Today is Wednesdays and you know what that means: ‘Tales from the Studio’ – including a photo of my workdesk.

Let’s start with a photo from my desk – I don’t think I ever had my desk photographed so messy!

(“why a picture of your desk” you may ask? That’s because of Julia from Stamping Ground.
Click the link to find out all about woyww and join the fun!)

WOYWW #248

And next… something completely different from art journaling or carving stamps…
It’s been a while since I made ATCs, but last month – when I enjoyed a ‘crafting afternoon’ with my neighbour-friend – I grabbed back to that tiny size and created this series:

Thermosfles – Vondeling – Voortplanting (Thermos – Foundling – Procreation)

… and one more

Mosaic

… I liked working small again! I found it a pleasant alternation from the art journal pages I usually work on. It also helped me to discover and develop new ideas… now that’s a bonus isn’t it?!

Have a good day ya-all,
make an ATC!

Thanks everyone, for the nice compliments about my newly-designed website (for the ones who haven’t seen it yet: I re-newed and re-designed my website. I also transfered the ‘about’ page, other information and the photoalbums with my art work from my blog to my website.)

Today is Wednesdays and you know what that means: ‘Tales from the Studio’ – including a photo of my workdesk.

Let’s start with a photo from my desk and how it lays waiting for me this morning…

(“why a picture of your desk” you may ask? That’s because of Julia from Stamping Ground.
Click the link to find out all about woyww and join the fun!)

WOYWW #246

Some may remember the ‘Grid journal’ that lays on my desk today (all posts are in this category) but it’s been almost a year since I worked in it. This little journal, however, is my ‘go to’ when I’m about to loose my Mojo and because that feeling was creeping on to me last Monday, I pulled out the journal and started cutting out random pictures (‘eyes’) to keep that little devil at a distance. I think it worked!

Six weeks passed since 2014 started. This new year is on it’s way… and so is my Chronicles art journal. Here are the pages from the first weeks:

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 1

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 2

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 3

… and that’s it for today folks. The sun is coming out just as I type this and I am longing for some fresh air… a long walk in nature is what I can do with so I’m outta here. Enjoy your day!

Now that I’m back to blogging I of course am back on Wednesdays too with a ‘Tale from the Studio’ – including a photo of my workdesk (hello WOYWW-ers – good to see you again!!!) In this case, even two photos! Come on in and I’ll take you for a tour…

I told you already: my blogbreak did not mean that I took a ‘creating break’ also… I kept on working in my “Chronicles” (I will show you the new journal that I bound for 2014 and its first pages next Monday, I also plan to write a blogpost about my ‘One Little World for 2014″ then… have you choosen a word for this year? Do you think about it still… live by it even? I’d like to know your word!!!)

My desk today shows the latest project I’m working on: a small book for Project Mailart Books. (I see only now that I shuffled the words of that title on my desk-photo…) I joined the project a while ago and I received a cute little book from the founder/owner Ed to work in. When I saw that booklet, an idea came to mind right away because I’d recently seen my neighbour making monoprints with oil paint on thin paper. The paper that the booklet was made of, was very thin so I decided to go for it! I went to my neighbour-friend, who gave me a short ‘private workshop’ on how to make monoprints with oil paint. I made some test-pages first (see photo) and when those were to my satisfaction, I cut up the booklet and started the ‘real work’ on those pages. I even added an extra ‘tool’ in my studio (see second woyww-photo) to hang the pages to dry and help me work efficient…

That was a while ago. The monoprints fully dried and this week, I started on putting the pages together. My desk looks like this today:

WOYWW #245  (Click the link to see what WOYWW stands for…)

Here’s a second ph0to, showing the other corner and desk in my studio. You can see how I stretched a line to hang the monoprints to dry (oil paint takes ages to fully dry! The first test with oil paint mono prints failed miserable because I took the prints off the line too soon…the images smeared and made stains all over! Lesson learned: I left the final pages to dry 2 weeks, to make sure they would not stain!)

I cannot leave you without any art today, so here’s a Mixed Media piece I made last week.

We Practiced Intimacy

I love that title – a sentence I found in a magazine – and that’s not the only thing I love about this piece… the surface shows such beautiful details when you look up close… here’s a detail photo. This is what gesso does when you put a heatgun on it… bubbles!

The sun is shining in the Netherlands, it looks a bit like Spring is coming (lilac crocusses in the garden!) but it’s still cold… I hope you “Brits” are safe and dry. If you’re under water… hang in there, better times will come!

See you all Friday with a found poem.

