That’s a song by John Lennon, and you can see on my desk photo that I’m working on a spread containing those lyrics.

WOYWW #574

DUTCH DARES
June challenge: Marriage
I am a guest-designer at Dutch Dares (scrapbooking) challenge group, and the June ‘dare’ is now up in the Dutch Dares community.  The theme for this month was “Marriage”. My beloved and I know each other since 1996 and live together since 1998, but we never married. I gave this particular challenge a twist and created this art journal spread.

The (white) journaling is the phrase the wedding servant in the Netherlands asks you when you marry: “… and do you faithfully declare that you will fulfill all duties that the law prescribes on the marital state.” My beloved and I never married; our answer is: “NO, our love cannot be prescribed by law.” (Imagine: they change the law and require you to do something, or live in a way, you don’t want to?)

And there’s this last thing I want to announce before I hit the ‘publish’ button… but it’s only for the Dutch

ONLINE WORKSHOP in JULI

Ik was het eerst niet van plan, om deze zomer een online workshop aan te bieden maar er kwam zoveel vraag naar “A Creative Art Journey” dat ik besloten heb deze workshop in juli weer aan te bieden. Deze keer ALLEEN IN HET NEDERLANDS, zodat je gewoon in je moerstaal kan kletsen op het forum. Er hebben zich al een aantal deelnemers aangemeld die staan te popelen om te beginnen, en JIJ kunt er ook nog gemakkelijk bij… het online klaslokaal is oneindig groot dus de gepaste afstand is gegarandeerd 😉 Mocht je niet op vakantie kunnen (of wil tijdens je vakantie via je laptop of mobiel geïnspireerd worden) dan is dit de ideale workshop!

Online workshop: A Creative Art Journey
Prijs: €45.00
Datum: 2 juli – 9 augustus 2020
.
Deze workshop combineert kunstgeschiedenis met scrappen/art journaling. Als je van art journaling en/of scrapbooking houdt en je zou eigenlijk ook best wel wat meer van kunstgeschiedenis willen weten, dan is dit de workshop voor jou!

In 12 lessen maak je kennis met 12 verschillende kunstperiodes. Iedere les behandelt een specifieke tijdperiode met de bijbehorende kunststijl, hoogtepunten en kunstenaars. Iedere les bevat diverse opdrachten – allen geïnspireerd op de betreffende kunstperiode – waaruit je kunt kiezen om mee aan de slag te gaan.

Het is niet nodig om extra spullen te kopen als je deze workshop wilt volgen. Je gebruikt de materialen die je in huis hebt en werkt op de manier die jij het prettigste vindt. Je kunt in een art journal (boek, schetsblok) werken maar ook op losse vellen, zelfs digitaal creëren is mogelijk.

Je kunt je HIER inschrijven

… and that’s it for today sweeties, have a nice week, be carefull and stay safe because these are “strange days indeed.”

First, there’s a photo of my workdesk

WOYWW #565

The spread is not finished by all means… I don’t even know if I like the portrait but it’s done now, so I probably leave it there. The spread needs journaling and I hope that will lift up the image.

DUTCH DARES

As you may have seen in former months, I make scrapbook layouts every now and then and I usually join in on a challenge because those challenges inspire me to get started. Last month I was asked if I would like to join the Design Team of one of those challenge groups: Dutch Dares. I felt honoured but didn’t want to say yes to the full DT-task. I may be out of a job right now, but when this whole Corona-isolation period is over, I will start at the Zeeuws Archief again which will leave me with less time to create. But right now I have time on my hands… so “Dutch Dares” and I agreed that I step in as a guest-designer for as long as I have the time. I am happy with this agreement.

Today the first DARE was published which I join as a guest designer. The challenge is to create with ‘SPORTS’.

I am not the sporty type but people who know me (or follow my blog) know that I LOVE to watch bicycling races. I looked forward to the new cycling season and even bought a magazine that has all the World teams, races and dates in it…. as you will understand: all races got cancelled now. For the challenge, I used that fact to create an art journal spread.

