Friday haiku

Chronicles 2025 – Week 51

In mid-December, a nasty cold struck me. I had to stay home from work and sit it out. Acrylic paint, paperscraps, stamps and cut out images.

Chronicles 2025 – Week 52

Background: gelliplate print. Inspired by various art journal spreads I saw on social media, I ordered some punches to cut squares of various sizes out of paper. I punched out a square from each Christmas card I received, so I have the memories in my Chronicles journal without having to keep all the cards.

Chronicles 2025 – Last page

I close my journal, as I do every year, with a recent photo of myself (and this year, also with a short “review” of the year). The text on the right says “keep on smiling”.

I’ve been a member of a creative Dutch Facebook group Jook’s kunstcafé  for years. The group’s administrator, Joke, is loved by all the members and in early January, Joke would turn 70. At the end of 2025 there was a secret call to make a card for Joke’s birthday. All the mail was sent to her daughter-in-law, and on her birthday, Joke received a large box full of happy mail. It was a huge surprise for her! I’d responded to the request and created this card for her birthday.

… and now I close the book (journal) on 2025 and hope this year will bring less health problems and more happiness. My your days be peaceful and bright too! Seeya!

WOYWW #579

There’s only this background page on my table, I’m in doubt over the next step…

I created this card to send to my mum

And here’s the Chronicles art journal spread that was laying on my desk last week. I finished it.

The Chronicles of Marit 2020 – Week 26

And that’s it for today, sorry for the little words (but you might like that for a change 😉 ) Have a wonderful week.

This morning is the calm before the storm and I use these hours to write this post and show you some last things before I dive into creating to the music. First, here’s how my desk looks right now.

WOYWW #498

And see those Eucalyptus branches in the window sill? I put a vase with Christmas branches (white branches with little lights) and Eucalyptus in the living room and these were left overs that I did not want to throw away.

I kept on creating in my Chronicles art journal while I had a cold… it lead to this spread

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 49

I am a member of the Dutch, online Art Journal/Mixed Media Community Creatief Contact and when Jenny de Bode, the founder and ‘leader of the pack’ posted this little challenge, I decided to play along. “Draw a small rectangular or square in the size of a stamp and capture the sky… the colour and atmosphere…” I captured the sky/weather in week 50 using watercolour paint on watercolour (‘aquarel’) paper…

… and glued the piece of paper on the Chronicles spread.

The Chronicles of Marit 2018 – Week 50

I also created and send a small amount of Christmas cards to family and friends. Although I cannot send you ALL this card, my wishes are for you too…

MERRY EVERYTHING AND HAPPY ALWAYS!!!

Hope to see you at the Top 2000 party and if not, see you again in 2019.

Enjoy the holidays!

We have a great giveaway and because it was my birthday last Sunday I add an extra personal giveaway to the event. OH-MY, are you lucky today!

I bet you are curious to see what those giveaways include so before I take you to the small tutorial I created for you, here’s what you can win.

One lucky commenter will win Jessica’s Cascading Leaves stencil and Tree of Life stamp. All comments on all the blog hop participants count – so make sure to visit everyone and leave some kind words. The list and links of the blog hop team members is at the end of this post.

And then there’s my personal birthday-giveaway: a packet of Autumn/Halloween related papers, ephemera & embellishments. I also include 10 of my art-postcards and a little notebook.
This giveaway goes to one commenter on this blog.

Jessica gave us the title “Frightful Fall” to work with for this bloghop… eeeckkk. I understand where the ‘frightful’ comes from, I have a lot of American friends and bloggers among my followers, but we don’t celebrate Halloween in The Netherlands so this theme was quite a challenge for me! I decided to throw my birthday in the mix and make a card that you can use to send to someone who celebrates a birthday at Halloween. Or, when you alter the sentiment, this could be a card to invite your friends to a Halloween party. Are you in the mood yet?

Well, let’s move on to the tutorial then:

• Cut a heavy white paper or cardstock to card size (this example is approx. 5″ x 7.5″)
• Paint the background with orange acrylic paint. You could also take a piece of orange card stock for the basics, but I like the texture of the paint strokes on the background.

• Next, stamp with Versamark and Jessica Sporn’s stamp Krishna
• Emboss the image with black embossing powder.

