I told you last week that I created quite a bit of art over the last weeks… there’s a lot to show you! In this post I concentrate on the index cards. Do you remember I was creating on index cards with the prompts for this year’s ICAD? I didn’t make it ’till the end (that would have been 61 cards!) as other assignments and ideas got in the way, but here’s the last ones I hadn’t published yet.

(PREPARE FOR A LOT OF PICTURES)

Week 5 – Theme: Mark making tools (stamps)
ICAD #34 – Independence day

Week 5 – Theme: Mark making tools (stamps)
ICAD #35 – Portrait

Here’s the series of Week 5 all together

Week 6 – Theme: Different color palette each day of the week
(I didn’t use the theme this week though)

ICAD #36 – Backgammon

ICAD #37 – Chess / Checkers

ICAD #38 – Mah Jong

ICAD #39 – Bingo

ICAD #40 – Yahtzee

ICAD #41 – Bridge / Gin Rummy

ICAD #42 – Scrabble

Here’s the series of Week 6

In the seventh week, ICAD became a burden and making art should be fun, not an obligation! So I stopped creating with the ICAD challenge after prompt 43. Here’s that last index card

Week 7 – Theme: Inspired by Words
ICAD #43 – Definition

This last card clearly gives the impression that I just wanted to relieve myself of a burdensome duty… it is uninspired and a bit of a mess. That’s when I decided to throw in the towel and leave it with 43 cards. You’ve seen them all now (if not, you find all ICAD posts showing former index cards HERE)

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and see you on Monday with the last Quirky Dutch Summer post!

P.S. Don’t forget to check out my GIVEAWAY

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #26 – Exotic

A simple pattern from water soluble crayons and water.

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #27 – Academic

Numbers written with different sized black pens and markers. I published this card in the ICAD Facebook-group last week and although I received a lot of (positive!) comments, nobody noticed what I’d written… do you?

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #28 – Dramatic

This is my less favorite index card until now… I just don’t like it much. Is it the swirls? The gold? Anyway, it’s dramatic… I used a stamp {eye}, gold ‘stickles’ and black and gold markers.

Here’s the series of Week 4 all together

For week 5 I decided to use a stamp on each card this week and add funny comments/dialogue, inspired by Glenda Tkalac – who creates the most funny ATCs

Week 5 – Theme: Mark-making tools, stamps, stickers & tape
ICAD #29 – Iced Cream

The background photo (desert) is cut out from a picture book. I stamped the Amble Lady On Bicycle on white paper, colored her with crayons, cut out and glued onto the card. Text with alphabet stamps.

Week 5 – Theme: Mark-making tools, stamps, stickers & tape
ICAD #30 – Telephone

A small stamp and rub-ons. Do you recognize the text?

Week 5 – Theme: Mark-making tools, stamps, stickers & tape
ICAD #31 – Trivia

One of my favorite stamps: Cowgirl With Smoking Gun colored with crayons. Rub on alphabet letters and a frame with washi tape.

Week 5 – Theme: Mark-making tools, stamps, stickers & tape
ICAD #32 – Weather

This actually happened to me yesterday… I defied the heath and walked to the market to buy fresh fruit and vegetables. On my way back a ‘Summer storm’ surprised me… I was soaking wet but for the first time I didn’t mind at all, glad to have cooled a bit!

Stamp Running Lady and stamp of clouds colored with crayons, alphabet and raindrop stickers.

Week 5 – Theme: Mark-making tools, stamps, stickers & tape
ICAD #33 – Mad Men

For the ‘Mad Men’ I combined my Astonished Boy and the face of another guy (cannot find the name of that laughing boy stamp) with the stamp of a a mannequin. Stickers of text balloons. A litle bit of distress ink around the edges to finish it of.

All linked stamps come from VivaLasVegaStamps (my fave on line store to buy stamps – I am especially fond of the stamps in the ‘naughty section’) and I submit these index cards to their July Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great weekend (for the ones that follow the Tour de France bicycle race, enjoy ‘La Grande Depart’) and see you on Monday with a Quirky Dutch Summer post written by guest-blogger Roben-Marie Smith.

This week, something went wrong – that’s why I only have 6 cards to show instead of 7. Last Friday I created a card for that day only to find out later that I had worked with the wrong prompt (due for Sunday.) I will show it next week.

Here’s my week index cards

Week 3 – Theme: Collage
ICAD #20 – Color Wheel

I wasn’t very inspired and did not want to spend much time on the prompt. I went for ‘quick and easy’ and cut pieces of color from magazines and glued it to the card. Lines and handwritten words with a black marker.