“… I looked forward to the cycling season…”

MAIL ART

In ‘normal times’ I see my mum and dad quite often and after two weeks of isolation I really miss hugging them. We do call more often of course but I thought it would be nice to create something to send to them. Especially after my mum said she would love to smoke a cigarette… (she quit smoking years ago but whenever she sees me, she smokes one or two of my cigarettes.)

Now that I cannot ‘use’ that cycling magazine to check the racing dates and all, it’s allowed for me to cut it up and use it for collage. So I created a postcard for my parents (and put some cigarettes for my mum in the envelope as well 😉 ) and at the same time I made a postcard for my son and his girl too.

The journaling on the card for mum and dad says something like: “There are many ways to lose ones breath. Smoking is the most pleasant way” and the card for son + girlfriend says “do not mind the time, it does what it does. Carry on.”

Sorry for not presenting you a lovely story or uplifting words or something… my brain is all hazy these days, but I hope you liked my art pieces. Thanks for stopping by, take care and stay safe!

Friday haiku

The photo was taken by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart.

Last weeken, I taught a creative workshop called “Vintage”, playing with paper and stuff inspired by old documents. Working in an archive means ‘getting inspired’ and I brought all that inspiration with me to this workshop…

The ladies made a “Lias” (bundle), Marie on the left made a small book and Sandra & Melo created marvelous spreads in their art journals. I posted photos of all the art that was made HERE.

I did have my ‘hand out’ ready before the workshop date, and enough examples to show the students, but the day before I created an art journal spread inspired by old document as an extra… just for fun.

Ancestor

The little photo (“Jan van Geen”) is an old soccer-card – I bought a bunch of those cards on a flea-market last Summer. Jan was a Dutch soccer player in the nineteen-fifties. The little card was the first thing to glue on this art journal spread, which grew from there.

Next is another art journal spread which I started during the workshop (while the ladies were busy creating) and finished when I got home.

Bespiegelingen (“reflections”)

The lady in Zeeland costume (not from ‘my island’ Walcheren though… I don’t know which region it was the women wore these ‘mirrors’ but the text I found, ‘reflection’, goes perfect with the picture. (From the tourist information website: “With each island community being isolated from the others, there were noticeable differences between their costumes. No wonder that Zeeland had more costume variations than any other province. Each island its own, with variations even between villages and localities.”)

Talking about costumes… here’s a photo of me in “Walchers” costume. It’s me on the left and an old photo of my great-grandmother “Maria Brasser-Maljers” on the right. She wore the traditional costume all her life… I put on the costume just once, for the photo, but the resemblance struck me right when I looked in the mirror.

And yes, women wore these costumes still when I was a kid… but the tradition died and these days the Zeeland costumes can only be seen on folkloristic events.

OK, enough with the history lessons now… I’ll go do something modern today. I have a friend coming over this afternoon to play in the atelier – bright colored paint and fresh paper will be involved! Have a nice day and weekend yourself, thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Je t’embrasse

Can you tell this desk was staged? Yes, you can… there was something I don’t want you to see (yet) on my desk so I put that aside to show what the mailman brought last week.

WOYWW #523

It came in all at once; can you imagine my face seeing the mailbox filled with not one, not two but THREE happy envelopes?! THANK YOU SO MUCH LADIES!

Next is an art journal page/collage that I made for a challenge at the “Dutch Collage Group.” In the Netherlands, there is a retail chain/supermarket where you can take a ‘free magazine’. (For the Dutchies: Albert Heijn’s “Allerhande”) The challenge was to get the montly magazine and create a collage using only the images in the magazine. Here’s my take on that challenge

Marmaid

That’s it for today lovelies… oh wait, one more thing:

The first Quirky Dutch Summer post is online: a tutorial on how to make a journal with canvas cover.

View my former post HERE if you’re interested.

And now I’m really signing off and get to work… thanks for stopping by. See ya!

Ok, done. So here I am, on this grey Wednesday morning, showing you a photo of my workdesk.

WOYWW #517

On my desk: the start of a new Chronicles art journal spread. I threw some random pictures onto the pages, nothing glued yet. That was yesterday, and today I don’t know which way this will go.

I did finish the spread I was working on last week.

