Spring, Sheep, Chronicles and Workshops

The sun is shining in the Netherlands, my Mojo is back, issue #1
of FEATURING is almost ‘ready to be born’, I have some free time,
I mopped & polished the floors downstairs with wax, I just received
the sweetest letter from my best friend and crocuses exult in the
front yard. Now aren’t that reasons enough to celebrate life?

Oh, and I got a gorgeous postcard from my mom and a funny note from
my dad last week. They both ended up in my Chronicles. (Nooo, not my
parents silly… the note and the card!)

The Chronicles of Marit 2012 – Week 11

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

I know a lot of you love to know about the techniques and how my
art journal pages come about. I don’t tell that often because my pages
just seem to ‘grow’ and I usually don’t think back on how I did it.
Because it’s such a lovely day, I will try to remember and tell you
all the ‘ins and outs’ of this page.
let’s see…

I have a lot of small pattern paper blocks (6 x 6 inch) in my stack.
I bought those years ago, and kinda forgot all about it. I came across
the blocks when I was searching for something else, and took them with
me down the stairs to use especially in my Chronicles.
I choose a lot of ‘happy papers’ – bright colours and fun patterns.
Spring was on my mind, so the sheep had to be in there too.
See him (her?) looking ‘sheepish’ at you on the middle of the page?

I just love sheep!
I tore pieces of all the paper and glued it random on the page.

It was quite a mix of colours and patterns, so I toned it down
with a thin layer of gesso.

Next, I used Tim Holtz letter masks and adirondack colorwash
(‘Terra Cotta’) to spray the title.

I outlined the letters to make them pop up more.

To balance the page, there’s a bit of Terra Cotta spray
in the right bottom corner of the page too.

I don’t know where the plastic sheet/overlay came from, but I
turned it into a pocket by taping it on the page with pattern (letter) tape.

The pocket holds the note and postcard.

Next, I stamped the days (hand carved stamps) and dates (I never,
ever know where I got my stuff from. I don’t keep the package.)

I loved the stamping so I went on with it and added all kinds of lines.
Dotted ones…

… and traight ones (this one is a stamped label with a flower)

And patterns.

This stamp is hand carved from an eraser.

And this is one of my faves, the spiral.
(also hand carved.)

I love to add text into the spiral!

Next, I used sharpies and markers to ‘jot my week down’.
Not a coherent story this time but all kind of lines, quotes
and thought I had this week.

Last but not least: I decorated the back of the clip.
(I used this clip on the page of the week before – the back
was flat and silver.)

I glued a small piece from the Atlas on it and added
glossy accents.

This is only one way on which I ‘build’ my weekly page.
It’s not that I always work like this – I sometimes have the layout
in mind and make the page in one ‘run.’ Other weeks start with
a background on Monday, a picture on Tuesday and so on.
It differs every week, that’s what makes it fun!

Oh, and for the texts? A scrap of paper lays between the pages.
At the end of each day I make a note of what happened that day.
Just a few words are enough to remember the complete story when
I read it back at the end of the week. I then decide what to write down.

Now, for the ones who have a subscription to my newsletter –
this is the end of the post for you. The following information arrived
in your mailbox earlier this week.

For all the others: read on!

As you know (or may not know) I taught online workshops last years.
Because I spend all my time creating the FEATURING magazine lately,
I didn’t have the time to even think about creating new workshops.
A number of requests for teaching came in though, so I decided the following:

In case of sufficient participants, these popular online workshops will start again in April.

The lessons are available both in Dutch and in English. To make it easy,
the participants of each workshop will be divided into two groups: one English
speaking group and one Dutch-speaking group. You get access to both groups
so you can take a look at everyone’s album. Everyone works on the same lessons,
but the language on the forum will differ per group.

Because a workshop is much more fun when you can share your work and
experiences with other participants, a minimal number of 7 participants
per group is required. If you are interested, please send me an email that says
in which workshop you would like to participate

marit [at] maritspaperworld [dot] com

As soon as the required number is reached (7 English speaking participants
for an English group) we have a go and I will open the shop. The lessons will
start April 16 (‘Let it Loose’ and April 17 (‘A Creative Art Journey’).

You can find all the information about these workshops in the shop.
(For Dutchies: click on the language button on the site to read it all in Dutch)
Work of previous participants can be found in the photo gallery.

If you have not yet taken (one of these) workshops: they are really great!
It’s not only me talking, former participants agree.
Their testimonials can be found on the home page of the website

www.maritspaperworld.com

I have some new artwork half finished and I hope to show some of it on Friday.
See you then, enjoy your week!