This was such a fun week, and here’s my third blogpost to ‘close it’.
I saved the best for last… so let’s see what makes me so exuberant.

For one:

The best Summer Camp you’ve ever seen will open its doors this Summer!

You can read all the info on Marit’s Paper World
(For the Dutchies – click the language button in the top menu
on the website to read the Dutch version)

For two:

I have two posts online today!

Yep, that’s right – TWO blogposts!
You can read my guest blogpost
From Scrapbooking to Art Journaling
on the site of Art Journal Every Day.

For three:

I made PennyLane from songs in my heART very happy with this page.

Songs of the heART is a place for artists to display their artwork
inspired by music. ATC’s, paintings, photography  – all are welcome.
New art and inspirations will be posted as received. There are no
deadlines and perhaps, an occasional prompt, but other than that
you are free to be inspired by the songs in your heART!

My art journal page was inspired by a song from the Eels: “I’m a hummingbird”

If you have an art piece that is inspired by music: send it to PennyLane!
She wants the site to be versatile – not only post her own art – and she will
be thrilled to get more submissions, so help her out a bit please!

And last but not least: another ‘big journal page’.

I got inspired by iHanna, who had a blogpost about ‘collecting colours’
on the Art Journal Every Day blog last week. I gave it my own twist though.

RED

I find myself journaling in Dutch lately… it keeps me much more
concentrated on the text and I can use ‘my own words’ more.
But I translate it for you:

India, land of color and noise. I had to think back on India when I
flipped through old National Geographic magazines and came across
some pictures. India – the mixture of heat and smell. Especially that.
But let’s not forget the people. Dirty and happy. Always inspiring.
They laugh at everything. At me, as a Western tourist, and with me.
I felt like an alien when I arrived in that country, but soon I found myself
embraced by a group of children, laughing and joking. India to me
is red. The red of passion. Fire and life. And ofcourse the red of Paan*.

* Most of us don’t know “Paan”.
I didn’t know either – until it scared the hell out of me in India!

First – the explanation from Wikipedia:

Paan, from the word pān is an Indian/Pakistani and South East Asian
tradition of chewing betel leaf (Piper betle) with areca nut and slaked lime
paste. There are many regional and local variations. It is a Piper betle leave
chew, chewed as a palate cleanser, a breath freshener, and for digestive
purposes as well. It is offered to guests and visitors as a sign of hospitality
(after meals at both personal and social occasions) and at the beginning of
social events. It has a symbolic value at ceremonies and cultural events
in India and southeast Asia.

Yeh, right. But I didn’t know that.
So what I saw was people looking like this

Photo made by Steve Saba

Looks like he’s bleeding, isn’t it?

And then they spit it out…

So I found myself surrounded by “blood spitting people”
I really thought they all suffered from a fatal disease or something…
but how could that be? There were so much!

I learned that this was ‘Paan’ pretty soon 😀
(And no, I didn’t try it myself)

Aaahhh, that was ‘long ago and far away’ (1989 and 1991) but working
on this journal page brought it all back!

The sun is shining today.
The city where I live will soon burst out into one big, noisy feast –
it’s “Carnaval”. I’m originally from another region, and I don’t
celebrate carnaval. In fact: I hate it!
But never mind – I will stay inside the house and celebrate
my own, private party. Paper – paint and lots of colours! Yeay!

Whatever YOU will be doing: enjoy the weekend!

I’m still working my way down on the OWOH list of participants, and these
passed days my heart was filled with beautiful art, amazing inspiration
and lovely words. There are so many talented women out there!

I came across a colourful garden girl
I walked along the beach with a sealovin’ gypsy
I stumbled upon a creative dancer
I fell in love with this magical mermaid

and I met many, many other mixed media artists, art journalers,
doll makers, storytellers and kindred souls!

In between bloghopping, I did make some art journal pages too!

..

This is an oldie, from a week ago, but I haven’t had the chance to show it yet.

The chronicles of Marit – week 4

I don’t know what it is with this page exactly, but I don’t like it very much.
Is it the plain colour? The white piece with the little man that I tore out of
the manual from my Ikea drawer? The black text? I added extra yellow dots,
but that still didn’t do the trick for me.

And then I left it alone. Oh well – there’s another week. THIS ONE!
And I can assure you (’cause I’m already working on it) this week’s page
is going to be awesome!

I made two (!) pages for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

This year, the prompts are kind of neat! If you followed the Gutter Girlz
challenge blog you may remember that there were 3 things that made up
the challenges. Rachel shut down the GG-blog, but incorporated this way
of challenging into these art journal prompts. So you can use one, two or
all three to make your art journal page.

This was the prompt on January 15

THE PROMPT: Starting NOW
THE SONG: Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Foot Photo

Journaling: Enjoy your life now.
For too long I sat on my butt, hoping that my world would change. I knew
that wasn’t going to happen if I didn’t take action, but Oh well – that was too
much trouble and I just hadn’t the nerve, until it was enough. I stood up.
I took action. I started doing the things I love. No  more fears anymore.

(I jotted this down on the page right away, and didn’t think much about
the English spelling and grammar… As I type this, it strikes me that there are
quite a few mistakes in the text. Those things happen I guess, when English is
not your native language…

And here’s my take on the prompt from January 30

THE PROMPT: Time
THE SONG: Butterflies & Hurricanes by Muse
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Numbers

I just bought me water soluble oil crayons when I started this page!
I played with those on the background. Some acrylic paint to make the
colors brighter. I found this awesome old stamp on a flea market once
(I guess it was from a company or store – to number the articles maybe?)
It changes the numbers automatically (counting up) when you stamp!
My beloved figured out how it worked exactly, ’cause I didn’t have a clue 😀
I stamped from the year I was born up till now and I used sentences from
the lyrics. Since a few years, I feel pretty good, and my life couldn’t get
any better… It sure feels like ‘my time is now’!

This next page isn’t finished yet. I used the instructions that Julie put
on the Art Journal Every Day blog. For each day of the week, she
indicated a task that will take around ten minutes work in your journal.
For this, she divided art journalers into five categories:
painty – wordy – collage-ish – scrapbook-ish – doodler

If you start on Friday and work for 10 minutes on the page every day,
you end up with one page after a week. I went along with the ‘painty’
instructions, but I only started yesterday so I haven’t got a page done.
I completed two of her instructions:

1. Prep a page. (I always use gesso to prepare my pages!)
2. Apply acrylic paint with a credit card.  Scratch into it with a toothpick.

This is a totally new approach for me, I never work like this.
I don’t know what to think of this page yet, but it’s good to step out
of my comfort zone. We’ll see where this leads to…

But so you see: Art Journal Every Day is not only fun and educational for
beginners, it offers inspiration and new ways to explore to experienced
art journalers too! I highly recommend this free and fun blog!

Yep, this was another long post. What’s new?!
Thanks for hearing my rambling on Friday again.
Take care, have a nice weekend and see you next week!

P.S.
Advantage!!! I got an email from my favourite stamp company
VivaLasVegaStamps .They have that huge 45% off sale!!!
You can take advantage too! When you’re finished shopping,
View Cart and enter SuperStamp as your Coupon Code.
45% off all your Rubber, Grab Bags and Miracle Tape purchases!
(Sale does not apply to Bargain Basement)

Coupon is valid through Midnight Pacific time Monday,
February 14, 2011. The email said I could spread the word to
any (stamping) friends, so here  you have it!