think I see to much of those I have learned from and would like to go there where I can only recognize myself.

With the last pictures I want to let you see the details on the painting.

Some other works 1

Here some projects I have done. Most of these projects I started before the summer, but are finished through the time. Acrylics seems to be my favourite medium at the time. But I just started and I am still learning. Not to talk/write a lot .... here are the pics.
The pics of the drawings are posted here. And I said I will post the finished page. So here it is!

My small Moleskine art journal is the moleskine I work in most of the time. I started to work in my A4 moleskine as well, but I am going slowly. Here pictures of my first page in my small Moleskine. Of course, you will see my dollies and that what I have learned at dolldreams.ning. I added a close u so you can see at least some of the small details. Please enjoy ....

Some other pages in my small moleskine. 

This page is not finished yet, as you can see.

These pages are finished. Just pages I created as how I felt at the time journaling. Thank you for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment and feel free to ask questions about my topics:-)

Art journal pages

I am in a art journal pages swap. Two prompts are given and participants have to make two art journal pages. As a newbie on milliande.ning.com I decided to participate. The prompts are: Angel and demons, the second prompt is Word/Phrase - Open a dictionary or book, without looking, point to a word or phrase and use it to create a page.

This is my Angel and demons entry:

It is drawn and painted with acrylic paints. At the left you'll see that one inch is free of journaling. You can not see it on the picture, but there is some structure on the page. The dress of the angel is in gold acrylic paint.

The drawn word is Spiritual. How applicable for an art journal. The second entry has pretty colours. The mix of the turquoise and pink makes me happy. I just had some black acrylic paint I did not wanted to waste. On top of the black I used some silver acrylic paint. I attached an feather on top of the turquoise flower; maybe hardly to see on the picture. The word spiritual is stamped on the art journal page.

Painted postcard

Today is a lovely day! Not much sun, but the wind feels quite warm. I am crafting again and I am currently working on several projects. A canvas painting, a painted postcard and I am painting and paperpiercing in my small Moleskine art journal. So I am switching a lot between these projects. If one has to dry I´ll pick up another one. Here a picture of the postcard I made. I started yesterday and it is finished today. Wondering if I could duplicate the postcard, I tried to make a copy of it. My goal was to get a black and white (not white actually, because the cardstock is kind of grey). What I got is a full copy of my postcard, so it has all the colors of the original postcard. Yes, I forgot to hit the black & white knob. But I was surprised and satisfied. I have to sent two postcards, so I could use the copy. And I don't like to make two of the same, so I add to each postcard its own details. E.g. the quote on each card is different. The quote is from labels of my favourite tea at the moment: Yogi tea.

This is the original painted postcard. Destination: a postcrosser in the USA.

The copy of the original above. This one will be sent to The Netherlands.

Wishing you all a peaceful Sunday. Stay well!

Red eye girl ATC

A postcrosser and I decided to exchange ATC´s. Since I started to draw and paint I really like it more to draw and paint my ATC´s. But I still enjoy creating ATC´s out of scraps or other media. Yesterday I started to draw the ATC. I got my inspiration from mycreativebliss on youtube and all the red eye people out there. There are more red eye painted girls, but I got more inspiration watching her video. Check her out! This is my version of the Red eye girl. I am hoping the receiver likes my ATC. This ATC is sent with another ATC, a written greeting card and as a present (for her to use) a handmade card I created. The envelope is very colourful, so I hope she´ll be surprised. This is my first acrylic painted ATC, which is on its way to Wendy in the USA.

I did not forgot my blog ....

No, I did not. But vacation was coming, then it was vacation .... so I just enjoyed my spare time. My oldest daughter, Michelle and I went to Italy and we had an amazing time together.

Another amazing thing is that I created a canvas painting!! It is the first canvas painting I ever created and I wanted to keep it. It is such a beautiful art piece. I love the dollies I learn to make at dolldreams, so most of my dollies will have those amazing big dollz eyes! Some pics for you to see my art ... the final piece.

A close up of the beautiful big eyes.

Special about this painting is that I made the canvas board and it is a mix media painting. I can not say where this painting is going to. Otherwise it is not a surprise for the person who has to recieve it and the chance of her reading my blog is there. 

 Another piece I created: an owl decorated hanging postcard. New for me is making the postcard a hanging one. I have made a lot of postcard, so that is not a new thing to me. But drawing and painting the postcard was something I have not done before. It was a real challenge, believe me. Here is the postcard:

This card is also sent to someone. She obviously is expecting a hanging postcard! I did put a dollie on the card, I had to .... It is another mix media product and the beaded necklace is for the hanging of the card.

