Here’s a book-haiku that I posted in 2013.
I re-post it now because it fits today’s feelings.

I submit this haiku to Haiku my Heart

Life is unpredictable,
celebrate it while you can.

I love poetry.
I am especially fond of ‘found poetry’, and I mean found in all its forms… found in book titles, found in magazines, on book pages, cut out words and sentences – you name it. There is so much possible when it comes to ‘found poetry’… and this kind of poetry is great to use on art journal pages also.

I therefore started FOUND POETRY FRIDAY – everyone is welcome to play along!

There is an “Inlinkz”-list at the end of this post. If you want to share your found poems, you are welcome to add your name to the list that will link us to your blogpost.

You can post your found poem on your own blog any time during the week, so you don’t have to make YOUR Fridays all about poetry – you just link us to the post that contains your poem. Please use the url that goes directly to you ‘found poetry post.’

Here’s my found poem for today – an oldie from the series ‘Haiku with Booktitles.’

(The top and bottom books are Dutch, the book by Joseph Brodsky is originally titled ‘Less then one’.)
Did you find a poem last week that you wanna share?
Use the InLinkz list below to leave a link to your found poetry art/post.

[inlinkz id = 38]

.

Book title haiku for Haiku My Heart Friday

Haiku my Heart is hosted by the lovely Rebecca.
Find the list with participants on Recuerda Mi Corazon.

Link love

Tammy Garcia at “Daisy Yellow” is on a mission to share the love for bloggers. I think it is such a great idea to share links to fellow bloggers and/or blogposts that got our attention or had us in awe and aah. We all love it when visitors find our blog, read our posts and leave a comment isn’t it – so why not pay it forward?

[By the way: Tammy’s “Index-Card-A-Day” event starts tomorrow!]

And now for the links: I wasn’t online much last week but on Wednesday, I participated in WOYWW (see former post) and visited quite some fellow-desk-lovers… here are some things/blogs I came across and enjoyed.

The clean and tidy closet from Alison at Oh I hope this one is better

Colorful crocheting and lovely fabrics at Lunch Lady Jan

Neat effects with filters: the ATC’s at Bluebeard and Elizabeth

Dianne Marcoux played with gesso.

The desk from the whimsical Annette always amazes me!

Oh, and sweeties, don’t forget the ONLINE Summer camp will open its doors tomorrow!

The online Summer camp Community bursts with challenges, tips, sketches, techniques and inspiration. Over 30 prompts lie waiting for you from which you can choose randomly. The Summer camp will be open all Summer (June-July-August.)  There are no fixed ‘course times’ – just look around whenever you feel like, and choose what seems nice to you. It’s fun and it’s cheap.

Click on the logo to find out all about Summer Camp or sign in HERE
to join the creative happy online campers this Summer!

Good Friday aftern0on you all! Yes, afternoon… I’m late today.
The weather was too nice to stay inside so my beloved and I went for a walk this morning. When we returned, I searched my book case for a book title haiku and found yet another one. (You can tell these books are really old – coming from the ‘smoking-era’ – all yellow and brown from aging and nicotine… I cannot clean the spines as these are not ‘plastic-ish’* and I would damage the paper…)

*Plastic-ish is probably a non existing word, but you know what I mean, right?

Anyway, without further ado

Haiku My Heart Friday

You foreign readers probably raise your eyebrows when your recognize the first book and read the strange translation… yep, the book is called ‘The Fellowship Of The Ring’ in English. The Dutch translation says (In de ban van de ring) “De Reisgenoten” which translates as “Travel Companions”.

For more haiku, visit Rebecca at Recuerda Mi Corazon to find the linky-list of participants on her blog.

I have not been creative at all last week, but that does not mean I have nothing to show to you…

I hand-bound this new journal a couple of weeks ago. My neighbour had altered a strange-shaped book to use as an art journal, and I liked the narrow and tall pages. I measured her book and made mine with similar sized pages (17 x 30 cm – 6.7 x 12 inch)

Here’s a better look at the spine so you can see how I bound it.

On the inside of the cover (the left side on the image) I used scrapbook design paper. I coloured some of the words and added doodles as a border.

