week 3 Kasia's adventcalendar

Hello and welcome,

here are my interpretations of the final prompts from Kasia's adventcalendar.

The prompt for day 16 was to remind ourselves of our chosen colour palette.

I went for bright colours to counter the dark and gloomy days:

as this is an adventcalendar so something Christmassy couldn't be forgotten,

day 17

Also at the end of the year it is tradition to stand still at your accomplishments 

as well as the things you are grateful for,

this was our prompt on day 18

I am grateful for my family, my health, my home, my passions, the possibilities I have, to be born here and my job.

on day 19 the prompt was presents that cannot be bought with money,

time immediately sprong to my mind

and with time the rabbit out Alice in Wonderland sprong to mind,

finished off with the appropriate quote

there is no time like the present

and no present like time.

As Christmas was approaching, Christmas baubles was our prompt on day 20

day 21 = home

home is where you paint your own reality

Altough I did miss a few prompts I really enjoyed it, 

there are also quite some pages left in this journal,

so I will be focussing on filling them in next😉

that way I will have a finished book.

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

week 1 of Kasias adventcalendar

prompt # 3 is things I know

I envisioned this page in my head upfront,

needless to say that it turned out completely different,

but a good different

prompt #4 = collage

we needed to grab a random magazine and tear out 10 images from the first 10 pages

I used less as I am working on a small size

I had so much fun with this prompt I made 2 more collages

using different types of magazine.

Below I used Happiness magazine,

a glossy monthly magazine

and an old National Geographic magazine:

prompt #5 = going for a walk and getting inspired by it

When I went for an afternoon stroll along the water

I was immersed in tranquility

prompt #6 = a quote by Mary Oliver:

instructions for life:

Pay attention

Be astonished

Tell about it

prompt #7 = food

okay, a gin tonic is not exactly food nor a winter recipe,

but I felt like creating this page

and I created also this one about my favorite winter drink:

hot coco

120-122/365somethings2018

Here are the latest additions to my 365 collection,

I got my inspiration from today's prompt 

from the icad2018 challenge, 

path:

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.

be free as a butterfly

For the January Wanderlust 2016 challenge we had to create a journal page inspired by the quote Sometimes what you're most afraid of doing is the very thing that will set you free 
and follow the rules of composition explained in lesson 2.
I selected papers that represent free to me: music, books, a map 

and collaged these on my page.

Added some gesso, stencilling and spray inks.
Typed out the quote and aged it with some DI and added my focal image, a beautiful butterfly (because what is more free than a butterfly?), according to the rules I believe.

Life is like a new hat

The weekly chalenge at The Craft Barn is hat(s).
My initial thought was the mad hatter, after some research on the net I ended up  with steampunk and found a digital image that I colored using my Derwent pencils.
The color scheme fitted with a background I already had in my journal

1: the page had a green clean up from a stencil; I colored the page with neo II crayons and used a babywipe to blend them.
2: brayered a lightly coat of white acrylic paint
3: added some stamping (which totally failed, but it gives texture)
4: another coat of white acrylic paint brayered on top
Lastly I stamped a background stamp from kaisercraft with a net structure.

The other elements on the page are:
metal foil embossed with a clock embossing folder,
the steampunk angel which was stamped and embossed,
the quote 
Life is like a new hat
You don't know if it suits you
if you keep trying it on in front of your own mirror.
typed on my typewriter and colored with DI.
and some metal embellishments.

WOYWW345 - Wanderlust 2016/1

Hello and welcome,

Wednesday again, time to show our desks and what is on it.

Here is mine

I must say I’m pleased that it is still in such a good shape, the correct storage is helping me keeping it that way.

What is on my desk?

My first finished page from Wanderlust 2016.

Can’t take you through it step by step though, sorry, need to respect the rules.

Our prompt was to create a page around the word that describes us today (just that day, or broader like this year)

Kasia choose change and I must say that applies to me too, this year will be marked by a change on the work front, either I will move locations (much further commute L) or change job all together.

But I didn’t want to just copy her word so I also choose grow, because I want to grow in my art, as a person... and I found just the quote with both words in that describes it perfect:

If we don't change,

we don't grow.

if we don't grow,

we aren't really living.

owl canvas

Wednesday I promised to reveal the owl canvas.
And if you promise something...
So without further ado, here it is

I was inspired by an owl I saw here.
I started by printing out an owl, tracing it on a piece of carboard and cutting him out.

Next I punched a bunch of circles out of gelli prints and glued them in layers on the owl.
Some trimming and then my husband pointed out the fact that the feathers were going from bottom to top instead of the other way around. 

So I started over, not only because of that but also because I wanted to use other colors, more brown tones. 

This is more realistic and fitted better with the background I was creating with my gelatos. 
I handcarved a leaf stamp for this project

And cut leafs with my cameo silhouette.
I also cut a flower with the cameo.

And the sentiment

I so love my cameo, the possibilities are really endless I believe.

This was a present for a colleague who went on pension, that's why I wasn't able to show it earlier.

Carloyne Dube hosts a weekly let's play party, find all details here
I will be linking this project as this is also a perfect illustration of what she says about inspiring each other.

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.

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