It is the last Wednesday this year that I will share my desk… because next week, on X-mas day, all hell will break loose on my blog as the Top 2ooo Musical Blog Party starts December 25th! (And as far as you did not know yet: YOU too are invited to join the party!)

But today is still ‘normal,’ so come on in and I show you a golden oldie scrapbook layout and of course a photo of my desk! Oh, and I throw in a brand new art journal page also…

Let us start with a “Golden Oldie” layout.

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

Today’s request came from Nan G. from Froggy Designs who asked me to publish Layout No. 4 from Album 4.

I found a very appropriate layout (spread) – at least the time of year is right – because the spread is themed New Years Eve 2006… but I also find it a very boring spread! I made it in the ‘early years of scrapbooking’ and there’s not much to see but a few photos (of which I blurr some too, because I don’t want to put the face of a friend online without permission.)

New Years Eve 2006

In the same album, in the plastic covers before this spread, there’s layout #3 and that one is, if possibly, even more appropriate… Since I am looking forward to next week and have music on my mind all day I show that one too!

Listening to the Top 2000 (December 2006)

The official Top 2000 list for this year will be announced next Monday… which is rather late, as in former years they published the official list in the first week of December already, and I/we could start creating much earlier!

However, that is beyond my control. I will publish the link to the list of this year – along with all the info about my Top 2000 Musical Blog Party – as soon as it is made public ( Monday) so we can start to create to the music right then and there!

And here is the last photo of the year of my desk how it looked this morning.
This photo is taken for “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday,” Julia’s weekly event. On woyww-day, crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. Hop on over to Julia’s blog Stamping Ground to find out all about it.

WOYWW #237

I did not plan to send out Christmas cards this year, but last week I decided to create at least a few cards to send to my dearest loved ones and family. I hope to finish these later this week and send them before the New Year.

And here’s my latest art journal page, in the Zeeuwse Ziel art journal. This page is inspired by the Dutch song (an oldie from 1968)  Waterdrager by Boudewijn de Groot

Waterdrager

I wish you all a nice, bright week and – in case you are ‘not around’ before Wednesday: happy holidays!
Hope to see (a lot of) you next week to play along at least one time with the musical Top 2000 party… (yep, again I mention it… can you tell I am looking forward to this event??!!!)

I wasn’t around for WOYWW last Wednesday
but today I am, with a short ‘tale’ from my studio
and only one photo. But hey, that is how our
lovely woyww-hostess Julia likes it anyway…

…so come on in to see what’s on my desk today.

There were no requests for a “Golden Oldie” layout – so I skip that today.

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

Any requests for next week maybe? Let me know…

..

And here is a photo of my desk how it looked this morning, taken for “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday.” (WOYWW is Julia’s weekly blog hop and it is THE event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. Hop on over to Julia’s blog Stamping Ground to find out all about it)

WOYWW #236

I feel like a few things on my desk need further explanation.

• The new ‘Chronicles’ art journal. When you are a regular follower, you know that I keep a weekly art journal, called: The Chronicles, for a few years now. It is a diary-like journal in which I create weekly spreads (see all former ‘Chronicles’ in this gallery – all galleries are in the top menu of this blog.) Because the year is winding down and it is only a few weeks left before the new year starts, I needed a new journal. I always create/bind my own journals and I choose a happy and ‘light’ colour for the cover and binding this time… but more about that all in a next post..

• About the stash of monotypes: my neighbour/friend Miriam and I had a ‘monotype-date’ yesterday… I brought my homemade gelatin plate to her place and we had a lovely and inspiring afternoon. I came home with a bunch of ‘background’ monotypes that I plan to use in my art journals and the intention of us both to get together for a creating session’ more often in the future.

And that’s it for today – sh0rt and sweet.
Thanks for stopping by and have fun visiting all the other desks around the world!

I skipped blogging last Wednesday but today I am back with – as the title suggests – a very special tale from my studio… so put on the music and do the happy dance with me. This is what I am so happy about:

See that? That is my name there, on the index page of a book… and see all those numbers behind my name? They point to the pages I can be found. Pretty impressing huh?!! The ‘double pages’ in the book show photo’s of me and/or my work and the single numbers point to pages where a quote of me can be found…  I’ll show you some glimpses at the end of this post but there’s more to show today, so come on in and enjoy!

A “Golden Oldie” layout to start with…

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

This request came from Bonnie Leukert. Bonnie found me/my blog via my facebook page, and she choose album 7 – layout 11 as her birthday is July 11th.

Mother & Son

Isn’t this the sweetest layout? Maybe a bit too sweet for my likes – I do not like using flowers in my work at all… and I honestly don’t know where this came from… but the layout dates December 2007 and I tried all kinds of things back then… that should explain it. My son was 15 at the time this photo was taken and it’s one of my fave pictures. He is now 21 years old and has a beard, ha! (Which makes me think: I should have our photo taken again, before he shaves that beard off.)

