JAM#6 hobbies/use inktense

Hello and happy Valentinesday everybody,

I worked on my 6th JAM page today, for which we needed to use Inktense and tell about our hobbies.

because it is Valentinesday and hobbies is something you love to do and are passionate about I started out by cutting different sizes of hearts out of booktext. I aslo added some texture paste through a dotted stencil.

Next I used three Inktense pencils which I rubbed with a wet paintbrush to color my page with.
I used tangerine around the hearts, sun yellow inside the hearts and sienna gold for the rest of the page.

Inside the hearts I did some stamping.

Next I fiddled a bit with my silhouette to cut the clock butterfly stencil, but am pleased how that turned out.
Typed the quote 
Time spent with family is worth every second.
and made 3 little tags with my hobbies on which are creating (of course), reading and family time.
I attached them to the page with these cute little heart shaped paper clips. 

I just read that this forthnightly challenge over at The Craft Barn is hearts and we are not suppose to use red on them, so this fits in perfectly.

to owl or not?

I really liked the process of creating the background on the blossom page and remember I had a few options to go with that page, I eventually choose the flowers, but the owl was also a possibility. So I thought I would redo it, but this time on a canvas. I actually took 3 canvases and used 3 different colors and different media: gel sticks, inktense pencils and Dylusions paint.

Next I grabbed a dozen of my self made stencils and started stenciling away.

I got so caught up in the moment I forgot to take a picture of the green-yellow one but I think you get the picture.

Then I started fiddling with the focal images for each canvas, and guess what the owl didn't make it again. 

Once I've figured out how the set up an online store, these will be up for sale.

I think the princess and mermaid would be perfect for a girl's room.

colouring challenge

The weekly Craft Barn challenge is a colouring challenge. We can use any type of pen or pencil, as I don't own any pens (yet) I used my inktense pencils.
I started by dry brushing green and pink on the page. 

Next I stamped flowers and leafs on some book text

and coloured these with the inktense pencils,

cut them out and glued them to the page.

I added a smaller flower stamp in between allover.
Wrote my quote The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of every single day on a piece of tissuepaper and added that also to the page.

Thx for stopping by.

diamonds

For this weeks challenge over at the Craft Barn I started by stamping a diamond background stamp on a 10x15cm ICAD and coloring the white spaces in with my inktense pencils. This worked very relaxing and was even more fun because my son joined in. Next I cut a diamond shape and glued that down to my cardbase

I also glued down the left over pieces on another cardbase. There I just stamped Happy Birthday in it and done, looks great if I say so myself. 

The other card doesn't inspire me at all for the time being so I will let it rest till I figure out what to do with it, if you have any sugestions just leave them in the comment box down below.

deck of cards

For this week's Craft Barn challenge with the theme deck of cards I started on a page that already had some word steniling on (I started this as a second entry for the word challenge a couple of weeks ago  but never came to finishing it).

I colored the background with sun yellow and sienna gold Inktense pencils and activated the pigment with a babywipe. 
(I'm always surprised at the vibrancy after activating, just fascinating)

This large sheet of card rubons, which I have had for years,

 was just perfect for this page. I randomly added some images to the background.

That was the background done, I then searched for a fitting quote and found this one: 

As focal image I glued down a paper pieced Julie Nutting doll which I have made way back following the instructions of Gabrielle Pollaco and added some butterflies to finish it all off.

I just read the instructions for this weeks challenge and it should have words as background, this would be perfect for that too, wonder whether I would be allowed to enter it a second time?

What we see depends on what we look for

Umbrellas and blue are the 2 prompts for April’s calendar challenge.

A couple of weeks ago I was so lucky to have won the weekly challenge (the flower one), with my winnings I ordered the starter kit of brushos.

I used them to create the background, just sprinkled some on a sheet of watercolor and spritzed it with some water.

Just fabulous, don't you think?

Next I stamped my umbrella girl on a piece of cardstock and colored her with Derwent Inktense pencils. Then came a bit of fuzy cutting and gluing her to the page.

On another sheet of watercolor paper I used leafgreen brusho in the same way (so shaking and spritzing) and stamped this fab tree. Glued some funky birds out of a napkin and created a dome around them.

Who is watching who? 

Quintessentially English

Yet again just in time for this week's  Craft Barn Challenge where the theme was Quintessentially English.  
I started by glueing down some thorn pieces out of an Oxford English dictionary. 

Next came the Union flag, which I colored with my inktense pencils, still loving them.

On the cross I wrote everything that sprung to my mind when thinking about English: cottages, bobbies, high tea, the tube,rainy wheather, pubs, bulldog, inspector Morse, rugby, left driving, Royal Ascott, Oxford English, Harry Potter, gardens, Queen Elisabeth, The Beatles, Beatrix Potter, Big Ben, London eye, cabs, full English breakfast, an island and Wimbledon.
In the 4 rectangles I glued pieces of tissuepaper on which I stamped things that remind me of England: roses, high hats, crown and cups of tea.

The next challenge is already announced, going to try to be quicker this week.

K3 & eclipse

I made 2 new pages in my ARTicles book.
The first one is about a Flemish band called K3 who announced last week that they were quitting after 17 years, it’s not that I’m a fan or so, their public are mainly kids, but still I wanted to include it in my book.

I started by collaging blocks of patterned paper on which I wrote some of their hits 

I took out my sewing machine to add some real stitches. (although the sewing machine is still not my best friend) I must say it went a lot smoother then last time, even changing the color of thread, I know the sewing is not up to scratch, but only practice will get me better, no?

Then I applied a light coat of gesso and divided the empty space in equal lines to add my rainbow colors (inspired on one of their outfits), the color was added using inktense pencils.

I added some music notes to the rainbow and finally stenciled a woman’s face 3 times, one in each color of their hair (they were known for that: there was one blond, black and ginger)

The second page is about the partial eclipse we could see here past friday, this is my interpretation:

I started with adding blue acrylic paint with a credit card as background.

I wanted to add some interest and texture with a paper napkin, but when I thorn it and laid it down it reminded me of a city, exactly what I wanted to create next with gelli prints. No need for that anymore.

I stamped birds onto gelli prints and cut them out.

I wasn’t able to catch the beauty of the sun however.

In fact I’m not that sure about this whole page, maybe I still change it. 
What do you think?
And do you want to join in the fun of journaling about everyday life?? Hop on over here

Flower

This week the challenge over at the Craft Barn is to make something flowery.All the details can be found here.

This is what I came up with

I started by selecting 3 sheets of patterned paper to make the flower for which I found a template here.

These dictated me the background color for my spread in my newspaper journal, I used a fuchia inktense pencil. Did some stamping on top with a heart script (which I also used on the inside cover of the journal) in black stazon and some diamonds in a green shade.

Next I stenciled the face, gave her red lips and green eyes and added this flower in her hair.

The flower didn't turn out like the example, but that's okay, I distressed the edges with walnut DI and added a gem in the center.

The border got another color of inktense, a mauve one this time and I stenciled some flourishes in white acrylic paint.

Have a nice, creative weekend all.

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.

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.