alpha/dictionary letters X, I and catch up Q

Wow, is it already again the last day of the year?!?
Luckiky I was able to squeeze in some "me" time aka creative time in yesterday and finished the letters X,I and Q for the alpha/dictionary challenge and started with the S.

I didn't had any pages with the X in my dictionary because they were already glued together for the Z. So I browsed an online dictionary and came across this very interesting word that immediately caugth my attention and which I didn't know actually existed, Xanthophobia, fear of the color yellow??
So I was brave and took out all my yellows for inspiration 

I started out by gluing skeleton leaves to the pages, covering them with yellow paint. But this was too translucent so I gessoed over it and added  the yellow again, to my satisfaction.

Added a border with all things yellow and the definition.

Until yesterday there was no I-word that really inspired me. Suddenly itinerary did. So I gathered some vintage travel emphemera and started collaging.

For the letter Q I choose the quote: "Family - where life begins and love never ends."

I used a technique I saw from Dyan Revealey, she did a whole page with random lines, doodling and coloring them in, and then blacking out everything but a desired silhouette. I was not so patient and just filled in the silhouette instead of the whole page which you don't see anyway. The opposite page I colored with oil pastels in the colors of the rainbow 

I 'm guessing that watching 
many of Carolyne Dube's videos 
is rubbing of on me

applied a generous layer of gesso over it and wrote the quote with a cotton swab.

For the S I choose salt, I wanted to try out this technique where you apply watercolor paint and sprinkle salt into it and let it dry. It didn't turn out as I wanted it, you couldn't really see the saltstructure, so now I have to find another way of depicting salt. I sprayed, stamped and heat embossed some snowflakes and that's how far I got.

I loved the challenge, although I only started a couple of months ago and still need to catch up with a lot of letters. I would like to say special thanks to the designteam over at the craft Barn to set the challenge and to start us off. Keep up the good work and can't wait to see what you've got installed for 2014. Bring it on!

birthday calendar - december

Merry Christmas to you all,

After being busy for a couple of weeks with making christmascards for charity I finally found some time for doing something else. I still needed to make this months birthdaycalendar.
Off course this has been inspired by the time of the year: christmas and presents.

I started out with this blue 12x12 paper

which I then painted with blue watercolorpaint and added salt to it, but it didn't create the effect that I had in mind, but non the less it toned down the graphics of the paper. 
After watching lesson 1 of Carolyne Dube's workshop UseYourWords I just had to give it a go.
I used the leftover piece of an alphabet die and created the word december, some letters aren't complete off course (D, B, R) but I fixed this with a marker.

Another gelli printing post

Recently I bought this paper pad which had as a bonus some 12x12 stencils:

I was to impatiently to remake them in acetate, so  I just scanned them in so I can do this in the future, and started using them right away.

They are so beautiful, I will definitely be making them in acetate!!

more gelli techniques

Recently I bought this paintroller with circles on, this is a fantastic tool

It is also a great stamp

Also something I tried was spraying some water on the paint, like the effect:

Even the package of some biscuits can be used:

Or this plastic roll (can't remember what it's original purpose was, but who cares, I think it was made for gelli printing):

some gelli printing techniques

Some techniques I’m using for the Christmas cards:

 Paper towel:

brayer paint on the plate and roll with paper towel over it, the print on the towel will transfer to the plate (added bonus: you'll have nicely colored paper towels to use in aanother project)

  Cling film: 

after applying paint to the plate place a piece of cling film over it and wrinkle it. You can use the same piece of film again and then paint will transfer from the film to your print, this creates a marble effect.

I glued small doilies on to a piece of paper and used this to create texture:

Then I took some lego of my son and created these prints. 

He wasn’t to amused when he saw the paint on his bricks, but after I let him play with it on the gelli plate it was ok J

  

Christmas cards for Unicef

After seeing the devistation that typhoon Haiyan caused in the Phillipines I had to do something to help those unfortunate people.

Slowly the idea rose to combine what I love doing and raising some money.

Because Christmas is only just around the corner I thought it would be a good idea to make Christmas cards (everyone needs some cards, no?) and the money I raise is for Unicef,

I saw this post from Izzy over at The Craft Barn on how to make a lot of cards in a short amount of time and they still look stunning. So this became my design.

The only thing you really need is a bunge of gelli prints, o what a job J NOT

So for the coming weeks I will be busy gelli printing, cutting, gluing trees on the cards and stamping a sentiment on them.

So I predict that the upcoming posts will involve a lot of prints J

sweepstake winner

Hi there,Is it really already december the first, oh my time flies.This means it's time to reveal the winner of my very first sweepstake:
True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:1Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Congratulations to my first member handgathered. You will be receiving an email from me shortely.Thanks to all the others who've signed in, this means a lot to me as a starting blogger.

vintage journal book

TADA, this is the special project that I was talking about in one of my previous posts.

I made this journal for my mum’s birthday (told you that November was a busy month)

I made an A5 sized journal where I alternated blank writing pages with printed pages and art pages.

I tea dyed the blank pages to fit in with the printed pages which have a vintage look and on which  I stamped inspiring words from a stamp set from Andy Skinner.

