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.