Is it Wednesday already?
OK then, time for “Tales from the Studio.”

Wanna know what’s going on in my crafty space?
Wanna see what’s on my workdesk this morning?
Come on in to my studio and enjoy!

Let’s start with looking at a golden oldie layout – lifted from one of my old scrapbook albums.

(I don’t create ‘traditional scrapbook layouts’ anymore but every Wednesday I dive into my albums and lift a ‘golden oldie.’ The layouts I pick are random, YOU – blogreaders – name the number of the album and layout to show.)

The request came from Neet who asked me to open album 7 and show Layout #7

Aaahhh… look at that!
Meet James!

You can really call this lay0ut an ‘oldie’ – I made it long before I started blogging and never showed it online. James was my pet. He came live with me in 1989, when he was only 4 weeks old. His mother had died short after giving birth and actually the kittens were too young to survive without her, but I wanted to try keep James alive and fed him with a pipette… He grew up to be a big, tranquil cat. He moved houses with me four times in sixteen years. Then a strange type of crust appeared on his nose… it turned out to be an incurable type of cancer and in April 2006 I had to let James put down to sleep. I do hope he is at the happy hunting-grounds – laying in the sun like he loved to do when he was alive.

Next, I have pages to show for Glue it Tuesday.
Week 4 of Glue it Tuesday, hosted by the lovely Aimee of Artsyville. If you like to cut and paste something – anything… come on over and play along.

I’m in this week!
Not with ‘box of longing’ collages on index cards today. This time I made pages in my grid journal. Does someone remember that journal? Anyway, I have this stack of mono types backgrounds that show gorgeous details, so I cut squares and made two pages.

Purple Haze

Yellow Submarine

I may have to work on them some more, especially the yellow page seems to be missing something (shadows? contours?)

Speaking of collages… I received this wonderful happy mail from Tammy Garcia yesterday including one of her famous little collages.

And yes… it ‘blew…’
In fact, it blew my mind!

Thank you so much Tammy!
Something happy is coming your way too 🙂

Last, as usual, I show you a photo of my desk.
I visited my parents last weekend and my mom had cleaned her studio (she’s a poet and writer of children’s books – find her website HERE.) She had a bunch of empty books and notebooks that she wanted to get rid off, and guess who took them home? HAhaa!

The books are still on my desk but that’s about all there is. Oh, and that one spread that still lays there from last week… I didn’t play in my studio since Saturday. So I zoomed out a bit to give you a wider look at the desk… there’s a lot going on on the side that I normally don’t photograph. So now you know what’s there 😉

WOYWW #201

The quirky abbreviation woyww stands for What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday. Every Wednesday, crafters from all over the world take a photo of their desk ‘as is’ and show it on their blogs. We then all gather and line up at Stamping Ground – where our host Julia keeps an eye on us.

Now I hope to find time to visit a lot of you woyww-ers today. The list is loooonggg, but I try to visit as many desks as possible.

See ya!

I felt a bit rusty – I’m not in the creating flow lately – so nothing better
then to take out the grid journal and start cutting paper.
The ‘grid journal’ is especially made for times like this – when the mind
isn’t in creating mode yet but the fingers itch…

I didn’t think about it much.
I put some brushstrokes (acrylic paint) on the background.
I cut squares of beautiful and textured paper and glued it on the page.
Just like that.
Just to please the eye.
To get in the flow.
To create
something
anything…

The haiku came with it – and I subscribe it to ‘Haiku my Heart Friday’.
Haiku my Heart is hosted by Rebecca, You can find the list with all
haiku participants on her blog Recuarda Mi Corazon.

With this grid page, the atmosphere was set.
The flow was there.
Here’s the other pieces I made.

..

Letters from the Wasteland – 10th letter

Size: 16 x 11 cm - 6.3 x 4.3 inch.
Materials used: gesso, acrylic paint, templates (to add texture
shapes to the gesso),textured paper scraps (the fabric circles),
alphabet stamps, glimmer mist, cut out text from an old book.)

Letters from the Wasteland – 11th letter

Size: 16 x 11 cm - 6.3 x 4.3 inch.
Materials used: gesso, acrylic paint, several paper scraps
(including the brown one on the right - the colour came out
a bit dark on the photo) bubble wrap plastic, template (square
grid at the bottom), cut out text from a book.

