Leaving for Surinam in a couple of hours!

Well I can't sleep. Too excited maybe .... My daughter and I will drive to Schiphol, our airport, at 12.00 o'clock. Departure is at 16.00. Then we'll fly for eight hours. Our arrival will be at the J.A.Pengel Airport at Zanderij (name of the place). My niece will pick us up and we will drive to the main city Paramaribo. I intend to stay for two and a half weeks. I love to see the clouds and when leaving/arriving seeing the buildings, trees from above. Before my journey I had to finish four art journal pages, which I have. Love the prompts and it is such a challenge every time again. I did stumbled, but I finally have all pages ready. Two already sent to the USA to two partners. The second pair of two pages will be sent later when we know who to send to.

Already sent; pages of the Art journal page swap - December I hosted on swap-bot.
Prompt 1: How do you spend your Christmas?
Media used: acrylic paint, Cricut Expression, 3D die cut, wooden starts, stencils.

Prompt 2: We wish we had more time.Decorate you page illustrating or journaling about time; days, hours, minutes ....
On this page I used an image of sweetpeastamps and coloured it with acrylic paints. The clock is a rubber stamp from rubbernecker; the dots is a foam stamp from an unknown brand. It sure is a race against time, these days .... and it is just the question 'how we manage time'.

I promised youngest daughter (well, she is fifteen) to make her a birthday card, she can send to her aunt. Since I can't sleep I started the card. The challenge is from mojomonday. The challenged closed before I could finish my card, but it's about the challenge. The sentiment is from Close To My Heart. For me the challenge was to create a card without image. Love it!

I brought the inside of the card to life with a sentiment and some cute flowers:-)

Choices ...

There is so much going on and I which I was a star in making choices. Well .... I am a star in making choices! I make too much of them , hehehehe.... I am so looking forward to my trip. Will miss my blog for two weeks. Four projects are waiting to be done: four art journal pages for swap-bot and milliande. They will be done. Yesterday I started the pages already.
Yesterday I also wrote eight postcards for postcrossers and they are ready to travel by snail mail. The traffic of snail mail can be very slow ... I am waiting on some journal pages. I hope they will appear one day☺

There so much to be done and I felt so week. I was really sick, but I had to get up and get things done:-( Projects, schoolwork, homework, get ready to travel, etc. etc. I was getting somewhere, because I started the journal pages and I nearly finished my school projects. Yayyyy ... I am amazed at how calm I took it. A good thing I would say, but then I got the feeling something is wrong, because I didn't not worry that much. Deep in a corner of my brain I knew I will get things done in time, so why worry, huh??? And to worry is not a positive thing .... well ... I worried about a birthday postcard I thought I had to make yet for the birthday postcard group @ milliande. I spent a couple of days worrying and creating. Then I went to my blog and noticed that the postcard was already sent to the receiver (and received) ...... So to worry is not so good for me. Yes, a good thing happened this time, since I created a second birthday postcard. well I'll take it with me and give it to my sister in Surinam. That's one good thing I'm left with and the great feelings I had while making the postcard. Here it is:

So these days were days on which I created a couple of birthday cards. I have to give these birthday cards to family members and I love my family dearly:-))

For Jonathan: a masculine postcard, created with a digital baseball image from Kennykdownloads. The image is coloured with Copic markers and stamped on "Make' it' colour" blending cardstock (love this cardstock!) and the patterned paper is from a My Mind' s Eye. collection.

A second card for my sister Ria. It is a small card to add to a gift. A small birthday card. Tori Famous is another kennykdownloads digital image. I cut the swirls with the help of my CricutExpression (forgot which cartridge).

Once again to the post office ... mail ... mail ... mail..

Carla's birthday postcard and Mary's page are going out today. These projects are finished. What a joy and fun I had doing these. On the postcard I just went crazy with paint, glimmermist and pearl maker. I used some of that on the art journal page too. It is dimensional and adds a nice glimmer to the page. I found these in a store in Germany and it also functions as dimensional paint. Yesterday I thought why not try to write with it? If it is good to make pearls, why not make letters or doodles with it? And it did the job! Here the birthday postcard for Carla and my finished journal page. While making this postcard I remembered that I am the next to receive quite a lot of birthday postcard from the second group. I'll wait; must be a lot of fun to receive a lot of nice handmade postcards☺

The back of the art journal page.

