in stead of swapping ATCs with my fellow deskers – a thing we usually do to celebrate – Julia came up with a new, ‘coronaproof’ plan for this year’s anniversary so we would not overload the Post Offices with extra work: “drag out a UFO (any craft, any age) or a kit, or ‘thing’ that you’ve promised to do ‘at some point’ and actually do it. Take the challenge and show us on WOYWW 572.”

WOYWW #572

I took the challenge and dragged out an old harmonica-book (see last week’s post) that I had laying around for almost two years, and never finished… I worked on it for several days and it’s ‘going some-where’ but I don’t think it’s finished yet.

Booklet front 1

Booklet open 1

Booklet front 2

Booklet open 2

I think it’s too pale still… it needs some more contrast. Maybe some Indian ink? (Splatter? Text?)

Dutch Dares Scrapbook Challenge

Today, a new challenge was posted in the Dutch Dares challenge group. It’s a sketch…

… and as a guest-designer, I created this layout.

Yes, that’s me on my scooter (is that the right translation? In Dutch it’s called “a step”.) Journaling says that my dad always laughs when he sees this photo: “You loved that scooter, to SIT on. You never actually rode it!”

It’s almost afternoon already… I’m late posting but I had a tough night (insomnia can be a burden) so I took some extra time in bed this morning.

Thanks for dropping by my blog, I hope to make a start with my ‘desk round’ today and finish visiting everyone that’s on the list later this week, so see ya!

WOYWW #347

There’s a few new journals on the desk today. Last December I purchased a few art-books and I started working with the information and/or prompts in those books. The books and journals were stored in my book case last Month but I took them out last week so I would not forget to work in it from time to time. So, what’s new?

• The small journal on the top left of my desk: that’s a journal to practice lettering (inspired by the book “The Art of Whimsical Lettering” – Joanne Sharpe)
• The purple book on top of my stash of art journals: that’s a sketch book I use to experiment and practise drawing portraits (inspired by the book “Mixed Media Portraits” – Pam Carriker)
• The journal/spread on my desk: a journal I bound to work with the Art at the Speed of Life prompts from the book “Creating Art At the Speed of Life” – Pam Carriker

And then there is my finished journal for “The Documented Life Project 2015.” I uploaded all the pages from this journal in my gallery yesterday but I still have to put the info (prompts) with all the photos. I hope to finish that today, but you can take a look at the gallery already if you’re curious. It’s HERE on my website.

Last Month I created some cards for people’s birthdays. I usually forget to take photos of the cards I create, but not this time…  here’s what I send to friends and family.

January 6 – Miriam

January 25 – Nico

January 28 – Lien

I think (hope) this blogpost had enough brightness and color in it to lighten up a grey day. Wherever you are, whatever the weather may be like: enjoy the day, enjoy life!

However, I will spend today in my atelier, finishing that spread I am working on. And there’s more on my desk that needs a bit of attention (the Lettering book, for example.) Have a look yourself.

WOYWW #346

The Chronicles journal I bound for this year (see this post) is rather large (29,7 x 42 cm – 11.6 x 16.5 inch) and I am not used to working on weekly spreads that are that large. Last year, my Chronicles journal was a lot smaller. I usually took notes during the week and created a spread in one session at the end of the week. But these pages are just too large to finish in one session…

I did finish all the prompts for The Documented Life Project 2015 and bound them into a journal. Here’s the pages I made with prompt #50 and #51

December 12
December Theme: Storytelling with the Written Word
Art Challenge: Using Quotes & Lyrics as Storytelling
Journal Prompt: “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter.” – James Earl Jones

This page came together pretty quick. I found the image of a model, putting make-up (gold powder) on her face, in a magazine and the song Woodstock came to mind (“We Are Stardust, We Are Golden…“) I just added a bit of golden paint and wrote part of the lyrics at the edges.

December 19
December Theme: Storytelling with the Written Word
Art Challenge: Hidden Journaling
Journal Prompt: The greatest gift I can give myself…

This page took a little longer to create… the journaling is not really ‘hidden’ but when you write the text in different angles on top of each other, it’s not readable either. That’s ‘hidden’ too, isn’t it?

So, that’s it for today. I am going to hop on over to the other desks (see the woyww bloghop list over at our hostess Julia) to see what all the other participants are working on. Thanks for your visit!

