Very late 12 tags of 2013...not a tag

I know, I am really, really late making the june tag for the 12 tags of 2013. So this will be a really, really short post. I loved the tag Tim made as an inspiration and the techniques he used, butI just couldn't get it together to go and make this tag.

This afternoon it hit me. I just wasn't in the mood to make a tag. I wanted to make books. The feeling of booklets and the fiddling with paper just makes me happy. So I decided to make the cover of a booklet with the techniques Tim showed us.

I didn't have all the products Tim used, so I used substitutes that I thought would work. I did make some progress shots and detail photo's.

WOYWW 212 and winner birthday giveaway

It's time again for yet another workdesk hop all around the world. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go and check out Julia's blog, Stamping Ground and she'll explain it all to you. From there you can also visit all other participating workdesks.

My workdesk this week is a rather funny one, as I'm getting to grips with making youtube video's .

On the desk you can see the journal page I was filming. Which I finished right in time to post the video and the page here.

First things first. Last week I posted a birthday giveaway and I promised to let my daughter draw a winner from among the comments, both here and on Youtube.

Summer of Color - Week three

Yesterday I was playing with some new sprays and embossing with a new stamp. I made a page I was realy pleased with. As it turns out the colors I used were the colors from this weeks artists choise for the Summer of Color 3. So since I like the page and the colors match this weeks colors, I will be able to submit  my entry for this week really early =).

The above images are scans and It would appear that my scanner is not big enough for this booklet, because the edges are snipped off. Not much though. I forgot to make progress pics but I do have some detail photo's to show you.

Summer of color, week two: Hot pink and orange

I finally done with the journal page for the summer of color, week two. This weeks chosen colors were Hot Pink and Orange. I think it's a gorgeous color combination. I loved dressing up my baby girl in these colors, when she was youger. She's now 16 and won't take any advice from me. Which, of course, is how it should be =).

I love painting with these colors, but somehow this page has been giving me a headache and it took a while for me to wrap my head around what it was that was bugging me and finish the page.

"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground." - Theodore Roosevelt.

Instead of telling you a realy long story, maybe I should let the progress pictures tell the story for me.

Mixed Media Book Cover for art journals

Next week is my birthday and my mother is coming to stay with me again for a good part of the week. I'm looking forward to the mess we will be making while crafting together. So far I have made three art journal booklets for her with a pamphlet stitch. Each made with 5 folio's.

For next week I want to make her a book cover so she can bind the 3 signatures together in a book. It will have to be something she can decorate herself and I want the signatures to be removable, so it's easier to work in the booklets.

I saw a blogpost and youtube video's from Paula Phillips (JournalArtista, Mixed Media mini books) where she did just what I was looking for. An easy to make bookcover with removable signatures. Go check her out, her booklets and journal pages are beautiful and inspiring, I started playing a bit with this idea and made a test cover for my own pamphlet booklets.

I didn't make progress pics, because I got rather caught up in the process of making this. I learned a lot while doing it and there are several things I will do differently when I make the cover for my mother. I will try and remember to make progress shots when I make that one, just let me know if you would like a tutorial on that.

I do, however, have some close up shots for you.

Home, a safe haven - art journal page

The theme for the month june over at Art journal journey is to reflect on the term "Home". For me home is the place where my loved ones are, my 2 kids, husband and 4 cats. It's a safe haven, a place of warmth and kindness.

My home used to be in Limburg, the Netherlands and it's hills are never far from my thoughts. I even created "hills" in my garden to remind me of them in the middle of the flat fields I live in today. Although, I suppose, the dikes in the polder could be considered as some sort of hill.

Someday I may go back to Limburg, but for now I'm happy where I am. Pottering away in my garden and my little craft corner. My little hiding place.

I made this page on a background that was used for cleaning of stencils and left over paints.
I'm afraid I didn't make any progress pics, but here are some close ups.

WOYWW 209

It's time again for yet another What's on your workdesk wednesday over at Julia's Stamping ground. My workdesk seems to be an ever growing chaos of bits and pieces.

On my workdesk you can see the ATC I received from the lovely Nikki C.

Here's a close up of the ATC and talking tag she sent me and some journal pages I've been working on.

Mix It Monthly - Picasso meets vintage

Last week I didn't do very much in my art journal. I did start a page on sunday evening. Continued with it on monday and then put it all away. Didn't touch it all again till thursday when I remembered the challenge over at Mix It Monthly for may/june. The prompt was yellow vintage girl goes Picasso. This sparked something with me and I went looking for some picasso inspiration and some vintage inspiration. Fliddled around a bit with that and ended up with this.

