So I took advantage of the time I have now, and created a lot of stuff….
I could (should?) have used the free time to clean the bathroom, but naaahhh…
we don’t stick to the bathroom floor (yet!) and playing with art journals
and paint is much more fun, don’t you think?

I won’t show you ALL I did – I save some for Friday – but grab a cup
of coffee or tea and enjoy the pieces I show today!

(Remember you can click on each photo to enlarge, for a better view)

As you saw in my last post, I used the first page of my “chronicles” (formerly
known as  “weekly art journal”) to make a page about my word of the year and
last week, I picked up the daily routine of journaling the week on the pages.

Week 1

I started with preparing the pages with gesso.
Next, I grabbed my purple spray ink (Tim Holtz Adirondack colorwash
“egg plant”) but instead of spraying, I used a wide, flat brush.
I liked the effect so much, that I decided to leave it this way.
I just journaled my daily ramblings of the day on top of that with
a white lack-pen/marker (Edding). I love how this simple page came out!

Lots of my followers stated last year that they were thinking of starting
some sort of weekly art journal themselves… how about it ladies?
Did you do it? And do you manage to hang on to it?

Maybe you heard of Julie Fei-Fan’s project: Art Journal Every Day.
I highly recommend this – lots of tips, ideas and inspiration. It might help you
get your lazy butt from the couch and START ART JOUNALING!!!

Next, I made another page for A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

This was the challenge from November 15th – the word was “Life”

“If you’re alive you’ve got to flap your arms and legs, you’ve got to
jump around a lot, for life is the very opposite of death, and therefore
you must at very least think noisy and colorfully, or you’re not alive.”
– Mel Brooks –

The woman’s figure is inspired by the art of Niki de Saint Phalle.
Niki became famous with her “Nana’s” – colourful statues of women with
voluptuous bodies. “Nana’s” exist in all shapes and sizes and they became
a symbol of happy and independent women in general.
(I could give an art history lesson here now, but I leave you with this
information. More info – including a lot of photos of  “Nana’s” – can easily
be found on the Internet)

I couldn’t get enough of my happy collaging and doodling, so I made
a page in my “miscellaneous art journal” – this page is for the challenge
at Wednesday Stamper.

Dream Big

The name “Wednesday Stamper” says it already: you have to use at least
one rubber stamp. Well.. I stamped all the little thingies coming out of
her head – except for the curled clouds – coloured them with my copic
markers and cut them all out. It took me all afternoon, and it felt good!

My son studies “Artificial Intelligence” at the Radboud University
in Nijmegen. He’s also very creative, as some of you – who saw his
drawings at my top 2000 party – know

Last week, just after dinner, he came down the stairs from his room
with a big grin on his face. I mean a HUGE GRIN 😀

Me: “What…???”
Son: “Guess…”
Me: “I dunno… WHAT??”
Son: “Do you remember I had a test the other day…”
Me: “Uhhmmm, yes. What was it already?
Son: “It handled moral logic”
Me: “Oh. What’s that? Aah, never mind, what about it?”
Se: “I just got the results…”
Me: “And…???”
Son: (could his grin get any bigger?) “I had a 10”
Me: “A TEN????!!!!”

(A ten is the highest point one can ever get!
It means NO FOULTS WHATSOEVER!
It means ONE BIG, FAT, STRAIGHT A)

I thought he deserved a reward for his hard studying, so I asked him
what he would like to have. He said he liked me to bind a sketch book
– using the binding technique I learned last December – and he wanted
it to have a blue cover.

So here it is: a special sketch book for my smart son!
It contains high quality blank sketch paper (Winsor & Newton) ’cause
he deserves the best, don’t you think?

One last thing, and then I stop writing. I promise!

There’s this new music blog called Songs in my heART
PennyLane started this music related art blog last December,
and I submitted a layout that is very dear to me.
My work is up there today!

Because the blog is relatively young, it can do with some more
submittions and extra attention – so go over there, have a look,
leave Pen (and me 😉 ) some love and spread the word!

And now I’m really, really off… see you Friday!