Although this wasn’t really a project that needed to be finished (I started this journal in April 2013, see this post with no end date in mind) but I love that it is now finished, closed and on the shelf next to my other journals. Doesn’t that look fabulous? Just seeing all those (hand bound) journals in different shapes and colors makes me happy!

So here are the two pages that completed my journal

Drawing a Line

Size: 34 x 30 cm – 13.4 x 12 inch. Materials: acrylic paint, cut out pictures, cut out texts, postcard, photo transfer (photo of a bridge,) washi tape, handcarved stamps, oil crayons, transfer paper, black and white markers.

Laat me wandelen en kwetsbaar zijn (“Let me stroll and be vulnerable”)

Size: 16 x 30 cm – 7.7 x 12 inch. Materials: gesso, acrylic paint, page from an old book, cut out texts, cut out image (you didn’t really think that was me did you? Man, do I wish I was that slim.. it’s a model that I cut out of a fashion magazine,) transfer paper (the handwriting,) graphite pencil, black and white markers.

Last week, The Daisy Yellow E-Zine came out and if you read last weeks’ post, you know that there is an article that I wrote published in it. Tammy, the founder and creator of this zine, is a very creative, inspiring, loving and generous lady (you should definitely visit her blog Daisy Yellow) and she let me

GIVE AWAY 2 OF THESE E-ZINES

Did you already purchase this zine? NO PROBLEM! You can still enter this giveaway and if you are a winner, Tammy will refund your payment. How nice is that!?!

To make a chance to win this zine, all you have to do is leave a comment at this blogpost in which you let me know why you would like to receive this e-zine. (Extra compliments addressed to me are welcome of course, but won’t give you extra ‘points’ 😉 )

The giveaway closes next week, Monday December 14.

Thanks for visiting my blog and see you soon {probably on Wednesday with a desk-photo; it’s been a while since I joined the woyww-desk-hop-event and I’m starting to miss it… }

(If you’re not familiar with the concept: WOYWW it is a weekly event hosted by Julia from the UK. Artists from all over the world post a photo of their desk on their blog and leave a link at Julia’s blog. Wanna join us? More info here.)

Every week, without exception, I get comments on how neat my desk looks. Well yah, I’m a neat creator! I just cannot create when the place is messy or chaotic. YOU may be surprised every week on how I keep my desk that orderly while creating… I, on the other hand, cannot understand how one is able to create something, anything with mess on the table and all around – and believe me, I do see quite a lot of those chaotic desks when I go desk hopping.

However, to satisfy your curiosity on how I create and if I ever DO get messy at all, I took a photo of my work desk yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon while I was in the midst of creating.

So here it is folks: this is as messy as it gets.

WOYWW #333  (click on the photo to enlarge)

Do you ever use your heat gun to speed up the drying process of paint or gesso on your page? And have you noticed that if you hold the heat gun close to the paint, it starts bubbling? I use that ‘technique’ all the time because the most wonderful textures arise from it. So when my friend gave me gold, silver and copper (metallic) paint I immediately tested it with my heat gun and… OHMY…. LOOK:

Isn’t this beautiful just in itself?
A blob of gold paint, heated with the heat gun and voilà!

(The above example was made as a test to see if I could get the same effect when I heated the paint on very thin paper. I was afraid the paper would burn, but it didn’t.)

You can see golden ‘bubbling spots’ on the next art journal page too.

She Needs Wide Open Spaces

I made this page in my art journal “De Zeeuwse Ziel” and added the light-blue stripes with the text to make the page match with the former page (and yes, the smear on the left page was an accident… I don’t mind though, the art journal is alive and these things can happen…)

And that’s it for today sweeties.
Have a wonderful week y’all.

WOYWW #332

Over the last weeks I noticed that my art journaling style is becoming looser, more free, more intuitive, more raw… it somehow started while I worked on a canvas (see this post) and that way of working continued in my journals. Here’s my latest spread in my journal “De Zeeuwse Ziel” (“Soul from Zeeland”)

Dynamics of Life and Death

My friend Lena gave me golden, copper and silver paint for my birthday. It was my wish to complete my collection of acrylics with those colors but Lena did not know that. How awesome is it when friends just seem to ‘feel’ what makes you happy! This art journal spread shows a little bit of gold and copper spots. Not too much (the ‘copper colors’ on this spread are mostly burnt sienna) because the paint is metallic and shiny, but by adding just a bit here and there I gave this page the finishing touch. I’m very pleased with this piece ánd with the paint, thank you Lena!

