The first day of 2016 found me satisfied but tired, winding down and not doing much. I’ve neglected my beloved a bit during the last week so I gave him some well-deserved attention: we went for a long walk along the seashore, we talked, we reflected last year, we hugged, we bought a sandwich (“broodje kroket”) and had a good time. When we got home I fell asleep on the couch at 7 pm only to wake up at eleven to move from couch to bed… MAN, did I need sleep!

I’m fully awake and energized now and plan to finish off some things in the atelier this weekend… for example create the last pages in the 2015 Chronicles art journal, work on DLP pages with the prompts from November/December, tidy up some more loose ends and reflect on my word for this year (and write/create a page with it.)

To send you into the New Year, dear blogfriends, I have a fun video for you. It’s a “Best Wishes” video from a group of artists with whom I collaborated in December…

You may have spotted my ‘face’ in this video already… here’s the page in full glory

I hope 2016 will bring you happy faces every day!

Today I'm very happy, so happy, so happy
Today I'm very happy, as happy as can be...

You wanna know why?

• I finished writing the articles for the March edition of
  Creatief met Foto’s. I will have the next Month all for myself!
• The stamps I ordered at VivaLasVegaStamps arrived this week.
• The ‘Tim Holtz scissors’ I ordered arrived yesterday.
• My beloved cleaned the bathroom while I was working
  on the last article yesterday.
• I will meet my blog-scrap friends Jenneke, Jeanet and
  (maybe) Petra this Sunday.
• I won collage sheets, a sharpie, paper and gorgeous (handmade)
  postcard-art at OWOH.
• I drew a winner for my OWOH giveaway (a handmade art journal)

And the winner is…

Lorraine of  Love of Collage! Congratulations, Lorraine!

I was in ooh and aah when I visited her blog. Lorraine is an amazing
(collage) artist and my art journal will find a creative and warm ”home’!

I want to thank all the visitors who stopped by during the “One World
One Heart” event. I never thought I would get that many, lovely comments
and I was a bit overwhelmed to say the least… I met so many amazing
artists and found inspiration on every blog I visited. THANK YOU ALL!

Also, I’d like to ‘virtual’ embrace all of my followers – both old and new.
You are the wind beneath my creative wings, and I am very grateful that
I am part of this creative, supporting and loving group of bloggers that I
can call my friends!

OK, that should be enough compliments to get you through the weekend.
Let’s talk about me now… or better – let me show you my latest work…

..

The next prompt for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

THE PROMPT: Fight
THE SONG: Breakin’ Dishes by Rihanna
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Bleach

I never worked with bleach before so I had to look up some tutorials on
the Internet. After that, I went crazy – experimenting with bleach and
stamps (you saw some of that on my latest ‘Chronicles’ page) and brushes
and ink and watercolor paint.. woowheee… I had a blast!!!

I ended up with this page, but I’m sure I will use more bleach in future work.
I would never have thought of using this technique if it wasn’t for this prompt,
thanks Rachel!

I used adirondack spray ink and a brush to make the strokes and some
splatter with bleach (be sure to wear old clothes if you try this!)
The quotation marks were done with a stamp dipped into bleach.
I cut the images of pointing hands out of a magazine.

Next is a page made by the marvelous Eliza, from druga szesnascie
(That’s Polish, no idea what it means 😀 )

Some time ago, E. started a collaborative project with a friend: a special
kind of conversation. They both made their own altered book in which
they ask one question and sent it to the other to answer.
Questions and answers in ‘art’ – WOW!

This collage is E’s answer to the first question that her friend asked:
“Why not?”
Her answer is: “Courage!”

Inspired by her collage, I made an ‘answer to her answer’.
Here’s mine:

“I might drown in my own thoughts”

And now, my friends, I’m going to dive into my new stamps!
I won’t drown… but I have enough stamps to take a nice bath!

I wish you all a nice and creative weekend.
And Jenneke, Jeanet and Petra… see you on Sunday! Woohooo!!!

Since yesterday, I walk around with a silly smile on my face –
I will show you why…

..

Maybe you already know that I don’t have a craft room or studio to work in.
My materials are stored upstairs (mind you, that’s two stairs!) and I work
in the living room, sitting at our big table. Imagine me running up and down
the stairs all the time – it’s pretty annoying (to me anyway!)

So the stuff I use most – tools like scissors and craft knives and materials
like paint and spray ink didn’t see the top floor anymore…
I kept them down stairs, and it looked like this:

Slowly but surely, this corner of our room became packed with my stuff!
A month ago, two cases with stamps and inks came down the stairs also,
and stayed there ever since… the stuff took over the room!

From left to right: stamps and inks – toolbox containing scissors, craft knives,
brushes, tape and so on – plastic bag with paint, oil crayons, paint roller –
big paper bag with spray ink and glimmer mist and on top of that a case filled
with the most used markers and a smaller case with my copic markers.

This corner of our living room was a mess!
My beloved didn’t mind but I DID!
This couldn’t go on any longer – I needed a better ‘system’
And I found it!

Ikea did the trick!
This may seem a simple chest of drawers but it works perfectly for me!
All the most used tools and materials fit perfectly and the colours match
our bookcase and our table.

And the best part is: it has wheels!

I roll this little fellow to the table where I work and I have easy access
to my materials! No more kneeling in the corner for me. My butt stays
right on the chair and I can find whatever I need in the drawers! YEAY!

Can you tell I’m happy???

Okay, I will have to climb the stairs for paper, magazines, fabric, buttons, lace,
stickers, chipboard elements and a lot more, but BOY, is this an improvement!

Maybe you saw it already, lying on the top of my new toy – but here’s
a better photo. This is the book I plan to work in for A Year in the Life
of an Art Journal. (I notice just now; I should add ‘2011’ to it…)

I liked the colours of the sketchbook I made for my son so much,
that I made another ‘blue book’ for myself.
I cut alphas from magazines for the title.

I just can’t get enough of this binding!

As you know, I’m a guest host at AYITLOAAJ for this year.
Rachel put my ‘introduction’ on the blog last week – you might want to
take a look at the funky photo of me and read the answers I gave to the
questions (you may even learn a few ‘secrets’ about me then!)

You have to scroll quite a bit to find this ‘introduction post’
so I make it easy for you: here’s the link.

It’s almost evening in Holland… and
Friday evening equals WEEKEND!
Did you plan something nice for the next days?
I know I did!
take a guess…

I may roll it around in the living room,
I may even take it out for a walk
but I definitely will
PLAY WITH MY NEW CHEST OF DRAWERS!

Enjoy your weekend!