Yoga

This is the last page in my dictionary.

For the letter Y you needed to use yellow.

So I started by painting the pages yellow, I wanted to add another tone of yellow through a stencil, but this didn’t work, so I choose turquoise instead,this worked like a charm.

I had this buddha sticker all colored in laying around for ages which fitted perfectly with the word yoga.

I used my new alphabet stamps to stamp the word yoga.

The description is typed on a piece of paper which I first ran through my embossingmachine with the stencil I already used, just added some DI to highlight the embossing and finished.

Now I just need to tackle the cover to completely finish this project.

smash book

I have a box filled with memorabilia (entrance tickets, plans, cards,…) and after doing some research I came across this concept of a smash book.

A smash book is apparantly a book in which you write/glue/… quickly, without overthinking about composition etc.

Just perfect for this project.

And then (off coarse) another project popped into my head, a smash book about my son.

Just to document funny quotes/actions from him, because we all know that they grow up so fast and I want to try and capture as much as possible for later.

I started by selecting patterned paper, I had this set laying around for making a boy scrapbook in 60 minutes.

Instead of making the scrapbook I used the paper for my first smash book 

It also had some stickers and punch outs which I put in a pocket in the book so I can use that during the process of smashing.

The process of making the book is actually simple.

Just choose paper, cut it in different sizes (I like oddly shaped pages) and bind it with the Bind it all.

(although the explanation is simple, the book itself took me some hours to make, I’m always astound of the amount of time it takes)

Here are some pictures of the finished book:

the cover

Can’t wait to start smashing. 

projects in the pipeline

Normally I show only finished pieces.

But why exactly?

Maybe because we only want to show finished, perfect pieces. But don’t we all say the process is as impotant as the end result, or sometimes even more important.

The end can not be what you wanted/expected but you learned on the way what works and what doesn’t.

So in that perspective here are some sneak peeks of what is laying on my desk and waiting for some inspiration on what to do with them next:

Canvas

collaged background

book cover

come and see

The last couple of days I saw some posts showing people’s workspaces, the unedited form.

Because yes, when it comes to showing our spaces we tend to clean them first don’t we, to show them off in there best possible form.

It is Seth Apters intention to show the real thing, what a GREAT IDEA.

For more details click here.

Because I loved taking a look at all the workspaces from everyone else, I thought it was only appropriate to give you a glance at my piece of heaven.

This is the current state of my desk, not too bad I think:

My studio is located in the attic, a lovely big space with a nice view over the canal

 the only thing missing is a sink. But in time when we come around of finishing off this room (floor, walls,..) this can be installed then.

And in time I also would like to have a computer and printer here too.

I share this space with my almost 5 year old son, this is his work area

Thanks Seth for reminding me that I am not a total freak and that a lot of our creative spaces are messy.

easier

Searching the net for quotes that spoke to me with the words easier or childhood was way much “easier “ than last challenge.

I found this one: life was much easier when apple and blackberry were just fruits.

I wanted to use this one, but I didn’t seem to get any ideas on how to start.

So yesterday I sat myself down and just started and went with the flow.

What happened was that I created a page that I am very pleased with, but has nothing to do with the quote I had in mind, so instead of fighting it, I came up with my own quote:

Sewing is so much easier when you know how to.

I still need to learn to sew, but it’s not high on my priority list, I  rather be busy with paints and inks, so for the time being I’m rubbish at sewing.

I started the page with collaging some textbook on the page (I think a good place to start if you have no clue what to do)

Next I added some texture paste through a stencil and did some random stamping. To add even some more texture I added a piece of string.

All the circles and string  all of a suddon reminded me of buttons and sewing. Recently I bought some sewing dies so this was the perfect opportunity to use them.

I used the die cuts on a tag. I added a flower with a button as heart and wrote my quote along the string.

So another great example of how when you stare yourself blind on an end result you can get blocked, just go where the creative juices take you is a wise lesson I take from this page.

And who knows I still might make a page with apples and blackberries.

Wire

The most difficult part of this page was to figure out how to adhere the wire to the page.

It needs to be strong to hold the wire in place and it needs to be invisible.

So hot glue was out of the question.

If I would have thought this page through before I started I wouldn’t have glued the pages together so I could make some holes through which I could put a string around the wire.

But as this wasn’t an option anymore I needed to come up with another solution.

In the end I used Aleene’s tacky glue, I think it works, the only down side was I needed to be patience to hold it in place while it dried.

rubbish

This page is made up entirely out of rubbish/junk.

I started by collaging pieces of my tear-off palette (no precious paint wasted here) as a background.

Love all the colors, don’t you?

Then I blended the pieces together with some white paint.

I wanted to create a busy city on to this, so I stamped directly on to the page but this failed as the palette has some kind of coating on it which got pulled off with the stamping.

On to plan B: stamped the images on some tissuepaper (which came out of a shoe  box) and glued them randomly on the page. Succes!!

Then I added some pieces of dried up acrylic paint (yes, I also have a jar filled with these on my desk, like I already mentioned no waste what so ever) which represents all the junk on the street.

Next I added a  black border so it seems you are looking through a telescope to this city or through a car window now I look at it.

The text is written on a piece of paper towell which I glued together following the instructions of Jennibellie in her journal workshop.

Can’t wait to grab my pile of used paper towells and turn them into these little canvases, it’s so much fun and messy and it creates a new usable worksurface with a lovely texture.

Only 2 more to go and the cover.

Grace

Just in time with my entry for this forthnigth's Q&L challenge where the words were grace and/or peaceful. I had a hard time finding a suitable quote because a lot of them were religious and I'm not. But I noticed I wasn't the only one struggling with this challenge when I was visiting the other entries. I finally found a quote that wasn't religious and was kinda funny so I went with this one: cats are furry waterfalls of grace.
My initial thought was to create some kind of waterfall with cats sitting on different levels, but I found this gelli print in my stack and wanted to use this instead.

I added some stamping, a cat sticker, some washitape and a border with a felt bird (which I colored in with some pens) to which all the footprints lead. I found this cute cat alphabet which was just perfect to add my quote.

Hopefully the words that will be revealed tomorrow will inspire me more.

monochrome canvas

I joined the Journal Workshopssite from Jennibellie already in March but was too overwhelmed by everything at that time and was too scared to dive into.

But last week I gave it another go and I am hooked now.

She hosts a monthly challenge and April’s challenge was messy monochrome.

After watching the video, the ideas seeped in my mind and yesterday I sat myself down and executed my thoughts on a canvas.

My Step by step:

• Collage of black and white gelli prints
• Stamping (footprints, hearts, text and dots) with jet black Stazon
• Cut out heart shapes out of the black and white gelli transfer film I made a couple of weeks back, I added some red acrylic paint to the edges to let them stand out more
• I stenciled a flourish heart on some tissuepaper and glued that to the canvas
• Printed out the quote In art as in love instinct is enough (I found this quote inside a chocolate wrapper), cut it out and glued down, the words art and love I wrote on a piece of fabric (ones used to be a pillow cover)
• Some paper flowers in just the wright colors and some washi tape to finish it all of

 Here are some detailed pictures