Both pieces contain of a lot of layers, which give them depth.
However, it is difficult to capture that on a photo… you might try
clicking on the images to enlarge for a better view.

One thing I want to point out to you before I go back to work-mode
(as there’s a lot that needs to be done before the weekend starts)

The past weeks, I taught the online workshop ‘Let it Loose’ to an
enthusiastic group of Dutch ladies (we’re heading near the end of
the workshop now.) The art they make with my lessons often leaves
me breathless. You can find a selection of their art pieces on the
website in the Public Gallery. It’s worth a look!

Thanks for visiting again dear ones.
Enjoy your weekend and see you next week!

[inlinkz id = 1]

From the song 'Love You More' by Racoon
For the complete song, click here)

This song kept playing in my head last week so I think it is time
to start posting again. Heya folks! Did you miss me?

I enjoyed the break I took from blogging.
I worked on articles for FEATURING, fooled around in my art journals,
practiced my drawing skills and overall enjoyed the relaxed feeling that
came over me after a few days. Funny, how keeping a blog is both nice
and pressuring… I know you all must feel it that way every now and then.
My advise? Take a break – I’m sure you come back with a lot of new energy
after a while. I know I do!

Soooo… I won’t show you all that I created at once (and some things I won’t
show you at all: ‘doodles’ for practicing, cards and a folder that I forgot to
take pictures from and send away… )

Today is haiku day – so let’s start with that shall we?
Enjoy!

Last week, temperatures dropped in the Netherlands. Just when I thought
Winter was almost over, the wind turned east and brought frost… and I mean
‘real, serious frost’. We Dutchies are weird people, because every time winter
sets in the whole country starts talking about a ‘Elfstedentocht’.
(‘Eleven Cities Tour‘).

The last time this race was held, was in 1997. The ice must be really thick
to make this happen but lots of people already got their skates out of the
drawer and are preparing. (No, not me. I hate sports! I watch it on TV, Ha!)

Anyway, I watched a movie that was made about the toughest tour in history,
called ‘The Hell of 1963’ and I recommend you ‘foreigners’ to watch the trailer
here. (I know it’s in Dutch, but the scenes show ‘Netherland at it’s best=cold’)
I wrote the haiku after I’d seen the movie.

For more haiku and photos, find the other Haiku my heart Friday
participants on Rebecca’s blog Recuaerda mi Corazon.

See how much I missed you?
I start rambling right away, there’s sooo much to tell you!

Like how I practiced drawing.
I started with sketching self portraits in my ‘grid journal’.
(I sketched after photos)

Self portraits in pencil

(Size: 15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch)

… and then some little sketches ended up on my ‘weekly page’

The Chronicles of Marit 2012 – Week 3

(Size: 24,5 x 49 cm - 9.65 x 14.86 inch)

The text is all ‘venting’ (as you English speaking folks call it so nicely)
It’s not that there were serious problems or that I was angry or something,
but still I find it too private to publish so I blurred it all…

… but here’s some text that doesn’t need blurring

The Who – See Me, Feel Me

(Size: approximately 30 x 15 cm - 12 x 6 inch)

No, these words are not printed!
I painted it and used a black sharpie for outlining the words.
It is a page in the Album Cover Art Journal – that still has a lot of
blank pages – but I might finish it this year.

Here’s another photo.

This journal is made out of old album covers and extra cardboard pages.
It can be folded in strange ways, and there are smaller flaps (like the one
I created the ‘Who page’ on.)

That’s all I want to show you today.
I’ll be back next Tuesday (as usual) with more pages and art.
I loved my ‘blog vacation’ but I’m glad I’m back!

Have a nice weekend you all.
(OH, and Dutchies: stay warm!)

Haiku My Heart is hosted by the wonderful Rebecca.
Click on the link to find the list of participants who published a haiku today.

I ‘washed away’ the strange quietness in the house this morning by cleaning
the oak floor in the living room. Ha!

I made two pages last week that I can show you.
I started this first one a while ago, and finally finished it last week.
It’s a bit of a chaotic page – maybe because there was a long pause in between?
Anyway, here it is.