Starting a new art journal always is a bit scary. I find that the best way for me to overcome that ‘fear’ is, to immediately start ‘doing something’ to get rid of the blank page. So I did.

I had old newspaper pages laying on my desk that I use to protect my working surface. There’s ink and paint on the newspaper and I just grabbed a scrap and glued it in my new journal. That’s one way to get rid of that staring blank page!

After that, I just glued, doodled, added tape, cut out words and stamped.

The cut out text on top of the page translates “discover the Zeeland’ Soul” (I was born in
a part of Holland that is called “Zeeland”) so I decided that would also be the title of this new book: Zeeuwse Ziel

Tammy “Daisy Yellow” Garcia started a mission to spread love via blogging this month. I like her campaign to give virtual hugs to our fellow creative bloggers – so I happily commit to posting a set of 5 or more links once a week for the month of April.

You can read all about the Link Love {a mission} HERE

Here’s the links I LOVE this week:

• I am in ooh and awe over this new painting by my bff Lena.  Since it was also her birthday last week, with my first link I send you all over to Six Lilies Studio.

•  Roben-Marie is a well-known art journaler and I, too, am a fan of her art. She uses a lot of layers and colors and has such a personal style… I love this latest page with the owl!

• Another art journaler I admire is Nathalie Nayer aka NaNa – her art is beyond amazing and I am especially fond of her Urban Sketching

• Next, I link you to Eric aka Cerulean. A blogger and artist with a very personal and recognizable style… you can tell a piece ‘is a Cerulean‘ when you see it.

• Last but not least I send you over to Neil (yep, another man!) I discovered his blog Neelz Expressionz only a couple of weeks ago – Neil designs awesome rubber stamps and masks – just click on the links in the side menu on his blog to go to those pages.

Have a nice weekend lovelies!
(Send someone some blog-love.)

Today is a lovely day for love sweeties… there is chilly love, longing for love, love for stamps, art journal love and link love… so grab a cup, lean back and enjoy!

Haiku My Heart Friday

This haiku was found/written for Haiku my Heart Friday.
Visit Rebecca at Recuerda Mi Corazon to find the list of participants of this haiku circle.

Last Wednesday, I showed you my ‘box of longing’ that I altered to store my index-card collages. For the ones among you that did not read that post, here’s a picture of the box.

Michelle commented that she found the box fabulous (thanks dear 🙂 ) and she said: “Would love to know more about how you altered it – are the words painted on? How did you get that beautiful texture?”

So I made a few extra photos yesterday and here are the answers.

I used mod podge to glue tissue paper on the metal box. The tissue paper was soaked in mod podge. Using my fingers, I covered the box with the paper and created the folds. While the tissue paper was still wet with the glue, I sprayed ink on it. (“Dylusions” spray ink and “Ranger Color Wash” – if I remember correctly the colors were blue, yellow, green, denim, bottle green…)

It was a mess, yes, but the outcome texture is indeed fabulous!

Here’s a picture of the title on top of the box – that Michelle is referring to when she asks about the words.

I searched for sticker alpha’s and stamps to make the title, but couldn’t find letters that were to my satisfaction – so I decided to hand carve stamps for the title myself and stamp them with acrylic paint. The ‘shadows’ were made with a  Copic marker.

I figured that after using these for the box, I could cut the letters loose and use them in other projects too. After all, using different shapes/fonts and sizes of alphabet stamps together is fun!

The week does not end without showing you my Chronicles spread.

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 13

Today, I join Tammy “Daisy Yellow” Garcia in her endeavor to promote and revive the fun of blogging. I, too, noticed that social media like Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter are keeping people from blogging and reading like they used to… the ‘instant gratification’ that these fast media preserve is addicting but I do miss the ‘deeper’ connections that were made via commenting and blogging…

… so I’m happy Tammy started this mission to spread love via blogging this month.

FOUR POSTS – FIVE LINKS…

• You can read all about it here: Share the Link Love: A Mission Tammy’s blogpost is the first I choose to share and ‘link to with love’ – and I hope you too will join this project this month.