Week 3 – Theme: Collage
ICAD #21 – 1970’s

I found a piece of fabric with fluorescent print, so I glued it as my background. The silhouettes are printed, colored with fluo-sharpies and cut out. Some doodling along the edges… grooovyyyy.

Here’s the series of Week 3 all together

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #22 – Psychedelic

I thought of circles right away and was glad I finally could make good use of the big circle-stamp I bought on a Craft Trade Show in March. I colored the circles with sharpies and Copic markers.

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #23 – Romantic

Dylusions spray ink on a rose-and -leaves stencil that I bought on a flea market years ago but never used… the image of roses fitted the Romantic theme perfectly. I outlined the shapes with a fineliner.

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #24 – Geometric

Fine-liner & ruler… and yes, this took me quite some time! I had a picture of a similar pattern in a book that I simplified a bit and used as a reference (the pattern in the book was even more complicated!)

Week 4 – Theme: Abstract & Geometric Patterns
ICAD #25 – Botanic or Organic

Acrylic paint and marker. Highly inspired by Henry Matisse  because I see posters hanging all around town with his collage printed on it as there’s an exhibition of Matisse’s art in Het Stedelijk Museum – Amsterdam.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a lovely weekend!

Oh, and don’t forget: the next Quirky Summer Post (#3) goes on line Monday, 9 am CEST.

En voor de Nederlanders: er zijn nog enkele plaatsen vrij in mijn LIVE WORKSHOP van 10 juli. Klik HIER voor alle info.

OK, enough complaining… my atelier is on the other side of the apartment and my index cards are on the table, so let’s move on to the fun stuff that shall we?!

Here’s two index cards I created with the ICAD 2015 prompts from last week – the cards that I did not show you yet.

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #6 – Taxi

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #7 – Periodic Table

I showed ICAD 1 – 5 last week in this post, but here’s a picture of the first week all together

For week two, Tammy came up with prompts about ‘Fruits and Vegetables’… I didn’t know what to do with this theme until I decided to make a ‘basic series’ of 7 monotypes on index cards using the ‘veggie-colors’. I take one of those ‘basics’ out every day, add a fun text and doodle on it… here’s the first 5 cards of Week 2.

Week 2 – Theme: Painting
ICAD #8 – Grapefruit & Cherry

Week 2 – Theme: Painting
ICAD #9 – Carrot & Lemon

Week 2 – Theme: Painting
ICAD #10 – Eggplant & Ginger

Week 2 – Theme: Painting
ICAD #11 – Lime & Mango

Week 2 – Theme: Painting
ICAD #12 – Parsnip & Kiwi

I wish you all a nice and

QUIET

weekend.

Now I do of course have my Box of Longing – filled with index cards ‘my way’ – that I could consummate with some more cards but I decided to stick to the ICAD prompts and leave the Box of Longing alone….

Daisy Yellow provides a week theme with 7 prompts (one for each day) and started last Monday. I will show you my index cards on Fridays which means there will be 2 created with the before week-theme and 5 with the new theme (that is, if I manage to create a card every day.) Today there’s only 5 to show (because, like I said, it started on Monday.) Here we go…

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #1 –  Chevron

Plain and simple. Cut out text, stamps and black marker.

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #2 –  Carnival

Black fine-liner, colored pencils.

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #3 –  Draw a Map

Map of our apartment; color pencils and fine-liner for lettering.

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #4 –  Mailbox

Living in an apartment building is so much different than the house I lived in before – take alone the mailbox(es.) Quick sketch with a pencil.

Week 1 – Theme: Drawing & Doodling
ICAD #5 –  Owl

Based on a Native American totem pole. Black markers and felt tip pens. (It kinda looks like a picture from a coloring book isn’t it?)

Today is going to be a hot day in the Netherlands… the weather forecast predicts over 30 degrees Celsius! At the moment it looks a bit cloudy but the temperatures are already rising so I don’t think I will be in my atelier much today. There’s a lot I want to get done though but I can work on that in the weekend when the temperatures drop. I’m gonna enjoy this day in the sun!

Thanks for stopping by my blog, hope you all have a great weekend.

As you know, I participate in Haiku my Heart Friday – posting a haiku almost every Friday – since  May 2011. The last 30 weeks, I published a haiku that I found in my bookcase by combining book titles. The booktitles with the right amount of syllabes to make haiku are all used by now so I faced a dilemma this week: back to writing haiku from scratch or “stretch the borders” and make a brand new series… and I decided the latter.