The Shiva image does not look frightful or scary at all, and because I want this to be some sort of ‘scary’ card I looked for images of ‘scary eyes’… After flipping through many (many!) magazines, cutting out all sorts of eyes, I still had not found what I was looking for so I went online and found some drawings that I could use the eyes from.

• Give the face a different, more scary look by gluing different eyes over the stamped image.

• Next, take Jessica Sporn’s Hand stencil and find the first hand you want to use. Cover the surrounding openings/hands with paper so that you cannot accidentally stamp onto these also.

• Stamp and emboss the image of the hand, coming from the edge, with black embossing powder. You could also use black acrylic paint or paint spray, but I like the glossy shine that the heated embossing powder shows.
• Repeat the above step, using different images of hands.

• Write a text/sentiment on your card (alternative: print and cut strips of the texts, use alphabet stickers etc.) I found the following texts that you could use:
  – Have a frightful & delightful birthday.
  – (You’re invited to) a trick or treat BOO-thday.
  – Have a SPOOKtacular birthday.
  – May your Halloween birthday be less terrifying than aging.
• Ink the edges of the card (hold your paper at an upright angle and run it against the edge of your inkpad)
• Splattering some black ink or paint on the card makes for a more scary/spooky look and finishes the card off.

I hope you enjoyed my Halloween birthday tutorial.
Now, make sure you leave me a comment if you like to be in the draw for both giveaways and visit the other members and comment there to enlarge your chance to win the Cascading Leaves stencil and the Tree of Life stamp.

Marit Barentsen (you’re here)
Lizzy Wurmann
Sherry Canino
Kristin Van Valkenburgh
Denise Alloca
Jessica Sporn

The giveaway closes on Monday (October 10) at 9 PM EST (for the Dutchies that’s 3 AM on Tuesday)  Jessica announces her winners in her Tuesday blog post (October 11) and I will post the name of the winner of my extra giveaway in my blog post on Wednesday, October 12.

Book title haiku for Haiku My Heart Friday

The Chronicles of Marit – Week 18

Card for my mom

Tammy “Daisy Yellow” Garcia 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?

Here are the links I want to share this Friday – the first link is to an artist and dear blogfriend I know for quite some time now, the other’s link to blogs/artists I recently discovered. Enjoy!

• ~*~ Patty at Magpie’s Nest   (Oh, and Patty added links at the end of my BIG Road Trip post – North Carolina here – those links/posts are worth wile reading!)
  

• It was Patty who brought Conny at Piaroms Art Blog to my attention. (You’ll find some awesome video’s of her working-process on her blog too!)

• Molly‘s  Buddha Doodles – which she publishes daily – make me smile, cheer me up when I feel down or teach me a lesson (and sometimes her doodles do that all at once!) And if you know me or saw the header of my facebook page, you will understand I especially love yesterday’s doodle.)

• Heather aka Head Krazy at Kookaburra Laughing Productions: colourful, open and honest art journaling – that’s how I like it!

• Vicky from In My Head Studios – especially her gelli prints grabbed my attention.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

I’m grateful every day for the connections that I made with kindred souls
over the years – and now something COOL is about to happen…

I got to know Lea (from the US) and Kimberly (from the UK) through the
haiku circle, and tomorrow they both will be in Rotterdam at the museum
to celebrate ‘World Labyrinth Day’ and I WILL MEET THEM THERE!!

I dedicate my haiku to Lea and Kimberly

‘Haiku my Heart Friday’ is hosted by Rebecca.
More haiku and photos can be found on the blogs of the other participants.
You can find the list on Rebecca’s blog Recuarda Mi Corazon

More ancient shapes were on my mind last week. I don’t know why
they suddenly appear, is it because of the labyrinths that Lea taught
me about? Re-reading the article that she wrote about this phenomenon
in FEATURING magazine?

Whatever it may have been that triggered it – a character from a bygone era
suddenly stepped onto my paper…

Letters from the Wasteland – 8th Letter

Size: 16 x 11 cm - 6.3 x 4.3 inch.
The background is made from a left over piece of paper (I love
the small wood fibers that are in there!) Hand carved stamp (circles
and spirals) - Stazon ink - Indian ink and dip pen - white Sharpie
pen - cut out text from an old fairytale book.