• Second is a blogpost that Kim Mailhot wrote about this same topic a while ago. I agree with what Kim says here and this post is food for thought. I Miss The Old Blogland.

• Old Spaces Made New – a very special post from my dear friend Lea. Lea and I felt connected in a special way from the moment we found each other on the internet. We met in real life almost a year ago. Lea is one of the women I call my ‘soulsister’.

•  Most art journalers know Kate Crane from The Kathryn Wheel. I was in ooh and aawee over the doodling she showed in this post. More Doodling!

•  Last but not least, I share a link to Caatje’s Artsy Stuff – because Caatje manages to bring inspiration with every (and I mean EVERY) blogpost she writes!

Hope you all have a great weekend dear ones!
Share some love!

Last Friday, someone asked “What will you do for haiku when you run out of book covers?”
Well, find a photo and write a haiku myself I guess, like I did before.
But I haven’t run out of covers yet (my bookcase is huge!) so here’s another booktitle haiku.

Haiku My Heart Friday

This haiku was found/written for Haiku my Heart Friday. Visit Rebecca at Recuerda Mi Corazon to find the list of participants and blog-hop from haiku to haiku. I assure you, it is a nice way to close the week and start the weekend.

I have two art pieces to show you – an old and a new one.
The first one is an art journal spread I made in January,

Veranderd (‘changed’)

The text is in Dutch and a bit of a free translation from this text:
“…Was I the same when I got up this morning?
I almost think I can remember feeling a little different…”
~ Alice in Wonderland ~

Next is my latest Chronicles spread

The Chronicles – Week 11

I know a lot of Dutch blogreaders/friends always try to read the journaling… I’ll make it easy for you this time: the journaling is all about my struggle with sigarettes and since Saturday (March 16) I quit smoking. Yes, dear ones… this 30-years-of-smoking junkie is without nicotine for the seventh day today – no medicines, no ‘nicotine chewing gum’, no nothing: I quit cold turkey. BAM!
Yes, I am proud of myself.

Oh, and my beloved did the same.
I am proud of him too.

PERSEVERE is my ‘one little word’ of the year – I hope to stick to it.

I wish you all a nice weekend.
Go breath some fresh air!
Ha!

You know what that means at the end of the week, don’t you?
Haiku My Heart Friday!

Here’s the latest haiku that I found in my book case

I did a bit of a ‘free translation’ to make the syllables fit in English.
The first two book titles are much simpler then my translation…
“I remember” and “The dog with the blue tongue” are more accurate but
I like to get the syllables right… I’m a hairsplitter 😉

For more Friday haiku my heart, visit Rebecca
and other poets today at Recuerda Mi Corazon

Just before Christmas, I made a gelatin plate so I could use it to create mono types for the top 2000 party. I created mono types not only for the music-inspired art (btw, all my top 2000 pages can be viewed here) but made some ‘free art’ as well. (Oh, and the gelatin plate is still holding up in the fridge – I think I will play with it some more this weekend before it falls apart.)

Anyway, here are some of the mono types I made. (I put them together in the picture, you can view them all separate in my gallery)

“Word Woman”

“Top of the World”

After weeks of grey skies and rain, the sun is shining today (but temperatures dropped radically! From 10 Celsius/50 Fahrenheit to freezing!) I better take advantage of the good light to spend the rest of the day creating. My head is overflowing with new ideas, so I hope the weather/light will be like this all weekend… it’s so much nicer to create in good daylight then in the grey with poor (yellow) lamplight…

I hope the weekend brings you clear sight as well.
Look around and enjoy what surrounds you.
See you next week, dear ones.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, and because the sun is shining: some shameless promotion 😉

Buy the latest issue of FEATURING HERE
Register for my online workshop HERE
Follow me on Facebook HERE

Luv-y’all!