Which is not at all how I started the page.

ATC's for WOYWW4 swap

As I didn't finish the ATC's for the WOYWW4 swap in time to post them on the day itself, I promised to show them when I finished them. I finished them on thursday and yesterday I put them in envelopes and sent them of to their recipients.

I also made some cardholders to go with them, to prevent them getting damaged in the mail.

My first swap

A while back I took part in the altered playing card challenge over at Sandee and Amelie's steampunk challenge blog and I forgot to mention how happy I was when I found out that my altered playing cards were spotlighted at Sandee and Amelie's steampunk challenge blog. Such a lovely surprise =).

These cards brought yet another suprise because after I posted my APC's for the altered playing card challenge over at Sandee and Amelie's steampunk challenge blog, I received lots of sweet messages. Among which there was one message from a lovely, very talented, lady. Her name is Dagmar and you can find her wonderful blog here. Dagmar mentioned in her comment that she would love to add one of the cards to her ATC collection. I was delighted that she liked them so much, so I wrote her a message telling her that I would gladly sent one to her.  She wrote me a lovely message back in which she offered to sent me one of her ATC's in return.

I was over the moon as this was now my very first swap. I love sending gifts, I love surprises and I love getting mail, but...well there allways a but isn't there, I didn't know how to get the ATC to her in one piece. Nor what is common practice when doing a swap.

So I did some research and Dagmar sent me some tips. I found a nice free picture online for the back of the card and a bubble envelope, large enough for the ATC. I was however still afraid it might bend or break in the mail and after thinking a while, I figured I would make a little book to put the ATC in. And since I love making books and trying new things, I made her a little ATC booklet.

I even remembered to make some "making off" shots.

WOYWW 208

Today will be a very short WOYWW post, as my mother is keeping me company this week. Which means I won't be online as much as I would normally be. Still I didn't want to miss the big 4 year anniversary of WOYWW over at Julia's Stamping Ground.

I only found this blog a few months ago and this will be my 4th post. So far I have shown you my rather messy workdesk, the view from my workdesk and whats's behind my workdesk. Today however, as my mother is here, I will show you my dinner table.

The table has been converted to crafting workdesk for as long as she is here. I must confess, I do like working there, because there is a lot more room to play....less room to eat though...

As you can see, the ATC's for the WOYWW4 anniversary ATC swap are on the table. They are not yet entirely finished, but I think they look cute already.

The soul becomes dyed with the color of it's thoughts

Just a quick post today, because the sun is peeking out from behind the clouds every now and then, calling me to come out and play in the garden.

The quote "The soul becomes dyed with the color of it's thoughts" by Marcus Aurelius has been sitting in my little black book for quite some time now. Today I was looking for something to go with my new art journal page and I came across it again. I felt it was really appropriate for this page with all of it's colors.

I did make some progress shots while working on this page, though I forgot to make them during the first part. Still plenty of photo's to show you.

WOYWW 207

It's time again for another What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday over at the stamping ground. So if you want to know what that's all about and take a little peak at everyone's workdesks, jus hop on over and take a look =).

My what's on your workdesk today is more like a what's behind your workdesk, because my husband put an old chest, we had standing in the attick, in the corner. So now I have even more room to make a mess.

I'm really happy with that. I like making a mess, but I also like having a place to find the stuff to make the mess with...

After I made my canvas painting last week, I first was really happy and then landed right on my behind when I came tumbling back to earth. So I have been taking it a bit slower, with not all to much going on, painting wise. I did do some journalling, doodling type journalling and some paper crafting. Which seems to be emotionaly less demanding in a way. Last night I finally grabbed some paints again and slapped those in my "destroy" journal.

I did "destroy" several other backgrounds last week. So I'll do a little run down of those, with first the original background followed by the resulting page.

Finally a Canvas

I finally took the leap and took all that I learned in my art journals to a canvas. My first canvas without a pretty picture to guide me, but straight from the heart onto the cloth.

I could take it further, as I thought I would do last night, but I like how she looks. I like the suggestion of her and the transparancy of the painting. I like that she leaves room for imagination. I see many things when looking at this. I like that it's messy and grungy and clean and pure all at the same time. She looks sad and insecure to me while I see strength and confidence, all at once. I see a man in the darkness lurking behind her and a face staring down at her.