The Chronicles of Marit 2019 – Week 16

I glued the “doll on rollerskates” a little bit too close to the edge but couldn’t pull it off without tearing it. Caro asked me last week where I found this image. I cut it from an art magazine. I have a bunch of art magazines in my stash that have both old/classic and modern art published in it. Those magazines are made of wonderful, glossy paper and all photos look sharp and bright, perfect to use for collage!

My ‘art outside the Chronicles’ (I have several journals that I work in, and I started working on two little canvasses too last week) show ‘old men’ lately… I don’t know what it is that makes me draw those pale faces with hollow eyes and a gloomy look (and maybe I don’t WANT to know either, because chances are that they are a projection of what I see in the morning when I look in the mirror *wink*) I started this spread when I stayed over at Melouise, a friend of mine who just moved and has her own atelier in the new house. She lives ‘two islands from here’ and we had to cross that long bridge, that is on the Chronicles page above, to get to her place. Her daughter of nine, Dana, is my ‘big little friend’ and I used pieces of old school-cahier-pages of Dana on this spread.

On a Tuesday

Last but not least, I want to point shout out the following:

QUIRKY DUTCH SUMMER 2019 STARTS ON JUNE 10th

it’s FUN, it’s CREATIVE, it brings you INSPIRATION and it’s FOR FREEEE!!!!

Quirky Dutch Summer is a blog series that runs in the Summer. During Quirky Duch Summer (or QDS) I publish special, inspirational posts in English and Dutch (!) on a weekly base. Posts filled with inspiration and short tutorials, so that you can keep the creativity flowing during the Summer months. I am not writing all of the Quirky series posts myself. I mobilized a number of fantastic artists who each add an inspiring blog post to the series. Some of them will be well known to you… click HERE to read more.

I am looking forward to warmer temperatures (it’s rather cold today!)
To wearing my boho skirt (almost finished with crocheting!)
To sunshine on my face and walking barefoot!

But let’s enjoy this day first and treasure each moment.

WOYWW #514

I remembered to take a photo of my workdesk yesterday afternoon, while I was in the midst of creating and who knew: I have an “exploding box” just like Angela (Felix the Crafty Cat.) That box is filled with little pieces of paper and as long as the lid fits – more or less – on the box, I don’t feel called to clean it out. Here’s the finished spread:

I Dream About Color

I like how this spread ‘grew’ and came together – there are days when I feel like wading through mud, trying to find the right pieces of paper, the right colors, the right materials to express what I feel… and then there are times like yesterday afternoon when I get into some kind of flow and the paper and I seem to communicate – having a dialoge. I add a piece, the spread speaks and says ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and I don’t even have to think, you know what I mean? Even the title dropped on my desk just like that. You know how I love texts/words on my pages, so when the spread was nearly finished I grabbed the folder in which I keep random cut-out sentences and words. I didn’t even have to look through the clippings: I opened the folder and this phrase came rolling out just like that. Perfect!

And now it’s time to hit the ‘publish’ button, pour me another cup of coffee and start visiting the other deskers from around the world – have a lovely day and I see ya in a minute!

Friday haiku

Photo made by my friend Lena Schreijenberg

I submit this haiku to Recuerda Mi Corazon where our lovely hostess Rebecca brings us all together to share a haiku on Friday: Haiku my Heart.

14-days Collage challenge

A few weeks back I joined an online ‘collage challenge.’ The ladies that ran that challenge gave you ‘something’ to add to your page every day. It’s not my normal way of creating ’cause I don’t like it much when I cannot think about the next step… but I dived in to see what it would bring me. I photographed each step so you can see it grow…

I made the above picture pretty big so you can see the text underneath each photo, but when I click on it on my own computer it keeps on showing up small… oh well, maybe you can zoom in on your computer/smartphone and if not, you get the picture of ‘growth’ don’t you?!

Here’s the last page again so you can at least get a good view of the finished collage spread.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today, enjoy your weekend.

My ‘low power mode’ gives me just enough energy to start with the ‘easy-does-it’ “thingie” that is on my desk today. I cannot show or tell you more about it than this detail photo, ’cause it is going to be a surprise for someone who reads this blog….