You know I love not only haiku, but poetry in general. 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’… the found poem can be a haiku but also a longer poem… anything goes and as an extra, I love that it is so usable in art journaling!

Sooo… as of now my Fridays will be FOUND POETRY FRIDAY – and I hope you will join me.

Yes, this challenge is wide open to anyone who loves found poetry!! As of NEXT WEEK (July 19)
I will add an “Inlinkz”-list at the end of each Friday post and if you want to share your found poems (and/or art journal pages that you made with it) 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 the post that contains your found poem to the list on Friday. Now doesn’t that sound like fun?

And what is a blog series without a badge?

Right! So I created a badge.

(I will put this badge in the side menu with the proper code later this weekend – to make it easy for you all to copy and paste it onto your own blog.)

To give an example of found poetry: here’s a poem I found this week…
This is a book title poem but as I said, any found poem goes!

I can’t wait to see what you find/make in the next week… you do play along, don’t you?!

OK, on to the ‘normal stuff’…

I created two index cards last week (I submit these to ICAD)

Now you must know I have these old books in my stash that are filled with photos and news-articles from certain years (for the Dutchies: “het aanzien van …”)
I once bought the books about “1965” and “1975” on a flea market, and while flipping through the pages of 1965 last week, I found some awesome pictures that inspired me. I cut out the photos, glued them onto the cards and searched old magazines to find funny titles to go with the photos… machine stitches complete the cards.

Just a few of the Next Generation

"Class of 1965" - The ladies on this photos graduated and 
received certificates to be stewardesses for PanAm airlines.

.

A Place of Lavish Dreams

This photo is of the New York City skyline during the black out of 1965:

“The Northeast blackout of 1965 was a significant disruption in the supply of electricity on Tuesday, November 9, 1965. (…) Over 30 million people and 80,000 square miles (207,000 km2) were left without electricity for up to 13 hours.” ~ Wikipedia

It’s been a while since I showed you an art journal page… here’s one I created a couple of weeks ago but did not show you yet.

Conversation

The quote says: “It is all right to hold a conversation but you should let go of it now and then” ~ Richard Armour

( I have no idea what was on my mind or why I choose this particular quote – it sounds a bit weird to me now but the page is in my ‘weird art journal’ so it fits after all 😉 )

I’m off to have lunch now and after that I have a date with my neightbour Miriam. We plan to bind us both a journal (I will show her a special binding technique) and these journals will serve as our ’round robin journal.’ We plan to exchange them all the time to work on each others pages… should be fun!

Thanks for stopping by today, dear ones!
Hope you all have a nice weekend,
go find a poem!

Wednesday… WOYWW day… and I owe all woyww-participants an apology – I did not visit one of your blogs last week! I planned to blog-hop but the weather got very nice during the week, warm even and because of that temperatures raise real high in the office space. There are more ‘machines’ in that room and it gets really hot as they all work like little heaters! So I turned off my computer as soon as the necessarily work was done. I know a lot of you woyww-hoppers are from the UK – and you must have had the same weather on your isle – so I hope you understand and forgive me. I try to do better this week – I promise!

Here’s the Wednesday golden oldie scrapbook layout – lifted from one of my old scrapbook albums.

(I don’t create ‘traditional scrapbook layouts’ anymore but every Wednesday I dive into my albums and lift a ‘golden oldie.’ The layouts I pick are random, YOU – blog readers – name the number of the album and layout to show. Let me know in a comment which album you want me to open next week – find the list to choose ‘golden oldies’ from here)

NOTE: I have been doing this for a while now and I notice that the risk that you name layouts that have already been requested is high… therefore I made a list showing the ‘free’ numbers and the ones that have been requested/shown already.

This week’s request came from Margaret – from Glitter & Glue
Ali asked me to open album 3 and show layout #5

Here it is… BFFs {click on the image to enlarge}

This is me with my BFF Lena. We are friends since primary school so that is indeed ‘forever’ 😉
I think this photo was taken in 2005 (is that correct Lena?) and the layout must be created somewhere around 2007… I never dated my layouts and kinda regret that now! And EEECKKK… we’re both smoking there! Lena quit a long time ago (when?) and as you might remember, I stopped smoking last March (and – although I still miss smoking A LOT – I concider myself a non-smoker now.)