And here is a photo of my desk how it looked this morning… well, I cheated a little bit because the Mixed Media book wasn’t there (the rest was.) I placed the book on the table on purpose. The photo is taken for “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday.” WOYWW is  and event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. Never heard of it? Hmmm… hop on over to Julia’s blog Stamping Ground to find out then ’cause everyone is invited to join.

WOYWW #234

And here… as promised… a glimps of “my” pages in the book.
(…and no, I don’t own two copies of the book… I ‘tricked’ this photo to show both spreads.)

The book is titled: The Mixed-Media Artist [Art Tips, Tricks, Secrets and Dreams from Over 40 Amazing Artists] and this group of artists is brought together in the book by Seth Apter from The Altered Page. There are indeed fabulous artists in this book and I find it very inspiring to see and read about all those inspirational individuals who share their thoughts, dreams and works. I am so proud to be published in their amazing company!

One last thing: I joined Free Art Friday on facebook…

Here’s a bit of an explanation coming from SCOTT WONG, the artist who owns/runs the Free Art Friday – Wisconsin page.

“This is it. The revolution of all revolutions. The movement of all movements. The day where every street corner in every community in every city within every state is flooded with art.

[…] On Friday, Nov. 29th, 2013 a.k.a. BLACK FRIDAY, I want every creator, every artist, every painter, every photographer and sculptor, inker and anyone else who does even the faintest idea of art participating. […] Do a piece of art and leave it on the streets in a public spot for a random stranger to find, take home and love.[…]”

I like the idea so I am making a piece of art that I will leave on a public place for someone to take home for free next Friday…

Wish you all a beautiful and artful day!

Is it Wednesday? Time flies.
Time to get into the studio then! Come on in and I show you a golden oldie scrapbook layout and of course you get to take a peek at my desk! Oh, and let’s throw in a brand new art journal page also…

Let us start with a “Golden Oldie” layout.

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

The next request came from Ali Wade who commented “I would love to see LO No.13 from Album 3.” When I flipped through the album, this is what I found…

The Plane, the Plane

Aaahhh… this really is ‘old school scrapbooking’… not much embellishments or ‘nonsense’ on this spread – just plain and simple photos to preserve a memory. On July 5th 2005, my son turned 13 years old. As a present, his dad gave him a scenic flight above the city. Knowing that the little plane would also bring him over our house, my beloved and I painted his name in big letters on the square that lies behind our house…. We just finished painting it, when we saw the little plane coming. (Oh, and in case you were wondering: we used whitewash for the lettering so it disappeared with the first rain-shower.)

And here is a photo of my desk how it looked this morning, taken for “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday.” (WOYWW is Julia’s weekly blog hop and it is THE event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. Hop on over to Julia’s blog Stamping Ground to find out all about it)

WOYWW #232

Last week, I played with my home made gelatin plate and created a lot of monotypes. I experimented with using stencils from this book together with the gelatin plate… most images on the stencils were too big or had too small ‘holes’ to use with the paint, but the one with the head of a man worked just fine. I used the print on this art journal page and together with the handwritten journaling it turns out into this ‘heavy’ and raw art journal page.

Psyche

Hope you all have a ‘light week.’

Oh, and for Dutch people: voor de live workshop op 6 December in Eindhoven
zijn nog maar een paar plaatsen beschikbaar… wees er dus snel bij.
Je kunt alle info hier op de website vinden.

It is Wednesday again! I am a bit late today but I do not want to miss another woyww, so come on in to see a golden oldie scrapbook layout, a new art journal spread and of course a photo of my desk!

Let us start with a “Golden Oldie” layout.

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

The request came from Krisha, and she asked me to open album 5 and show layout #21

Sunday Morning

There’s not much to tell about this layout… it is from October 2009 but I still like my Sunday Mornings to be like this (one thing differs now-a-days… I don’t smoke anymore!)

And here is the photo you are all waiting for: my desk this morning, shared for “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday.” (WOYWW is Julia’s weekly blog hop and it is THE event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. Hop on over to Julia’s blog Stamping Ground to find out all about it)

WOYWW #231

My friend Anne-Marie, who started art journaling only a few months ago, came by to visit me yesterday. She gave me those tiny bottles of acrylic paint (they’re lovely to make ‘thick lines’ and borders, I already tested it!) and that foam stamp. Thanks so much sweetie! After tea (and cookies!) and talk, we went upstairs to my studio where I showed her what you can do with Dylusion inks. When we talked about transfering, I showed her that too… and so the desk surface got filled with ‘stuff’ that was still there this morning.

