~ Rebecca Brooks ~

Rebecca hosts Haiku my Heart Friday and when I discovered this circle
of Haiku-lovers and joined in with a haiku every week, the participants
embraced me with all their kindness and love.

Every week, I look forward to Friday
Thank you Rebecca!

I have more art to share…

..

I usually show my weekly art journal on my blog earlier in the week, but
last week was overly busy and stressful and I didn’t finish the pages until
Wednesday – here it is:

(click on each image to enlarge for a better view)

The Chronicles of Marit 2012 – Week 16

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

There was so much going on in Week 16 – with FEATURING magazine
being printed and published and the weekend that I spend with my mom
at a poetry festival – that I needed more space to document it all.

I made a pocket of an transparent document protector and taped it
in between pages as an extra. You can see it on the right. It holds notes
that we asked our neighbours to make. We gave both neighbours a copy
of FEATURING and asked them to give feedback on the magazine.
The ladies ‘did their homework’ and I was very happy with their comments
and praise!

The pocket also holds a small book (not visible on the photo) with poems
and names of poets that speeched at the festival. The diner on Saturday night
was very nice – we sat with all children’s poets on a big table. I know most of
them from former festivals and it was pleasant to meet them again and chat
with each other. One of the poets had his text printed on paper place-mats
which the diner was served on, and he signed it for all the other poets.
I folded mine so that it would fit in the pocket. For the Dutchies: the website
and blog of this writer/poet are worth a visit: Ted van Lieshout

Some of you remember the book with templates that my friend Lena send
me (see former post.) I just couldn’t resist playing with one of the templates.
It was quite difficult to choose  (they are all gorgeous!) but when I came
across the the image of a record player I choose to use that with a left over
‘Eels’ affiche/photo transfer and made a page in my ‘Album Cover Journal.’

Album Cover Journal – Eels

(Size: approximately 30 x 27 cm – 12 x 10.5 inch)

I think it’s one happy and bright page and it makes me wanna put on
that record and dance!

I have all reasons to dance: I got emails from the UK and the USA that
FEATURING magazine arrived at the customers homes. My baby has
stepped into the wide world and I hope he’s making it there.

I wish you all a happy weekend.
Whatever colour you may like – orange… red… purple… pink –
make sure to colour your days bright and enjoy life!

My wish was answered – but you know the saying:
“Look out what you wish for, it might come true”.

It’s tropical hot last days.
For Holland, that is… if you live in a hot area you probably laugh
at 35 Celsius / 95 Fahrenheit, but it’s a little too much for me.

Guess what?
The moment I thought ‘this is a bit overly’ the forcast predicts
thunderstorms, heavy showers, hail, rain and wind.
Right.

Let’s get this post in the air as soon as possible then, ’cause when
thunderstorms hit our house we will turn out all the computers.
(We always do – computers are our living and we don’t want them damaged)

Last week was – despite the bad weather – a really good one!
With the article-writing-job done, I had time to create ánd I went to
the Eels concert! The concert was the highlight of the week (year?!)
and ofcourse my weekly page is all about that!

(Remember: click any picture to enlarge for a better view.)

The Chronicles of Marit 2011 – Week 25

(31 x 23 cm - 12.2 x 9.1 inch)

I glued the entree ticket on the page, and the review from the flyer.
The sentence (blue letters) is a title of one of their songs.
In the little plastic bag is a journaling card with a summary of what
I did that week.

Week 25 is also the last weekly page in this journal!
I made this journal to contain half a year in weeks. (if you’re better
at math than I am, you’ll notice that half a year has 26 weeks… you’re right.
I miscalculated and bound pages for only 25 weeks…
Uhm, I’m not that good in maths…)

I had one page left in this journal. I want to use it to ‘look back’ on
the first months of this year. I already glued a photo to the page,
but I’ll wait for my sharpies to arrive to journal on this page (which is
glossy photo paper)

Now that my journal is filled, look at the spine!

Isn’t it great how the paint and spray ink and stuff from all those pages show?

To keep my ‘Chronicles’ going (and ofcourse I want that!) I had to bind me
a new journal for the next half year. (And YES, this has the right amount
of pages. I counted, recounted and counted again…  😉 )

(15 x 21 cm - 5.9 x 8.3 inch)

Brand new. Made with thick watercolour paper.
Fresh, empty pages.
LOVE IT ALREADY!

I had some of the paper left and with that, I made this small book.

It measures
10,5 x 10 cm
(4.1 x 3.9 inch)
and you can
call it a
tiny art journal.

It can also be used
as a notebook – to
keep in your purse
and take notes
or write quotes
on the pages.

Call it whatever you
want but I call it a
GIVEAWAY!

