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INSPIRATION,

a funny little thing

sometimes my head spins with ideas and inspiration,

other days not so much.

What to do on such days?

well, browsing the internet sometimes work,

but be carefull,

because before you know it the whole day has passed with "just" looking at what others have created and you didn't do a thing.

That said, for the next cards I browsed pattern images in google

and the ones that spoke to me I put down in my way on paper.

why stick to only black&white?

so much more fun to be made with the colors of the rainbow:

week 2 Kasia's adventcalendar

I really enjoyed Kasia's adventcalendar in December,

so much that I even was a little sad it was Christmas and it was over 😪

day 8 was poetry, 

we needed to cut out random words and create a pleasing text,

translated I have:

I would like to drink the sun all day

yes, be drunk

I am nothing without the sun 💥

day 9's prompt was free writing,

I started with scribble writing my feelings in the background

and the page evolved into this: 

day 10: simplicity

altough the page turned out how I wanted it to

it wasn't simple 😁,

it needed a few layers to come to this 

prompt 11 was a quote by Emily Dickinson 

which I loved so much I just included it as is:

If I can stop one heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one life

the aching or cool one pain

or help one fainting robin

unto his nest again

I shall not live in vain.

day 12 was senses,

I included all 5:

the stamped eye for sight

there are musicnotes somewhere in the background for hearing

I painted with my fingers = touch

the cupcake represents taste

and the flowers scent

day 13 = collage

this was literally a 5 minute page

some spraying and some glueing and done

+

day 14 = mindless doodling

ok, I doodled, but it was not mindless,

I can't seem to stop my mind of thinking about a zillion things meanwhile,

hopefully I can practice this this year with me focusing more

this gelli printed page in my journal was a great jumping point for this prompt,

as this is a folded A4, I have 3 more of such pages I can use that way,

here is already one of them

spread love, not war

For this month’s Wanderlust challenge we needed to be inspired by a pattern and use markers and/or pens.

I found the pattern on these candlelight holders interesting and inspiring.

So I set to work and came up with this.

Because the pattern has an oriental feel to me, I used my mosque stencil, which is a handcut, very whimsy stencil (these were the days before my silhouette cameo).

Here is a step by step:

First I glued down some pieces with Arabic text on it and applied a layer of blue with the playcolor sticks.

I stencilled some bubblegum pink Dylusions paint through a floral stencil of which the pattern is similar as on the candlelight holders.(  I haven't used the paints in months, not since I moved back to my attick studio, although they are just next to me on display on the shelves so I guess this spread also qualifies for this months let's play theme of neglected supplies.
)  Next I applied black paint to the mosque stencil and I wanted to use it as a stamp, but failed, it just left some black marks as can be seen on this picture. 

Instead I just stencilled it, love the texture that came through the black from the layers underneath.

When everything was all dry I took my posca paint pens and started doodling.

All of a sudden a heart appeared in the tower. So I will be entering this in the Craft Barn challenge, hearts and no red. 

This heart lead to the title of the page: spread love, not war.

I have never...

October’s challenge over on Journal workshops is to create something with a technique or supply you have never used before.

Ok, I can name a few supplies I have never used because I simply don’t have them (yet), like pan pastels, inktense pencils (all on my birthdaywishlist by the way, which is next week, so fingers crossed J)

But I also never have done a proper collage, meaning I often glue some pieces of scrap down as a basis but I have never created an image out of several magazine cutouts before. So this was my challenge for this month.

I did some research, because I did not have a clue on how or where to begin. I’m really thankful that there exists something like YouTube, I found the videos from Tracy 'Teesha' Moore very helpful.

After watching them I felt a bit more confident to get started.

So I grabbed a piece of aquarelpaper and slapped some yellow and ochre watercolorpaint on it.

Added a collaged border

And made this image out of: picture of a child’s windmill, a body, a scarf, a head and a perfume bottlecap as hat.

Next came the altering of the image with some doodles (also something I hardly ever do and do not feel comfortable about, need to practice some more on this, I recently bought a book on this topic so no excuse there)
I still wasn't completely satisfied with the result, it was missing legs, so I attempted to draw some myself, and then it hit me she needed an oversize handbag.

Next came the quote: It's better to have tried and failed than never tried at all.

I wanted to have a go at doing the lettering but chickened out and used a stencil in the end. Next time maybe.

I will be linking this to

Sundays sentiments week#4

JunkJournal FB as this was made using magazine cutouts which otherwise would have landed in the recycle bin. (so this is page #22)

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!

Gelli print journal

For my first attempt in binding a book I found the perfect project on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2foQmgenyg&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLc7cFqy5Btdmj6sUyR2UKxqzurbcsAuz9 ; a journal from gelli plate prints by Christy Sobolewski. Perfect to use up some of the prints that are rapidly piling up, because did I already mention that printing on a gelli plate is very addictive?! 

I took 12 prints, cut them to size and folded them in signatures (= a group of folded pages that nest, one inside the other). I didn’t put too much thought in the order of the pages, it’s rather random. So I have 3 signatures in my book, each containing 4 pages. The cover I made using a pizza box, the hinge is the original width of the box. The cover is decorated also using the gelli plate. 

After all that was done I could prepare to stitch the book together. I took 3 points evenly spaced on each signature and on the cover and punched holes in them. I do not own any bookmaking tools yet, so I made use of what I already have and in this case it was a needle for parchment. Also I don’t have special bookbinding thread, so I used regular black stitching thread.  I should have waxed the thread with beeswax but still need to run out and get some or order some online because where I live there aren’t really any good craft supplies stores. For the sewing I refer to the video.

As this was my first attempt in binding a book, it is not flawless (but heay, that’s part of the sharm some might say). The pages weren’t cut perfectly, the sewing is a bit loose and I managed to put the journal together the wrong way around, so normally I planned that the flap on the cover would go from back to front but now it is the other way around. Maybe I’ll keep it or maybe I just cut it off (because also it’s not that sturdy and I think it might tear). Funny enough Christy encountered also a problem with the order of her book in her video.

I plan to use this journal to practice my doodling, can anyone recommend a good book about doodling?

I also will be linking this post to August's colorful gelli print party from Carolyn Dube.