Anyway, Lena is a talented painter and her work can be viewed on her blog  Six Lilies Studio
(I tell ya – it’s worth a visit!)

Because of the heat ánd the “Tour de France” (I am watching the report of this big bicycle race on TV every afternoon) I didn’t spend much time in the studio last week, but here are my latest index cards. (submitting to ICAD and Glue it Tuesday.)

Good morning.

Good night.

Here’s how my desk looks like this morning… SUMMER INDEED!

WOYWW #214

The WOYWW headquarters can be found over at The Stamping Ground from where the lovely lady Julia hosts the biggest weekly blog hop. Thanks Julia.

Bright sunshine through the window shining on my little table (as a result, the big desk in the corner behind this table is standing in deep, dark shadow and invisible on the picture)

There’s not much going on here, but I want you to have a better look on the art that Jana from Tangled Pen send me.

For the WOYWW 4th anniversary swap I made some extra ATCs and Jana emailed me that she would love to swap my little card with work of hers. She told me it would take her a while before she would ‘answer’ my ATC but I didn’t mind that, and last weekend I received an envelope from Sweden. It was worth while the wait!!!

Jana is also creating on index card – she send this one to me.

If you know Jana, you know that she is a talented painter and I especially admire the way she paints birds! Jana knows I have blackbirds in my garden who wake me in the morning, singing in the pergola beneath my bedroom window, so she painted this blackbird for me. Isn’t that the most sweet and precious painting?

Thank you so much Jana!

The blackbirds (and jackdaws, we have a lot of those lads visiting our garden too!) had their beaks wide open from the heat over the last days but today it cooled down a bit. Just enough to call it a nice Summer day. A bearable one – yay!!! Hope you all have a great day too!

A short blogpost today – as my son is visiting and…

IT IS HIS BIRTHDAY!!!

So I found a book title haiku especially for him!

*My son's name is "Nout" - which is coming from the name "Aernout" 
meaning "Ruler of Eagles"

And of course I submit this haiku to Haiku my Heart Friday – the weekly event where haiku-lovers gather around our lovely hostess Rebecca to find poetry, inspiration, wise words and a lot of kindness and love.

And here’s another series of index cards to go in the Box of Longing and created for ICAD

Passion

Attention

Precision

And the weekly art journal spread: The Chronicles of Marit 2013 – Week 26

Size: 31 x 24,5 cm – 12.2 x 9.6 inch

That’s it for today dear ones… I am going to enjoy my son’s visit as it has been weeks since I had him around. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Hello Friday, Hello Friends – let me start with a warning.. this blogpost contains
an OVERLOAD on PICTURES and it even starts with a VIDEO.
Are you in for all that? Then welcome, come on in!

To begin with this

We did it again! FEATURING #4 is out and I am majorly proud!!!
As you know we ship the magazine all over the world, so no matter where you live:
if you buy it, we send it your way! Purchase your copy HERE

On to another Book title Haiku now.
[Yes, I found yet another haiku combining the titles of my books… ]

*English title: Scarlet Feather 

And of course I submit this haiku to Haiku my Heart Friday –  the weekly event where haiku-lovers gather around our lovely hostess Rebecca to find poetry, inspiration, wise words and a lot of kindness and love.

A week ago, I received this comment from Michelle LaPoint Rydell

I answered the first question ~ HOW MANY JOURNALS DO YOU HAVE GOING? ~ in last Wednesday-post, and today I’ll walk you through my creative process

~ WHAT IS YOUR CREATIVE PROCESS LIKE? ~

I documented the process of making my weekly “Chronicles” spread to show you how I work. I make these weekly spreads for the fourth year now. (I just counted the spreads, and the one created here is #165) During those four years, I build up a certain routine – that starts at the beginning of the week. Tammy asked about it in an interview once and here’s the answer I gave:

“My way of working on the spreads changed over the years. I started with making the spread on Monday (creating the background and add the first images and text) and added some more every day. Eventually, that didn’t work for me. The spreads looked disjointed by the end of the week. Also, unexpected events could happen during the week and when it did, there was no room left on the pages to write about it because of what I added already. Another ‘problem’ I bumped on to was that the ‘feel’ of a week could change when the days went by. For instance, I would start with creating a bright, green or yellow background on a sunny Monday and then it would rain from Tuesday ’til Sunday… things like that changed my mood and by the end of the week the spread had the wrong ‘feel’.”  [Read the complete interview here on the Daisy Yellow blog]

So now I have a sheet of paper laying in the house, where I jot down what I did each day. Just short notes, like ‘I went to the market’. I make my weekly spread in the weekend – I sometimes start on Saturday but usually I make it from scratch on Sundays. Reading the notes at the end of the week automatically bring back the memories. (Sometimes, there’s a longer story to tell and my notes are longer then…)

Also, when I come across an image that I think would fit on the weekly spread, I keep it with the notes.

