We are beautiful

As a kind off sequel on the previous page I made this page 

Besides remembering that we all are unique and special, we also need to be reminded that we are beautiful. This is the title of a song currently in the hit parade by Panzer Flower which my son likes a lot and sings to it so cute, just like the kids in the song. Don’t know it check it out here.

So my inspiration for this page was music, flowers (as this is the name of the artist) and a funny querky big bird (featured in the video clip). 

I started by gluing some torn pages out of a music book and some clear embossing of a musical stamp. 

Next I added texture paste through a flower stencil

and sprayed the whole page with 3 Dylusions spray inks : after midnight, crushed grape and funky fuchsia.

I tilted my page to create some drips. 

The clear embossed parts act like a resist. 

Next I added black and white acrylic paint through another flower stencil and cut a bunch of flowers out of a piece of scrap paper and a die which I placed around the page and outlined them with a white posca pen. I enlarged the image of a puffin stamp with the pc and colored him with my Inktense pencils (I am wondering what I have done without them until now) and added some gloss accents on the heart. 

In his text balloon I wrote the title of the song ‘We are beautiful’ and the number 19 refers to the current place in the parade. As a final touch I added some gold accents on the texture flowers.

labels

Last week I went to a meeting at my sons school about the requirements to go from kindergarten to elementary school. Afterwards I was a little annoyed, to say the least, about how everyone needs to be the same, otherwise you get a “label”.

I ventilated these feelings on this page.

I started with gluing down pieces of cardstock that I first ran through my embossing machine, I used a leaf embossing folder and a cloud one.  The leaf one is really deep edged, it almost is a die, someone any advice on how to use them because the paper seems to be cut in some places? 

Next I added some random stamping. 

Followed by some color with my Inktense pencils, green for the grass and warm hues for the sky.

Time for the focal point.

A while back I received a wonderful beautiful carved stamp set from my google+ friend Tina Van Eick, it consisted of an intricate tree, a bird and a sun. I was waiting for just the perfect project to come along and this was it. Because I believe that kids are like trees, they need a firm base to grow and lots of time. Every tree is different and grows and develops at its own pace. 

I stamped the tree on a separate page, colored it with Inktense pencils and cut it and glued it to the page. It was easy to stamp and such a stunning result, I’m glad I finally got the courage to use the stamp and definitely will be using it more in the future. Then I stamped a whole bunch of different sizes of butterflies and cut them out and glued them around the tree, they resemble the cycle of caterpillar and transformation in beautiful creatures, just like us humans. I added some shading to let them stand out more and found a quote that I transformed a bit, it originally said:

I am unique, I am special, I am me which I changed in you are unique, you are special, you are you.

Because that is the message I want to give to my son.

aqua snowflake

The Craft Barn is not hosting 1 but 2 challenges this year, the first one that started past Sunday is a monthly calendar challenge.

Each month we will receive 2 words:  a color and an object which we need to incorporate in that month’s page.

More info can be found here.

Step 1was to determine the size. I didn’t have to think too hard on that, because I enjoyed working on the 21 x 21 cm size last year during the Q&L challenge I choose that size.

I will be making a hanging wall calendar, with on the one page the art and on the other the calendar, that way I can re-use the calendar each year, either by rebinding or by gluing over the previous one.

I am also planning to use the artwork to  make a digital calendar for 2016, so I am already set for my gifts next year J

For the calendar part I found this neat printable over on www.botanicalpaperworks.com

I haven't made the whole structure yet, need to run out to get some more black paper.Here is what the first page looks like

On to the actual crafting now.

This month the color is aqua and snowflakes need to be somewhere on the page.

I started with a layer of gesso, followed by some aqua colored inktense pencils. I know this technique where you spray some Dylusions spray inks and  remove a pattern through a stencil with a babywipe and wanted to see if this also works with Inktense pencils, and it does! To add some more depth I added some blue DI through the same snowflake stencil and embossed different snowflakes with clear/ white and holographic embossing powder.

And then I constructed this cute snowman out of these parts

The shape was cut out of a cereal box and got a layer of texture paste.

The hat is stamped and so are the birdhouses. The birds are die-cut out of textbook and colored using inktense (what else)

The arms are made out of some copper wire and then all assembled and glued to the page.

It just needed a fitting quote and found just the perfect one: A Snowflake is winter’s butterfly.

A bit of DI around the edges and finished.

Don’t you feel the cold just by looking at it? I do.

Crash

On January 3^rd there was a massive car accident where a lorry drove into a queue of cars who were waiting for a red light, 3 people (a mother and her 2 teenage kids) died and the driver got arrested because he tested positive for the drug test (afterwards it became clear that he had smoked something on new year's eve and not on that fatal day). But the public opinion was already formed, also because of the media and their point of view. 
That was my starting point for this spread in my ARTicles book. 

I found this quote to be very appropriate:
Before you assume, learn the facts. Before you judge, understand why. Before you hurt someone, feel. Before you speak, think.

Because it has 4 parts, I divided my page into 4 and made 4 little spreads.

On the first one I started by writing all kinds of fun facts, like did you know that it takes up to 2900 gallons of water to make just one pair of jeans?? 

Then I used some Inktense pencils to color the background and added some gel medium through a stencil as a resist.

Spray ink on top which I blotted with some kitchen towel, just love the dotted effect it gave.




On the second one I started by spray inking the background on top of which I used a stencil and some more spray ink. I added some doodling in the stenciled figures and added a picture of a scale, the logo of justice.

The third one started out as a collage from leftover pieces of scrap paper

on top of which I did some stenciling with acrylic paint, added some doodles and stamping and a broken felt heart for the feel and hurt in the quote.