Handmade postcard for Finland

Already sent to Finland. It seems as if more postcrossers ask for handmade postcards (?). I don't now for sure, but if I have time to create one, I will. This image is a rubber stamp of sweetpeastamps. I coloured this image a while ago and last weekend I finished colouring it. Used mediums: patterned card stock, card board, rubber stamp, acrylic stamp, gems, ribbon, prisma watercolor pencils and copic markers on Gina K. card stock. No difficult techniques used here. Still a beautiful postcard. Have a nice day☺

I finished the back of this postcard with a piece of card board and more or less the same lines you see on a regular postcard, with postcard written on top. I have a couple of  these rubber stamps, but all are different. And I don't know I used this rubber stamp on the postcard above. Just to give you an idea of the back of my postcards, though .... :-))

Lucine's creation for Mary

Unfortunately Mary's art journal with which she particpated in the round robin @ milliande.ning.com in the 15 artist, 15 journals, 15 months art journal swap. So we are creating pages for her to replace her missing journal. The page is longer than an A4 page ... you may see line where I glued the two pieces together. My page for her; it is not finished yet .... I'll post a picture of the final project. Have a nice day☺

Whole page ...

Close up ...

AJ page created for Beth

I just forgot to post my contribution to Beth's AJ. Here it is; for me another challenge to create in such a beautiful journal.

Edited October 1st:

Maybe a bit too excited; already post this page here under:-D

Last but not least .... handmade postcards

Created for postcrossers:

 Handmade male postcard. Created with my Cricut Expression; sentiment: Hero Arts.

Above postcard and this postcard are created with cardboard, just recycled the cardboard. The image is from   Saturated canary. Such a sweet image! The postcard is stamped with a rubber stamp, embellished with ribbon and a flower gem. Image coloured with Copic markers

My daughter gave me a couple of these postcards. In fact these postcards, as you see, promote a brand. Well, I restyled the card by adding a sentiment to replace the desciption on the postcard. And so another postcard was created.

Original postcard.

Postcard with new sentiment.

Same thing here, but on another postcard.

Not the best pictures, but I like this cute postcard:-)) Most of the time I send these handmade postcards naked, which means without envelope. It is always a surprise if they will be delivered without being damaged... This is another  Saturated canary image coloured with Copic markers. Under the image you see patterned paper, it is not ribbon. The cardstock on which the image is stamped is distressed with a Close to my heart inkpad.

Round Robins, mail art

My addition to Beth's journal titled 'Bygone Era':

Page created in Camille's art journal in the Flower Fairy RR:

Sent mail art.

This A4 page is sent as is. Address deleted.

Front of A4 page.

Mail art envelope filled with other creations.

Once again .... a quick post

Hello dear friends,

Posting on my blog was on my mind for several weeks. Time, time, time .... So again a quick one, more pics, less words☺

Created yesterday for a private swap, will be mailed today to the USA.

One participant did not send her pages to her partner. So I created these two pages for the partner, we call it 'angel' @ swap-bot.

These 5x7 art journal pages will be sent to Australia today.

Prompt: Reap or Sow (Harvest - Plant) ~~ It is coming to the time of year where we harvest what we have tended... or sow in the hopes of a bountiful harvest  ~~ depending on where you reside in this wonderful world of ours. Create a page with this theme and incorporate doodle designs - use 'zendoodle' like designs as pattern/visual texture in your journal page.

Second prompt: 'The Wheel of Life' - create a page that reflects your interpretation of this concept or present the 'wheel' of your own life. What 'wheel' would best represent you?

 

Quick post

A quick post of projects created in the month August. Nothing special to talk about. There is a lot going on and I want to keep focused:-) I have some art journal pages. No handmade cards this time; I have my rubber stamps and card stock with me for a while, but I didn't make any progress. I had some postcards which I re-used by replacing the back of the postcard, but .... for me that is not really a handmade card. Quick post, hè?

These pages were a real challenge and you'll understand once you read the themes of these pages:-))

On this pages I had to exprss "Moon Magic: A Tribute to Cycle". Some traditional cultures have special names for the Moon: Grandmother, Mother or Maiden. The question was: "How does the Moon show her face in your life? Do you feel her presence in your life? Do you honour the Moon in her many aspects in some special way? If so, how?
Well, none of the above. I don't have special thoughts about the moon, to give a short answer. When talking about the moon I am more realistic, but I relate the Moon in some way with dreamtime. How??? Well, after the realistic talk, I just think: night, sleep ... dream .... simple as that.