I have my radio on, I have my materials on the desk, I poured me another cup of coffee and despite the gray weather: it is going to be a beautiful day! Enjoy yours!

I only now notice, that I must have created this art journal page around the same time that I worked on my intuitive painting… the circles are on this page as well as on my painting. The painting that, by the way, is finished now.

 (Man at a Lake; acrylics on canvas; 40 x 50 cm – 15.7 x 19.7 inch)

In the last couple of days I created some more Soul Cards… I might show them to you eventually but not yet. It’s all new to me and I still have to ‘read’ the cards I created.

I can show you the ‘journal’  though, that I will use to take notes. I found an old, small ring binder and made a cover from a cut out image from a magazine and a text that Yvonne Koops stamped on paper for me. (I met Yvonne last Monday and after having coffee I admired her workspace… she has the most beautiful collection of stamps and when I fell for this sentiment she stamped it for me – thanks Yvonne, it fits perfectly!)

And that’s it for today sweeties.
No photo of my work desk, I skip this week of woyww as there’s nothing on my desk that’s worth showing ánd I am afraid I don’t have time in the upcoming days to visit the other woyww-participants.

Hope you all have an inspiring and save ‘spiritual’ (an/or creative) journey this week.

Here’s a challenge that I worked with:

In This Moment – We’re all taking a million photos with our phones. Scroll back and find one from a year ago today (or approximately.) Then take a selfie – and don’t get too hung up on it! Make a page about who you were at that moment and compare with who you are NOW. Design twist – can you find an interesting, novel way to incorporate arrows, geo-tags or other directional elements?

I started with carving an arrow stamp. I like how this one came out!

And here’s the page I made.

The photo in the bottom corner is from December 2013 – suffering from a burn out and living in a house that we had to sell without having a new place to live… I was really afraid we would end up on the street… the photo on the right top corner is  is right now… my beloved and I moved to Zeeland (the province I was born and raised) and although we live in a small apartment in a lousy neighborhood, I’m glad to be back ‘home’… (journaling in Dutch is about this) I stamped the arrows from ‘then’ to ‘now’. The photos are transferred onto images of clouds (dark clouds and blue skies…) I also used a little bit of Dylusions spray ink and a template on the background.

The other challenge that I used as a kick start for the next page was:

Sunshine – Use your spring colors (whatever those are to you) to create a tag or page as an ode to the warmer seasons!!!

I combined this with a Documented Life Project challenge

April 25
April Theme: Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)
Art Challenge: Inks
Journal Prompt: Before the Ink is Dry

I like how this page turned out: Sunny and happy!
I used spay ink (yellow, a bit of blue and greens), templates (dots, flower-circles and a hand cut silhouette of a woman), dictionary paper (the dress), water-soluble crayons and black & white markers.

I’m looking forward to the weekend, my friend (and her son) from Eindhoven will come visit and I plan some ‘free creating time’ on Sunday. I also have some fun things cooking for the next weeks… and I am working on ‘something’ that YOU might like too! More about that on Monday so… stay tuned! See ya then!

Yes, there are wholesalers that I know sell packages of gelatin powder, but in order to shop there you have to have a subscription which I have not. So.. what now?

Luckily, my former neighbor came to the rescue! I visited her in January and she had some gelatin powder left of which she gave me some…

… and a few days later I printed up a storm in my atelier!

The stack of mono prints to choose from is huge. I can use some as a background for my art journal pages, there are some lovely ones with images on it that I can use as postcards and there are a few prints that I think will be awesome to machine sew on.

There were three prints that had more of less the same colors and images (you always get a few of these ‘series’ with mono printing.) I put them together on the pages of my Zeeuwse Ziel art journal and they formed a triptych. (This journal has some folded pages bound in it to make double spreads.)