WOYWW #344

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – Cover (pieces of leather stitched together)

The Chronicles of Marit 2016 – handbound journal – spine

WOYWW #342

(I will refresh the water as soon as I am done with this blogpost, promise!)

Remember last week’s post in which I showed you the happy mail/altered cars that Muriel send me? Here’s the finished art journal page on which I used three of those cards.

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 50

And that’s all for today sweeties… I should get back to my journal in order to get some work done before Friday. I hope to visit some of you deskers in between creating (for example when I need to wait for paint to dry…)

In case I won’t ‘see’ you before Friday or next year: I wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a FABULOUS 2016!

It was kinda odd to stay over at her place, next to the house that was ‘mine’ for 13 years… to walk through the street that is so familiar still. To look out of Miriam’s window and see the almost exact view that I saw all those years, to sleep in a bed knowing that there was someone else sleeping on the other side of the wall in a room that used to be my son’s room (and my atelier) ….

Miriam and I talked and talked and relaxed but went to sleep on time because the next day we had planned a visit to the Craft Trade Show in Den Bosch. We both had not been to that show before and we were curious and excited to go there. There were a lot of stands selling all kinds of scrapbooking and card-making stuff. Also, part of the fair was filled with fabric, textile and needle stuff. We skipped those stands and went straight to the art journal and mixed media stands. At the end of the day, we both had a bag full! Here’s the catch…

I planned to travel back home on Friday evening, but there’d been a train accident on my route so that the ‘fast’ route (2 hours by train) back to Middelburg was blocked. I could have traveled the alternative route but that would mean I’d have to get in and out of trains (traveling half of the country *The Netherlands isn’t that big*)  and wait on dark platforms late in the evening and I did not feel much for that. To the delight of my friend and her son, I decided to stay another night over and went home the next day (and it took me all afternoon!)

All in all, I had a great time (thanks Miriam, luv you!) but had no free time left last weekend/days to visit ‘woyww-deskers.’ I hope to make that up to you this week.

So here it is, for What’s On Your Work desk Wednesday – photos of how my desk looks this morning. You may spot some of the new bought tools and materials.

WOYWW #301 – desk to the left

WOYWW #301 – desk in front of the window

What’s On Your Work desk? Wednesday is hosted by Julia from the UK. Artists from all over the world post a photo of their desk on their blog and leave a link at Julia’s blog. More info about this event can be found here.

You probably saw my Chronicles art journal laying on the table… I’m a bit behind and am working on week 9. Luckily, I take short notes to memories what I did each day so it’s no problem to create the pages later. Here’s the latest spread that I created some time ago.

The Chronicles of Marit 2015 – Week 8

In week 8 my son and his girlfriend came over for a visit. I glued their photo onto the page.
Nout & Guus: isn’t it a beautiful couple?!

And that’s it for today folks… you all have a nice day, do something that makes you happy.
Walk in the sun.
Carve a stamp.
Visit an artist’s blog (facebook = overrated!)
Embrace a friend.
Enjoy.

So, without further ado, here’s my workdesk (and I won’t say anything about ‘organised’ and ‘messy’ anymore 😉 )

WOYWW #295

(What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday or WOYWW is a weekly blogseries/hop hosted by Julia in the United Kingdom. A whole bunch of crafty people share photos of their desks every Wednesday – the list can be found on Julia’s blog.)

And here’s a better photo of the art journal page I made with last week’s prompt for The Documented Life Project

January 24
January Theme: The Blank Page and How to Face It!
Art Challenge: Writing
Journal Prompt: Words with Friends

The background is a gelatin-monoprint (I had myself a ‘mono printing-session’ a while ago so that I have a large stack of backgrounds waiting to be used.) I cut out three silhouettes from random magazine pages, glued them on to the background and outlined them with a marker. I used watersoluble crayons to create shadow. I darkened the edges of the paper also as the page looked a bit pale. (I rubbed the crayon with a wet finger to blend.) For the ‘writing’ part of the prompt I wrote my thoughts about friendship around the circles that were in the background.

Thanks for visiting today.
Oh, and if you are curious to read the review of the Art Journaling book that is on my desk: I post it next Friday. See you then.