The page is done in acrylic paints with lettering done with a white gelpen. The Moon has a light yellow colour and it is a 3D Moon, drawn on and cut out of card board.

This second page is based on a handmade stencil. Well, my stencil is a nice one, but it didn't do the trick on my page:-( So I used another (letter) stencil to pop the page up a bit. I still like the outcome, since the colour mixed nicely.

This was the first trial of the Moon prompt. I like it so much that I went on and on ... this page is a keeper. Good for my collection of AJ pages. I want to can bind all the pages I received in December, closing this year with a bunch of beautiful art journal pages. I hardly can wait! Used: card board, copic multi-liner acrylic paints, inkpad, prisma color pencils and a white gelpen.

Art journal page swap I host. First theme is to describe a place you have never been before, where would you go and why. The page speaks for itselfs, I think? Yes ...!☺

At last,with this prompt I had to write how I felt at the moment I created this page; colour over the journaling and create a black & white page.

Wish you goodnight and thank you for visiting. Your comments are welcome:-)

Handmade card for Tania

It will be a while, but hopefully the card will reach her after the journey of her art journal in the Doll dreams basic Round Robin. The card will make a long way to its new home to Australia☺ This card will also be entered in the Mojo Monday 254. For this project I used the sketch provided by Mojo Monday.

I used an image of The Greeting Farm. She is so cute! Coloured with copic markers and prisma color pencils. I hope Tania will like her present.

5x7" page

Already sent, but still had to post a picture on my blog. I forgot to take a picture of my second page. Guess I'll have to miss that one. The first prompt was: A rainy day ... oh, what do I do?

Second prompt: What is a mistake people often make about me?

I used acrylic paints, a Chinese newspaper, water soluble crayons (Caran d'Ache neocolor). The page is created on card board. Enjoy this fabulous Sunday!!♥

Off with her head!!!

I received another art journal, which is quite a challenge! It's awesome, very beautiful ... well, the owner may be proud of her creation. Love her art journal. The theme of her journal is Alice in Wonderland. I knew I wanted to draw the queen and the mad hatter once. Since she created a page with the hatter, I choose to create the queen. Love the page so much and I had to make my own queenie in my own art journal. Yayyyy..... love it!!!

Art journal page for Trish for the Doll dreams Basic Round Robin.

Art journal page created for Tania for the Doll dreams Basic Round Robin

 These two journals will be passed on to the next participant, Angel (UK).

Art journal page created in my own art journal. Search the difference .... :-))

Quite a few pages

Swaps, swaps, swaps .... I had to do some art journal pages mainly for swaps. For one partner I had to create six art journal pages, since she had missed three swaps I hosted. So I offered her to swap pages with her.
Prompt: Describe in one word how you entered/started this year 2012. Express this word on your art journal page.

Prompt: Something I did in 2011 that I certainly will do/have to do again in 2012.

Second set of art journal pages.
Prompt: Journal about peace. Express this word on your art journal page.

On this page is about a favourite scene of a favourite fairy tale. I like Cinderella at the moment she runs and looses her shoe. The pumpkin is not just an ordinary pumpkin as you know:-)

The last set of this swap; on the first page I express what home means to me. Not only a place where you feel safe, but where you are safe, where you smile and where you are not harmed; the place where you are happy. On this page I did some journaling. I prefer journaling on a art journal page, but I submit that it doesn't always feel comfortable to do so knowing I will not keep the page. Or I would journal on the page as I did on the next and paint over it to cover the whole journal part.

The last page expresses what animal I would like to be or my expression of my totem animal. I admire the strength of the bison, buffalo. They protect their life and I just love their fierce body. My comparison to the bison is that I endeavor a lot of happenings crossing my path, but I gather the strength from somewhere to keep going on; solving problems, smiling back to life to go on☺

Two art journal pages for the montlhy swap @ milliande. I don't really have a favourite quote; I read quotes, like them, but rarely know them by heart. So once again I used a quote of Yogi Tea on this art journal page.

This page is about promises (broken or kept). I do not like to promise a lot, but I think one can not live without promising someone something. Even if it is a small promise as I'll call you later, I'll check it our for you. And these small promises can easily be forgotten. It occurs that I am late with these small promises and I also believe that I have forgotten a promise, but I hope that I never did any one harm for not keeping such a promise. The birds on the branch symbolize the kept promises; the bird in cage symbolizes the broken promise. But hey, life is still a journey isn't it? So a broken or kept promise, make the best of life♥