{Click the photo to enlarge for a better view}

The prints were a bit smaller than the pages of my journal. I painted the pages in my journal dark grey so they would form a frame around the mono prints. I glued the prints to the pages and used a black marker for some doodling to create contrast. The handwritten journaling added a bit more contrast to the pages. I finished it of with stamping white acrylic paint (using a toilet roll and bubble wrap.)

The textures and colors in this mono type are amazing! Take a closer look.

I’m pretty happy with my new stack of mono prints!

Oh, and it turns out that a friend of a friend has a subscription to a wholesaler – she already bought a package of gelatin powder for me and I can come pick it up tomorrow, YAY!

Busy, busy, busy… tomorrow starts my Top 2000 Creative & Musical blog party (join us if you are in for a crafty and musical week) and I am creating spreads with the Top 2000 songtitle list right beside me to choose the songs from…  my desk is stuffed with all kinds of materials I could probably need on my art journal pages (and there’s more in my closets, how many tools and materials can one have…???) I even needed to adjust the font on my labeled photo (smaller) to get the text on…

I hope you can still read it  (you can click on the photo to enlarge)

WOYWW #290

The spread I’m working on is with a song that will be on the radio on the third day of the Top 2000 so I blurred it for now (it will be published on my blog December 29.)

Next weeks’ Wednesday, the Top 2000 will still be in full swing and reach its climax on New Years eve, so today is the last photo of my workdesk for What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday this year. I usually take a blogbreak in January, but I definitely will be back to join woyww in 2015.
I wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful and creative New Year!

What’s On My Workdesk? Wednesday is a weekly blogseries/hop hosted by Julia in the United Kingdom and lots of crafty people share photos of their desks every Wednesday.

Here’s one last art journal page to close the ‘normal’ posts with this year…

Remember this background? (see this post)

Here’s the finished version (the text is from the song “Oceaan” by the Dutch band Racoon)

Enjoy today, enjoy tomorrow, enjoy the holidays and KEEP ON ROCKIN’ IN THE FREE WORLD!

I’m heading towards busy days – with all kinds of appointments and the Top 2000 Musical blog party just around the corner… If you’re in for a crafty and musical last week of the year, you better subscribe to my newsletter as I will send out one soon, explaining the Top 2000 blog party to you, or read last years’ blogpost about it.

So today’s What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday post is a rather short one.

What’s On My Workdesk? Wednesday is a weekly blogseries/hop hosted by Julia in the United Kingdom and lots of crafty people share photos of their desks every Wednesday.  Here’s a photo of my desk.

WOYWW #288

And here is a better photo of the art journal spread I’m working on.

The idea for this page came from a post/page I saw over at Michelle LaPoint Rydell’s blog here.
There were some things that I had to get off my chest and when I saw Michelle’s page I thought it was the perfect way to express feelings and journal about things that bother me without everyone being able to read it. It was a relief to get it out on paper. I have several ideas about which songlyric should go on top – hiding the journaling even further – but I haven’t made up my mind yet…

Do you ever want to journal about things that bother you, and how do you ‘hide’ it from your readers? I’d like to hear your solutions.

Thanks for stopping by my desk today, your visit is much appreciated since blogposts and comments are rare these days (it seems everyone prefers the quick and easy ‘liking’ on facebook instead of visiting blogs and reading posts…)

I’m rather late with my post today but everything is going in slow motion these days. I catched a cold yesterday and I feel all drowsy and sleepy – know the feeling? – and you wouldn’t believe the amount of paper towels I use during the day.  Blaaahhh…

However, I did not want to miss What’s On Your Desk Wednesday so I took a photo of my desk this morning, although there’s not much going on there right now. But come on in and see for yourself…

WOYWW #279

WOYWW  (“What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday”) is a weekly blogseries, hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. Hop on over to Julia’s blog to find the list of participants and visit crafty desks all around the world.

A couple of days ago, I practised working with oil pastels… I’m not very fund of the material and it has been quite some time since I used them, but I thought I’d give it a try again inspired by this post/video on Dirty Footprints Studio.

Middelburg Skyline

Well, I’m off to take it easy today (and the rest of the week!) – visit some of the participant’s blogs/desks, hang on the couch watching tv, read a book or maybe colour some more doodles in the colouring book. Thanks for stopping by. Have a good day y’all – don’t catch a cold!