(Miscellaneous big art journal: 25 x 35 cm - 9.8 x 13.8 inch)

Used materials: gesso, acrylic paint, Adirondack spray ink, stamps,
Stazon ink, cut out images and texts, sharpies, template (the birdies)

My beloved and I gave my son a famous, big cookbook now that he will
live (and cook!) on his own. It’s the same book I got when I moved out
of the house long ago, and it includes everything: from baking an egg to
preparing a Christmas dinner. It’s a great book!
(for the Dutchies: het ‘Wannee kookboek‘)

Besides that, he asked me to write down MY recipes of the dishes he likes
very much (Macaroni with sauce, paste with broccoli, tofu-omelet) so
now I’m working on a little ‘mummy’s cookbook’ for him.
I used a lot of happy, patterned paper and the left overs where too cute to
throw away. I made the following grid-page with the small pieces.

Grid: Nout’s recipe book

15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch

… and that’s it for today folks.

Nothing much happened this week.
Well, this:

• I went to the hairdresser for the first time in over a year!
• The (washi)tape I ordered came in yesterday! WOWEEE!
• I shopped to get all the materials for the Workshop weekend by the Sea.
• I shopped with my son to get him some things for his new room (small
  things, like towels and stuff. He’s still looking for a cheap bench, chairs,
  maybe a dining table and a fridge.)
• I received more submissions for the FEATURING magazine which
  I had to read/overview. (Due date for submitting to the team ends on
  November 15th. Submitting your artwork is ongoing. On the website
  – under ‘submissions’ – are the categories you can submit art and/or
  poems –  so go ahead and surprise us with your writing and/or art!)

I hope your weekend will be filled with love and happiness!
(I know mine will! My son is ‘coming home’ this afternoon!)
Enjoy, dear ones, enjoy!

M: ‘Yes, who am I speaking to?’

R: ‘Hi sissy, it’s your brother here’

M: ‘Aaah, hi bro! How are things in Canada?’

R: ‘We’re alright, but what I’m calling for: I want to thank you!’

M: ‘???? Thank me? For what?’

R: ‘For that piece on your blog the other day, the Pink Floyd page.
That song, and especially that line is one of my faves. I was really
moved by your artwork.’

M: ‘That’s the nicest compliment someone ever gave me!
– Thank YOU brother!’

(A few weeks after this conversation it was my brother’s birthday. The piece
he was talking about was a page in my ‘album cover’ journal that I didn’t
want to tear out, but I made him a similar art piece on a cardboard panel.
He received it last week, so I can show it to you now.)

(approximately 20 x 32 cm - 7.9 x 12.6 inch)

..

I put the two pieces next to each other, so you can compare them.

They are very similar, but I like the one on the right (that I send to my
brother) the most! The colours and composition are more balanced, the
letters stand out more and the statue looks better on this piece than the
bigger head sculpture on the left… What do you think?

My thoughts last week were dominated by the imminent move of my son,
so I pictured him with wings on my weekly page…

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 42

(23 x 31 cm - 9.1 x 12.2 inch)

(I transferred a photo of him onto the page, but it came out blur.
I outlined the image with a black marker and coloured his clothes
with Caran D'Ache crayons. It's hard to capture his expression with
just one or two lines, so his face came out a bit 'weird'. To me it
still looks like my son though!)

Now that a lot of work has been done and deadlines been met, I relaxed
yesterday by flipping through my stack of ‘National Geographics’.
Trying to find the creative flow I dearly missed in the last couple of weeks
– but trying not to force things – I decided to start easy. I cut out several
photos that pictured ‘earth’ and made this page in my grid journal.

Grid – Earth

15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch

I have some inspiring ideas to work on this week, but I don’t know if I
get it all done. I plan to just take it easy and see what this week will bring.
I wish you all a nice week too!

NOTE
I get a lot of spam lately, therefor I’ve added an additional operation for
visitors to the comment section… please be sure to cross the box saying
you are NOT a spammer!

..

When I uploaded
the images for this
post, I noticed the
work is all focused
on red (hence the
title). I wasn’t even
aware of that when
I worked on these
pages!

This is a detail
photo of a page I
made in the ‘grid’
journal last week.

