And yes, I made the tote bag for “Creative Team Thursday,” using Jessica Sporn Design stencils. Wanna see how I did it? I wrote a tutorial! Come on over to Jessica’s blog and read all about it in my blogpost overthere.

I’m hopping along with Karen Gaunt, Kristin Van Valkenburgh and Jessica Sporn to share our SUMMER creations using Jessica Sporn Designs products.

The theme for this bloghop is “Welcome Summer” and that’s right up my alley ’cause we had lovely warm weather the last couple of weeks in The Netherlands. Summer was on my mind all the time and so I decorated my balcony to make it ready to sit and relax. I bought some furniture (yep, furniture… the balcony has a roof – the housing association calls it a “loggia” but to my opinion that’s too much of an exaggeration,) decorated the space with plants and even crocheted a granny square to cover the boring lawn chair.

And then I sat down to create a last ‘finishing touch’… can you see what the arrow is pointing at?
It’s a jam jar that holds a little candle, but of course I decorated the jar first using a Jessica Sporn Designs stencil… it’s a fun and easy project and it lights up your day (and evenings) – let me show you how I did it.

Take a glass jar (mine holded pees) and clean it.

I used this Krishna Deity stencil to decorate my jar. (Krishna is the god of compassion, tenderness and love in Hinduism.)

Tape the stencil around the jar. Make sure the part of the image that you want to use is right on the glass (in my case, the face of Krishna.)

Trace the stencil with a permanent marker.

I wanted to outline the picture with relief paint, but adding the stuff while the stencil is on the jar would probably destroy my stencil. That’s why I used a permanent marker first.

Once the image was outlined with a marker, I took off the stencil and traced the lines again with golden relief paint.

To color the image, it’s best to use special glass paint but I didn’t had any. I went to the store to buy some but I found the paint way too expensive… so what now?

Then I remembered I once used alcohol ink on a plastic sheet, and how lovely it looked. So I went home and searched for the alcohol ink. I had only three colors in my stash and they looked a bit boring to me, but I tested it on glass anyway to see how they would hold up…

Hooray, hooray, it worked lovely!!! The ink doesn’t come off easy… (it does when you scratch it but not if you grab the jar) and the colors worked excellent for this image, so I went with it.

Here’s the result.**

Flowers (from the same Krishna Deity Stencil) on the back side.

So now this little jar stands outside on the shelf, lighting my Summer evenings.

And what a lovely image it is to shine light through!

I hope your Summer nights (and days) will be filled with light, compassion, tenderness and love!

** If you want the image to stay on permanent, I recomment you use special glass paint.

And now for the GIVEAWAY

One lucky commenter will win this Woman Will Heal the World stencil from Stencil Girls Products, designed by Jessica Sporn. It’s brand new, just in store, and don’t you love it? I can think of many ways to use it!

All comments at all the blog hop participants posts count – so make sure to visit everyone and leave some kind words.

Marit Barentsen (you’re here)
Karen Gault
Kristin Van Valkenburgh
Jessica Sporn

The comments for this giveway closes Monday morning June 12th at 6 PM EST (for the Dutchies that’s Monday midnight) Jessica announces the winner on her blog on June 13th.

Oh, and I would love it if you leave me a comment there… I’m a sucker for compliments 🙂  Click this LINK to get there… see you!

It’s an easy peasy little project and wouldn’t it be nice to fold a small box and put your chocolate Easter eggs in? Come on over to Jessica’s blog then (and don’t forget to leave me a comment there, I would love that!)

To view the completed booklet and find out about this project – and how to create it – please hop over to the TUTORIAL on Jessica’s blog. Enjoy!

I show you only this small detail photo of the art journal spread I made here on my blog ’cause I want you all to hop over to Jessica Sporn’s blog to view my finished spread and – even better – watch the VERY SPECIAL VIDEO TUTORIAL that goes with it!

The video was made by my beloved, Marius, and I think he deserves a big round of applause for making this very special video of my creating process. Hop on over and be amazed!

{The Top 2000 musical and creative blog party: YOU are invited! Click the ‘Top 2000 blog party’ button in the top menu on my blog to read all about it.)

In three days, the Top 2000 list for 2016 will be online (on Monday the 19th) and we can start creating to the music. I could not wait that long so I made a fun ‘Countdown’ layout for Jessica Sporn Designs – Creative Team Thursday. Come on over to Jesscia’s blog and see me in action!  Here’s a sneak peek…

Now hop on over to Jessica’s to see my video.
Have a fun and cheerful weekend!

Many of my readers and followers ask me how I build up an art journal page and today is your lucky day: I filmed the whole process for Creative Team Thursday.

So hop on over to Jessica Sporn’s blog to read my post and watch my video tutorial….

… aren’t you there yet?

Oh, wait…
you don’t know where to find it…

HERE is the link

NOW GO!!