WOYWW #496

Last week, my ‘desk’ was a digital one as I worked on the ‘bonus’ for Effy Wild’s e-course Book of Days. (You know I am a ‘bonus artist’ in that e-course next year, don’t you?!) When it is my turn as a bonus teacher, I will treat the students on a long, inspiring ‘paper’. I call it that because it is an over-10-pages pdf-document that is something between ‘a book’ and a tutorial. Here’s a peep…

Book of Days start on January 1. If you register this month, you still pay the early-bird price of $99. After that, the price is $120. THIS IS THE LINK TO EFFY’S PAGE where you can find all the info and register.

Another fun event to get all exited about…. the Top 2000 blog party is coming up!!! (You know about my musical, creative and free Top 2000 blog party at the end of the year, don’t you? If not, hop to this page to read all about it ’cause it is FUN & for FREE and YOU ARE INVITED!!!) This year is also a Jubilee because it will be the 10th time that I organize the Top 2000 blog party! I’m working on something ‘special’ but I don’t know yet if that will succeed … keep your fingers crossed!

The party already started ~ a little bit ~ ’cause the list for 2018 is being composed this week and you can vote for your fave songs. Voting is very easy, even if you are not a Dutchie, and if you still need help; I explain how it works and translated the most important Dutch words from the ‘voting website’ for you. So even if you are English speaking, you can vote for your favorite songs to get in the list. For a step-by-step explanation go to this blogpost.

The facebook group related to my event is buzzing too these days… photos of top 2000 journals and voting lists are being shared and to make the countdown to December 25 (start of the Top 2000) extra special, I plunged into the archives and post a daily piece of art that was made by participants last year. Would you like to join the fun? Are you in need of some inspiration? You are welcome to join the Top 2000 blog party Facebook group!

I’m going to leave you with one last image… an art journal spread I created in October.

The little man looks a bit like I feel today… the only thing missing is a handkerchief. It’s a good thing you visit my blog digitally… that way I cannot spread the virus. Thanks for stopping by, enjoy your day and stay warm, don’t catch a cold!

(And to all those who didn’t win: bummer… but as of tomorrow, November 1, you can register for this year-long bootcamp and IF you plan to register, please consider to get there through the link in the side menu…  I get, what they call, “pizza money” when you register through my link. (I don’t like pizza that much though, instead I thought of a good bottle of wine, or two?!)

On to the normal stuff then ’cause it’s Wednesday, the regular ‘desk day’ but my desk is pretty empty this morning. I finished an art journal spread yesterday and cleaned up after it (you know me…;) ) The only evidence that I worked on something is this…

WOYWW #491

That little box contains fountain pen nibs – a lot of oldies (I think I got this box from my mum ages ago) and a number of new ones in several thicknesses that my friend Lena gave me for my birthday. I’m all into Indian Ink at the moment so this ‘set’ lives on my desk for now.

A spread in my art journal…

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 41

and a ‘black page’ from my miscellaneous art journal called Frustration

I haven’t shown a drawing in a few weeks, you thought I stopped with the drawings? Well, you’re right, sort of… I skipped drawing for a few weeks but I plan to pick it up again real soon – one drawing a week isn’t very hard to do after all.

Here’s the latest I made with the prompt “Draw your telephone”

After a (heavy!) rainy day this morning started with sunshine – the air is crisp, the woodpecker hammers his song into the trunk of the old oak and the day is calling me outside… I hope you enjoy your day as much as I am planning to!

Over the last weeks I didn’t spend much time in my atelier. Although it is the coolest space in the apartment, it was still too hot to go loose with paint and brushes. I could only work on pages in bits and pieces and created a collage page because it’s a technique that you can walk away from and come back to and add little bits every time. The finised piece was still on my desk this morning when I took this photo.

WOYWW #480

Here’s the spread in it’s full glory…

Rumours

I kept on going in my Chronicles art journal and I worked on those pages in a similar way… going back and forth adding stuff every once in a while. I am all up to date keeping this journal right up ’till week 32 but I won’t show you all the those spreads  today. Let’s keep this post (reasonably) short, as Julia – the lovely hostess of What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday – does not like long blogposts on Wednesdays (go HERE for explanation or if you want to join WOYWW.)

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 29

Thanks for stopping by today,
laugh at the clouds,
dance in the rain,
make a collage,
enjoy your day!