It’s real easy to enter this giveaway.
There are no flaming hoops to jump through or
belly dances to perform.
Just leave a comment on this posts. That’s it!
The winner will be announced on my son’s birthday, Tuesday July 5.

In case you wonder how I bind it, here’s a picture.
(there are 6 signatures, which makes 12 pages = 24 sides)

The ‘Workshop at the Sea’ groups are starting to fill!
Especially the International weekend is popular.
Registration closes on September 30th or when the group
is full, so if you want to be part of it, don’t wait to long!
(Find the info on the website Marit’s Paper World or send me an e-mail)

In my last post, I gave you a link to a Dutch article about me in a newspaper.
A lot of you asked me for a translation, and Annemarie surprised me with that!
Thanks a lot dear!!!

So, for all my English reader: the original article in Dutch can be found here
(see top left of the website) – and here’s the translation:

Art journaling is hot

An art journal can be compared to a visual diary. It is a book in which daily life is documented in words and pictures. They are wonderful illustrated personal diaries. Many people publish them online and they can be found in all styles and sizes. Some ‘art journalers’ make intimate pages, others keep it more general, but it’s always personal!

Marit Barentsen graduated as a teacher in the arts, and has been creating art journals for a few years now. She binds her own books, which she then fills with text and images. She has been active for several years on the Internet, where she keeps her followers informed about her creative process on her blog. On her website, “Marit’s Paper World” she teaches online workshops. Living in Brabant but born and raised in the province of Zeeland, she calls on her roots and returns to this region to teach a live workshop.

In November, there will be two workshop weekends with Marit on “art journaling and mixed media.” During the workshops you can learn all about art journaling. Each participant binds his own book whereupon there will be worked on the pages with various creative techniques. She will be discussing the pages and encourages the students to fill it in a personal way. Also, the poet Johanna Kruit will teach a haiku-workshop. The haikus that are written, will be processed on the pages. It will be a versatile and creative workshop weekend in which the sea and beach will be reflected in the artwork. We highly recommend it.

The sun is still shining.
No thunderstorms (yet…)
I completed this post in time, yay!

Have a nice week, dear ones!

So let’s get on with it right away!

..

In my last post I wrote that I was looking forward to a special moment,
and special it was! On Tuesday evening I went with my beloved and son
to a concert of the Eels!!!!

I can’t remember the last time I went to a pop concert, I don’t like crowds
and I rather stay at home listening to the cd, but I wouldn’t have wanted
to miss this for the world! I discovered ‘Eels’ last Spring, my son is a fan
and he made me listen to the music one evening. I made art journal pages,
using the song lyrics, right away. (See here and here )

Last Tuesday I had a FABULOUS night!!!!
To share a little bit of what I saw and heard… this you tube movie is made
at the same concert (the man/woman who made it must have been on a
chair behind me and more to the left… we had great seats in the middle
and more to the front.)

This is going to be a long post… I will have to stop using a lot of words
otherwise you will be long gone before I come to the end of this post…
Over to a briefly style then:

Here’s a newpaper site that has an article about me (left top corner)
Dutchies might find it fun to read…

While surfing the Internet last week, I found quite a few art journalers
participating in Index Card A Day. Tammy from Daisy Yellow-Art Journaling
started this Summer challenge. The premise is to create, draw, doodle, write,
collage something on a simple index card every day in June, July and August.

I have this old index
card box – got it from
my dad a few years ago
– and I thought it would
be fun to give it a go.

I won’t create one card
every day though…
there are way to many
projects I want to work
on, but one card every
now and then will be
manageable.

I will alter the old, metal
box eventually.

I don’t follow the prompts either… but if you’d like to participate, or if you’d
like to see some of Tammy’s ‘Index Card A Day’ prompts, click here to visit
her blog, Daisy Yellow.

Here are the first cards I made last weekend.

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

‘I’m lost on a road – and there’s no one to talk to – there’s no one to run to –
I’m going in circles – I’m talking to myself’ ~ Gorilla Zoe

And a colourful one (the quote is from Helen Keller)

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

Another project I started is this ‘album cover folded book’

I taped together some album covers (see this post) and pieces of cardboard.
It’s a bizarre and huge ‘book’ (the covers and pages are 12×12 inch!) and I
only just gessoed the cardboard pages. That alone took me days…
(gesso – lay to dry – unfold the other side – gesso – dry – and so on…)

I don’t know exactly yet what I will create on the pages and where this book
will lead me… something ‘music related’ I guess…

Friday: time for Haiku my Heart!

This week, Rebecca celebrates the One Year Anniversary of this weekly event.
I have been a part of it for only a couple of weeks now, but I hope to be there
still when the next Anniversary comes! Thanks Rebecca, for the inspiration
and the kind words you have for each and every participant!

Be sure to stop at Rebecca’s blog Recuerda mi Corazon to experience more
Haiku from the heart, as well as find out how to participate yourself.