It is really fun to use different mediums to create. The creator decides which medium will be used and how the art journal page will look like. Love the unlimited idea of creativity and medium!

I did not forgot my blog ....

No, I did not. But vacation was coming, then it was vacation .... so I just enjoyed my spare time. My oldest daughter, Michelle and I went to Italy and we had an amazing time together.

Another amazing thing is that I created a canvas painting!! It is the first canvas painting I ever created and I wanted to keep it. It is such a beautiful art piece. I love the dollies I learn to make at dolldreams, so most of my dollies will have those amazing big dollz eyes! Some pics for you to see my art ... the final piece.

A close up of the beautiful big eyes.

Special about this painting is that I made the canvas board and it is a mix media painting. I can not say where this painting is going to. Otherwise it is not a surprise for the person who has to recieve it and the chance of her reading my blog is there. 

 Another piece I created: an owl decorated hanging postcard. New for me is making the postcard a hanging one. I have made a lot of postcard, so that is not a new thing to me. But drawing and painting the postcard was something I have not done before. It was a real challenge, believe me. Here is the postcard:

This card is also sent to someone. She obviously is expecting a hanging postcard! I did put a dollie on the card, I had to .... It is another mix media product and the beaded necklace is for the hanging of the card.

It is really fun to use different mediums to create. The creator decides which medium will be used and how the art journal page will look like. Love the unlimited idea of creativity and medium!

Yes, I have a blog

Time runs by and I did think about my blog. Missing it and again postponed. Making time and wishing to have more time. Reading my own blog and want to write. So much went on here and I did what I have to do. No school, but vacation and now having some large projects. I will load up some pics! This project is about upholster old chairs. Nope, I have never done this before, but that is the challenge:) We have collected four chairs now, a table and one medium and a small cabinet. All old stuff, looking antique, but is not. We like the look of these old furniture. It is a big project so when started I'll have to keep it up. But I will take my time doing it, no hurry.

The medium cabinet is done with sandpaper and painted with primer. Saturday I will sand it again with fine sandpaper. And if we agreed to the color of paint, we will be able to paint the cabinet on Sunday. That would be nice, wouldn't it!!

As I said I would do ...

Post the last project I created yesterday. The theme is: use your stash: theme card: fashion. Honestly, this card is not made of stash. I had just fun and it gave me the opportunity to use the Cricut expression in this way again.

That is it for today. Not much to quack about today:)) Oh, forgot to tell that I have received my Moleskin watercolour Notebook! It's a size to carry easy in a bag or so. It measures 8 1/4x5". This will be the one I carry on trips, making my sketches whenever I feel to. No picture of it, because I posted a picture of my first Moleskin. They have the same cover; only the size is different. Still want to see it? Just leave a comment and I will post a picture. So I still wait for the last Moleskin of size A3. 

If you have any question, please leave a comment.

So... what have I done today?

Today was a calm day. After the test I had yesterday, I needed some rest. I don't think the test went very well. But I hope I pass. That's why I started to work on the swap I still have. There is enough time to make them, but I needed to be creative. Here are they; it's quite a few, so take time:))

Handmade Card Challenge

This card is part of a challenge. My first handmade card challenge ever. So I hope I win!

The image is a free image on coloring pages from Sarah Kay. She is printed on GinaK. cardstock and colored with copic ciao and sketch markers. The flower is originally white, but colored with copic sketch markers. The white line is done with my Uniball Signo white gel pen

Use your stash: Theme card: dog/cat

 

I had to make two cards for one person. So I decided to make one dog and one cat card. Cute, aren't they?
A Whiff of Joy rubber stamp, colored with Prisma color markers. The cat is a Meljen's free digital image, colored with copic sketch and ciao markers. The mat on which the cat is stamped on is cut with my Cricut expression with the help of Make the Cut.

Mojo card sketch (handmade card swap): july
The first swap I ever coordinated. Pfff, I thought it would take a lot of time. No, no, no, just some minutes. Of course I hope everyone keeps to the swap, so there will be no need for me to angel. My card for this Mojo card sketch swap.

The sketch:

The last image for today is for the "Use your stash: theme card: Fashion

At first it seems to be hard, but then I kept creating. Not much to say today, because I am really tired.

For this swap I had to make two cards. It is late and I will make a picture of the other card tomorrow. No, my scan can not handle the card, because it has a handbag which pops up and the picture does not come out very good. So tomorrow I will post the other card for this swap. She is a KennyK. digital image colored with Copic sketch and ciao markers.

I am so satisfied with my creations. I love the different colors and the patterned paper is so cute.