This little guy is from Australia (‘hello there mate’)
“How can I tell that” you ask?
Well – he whispered to me in a dark voice that he came from an old era – from
a place where aboriginals hunt with boomerangs and play the didgeridoo…

You don’t believe me?
Then look at this lad

I started to  explore aboriginal art on the Internet.
I found images like this one…

… and I plan to do some more research.
I think I found a new inspiration source and some of these
influences will probably show on my pages in the next weeks.

Have a nice weekend dear ones!
Play the didgeridoo (or, if you don’t have such an instrument,
just whistle!)

..

… that I gave birth to a little baby boy…

… and when did this happen? Did he grow overnight? Did I blink?

Today, my son is 19 years old!

Happy birthday dearest!

A memorial

Last Sunday it was 40 years ago that Jim Morrison died (you know,
the lead singer of the Doors). I made this ‘tribute’. It’s the first page
in my ‘album cover folded book’

(30,5 x 30,5 cm - 12 x 12 inch)

The background is pattern scrapbook paper. The face is drawn with a black
marker. I stamped the text and used distress embossing powder (Tim Holtz)
to make it stand out more. A little bit of distress ink (‘vintage photo’) around
the edges finishes it.

I don’t know if you can see it well (you can click the image to enlarge)
but I drew Jim’s face with raindrops (‘Faces come out of the rain…’)
Here’s a detail of his eyes

Then we come to the WINNER of my giveaway.

Congratulations YVON
You are the lucky winner of the small, handmade book!
I will send you an e-mail to inform you.

Last week was all about the weather – tropical days followed by
thunderstorms – and ‘Le Tour de France‘. (In fact, the next three
weeks will be all about the Tour! Watching ‘The Tour’ on TV is
sort of a ‘Summer ritual’.

The Chronicles – week 26

(30 x 21 cm - 11.8 x 8.3 inch)

And last but not least – I made another index card.
I couldn’t let go of the mermaids yet…

(Index card: 8 x 13,2 cm - 3.1 x 5.2 inch)

The background is made with Adirondack color wash spray ink – Ranger
(‘Stream’ and ‘Denim’) and salt. The mermaid and shells are stamped and
embossed with glossy, black embossing powder. The ‘bubbles’ were made
with a pearl pen.

I’m known for being a lousy cook, but I’m going to hit the kitchen now
to bake my son’s birthday cake. The famous ‘Elvis pie’*
I baked it before and failed only once, so it’s do-able, even for me!
One ‘problem’ though… the pie contains two cups of whipping cream,
at least 300 grams of sugar, bananas…

I’ll be back blogging on Friday with at least 2 pounds heavier weight!

*Curious? Here’s a post about it on my old blog.

Enjoy your week dear ones!

(Note: by clicking the photo’s, the images will enlarge for a better view)

..

I had a ‘miscellaneous’ (did I spell that right this time 😉 ) art journal going on
that  I started in September 2009. I finished the last page in that book last
week (I made a page for Summer Camp, so I can’t show you yet – all the other
pages can be seen in my gallery on top of this blog under ‘finished journals’.)

Anyway – I needed a new ‘miscellaneous’ book and I decided to make it
a little bit larger this time… here it is.

Miscellaneous #2

It measures A4 (21 x 29,7 cm - 8.3 x 11.7 inch)

I think I will work on one page at a time, but I might do a spread
now and then. In that case, measures will be 16.6 x 11.7.
Wow, that’s a lot of space to fill!

I kept the cover simple. I painted it black, and glued a photo from
a magazine to the front. I had that photo laying in my stash and I
like the elderly Argentine couple dancing the tango.
This is to remind me that we are never too old to dance!

Here’s the back of my journal…

As you can see, I staid with the theme… this is a picture of an Argentine cafe.

And a pic of the spine, so you can see the binding.
(BTW: This is the binding I will be teaching in the live workshop)

And I added  something new to this journal!

I found this blog called From Hell 2 breakfast by Natalie Quintos Uhing.
It’s a craft tutorial blog which I found through iHanna (thanks for pointing
it out to me Hanna!)

I tried out her tutorial about book headbands for book binding.

It’s not very easy to do, and I messed up the first time because my thread
appeared to be too thick. I found thinner thread, but it still is a little bit
too thick and not very neatly done. I need more practice! Because I am a
qualified seamstress I can see what needs to be done differently next time
to get it better…

And here’s the inside of my journal.
I found nice magazine pages to glue on the back of the cover.