Because I had so much paint left over on my palette from the stenciling I used it for the background of the fourth, I used a palette knife to apply the paint, loving that texture.

I added some more texture with texture paste through yet another stencil. And a text stamp for the speaking part of the quote.




So as you noticed I used stencils in 4 different ways:
With gel medium as a resist

Spray inking

With acrylic paint

and with texture paste

Stencils are just so versatile.
Want to join me on an ARTicles journey, just click on the link above and become a member.
For now, bye.
PS I will also be linking to  sunday sentiments #7

je suis charlie

I started by gluing down several front-pages of the magazine Charlie Hebdo. 

Next I made a stencil filled with mouths, because they wanted to silence the journalists. But in my humble opinion I believe they've reached the opposite, suddenly everybody knows the magazine and their subscriptions has risen enormously.

My intention was to create a resist with Vaseline through the stencil, so I applied it generously and  went over it with red and black acrylic paint, left it to dry and wiped away with a bay wipe, but I kinda rubbed away all the paint. Maybe I applied the Vaseline too generously?? So I was left with this big mess,  

but actually this wasn’t bad at all, because in Paris it also was a huge mess.
I wanted to apply a wash of gesso, but this turned into mud, so I wiped it away immediately. Instead I glued down some tissue paper and stenciled the mouths with red acrylic paint on top. Now I was liking it, the messy background still peeking through, and the crisp mouths. 

Next I painted the Eiffeltower and used that as the letter A in Paris.

Cut out a chain of people holding hands out of gelli prints to represent the protests and the solidarity between people.

I wasn't sure whether I would find enough inspiration to make my ARTicles book, but hey I'm only 1 week far and finished already 4 pages, wow, if you too want to join in please do so. Here is the link:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1397037840591732/

Hof ter Dormaal

This page in my ARTicles book is about a fire in a local brewery. Not only is the brewery located only a few streets away from where I live, but also and mainly I was touched by the warm gesture of an individual who immediately set up a FB group to organize a crowdfunding. In today's newspaper I read that they already managed to raise up to 8000 euros this way.

I made the background using my inktense pencils in the colors of a fire: sun yellow, sienna gold, tangerine and poppy red, don't you just love those names.

And isn't it just magic how just some water transforms the scribbles in this intense sea of color.
I added some more interest by using a spatula and some red acrylic paint. I took a page out of an old book and made it translucent with some baby oil and adhered some pieces here and there.
I cut 2 hands out of gelli prints and glued them on the opposite sides of each other, so they are reaching out to each other and also connected them with my arrow stamp. Then I just added the quote: The capacity to care is what gives life its most deepest significance.

If you'd like to join in my ARTicles joutney, come on over to the ARticles facebook group.

birthday party

Saturday we had our first birthday party of the year and at the same time still needed to exchange our new year gifts.

I created my second page in my ARTicles book about this occasion.

I was over the moon with my present: 36 Derwent inktense pencils and a mixed media paperblock.

Off course I wanted to give the pencils immediately a try and created this background

I choose this color scheme because the person who’s birthday it was wore a boa and sunglasses in these colors.

I added some pieces of giftpaper (I always keep the gift papers, if my son hasn't ripped them completely)

And made this masque, because the boa in some way reminded me of a masquerade ball.

I also carved this stamp 

Used my wall of words stencil with the very appropriate text  Time to drink champagne and  dance on the table. I just needed to add a bottle of champagne and some journaling.

Want to know more about the ARTicles project, hop on over here to find out everything you need to know.

my second sold book

Remember I had a commission for my very first 2 books,

well, here is book no 2.

It measures 21 x 15 cm and consists of blank pages divided with pockets.

The outside covers are gessoed in black and have a border of texture paste (I liked the effect of this paste and stencil so much in the 7 backgrounds challenge)

The insides are like little memobords, I covered a piece of cardboard with some fabric and added some ribbon with a brad to create a place to store some tags

 The buyer was so pleased that she is thinking of ordering a third one for herself :-)

the reveil: ARTicles

In December I already gave a little sneak peak of what was cooking in my head.
Now the time is finally there to reveil it in full glory: ARTicles.
A FB group where you can share, if you'd wish to off course, your view on actuality. And as I already said actuality can be filled in very broad: from actual news (domestic/foreign/regional) to hitparades, movies or even personal news, everything goes. 

I will be working in this fab book which I managed to salvage from the carbage bin at work.

the book measures 38 x 25 cm and is in landscape.

The first page had to be about the New Year's celebrations.

I used black gesso to create a night sky, made a firework stencil and stenciled it with metallic paint.

Heat embossed one of my favorite stamps at the moment (a circle) with holographic embossingpowder. 
Stamped a clock on some tissue paper and added major cities from around the globe, to represent the fact that we all celebrate New Year at a different time. The dancing ladies are cut out of a gelliprint.

So if you are interested to join, click on the link and join the group, everybody's welcome.

Bucket list 2015

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
I wish you all a good health, happiness and LOTS of crafting time :-)

It is so true what they say about time flying by faster and faster as we grow older (and I am not that old yet). And as our time here on earth is limited I want to try to make the best of it. I think a good way to do that is to set myself some goals. That way I need to take time and reflect on what I've already achieved and what way I want to go forward. 
To record these thoughts and goals I've created this mini book

The mini book is made following the tutorial of the paper addiction on making a file folder mini
and is decorated with the beautiful papers of the enchanted rose kit by Ephemera vintages garden.
It has a lot of pockets

and tags on which I can write my goals for 2015, add comments and progress.

One of my goals is to start a challenge, more info this weekend.