Last week looked like this:

The ‘card’ is a gelatine monotype that I stitched on. I did not know what to do with it next, so I kept it to use on my Chronicles page.

On to making the spread then… when looking at the mono type, I noticed that little bit of ochre in the image and I decided to paint my pages in that colour… so I got out the paint and smeared ochre on the page using an old credit card.

… and now comes the fun part of my creative process… that’s how the brain works (well, my brain anyway…)

– I have paint and a plastic credit card on the table already.
– The Chronicles pages need to dry.
– I have a stack of index cards for grabs.
– My hands are dirty already…

So ‘in between’ I add paint to three index cards – no idea where that will lead me later – but I don’t have to think about it now.

And did I randomly choose these colours to smear on the index cards? It may seem like that, but if you looked closely to the former photos, you’ll see that the same colours were used on my ‘starting point’ – the monotype… apparantly I am in that particular ‘colour mood’ and therefore it is no wonder I chose these blues.

Back to the Chronicles page then…. let’s take a bigger step:

I added the monotype (using washi tape) and I put a bit of colour around the ochre shape to balance the colours. After that, I cut out paper strips to make a colourful frame. I outlined the paper scraps with a black sharpie to give it more contrast. (You can see the difference, as on the above picture there’s a part of the frame – on the right – outlined, while the left side is still without lines…)

Next, I think the spread needs yet another image – so I grab some old magazines and flip through the pages. The ‘jumping woman with the robe’ maybe???

Naah…. too big a picture…

This one’s better!

Next, I draw lines to put the journaling on.
(using black and white sharpies)

Last, I write the journaling using my notes as a guide/memory support.
I filled in the ‘holes’ of the letters with a red copic marker just for a fun finishing touch.
So here it is:

Chronicles of Marit 2013 – Week 25

Size: 31 x 24,5 cm - 12.2 x 9.6 inch

The index cards with the blue paint – shown above – are not finished yet, but I did make two other cards for the Box of Longing which I – of course – also submit to ICAD

This is another example of how my ‘creative process’ works [don’t worry, there’s not as many pictures as above 😉 ]

Flipping through magazine pages, I bumped onto this advertisement.

I cut out the text.

Seeing that red line, the map of the London underground came to mind

The red line was the inspiration for the stitching – and here’s the index card I ended up with.

Take a Different Road

and another card, collaged with scraps torn out of the book The Brewery Manual 1961 – 1962
that I bought on a flea market years ago.

Dig this… Real Cool Beer

“Real cool beer” would go perfectly with Summer temperatures but we experience cold, grey and rainy days here in the Netherlands. I even had to put on a cardigan to stay warm. Can you believe it? In June??!!

I do hope it will get better soon because tomorrow the Tour de France starts, and it is half the fun to have to close the curtains against the bright sun to be able to watch the race on TV. I really look forward to it!

And you? Is there something you look forward to?
Whatever you are planning, I wish you all a wonderful weekend!.

Hello Friday, Hello Friends!

I have a sore and thick left hand (some inflammation maybe?) and typing is not good for it – but I do have a lot of art to show… so this post will contain more pictures and less words then.

Starting with… another Book title Haiku!

* original title: Minding Frankie

And of course I submit my haiku to Haiku my Heart Friday

I picked up working in my Chronicles Art  Journal again, here’s last week’s spread

Chronicles of Marit 2013 – Week 24

Size: 31 x 24,5 cm – 12.2 x 9.6 inch

and a spread from another art journal

Zeeuwse Ziel ~ Horror Scenario

Size: 34 x 30 cm – 13.4 x 12 inch

Detail of the stitching with journaling

I am still going strong on the index cards – mostly I create collages but some other techniques start to slip in lately…
I will show those later though. Here is a series of collages – for the Box of Longing and submitting to ICAD

10:30 AM

1:00 PM

5:00 PM

I’m off now dear ones… I cannot type as long and as much as I would like, but I CAN surf around using my pen and tablet (luckily I am right handed!) so I might pay you a visit today! Enjoy the weekend!!