A couple of the art pages I already showed in a previous post, here are a few more

This page is made out of pieces of gelli prints

I covered the chipboard for the cover with one of the prints, added a broad ribbon and some flowers made out of fabric which I didn’t need to sew but rather glue (ideally because I can’t sew)(see tutorial)

I’m pleased how it turned out and more important my mum was thrilled.

clear stamp organisation

Recently I reorganized my stamps.

Until now I just kept them in a drawer, but this was becoming really cluttered and it was hard to find what I was looking for,

So I searched for a solution and found this great tutorial

The principle is that clear stamps stick to  laminated paper.

I liked the idea because it uses materials I already have: paper, binder and laminating pouches.

So off I went stamping ( oh my I own a lot more stamps then I thought J),

laminating, punching holes, sticking the stamps to the back and filing them in the binder.

Now I have a clear overview of the stamps I have.

The process was also inspiring, while I was making the example sheets a bunch of ideas crossed my mind when seeing all those stamped images, to be continued…

gelli plate to the rescue

Here are a few pages I made this week, they are for a special project on which I'm currently working on and can’t say much more about as it is a surprise, but more will follow shortly off course.

I experienced hesitation starting off, didn’t know exactly what to do or start with, so out came the gelli plate. This usually gets my creative juices flowing.

And it certainly didn’t fail me this time.

In no time I had some fabulous backgrounds to get me started.

Off with the first page, but not for long as I was stuck again L 

But then it dawned to me, “hey why do you always stick to one page start to finish, if you’re stuck just put it aside and start another one. “ Right?

That’s exactly what I did and wow did it work, I started a couple of pages at the same time and added something here, something there and now I have 3 pages finished.

And I must say I’m pretty pleased with the results:

this background wasn't made with the gelli plate

Still a few to go and then I can finish of the book (oops, slip of the tongue J) 

We're halfway through the sweepstake, don't forget to enter.

New Home cards

Hello there,

I made these colorful cards for someone who is moving, so they can notify all of their relatives and friends of this event and give them the new address.
I made them out of gelli prints and a homemade house stamp (for the how to see also pretty dress stamp)

I'm so glad I found a way of using up some of my gelli prints, so I can make some more J

The sweepstake remains open for another 22 days, be sure to check it out over here.

letter N

Hi,

I’ve just completed the letter N in my dictionary for the alpha/dictionary challenge over at The Craft Barn.

This time there were not a lot of words that grabbed my imagination, originally I was going to use number or numerical, but I noticed that already a few people had done that and decided to choose another word: nest.

I liked the process of this page, I didn’t have a plan to begin with ( I only knew I was going to use this stamp of a girl with a nest of birds on her head). But one thing led to another, very organic. I’m still very much procrastinating to add more layers to a page because I already like what I’ve done and am afraid of covering it and ruing it, but usually it turns out better and if not, so what, gesso over it and start over, right. 

The small leaves were punched out of a real leaf.

Don’t forget to check out my sweepstake

Birthday calendar November AND Sweepstake!!!

This month’s birthday calendar didn’t came as easy as the rest did because I wanted it to be extra special, as a lot of special people have their birthday in November (including me, my son and my mum, always a busy time and the start of the festive season with some more birthdays in December and Christmas just around the corner). So it took a while before I dear to begin and pondered a lot about it, but as November drew closer I just needed to get a start on it.

I started out with an image stamped with a mixed media doll stamp by Julie Nutting. I like this stamp and previously used it already on my price winning glitter page at the alpha/dictionary challenge from The Craft Barn.

I saw this awesome idea  on how to edit the primadoll stamps by scrapinmaniac corner (why didn’t I think about that earlier?). So off I went with scanning ,enlarging and printing the image.

Traced the body on a bookpage and a piece of paper out of my scrapbooking stash became the dress. This girl has a sixties feeling to me so I tried to capture that vibe by using different colored circles and adding the pattern of a disco ball with a homemade stencil and some purple sprays.

Gabrielle Pollaco made an awesome mixed media canvas with a cute haute couture doll and is so kind to share the template for this beautiful creation.

I downloaded the template and made this doll which together with the sixties doll I would like to give away to one of you.

 All you need to do is leave a comment and become a follower and/or subscribe by mail. The sweepstake is open all of november (until Saturday 30 november 2013 midnight GMT+1) I will be selecting and announcing the winner on december the first. Good luck!

Ghostly invitations

It’s nearly my son’s 4^th birthday, and this year we chose ghosts as a theme

(suitable for the time of the year and it also links to Casper the ghost as my son’s name is Kasper).

I started out by making a stencil with small ghosts and experimenting with it on my gelli plate.

When I cleaned of my stencil, it gave a nice image of the ghosts which I really liked.

So first I made some colorful prints with different textures on which I added the stencil loaded with black paint.

I then added a printed friendly ghost and the text “Party Time!”

Now I need to get cracking with the decorations. In a couple of weeks time I will be showing these.

I will be linking this one up with the deligthful gelli print party!

And stay tuned because one of these days I will be announcing my very first ever sweepstake!