And ofcourse I worked in my new journal!
Again, I can’t show you the first page, but here’s something I CAN show!

I made this for the May challenge of  Scrapbookers Anonymous
Theresa and Lea started this challenge blog last year, my best friend is in
the DT and I never played along, so it was about time I submit a page!

The MAY challenge is to use stamps to make at least one piece of patterned
paper for your layout and 3 stamped embellishments.

This page also goes for this week’s challenge at Wednesday Stamper
(theme: ‘Pirates of the Carribean’)

(21 x 29,7 cm - 8.3 x 11.7 inch)

I painted the background and used my grid stamp all over it.
I stamped the shells onto thick paper which I’d coloured with distress ink.
They then were cut out, and glued onto the page (some with foam dots)
The pirate lady is an image from a magazine and I finished the page with the
quote (new sharpies – YAY!) and some colouring (water soluble crayons)
to add depth.

And here’s a fun ‘extra’ that Scrapbookers Anonymous only recently added
to their challenges: if you make a card with your left over scraps, you’ll have
another chance to win!

You all know how I love to use my left overs for ATC’s… here’s my second
entry for the May challenge.

(ATC 6,35 x 8,89 cm - 2.5 x 3.5 inch)

The background is a left over piece of paper from the inked background for
the shell stamps (see explanation above) I had some cut out shells left,
which I coloured a bit more to make them stand out.
The lady with the hat is stamped and covered with a shell…
I finished it off with text and some colouring around the edges…

This month I have the honour to have an article in Artella’s e-Zine:
“The Art Journal Journey”.

Artella is a very inspiring place to visit and I recommend you do that!
So much fun to see, read and learn! I always find interesting topics and
inspiring art over there!!!

Weekend is almost here… the weather should be beautiful (so they say)
and I plan to work in the garden ánd paint/create some more.

I’ll leave you with these words that always bring a smile on my face…
this sentence is printed (painted?) on the dish that I use for mixing my paint
and I see it almost every day…

“Celebrate the day. On every moment.”

Happy weekend!

My headaches were gone by Friday afternoon, and never came back.
That was just in time, because I spend the weekend in sunny Zeeland with
my parents and ‘my men’. I had some appointments there and had to handle
‘something’ 😉 (more details soon!) and it went way better than expected…

Besides ‘work’, we
also found time to
enjoy the lovely
weather, the  sea,
the scenery and
each other! I sipped
white wine in the
afternoon sun with
my mom. I walked
across the dunes
and had coffee in a
beach pavilion with
my dad. I payed my
best friend Lena a
visit. All in all it was
a relaxing and
beautiful weekend!

Here’s a photo I took while standing on the dike with my son.
MAN… is he getting big and EECK… am I getting old and fat!
(I have to get rid of that double chin!)

Since last Sunday was Mother’s day, I surprised my mom with this collage.

‘Only a mother can embrace you by mail’

The head is mine (the photo was taken for a project in 2008 – here’s
the old post) It fitted perfectly on the body of a ‘reading lady’ (image
from a magazine) Bright scraps of papers turned into circles and a border.

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – week 18

Here’s week 18 in my art journal

This page is a bit about my headache and much about Zeeland and the sea.
My mom gave me such a lovely photobook about oceans all over the world!
It’s a so called ‘coffee table book’, and it’s packed with awesome photos,
almost too beautiful to use – so I decided to tear out a photo right away.
That way the first, scary ‘act of vandalism” is done and from now on I feel free
to tear out all the photos! (There are over 700!)

Today is Tuesday.
Totally ‘LADADI’ Tuesday!
Why?

• I received an email this morning with a lovely message/request.
  I can’t share it yet, it has to stay secret for now, but it made me
  dance with joy!

• I received an email a while back from Artella Land
  They asked permission to reprint one of my blogposts in an issue
  of The Art Journal Journey e-zine. (I think it was the April issue,
  but I haven’t seen it nor heard from the lady from Artella Land)

• 30 participants have already signed up for Summer Camp!
  (My online summer camp has a big ‘camping place’ and you are
  welcome anytime! So click the link and join the club!)

• What began as a fantasy, now seriously seems to work out!

I wish you all a ‘ladadi’ Tuesday too!
Keep on singing and enjoy life!