I started this blogpost with a little ‘list’ and now I come to the last point:

I NEED HELP FROM ONE OF MY AMERICAN BLOG-READERS!!

This is what it’s all about:
I spend a small fortune on black and white markers I use for my art journals.
None of the brands work really well… they dehydrate or, more likely, can’t
handle the layers of paint I use them on…
Some time ago, I won a white Poster Paint Sharpie from Terri and that
specific marker is like a miracle! IT WORKS! And it KEEPS ON writing!

But…

They don’t sell those in the Netherlands and I haven’t found a company
that ships overseas…

Here’s the question:

Is there one of you that would be so kind to buy me a bunch of
black and white Sharpie Poster-Paint Markers  – extra fine point
and send them to me? I can pay you back via PayPal.

Send me an e-mail (see side menu for ’email me’) if you are willing to do this,
so that we can ‘make a deal’.

Edit: I ‘have a deal’ with Julie (thanks love!) and Sharpies are coming my way!
Thanks to everyone who offered to buy them for me!!

Thanks for staying with me all through the post (or didn’t you?)
I wish you a fabulous SUNNY weekend!

Surprised to hear music playing?
Yep, my weblog is usually a ‘quiet place’ – but not today!

My son discovered the band ‘Eels’ last year.
He bought their cd’s, saw a documentary and went to a concert.
Ofcourse he played their music for us too, and I must say: he has
a good taste in music! I love the songs, the lyrics are awesome and
since I like to use lyrics in my art I made a page with it. I finished this
over a week ago (it was on the songs in my heART blog already) but
I show it to you while you hear that song playing. (At least I hope
you hear it – my beloved helped me include music into my blogpost…)

The background is one of the photos my mom send me – skies and clouds.
The eye is a gel medium transfer. The arm/hand is a photo of my own hand.
I made the pile of ‘earth’ with distress embossing powder. Acrylic paint in
the bottom part of the page, and journaling with a white sharpie.

“The sky in your eyes
The earth in your touch
The spirits come together
It’s almost too much
And this is where it gets good…”

And I have some ‘lists’ for you….
I have a blast working on these pages – the seize of the journal is fun to
work on (5.1 x 8.3) and I finished a couple of pages in the past two days
(and some more are halfway)

This is one I made last Friday

List #4 – Today’s Playlist

I think the next one is my least favourite page until now…
Oh well, not every page has to be perfect! Here it is

List #8 – What’s in my bag

On the other hand – the next page became one of my favourites… so cute!

List #9 – Favourite websites/blogs

And – as promised – my take on the ‘Fave things’ prompt:
Favourite Features.

This page, in particular the photo, has a comical story…

When I saw the prompt ‘favourite features’ I didn’t have to think long about it.
I have beautiful legs. Not long, but beautiful.

(I have to thank my mom! She is seventy now, but she still has legs like this!
Seriously, she looks like a young girl – and since my body shape looks like her,
I find that very encouraging. But never mind – where was I…)

Oh yes, my legs.
I once saw a photo of a pin up girl, laying on her back, wearing high heels
and having her feet put upon the wall… get the picture?
I wanted a photo of my legs that way…

I thought about asking my son to take the photo, but I felt a little bit
embarrassed to ask him (and besides – he was busy studying for a test)
so I let it go. My beloved? Sorry, but he’s not the best photographer
and again – embarrassing.

But then I suddenly had last Friday all to myself, remember?
So I thought – what the heck, let’s give it a try with the self timer.

I was wearing my old, comfy house suit, but I dressed up the lower part
of my body (c.q. legs) in nylon stockings and put my heels on.
The best light to take a photo (and a ‘free wall’ to place my feet) was in the
bedroom, so I placed the camera in the window-sill and put a pillow in place
where I would lay down (for focusing)
Then I hit the button – ‘ran’ to the spot – threw away the pillow – lay down
positioning my feet against the wall and waited for the ‘click-clack’.

I did this several times.

The photos looked absurd – but once I cut of the part where the worn out
sweatshirt and my red, sweaty face without make-up was visible.. the picture
was exactly what I was aiming for! I found a real funny quote to go with it,
so here’s my take on the prompt at These Are a Few of my Favourite Things

My favourite features: my legs!

“Darling, the legs aren’t so beautiful, I just know what to do with them.”
~ Marlene Dietrich ~

And you know what really made me giggle?

When I’d cut out the photo and positioned the image on my page,
I saw this:

Why had I  wrenched my body into those weird positions?
I could have achieved the same effect by sitting on a chair!

I hope you enjoyed this extra post.
I hope you enjoyed the music.
I hope you have a lovely Sunday!
I’ll be back on Tuesday – well, let’s make that Wednesday.
See ya!

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!