Well… they are not revolting yet so I guess they were OK with it
and we are all so proud of this issue! Take alone the cover:

Yeah, right – and now you want to know what’s inside I guess…
well, here you go:

Read a brief summary of the content HERE
A Glimpse inside this issue can be seen in the PREVIEW

And, last but not least, FEATURING has a surprise for all readers
who live outside Europe. The magazine managed to lower the shipping
costs for customers who purchase from outside Europe. Now that is
an extra reason to want to order an issue right away, isn’t it?
Well, go ahead, PRE-ORDER/BUY your issue now (I will wait…)

Done? YAY! Thanks!
On to the haiku then.
I searched for a ‘book title haiku’ that would celebrate the release
of issue 3 and – oh miracle – I found one too!

As always, I submit this haiku to Haiku my Heart Friday

Last Tuesday I announced my annual “Top 2000 Creative and Musical
Blog Party” – (hm, that’s what you get when you try to fit it all into the title)
– you can find the post here  on my blog. There was no room left
to show you any pages I made, so I do it now…

The Chronicles of Marit 2012 – Week 48

Last but not least – I want to share the view from my office window
today. This is what I see when I look up from the computer: the first
snow of the year!

I’m almost getting into the Christmas spirit when I see this (I said ‘almost’…)

I wish you all a very nice weekend. Stay warm and safe and may your days
be filled with laughter and joy! (Oops, that sounds Christmassy…
Hmm, my mind must indeed be in a Christmas mode.)

For more Friday haiku my heart, visit Rebecca
and other poets at Recuerda Mi Corazon

Have you noticed that it is awfully quiet in blogland? I guess that has
to do with the holiday season – you all must be busy writing lists, going
shopping and putting up Christmas trees.

The Christmas spirit has not come to my house yet – but then again, I don’t
have much with that feeling. I might get in the mood when Riikka starts
opening the windows of her Creative Christmas Calendar though!

The Creative Christmas Calendar starts on Riikka’s blog on the 1st of December.

The Calendar is all about inspiration and ideas. There’s an amazing cast behind the windows (guess who belongs to that cast 😉 –  you will be amazed to find out who else collaborated with Riikka!)

There’s going to be tutorials, videos and articles that shall inspire you during Holiday season and beyond. There’s also going to be giveaways and little extra windows for kids.

I finished my art journal spread from last week. In the former post I explained about the painting of the face. Here’s a link to that post, in case you want to compare the faces…

The Chronicles of Marit 2012 – Week 47

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

There are only 5 more spreads left to work on in this art journal. The year will be over then and my book filled with creativity and words up to the last page. I am already thinking about my next “Chronicles” journal… how I want it to look like, the size, the binding. Do I want to make a thick book (like this one) or maybe make two ‘half year’ books? It is getting pretty difficult to work on the last pages of a book when it is as thick as this one (approximately 6 cm – 2.5 inch) but I like how it looks.

And are you choosing a ‘one little word‘ for the next year? Have you found it already? I think I have found mine… but I keep it to myself for now. This year ain’t over yet and I might change my mind about it.

The last Month of the year will be an exiting one and my blogposts might look/read a bit different in the next weeks. I plan some ‘reflecting on the past year’ posts, there will be announcements (!!!) and the last week of the year, my blog will overflow with music and art. Right now is the calm before the storm for me…

You all must be busy too, so thank you for taking the time to visit my blog dear ones! I wish you all a lovely weekend, filled with (X-mas?) lights and joy!

Do you have no idea what ‘Quirky Dutch
Summer’ is all about? Read this post first.
All the posts – newest at the top, oldest
down below – can be found here. There is a
flickr group for sharing right here.

Quirky Dutch Summer is an event that
wil run from June 12 – August 14. 2012.
You will find an inspiring blogpost up on
this blog every Tuesday during the Summer.

If you use the given inspiration as a jumpstart for your artwork and you have
blogged about it, or shared your work in the flickr group, please leave a link in
a comment with the relevant post on this blog.

Heb je geen idee waar ‘Quirky Dutch Summer’ (Grillige, Hollandse zomer)
over gaat? Lees dan eerst deze post. Alle ‘Quirky posts’ kun je hier op een
rijtje vinden (de laatste post staat altijd bovenaan.) Quirky Dutch Summer
heeft ook een eigen flickr groep, die vind je hier.