It has been a while since I showed an art journal page in my Wednesday-post… but here is one.

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 44

Last week, I did not manage to visit other desks for woyww… I did not even visit the people that came to visit me… SHAME ON ME! I’ll make it up to you by finishing this post right now and start visiting the other participants… I hope to see as much of you as I can this afternoon so keep an eye on your comments ’cause – yeeehaaaaa – I’m on my way!

I wasn’t around last Wednesday but I am in the studio today, so come on in to hear my tale (and see my latest art.)

As always: let’s start with showing you a “Golden Oldie”

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

IKE requested the golden oldie layout that I am about to show by saying: “I would like to make a request please… ALBUM 5… No. 5 since 5 is my lucky number.”

I found one of my fave scrapbook layouts there: Dialogue

There’s quite a story to this layout!
You can find that, along with the complete ‘dialogue’ text and detail photo’s, in this old blogpost from December 2008.

If YOU want to request a ‘golden oldie’: you can find the list of layouts to choose from HERE. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open up and which layout you want me to show next time…

Wednesday is also another “What’s On My Work Desk? Wednesday.” WOYWW is Julia’s weekly blog hop and it is THE event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks. So let us take a look at my desk today.

WOYWW #230

See that book on the left? It is the Dutch edition of Dawn DeVries Sokol‘s book “Art Doodle Love” (The Dutch version is called “This Is Me,”  which is totally weird as that is also an English title. Why translate a book into Dutch and give it ANOTHER ENGLISH title???) Anyway, I had a voucher left over from my birthday and I decided to buy this book. I just had to have it – and that has a special reason because last week I received an email from Dawn saying:

Hello! One or more of your pages have been selected for inclusion in my next book, tentatively titled “A World of Artist Journal Pages”.

WOWZAH!! This is some news – and I received that email only a few days before my  post about me being published in THIS BOOK came online. Yes, I feel blessed and honoured!

Now you would think that all the excitement lead to the next, bright, spread in my art journal that I am about to show. These pages indeed look bright and happy. However, they are from the week before…

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 42

I hope your day (week!) is bright and happy!

P.S. Thanks to all who send me emails to check on me and my family after the storms that hit the Netherlands. The storm mainly hit the coastline – the west of the Netherlands – and since I live more inland, we did not have the heaviest wind overhere. My beloved and I even went for a long walk across the meadows – walking on paths with big trees growing next to it – enjoying the wind. We learned only later that the storm had been that bad and that accidents had happen in Amsterdam… but we are fine here, we do not even miss a roof tile…

*****Please support FEATURING magazine.
Donate a tweet or facebook status update here: http://thndr.it/15OjQip

Today is another Wednesday so grab a cup of tea – or maybe hot chocolate – curl up on the couch and listen to my…

 ..

“Golden Oldies”

(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 – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – to avoid that you name layouts that have already been requested, you can find a list showing the ‘free’ numbers to choose from on this page.

Because nobody requested a golden oldie scrapbook layout last week, I choose one myself. I went back to my early blogging years to see what I posted on October 16 (today’s date.)
I started blogging in 2008, but that was in November… so I moved on to the next year and found a post on October 16th, 2009 This was the scrapbook layout I showed back then:

Music tapes

[This layout was made from a sketch. You can find that sketch, as well as more detail photos of this layout, in the old blogpost.]

This layout is #18 stored in album 6. If YOU want to request a ‘golden oldie’: you can find the list of layouts to choose from HERE. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open up and which layout you want me to show next week…

Now that we are in the studio… let us take a look at my work desk because it is yet another “What’s On My Work desk? Wednesday.” WOYWW is Julia’s weekly Wednesday blog hop and it is THE event where crafty and artistic individuals around he world share pictures of their desks.

WOYWW #228

Ha… not much going on here… but take a turn and look to the right…

… there’s a LOT going on on the closet there.

So this is where the action is taking place today.
Here is a closer look.

Do you see that stencil-book that my son gave me for my birthday?
He bought it in Paris and I am totally in love with it! The stencils inside are so different from what you normally see and absolutely gorgeous to use on art journal pages. The image of the girl is from one of those stencils, and I used another stencil in my Chronicles art journal a while ago… (No, that is not what you think… look closer at the man. Those are spray bottles with ink!)

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 40

And that’s it for today then… again, not a long blogpost.
Not much text anyway… but I know that is how most WOYWW-hoppers like it. I will try to visit a whole bunch of your desks also today sweeties, see ya!