Can you tell what it is yet?
(You can click on each photo in this post to enlarge)

It may get clear here… yep, that’s me!

Self portrait in pixels

15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch

The grid is 3 x 3 mm - 0.12 x 0.12 inch
Used materials: Ruler, pencil, Caran d'Ache watersoluble
crayons & small brush

This page isn’t artistic at all – I made it because my mojo was dropped
to a low, just to keep my hands busy. I edited a photo in Photoshop
and copied the pixels onto the page. A bit like a cross stitch pattern.

It’s funny though, how the portrait comes to live when you look at it
from an angle!

I made the next art journal page earlier in the week

Somewhere Down the Crazy River

29,7 x 21 cm - 16.9 x 8.3 inch.

Used: gesso, acrylic paint, sequin waste, Ranger Adirondack
Color Wash, 'fiber paper', pages from an old encyclopedia,
distress ink, Indian ink, bamboo dip pen, Caran d'Ache
watersoluble crayons, white Sharpies

And here’s for Haiku my Heart

I’ve written better haiku’s – but I post this one anyway.

Haiku My Heart is a wonderful place where people from all over the world
post beautiful photos and and write amazing Haiku. It is hosted by Rebecca
and you can find the list of participants on her blog recuerda mi corazon.

I wave a ‘red farewell’ to you too… enjoy the weekend and see you next week!

I thought it would be fun to tell you the inspiration-sources with each
piece I made last weekend.

(Remember you can click on each and every image to enlarge)

Inspiration source: Michelle LaPoint – Rydell

In my last post I commented that I was working on a page in my
‘album cover journal’. Michelle LaPoint – Rydell integrated album
sleeves in her art journals a while ago, and when I saw her doing this
I thought it would be neat to make something similar in my album
cover journal.

I journaled all bands and singers that I love or have dear memories of…
The old record (eeckk – James Last!) is there for the colour. I want to
replace it with another one from a more appropriate musician when I
find a label in the right colour.

Favourite music

approximately 30,5 x 30,5 cm - 12 x 12 inch

Used materials/techniques: Basic - Acrylic paint.
Journaling/doodling - poster paint sharpies.

Inspiration source: Daniella Hayes

In this blogpost, Danielle talked about a zentangling group she joined
and how much she’d learn there. I clicked on a link she provided – from
there on I clicked some more links and I ended up finding this tutorial
about paradox zentangling. I just HAD to try it in my grid journal!
(If you look well, you can discover a grid of 9 squares on this page)

Paradox – zentangles

15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch

Used materials/techniques: Pentel: Tradio brush pen

Inspiration source: Scrapbookers Anonymous

Theresa and Lea started this challenge blog and wow – that was
a year ago already! Scrapbookers Anonymous is celebrating the event
with mini challenges al through the Month. The challenges are thought
up by different team members and some come with tutorials as well.
(See for example this tutorial and challenge, made by my friend Lena)

I made the next page especially for this challenge that was provided
by Theresa but in fact, almost all my art work fits the challenge:
no photo’s, journaling is required and use your stash.

29,7 x 42 cm - 11.7 x 16.9 inch

Used materials/techniques: old book pages, gesso, Ranger:
Adirondack color wash spray ink, self made mask, Caran d'Ache
Neocolor II: watersoluble crayons, hand curved stamps

(My ‘weekly page’ almost always fits the above challenge and this week
is no different. So hey Theresa & ‘Anonymous team:  I also submit the
chronicles page ‘week 36’  – it has more of the ‘journaling’ you asked for
in the challenge as well, so it may even fit better?!)

Inspiration source: LIFE!
and uhmm… Teesha Moore, Phinner, National Geographic

Teesha:  making borders out of old scraps of pattern papers may not be
exclusively Teesha’s idea, but I picked it up at her blog first.

Phinner: who send me the postcard with the funky ‘mardy grass’ dancer on it!

National Geographic magazines: My aunt gave me a whole bunch of these
magazines some years ago and I still use them a lot! There’s always a fun and
fitting image somewhere on one of the pages. I think I flipped through these
magazines a thousand times by now and it keeps on inspiring me!
This time, I cut out the photo of the meerkats.