I guess I see me when I look at her. Dark and light all blended together. It makes me wonder what other people see when they look at this painting.

So yes, I think I will leave it as is, maybe some touch-ups and details here and there and my name and date off course when I feel I'm truly done with it.

It was fun making this painting. I used a lot of techniques and it has a ton of texture. It is also very interactive, because I used the input from my friends and family for the various steps. I loved reaching out this way and I loved the responces I got.
And because of this approach I have lots of progress pics to show you.

I may not have ended up where I intended to go - art journal page proces

I think the quote I used for this page "I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be" by Douglas Adams, realy sums it all up for what happened to this page.

I did set out to do a heavy textural page, I don't think this is what I was going for in the beginning. But since this is where It took me, that's where I went.

I did take some pictures while working on the page, so you can see what it is I'm talking about. I do have to warn you, this is an extremely picture heavy post =).

WOYWW 206

Just a short post to join in with the "What's on your workdesk wednesday" over on the Stamping ground blog. No 206 this time. I'm afraid I skipped No 205, while my mother was here. Which is a pity, because the exploded dining room table was a real sight for sore eyes =).

This time I managed to clear my table before making a picture.

It's a lovely spot to sit, work, stare out the window and listen to the birds whistle, while the garden comes back to life. From this spot I can overview the entire livingroom and the garden, nicely tucked into my little corner.

And yes, should you wonder, that is a pirates flag there in the border among the plants.

As you can see I did clean up a little. There are two projects on my table. Some tags I wanted to do for the Tim Holtz tags of may challenge and a sneak preview of a new journal page I'm working on. But since these are not ready yet I cannot show them to you in this post... maybe later today.

I did however destroy another background, as I told you I challenged myself to do in my previous post.

Destroying some backgrounds...

In a previous post I described how I made my faux metal art journal. I then later proceded to make all sorts of backgrounds in it. Firstly, off course, because I loved doing it, but secondly out of a fear of white.

This actualy backfired on me. I liked several, if not all, of the backgrounds so much that, while I could see they were not finished, I was now afraid to do anything to them. So I set myself a task, to take a background every day and "destroy" it, to be able to take the page to completion.

This also fits in wonderfully with the Artists in blogland: color this quote - May challenge. With the quote "Every act of creation is first an act of destruction" by Pablo Picasso.

So here are 3 of the backgrounds taken to completion, with the original background.

 I'm afraid I didn't take pictures while working on them. Which, in hindsight, is a pity, because with the way I work, it can sometimes be difficult to see what I did to get to the end.

Hearts are often broken by words left unspoken

Last week was a pretty intense week and I haven't been on the internet much. I did however do some art journalling. As my mother was staying with me for the week and she also is learning to art journal, we confiscated the dining room table as a work space. So my house has been rather messy. We had a lot of fun though.

I finally started to alter the book I chose to be my new art journal. First I tore out 2 of every 3 pages, because I didn't want the book to become too thick in the end. I then started to decorate the cover. It isn't finished, but I will do that when I'm done with the book. This way it will be easier to work in and I won't have to be so carefull when working in it.

It's the little things - art jounal page

Just a quick post today, because the sun has been shining all day and I have been working in the garden. So I am now really sore and my arms are all scratched and bruised from the rozes I pruned. I'm also very tired, but a good tired for a change. I think I may even sleep well tonight.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a journal page with you today. Still practicing my faces, but I feel I'm now getting to a point where I can take it all to a canvas, we'll see.

It's a bit difficult to photograph this page, because I treated it with a glossy varnish. It looks great in person, but on a photo not so much. I took the photo's outside, so the lighting is somewhat better compared to taking them in the house.

Some booklets I made

As I started blogging on lifejournal, some posts about booklets were posted there. I finally figured out how to import those posts to blogger, so I posted them here today. I back dated them as not to fill your RSS stream.

• All diferent sizes...
• What to do with all them little books...
• Another little booklet...
• How one thing can lead to another...

Not a lot of posts, realy, so I don't know why it took me so long to get them over to blogger. Not all booklets I made were posted on lifejournal, so today I will post some of the other booklets I made.

Some of the books above can be found in the previous posts, while others have never been posted before.

All booklets are handbound and most are made from tea dyed paper.

Except the TP mini album, which, off course, is made from TP rolls. You can see the (considerable) size difference very well in this picture.

I also made some tiny pictures, 2"-2", so too large to be an inchie and too small to be and ATC...