Wednesday is WOYWW ( What’s On My Workdesk. Wednesday ) but to me this Wednesday was also cleaning day as my desk was a huge mess this morning. For a good reason though… come on in and besides an explanation, I will also give you before & after pictures.

When we moved houses last Spring, my beloved and I brought the lamps from our old house including two professional office ceiling lights that we had hanging in our office space. Because we are not so handy when it comes to electricity, we still had only the absolute necessary lights hanging in our apartment. However, I had no lights in my atelier and therefor could not create after dark.

Now yesterday, my friend Lieke (remember her from this post?) came to visit us once more and this time she brought her spous, who came in with a trolley on which he carried several boxes with professional tools… yaaayyy!!! In one day he managed to get everything done that was on our wishlist… and one of those things was fixing and connecting the lights in my aterlier. Thank you so much Jan!

While our two men were working in the flat, Lieke and I decided to drive to the second hand store to see if we could find a nice coatrack and a lamp to light our diner table…  We had a fantastic afternoon poking about in second hand stores viewing the mishmash… and I found the coatrack I had in mind! I even found two lamps: an old fashioned desklamp for my atelier (only 1,50 euro!) and another one that might be nice at our diner table (I have to alter the lampshade first and then we’ll see if it fits in our living room.)

When we got home, the apartment was a mess with tools and dust all around, so I layed the lamps out of my hands on my desk – where a writing pad and my administration file layed already because I had not put those away after use.

Sooo, when I got out of bed this morning, my desk looked like this!!!

WOYWW #284 (before)

So now you know why I’m late with posting this… I vacuumcleaned the apartment and cleaned my atelier. The latter took quite some time, and although my desk always looks ‘clean’ to you it never looked thát clean! Here’s the photo I took after…

WOYWW #284 (after)

Julia from Stamping Ground, who hosts this weekly ‘woyww’ event,  can be proud of me ’cause the photos of the desk are all I show today… I know she (and a lot of participants with her) like woyww-posts to be sweet and short. I usually have more to show and tell, but this time not so much. So here you have it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day.
Alter a lamp!

Wow, where did the week go?
It’s Wednesday again – and that means that I have pictures of my workdesk for you.
Come on in and have a peek…

WOYWW #277

This is my desk in front of the window.

I received a comment last week saying “your desk is far too organised. You must’ve cleaned it for the photo…”  but no, I never clean before I take the  weekly picture of my desk… I’m just an organized and clean worker! I cannot seem to get creative or ‘in the flow’ when my atelier is a mess.
This is about as messy as it gets…

(you can click on the photo to enlarge for a better view)

And here’s a photo of the desk to the left.

And that’s all for today folks, no finished art pages to show you. Julia (and the bloghoppers) must be relieved to find this not-so-long post on my blog today 😉

(WOYWW stands for “What’s On Your Workdesk? Wednesday.” It is a weekly blogseries, hosted by Julia from Stamping Ground. Hop on over to Julia’s blog to find the list of participants and visit crafty desks all around the world.)

Thanks everyone, for the nice compliments about my newly-designed website (for the ones who haven’t seen it yet: I re-newed and re-designed my website. I also transfered the ‘about’ page, other information and the photoalbums with my art work from my blog to my website.)

Today is Wednesdays and you know what that means: ‘Tales from the Studio’ – including a photo of my workdesk.

Let’s start with a photo from my desk and how it lays waiting for me this morning…

(“why a picture of your desk” you may ask? That’s because of Julia from Stamping Ground.
Click the link to find out all about woyww and join the fun!)

WOYWW #246

Some may remember the ‘Grid journal’ that lays on my desk today (all posts are in this category) but it’s been almost a year since I worked in it. This little journal, however, is my ‘go to’ when I’m about to loose my Mojo and because that feeling was creeping on to me last Monday, I pulled out the journal and started cutting out random pictures (‘eyes’) to keep that little devil at a distance. I think it worked!

Six weeks passed since 2014 started. This new year is on it’s way… and so is my Chronicles art journal. Here are the pages from the first weeks:

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 1

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 2

The Chronicles of Marit 2014 – Week 3

… and that’s it for today folks. The sun is coming out just as I type this and I am longing for some fresh air… a long walk in nature is what I can do with so I’m outta here. Enjoy your day!