Quirky Dutch Summer is een online inspiratie blog-event waarbij 10 weken
lang (van 12 juni t/m 14 augustus) elke dinsdag een inspirerende post op dit
blog zal verschijnen. Heb je iets gemaakt n.a.v. één van de inspiratie-posts,
zet je werk dan in de flickr groep en/of laat een link achter in een berichtje
bij de betreffende post op dit blog.

#3 Word Play / Met woorden spelen

..

Some images in this post can be enlarged by clicking on them.

Sommige afbeeldingen in deze post kun je vergroten door er op te klikken.

People who follow me/my blog know that I’m crazy about language.
Words. Phrases. Poetry. Now you really don’t have to be a poet to play
with words – anyone can do it! I’m going to give you a number of examples
of ‘word play’ today an I’m sure there’s something fun for YOU too, that
will get you to play with words.

You can use your texts in your art journal, make a fun card with it (see
previous Quirky post) or sit down with your (grand)children at the table
and have a word game… whatever inspires you! Have fun!

Mensen die mijn een beetje volgen weten dat ik gek ben op taal.
Woorden. Zinnen. Poezie. Nu hoef je echt geen dichter te zijn om met woorden
te spelen, iedereen kan het! Ik ga jullie vandaag een aantal voorbeelden geven
– er zit vast wel iets bij waar je wat mee kunt!

Haal je (klein)kinderen erbij en speel op een regenachtige middag (die zijn
er genoeg!) een woordspelletje…Gebruik je teksten in je art journal of maak
er een leuke kaart mee (zie vorige Quirky post) – wat je wilt. Veel plezier!

Combine Book Titles / Boektitels combineren

Look at your books in a totally different way: read the titles as a sentence
and combine them to a poem! I combined three books, made a small stack
that I photographed and used the photo on a art journal page afterwards.

Kijk eens op een andere manier naar de titels in je boekenkast –
stapel je boeken op tot een gedicht! Ik combineerde drie boeken, maakte
een stapeltje dat ik fotografeerde en vervolgens gebruikte ik de foto op een
art journal pagina.

(dutch books: titles translated)

‘My mother and I
Two women
thinking about love and power’

This is a link to another (English) example, made by Judy Clement

Mijn moeder en ik
Twee vrouwen
Denken over liefde en macht

Hier is een link naar een Engels voorbeeld, gemaakt door Judy Clement

Ofcourse it is not necessary that you take a picture. You can go into
a bookstore or the library and write the titles down to form a poem
that you can use in your art.

Je hoeft natuurlijk geen foto te maken. Je kunt ook in de boekwinkel
of in de bieb rondneuzen en de titels gewoon opschrijven. Het gedicht
kun je dan weer gebruiken op je art journal pagina of zo.

Found Poetry / Gevonden Poëzie

“Found poetry is a type of poetry created by taking words, phrases,
and sometimes whole passages from other sources and reframing
them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding
or deleting text, thus imparting new meaning.” ~ Wikipedia ~

“Gevonden poëzie is een vorm van poëzie gemaakt door woorden, zinnen,
en soms hele passages uit andere bronnen te nemen en ze te ‘herkaderen’
als poëzie door het aanbrengen van wijzigingen of het toevoegen of
verwijderen van tekst” ~ vrije vertaling van Engelse Wikipedia tekst ~

There are a lot of ways to ‘find’ a poem – combining booktitles is one of
them – but I would like to narrow it down here to ‘find poems on a text page.’
Take a page from an old book or cut out an article page from a magazine.
Use a soft pencil to put a circle around words – from top to bottom – that
together form a new sentence or poem. Do not worry about the meaning
or grammatical correctness… this is your feeling and your poem!

Now, there are different ways to let your poem pop of the page.

Je kunt op veel manieren gedichten ‘vinden’ – het samenvoegen van
boektitels hoort eigenlijk ook tot ‘gevonden poëzie’ – maar ik wil het hier
terugbrengen tot het ‘vinden’ van de woorden op een pagina vol tekst.
Neem een bladzijde uit een oud boek of een artikel uit een tijdschrift,
omcirkel met een zacht potlood van boven naar beneden woorden die
samen een gedicht of mooie zin vormen. Maak je niet druk of het tekstueel
en grammaticaal wel helemaal klopt – het gaat om jouw gevoel en dit is
jouw gedicht!