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 36

(23 x 31 cm - 9.1 x 12.2 inch)

Used materials/techniques: gesso, acrylic paint (scraped upon
the page with an old credit card) scraps of paper for the border,
Glitz: teeny alpha stickers, cut out postcard ('dancer'), cut out
image from NG (meerkats) stamps (for the dates), poster paint sharpie

..
I have more work to show, but I will save that for another day.
Let’s say: Friday?!
Same time, same place?
See you then!

I’m full of energy and have a lot of plans – both big and small – which will
unfold this coming season. One of the smaller plans was, to bind a book
with the blackboard covers that Phinner send me some time ago. (Thanks
sweetie!) I stood in doubt about the shape though… the blackboard covers
were square (6 x 6 inch) and I somehow have difficulties working on a square
surface lately. I thought about cutting it to a rectangular shape but then
again: it would be a shame to make it smaller…

…last weekend I found the solution to this ‘pr0blem’.

It shot through my mind that there’s one thing that really NEEDS a square
page to work on: grids! I’ve seen a lot of grids popping up on blogs in the
last weeks (Julie, Annemarie) and while thinking about it, I got more and
more excited. A little book filled with grids would be lovely to work in ‘on
the sideline’. No ‘heavy’ journaling, no deep feelings or raw themes…
just plain, simple grids to fill in, to keep my hands busy on a rainy day!

I started binding the small book right away!
Here’s the cover.

(Note: You can click on any image in this post to enlarge)

("Grids-journal": 15 x 15 cm - 6 x 6 inch)

I used long pieces of ribbon for the binding, so that I could use the extended
parts to turn into a grid on the front cover. The lemon-green chipboard alpha’s
have been in my stash forever… they really shine against the blackboard!

I already knew what I wanted to do on the first page: letters!
I’m a letter-junk. Drawing letters, writing, reading… I can get exited just
from seeing a nice font. I brushed watercolour paint on the page to give it
some colour, sketched my first grid and draw an alphabet.

I didn’t use an existing font, I didn’t think to hard about it…
I just sat at the table and sketched a letter in each square with a soft pencil.
After the sketching, I traced the shapes with my dip pen and Indian ink.
It felt a bit like zentangling: meditative!

So here it is: my self made alphabet!

Grid: Alphabet

Later I thought that these letters should be fun to carve stamps from too.
I might even do that sometime!

I couldn’t get enough of playing with my grids so after I finished the alphabet,
I drew another grid. This time, I choose to fill it with faces. I had a fun time
flipping through my old magazines, cutting out small faces and ‘puzzling’ them
into a nice mosaic.

Grid: Faces

More ideas swirl through my brain now.
I hope I bound enough pages into this book to make all those grids that I
can think of. (Oh what the heck! If there aren’t enough pages in this book,
I can always make a second ‘grid-journal’.)

By the way: I think filling grids this way will also be a fun thing to do for
the ones who lost their mojo. It’s a structured technique, it doesn’t require
much thinking, you keep your hands busy and still you play with colours
and shapes… try it!

You all know this: each weekend I finish my ‘weekly page’.
This weekend was no different, here it is

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 35

(30 x 21 cm - 11.8 x 8.3 inch)

I somehow got tired of making collages like this one for a while.
It’s been Months I think. But last week, a collage-lady appeared on this page.
Oh, OK. She can stay.
The sewed squares (what IS it with squares and me today?!) are made by Rosie.
Thanks dear, they look wonderful on this page!!!

Last but not least: I have been chosen to be in the Altered Page’s
“Style File” this week.

Some of you might know/visit Seth and his blog The Altered Page already
(if not: pay his blog a visit, it’s worthwhile!) Style File is the 5th edition of
The Pulse — The State of the Art — a survey in words and pictures of the
online artist community.

“The Pulse is a collaborative project that aims to introduce you to new
artists, help you get to know familiar faces even more, and allow you
access into the creative hearts and minds of a very talented crew of
individuals. More than 130 artists have answered a series of questions
which make up The Pulse. Their responses will be presented in a series
of online posts which will run every Sunday.”

When I look outside, more grey clouds seem to appear.
I think I will turn on the lights in the living room and spend the rest
of the day at the big dining table, creating.

Have a wonderful week dear ones, stay warm!