Vervolgens zijn er verschillende manieren om het gedicht ‘naar voren te halen’

Cross out all the other words… highlight yours.

Streep alle andere woorden door en haal die van jouw naar voren.

You can also paint over all other text, only your chosen words
remain visible.

Je kunt ook alle andere tekst overschilderen, alleen jouw gekozen
woorden blijven zichtbaar.

Another example:

Nog een voorbeeld:

By ‘Danidrastic’ on devianART

Cutting out Words / Woorden uitknippen

… and then there is the cutting out words and texts.
In my ‘ Letters from the Wasteland’ series, for example,
I make use of this technique.

Search a text (an old book maybe) and cut out sentences or phrases
that speak to you. You can also combine words and phrases from
various books, magazines, leaflets etc. to form a poem or meaningful text.
The differene in size – and sometimes even colour – of the letters makes
it look playful.

… en dan is er het uitknippen van woorden en teksten.
In mijn ‘Letters from the Wasteland’  serie bijvoorbeeld gebruik ik
deze techniek.

Zoek een tekst (bijvoorbeeld een oud boek) en knip zinnen uit die jou
aanspreken. Je kunt ook woorden of zinnen uit diverse boeken, tijdschriften,
folders etc. combineren tot een gedicht of tekst waarbij het verschil in grootte –
en soms zelfs kleur – de letters/tekst lekker speels maakt.

Here’s an example from the ‘Letters of the Wasteland’ series.
(You can find the complete series here)

Hier is een voorbeeld uit mijn ‘Letters of the Wasteland’ serie.
(De complete serie vind je hier)

Here’s another example…

Hier is nog een ander voorbeeld…

You will can find a whole lot more at the place where I found this
example. If you are interested in this kind of art, you should pay a visit
at The odd inkwell (and not only because the blog uses the same template
as I do 😉 ) The lady (?) is a wizard with words. In the side menu, select the
category ‘found poems’ or ‘found haiku’ to see how she turns random words
into meaningful little poems.

Als dit soort ‘spelen met woorden’ je aanspreekt moet je zeker een bezoek
brengen aan The odd inkwell (en niet alleen omdat het blog dezelfde layout/
template gebruikt als ik 😉 ) De dame (?) van dat blog is een tovenares met
woorden. Selecteer de categorie ‘found poem’ of ‘found haiku’ in het zijmenu,
dan krijg je alle posts op een rijtje en kun je zien hoe ze willekeurige woorden
tot zinvolle gedichtjes omtovert!

Pfew… are you bored yet? Yep, I know, I’m a sucker for words and I could
go on and on and on – but this post would become much to long, so I just
leave you some links to more possibilities and different ways to play with
words. After all, I could not show you everything on my blog…

Pfff… zijn jullie het al beu? Ja, ik weet het – ik ben nu eenmaal gek van
woorden en ik zou uren kunnen doorgaan… maar dat zal ik je niet aandoen.
Ik laat gewoon nog een aantal links achter naar plaatsen waar je nóg meer
inspiratie op kunt doen en weer andere mogelijkheden tegenkomt om met
woorden en zinnen te spelen. Ik kan je tenslotte ook niet álles hier
op mijn blog laten zien…

All About Alliteration (fun to do with children/
leuk om met kinderen te doen)

Word Play (art piece by Jill Ault – how you could ‘draw’ your poem/
kunstwerk van Jill Ault, een manier om je gedicht vorm te geven)

Creating Daily: Found text (what you can do with small notes – for
example grocery lists that you find on the street – or bogus text/
wat je ook zou kunnen doen met notities –  zoals bijv. boodschappenlijstjes,
die je op straat vindt – of ‘nep tekst’)

Now go ahead and ‘let the words speak’

Nu is het aan jullie om de ‘woorden te laten spreken’

Oh, and next week my first  ‘Quirky guest‘ will speak here –
prepare for something special!

Oh, en volgende week zal mijn eerste ‘Quirky gast‘ aan het woord komen –
dat wordt iets heel speciaals!