WOYWW 356

Wednesday? Really?

It doesn’t feel like wedsnesday to me, probably because we had Monday a day off I think it is only Tuesday J

Before I show you my desk I want to show you my son’s

Since we moved to our new craft room I’ve been able to keep my desk in more or less good shape, he however not yet, I think it might be age related (or I hope so).

But admitst all this mess he is still able to create and have fun, recently I’m amazed at what he is doing all on his own.

Here for example is the stove he made out of a cardboard box

  

Complete with an opening oven door which even has a grill in it and turning nobs, pretty amazing he.

Now on to my desk and what is on it

You can see my ARTicles spread for this week in progress and my sketch book where I write down my ideas and sketch out very roughly what I want to do ( don’t always work that way but often I do)

That's all for me for now, but if you come back on sunday you can see the completed page.

JAM 12 favorite season

My favorite season is just starting, spring.

The fresh new beginning of life, still full of hope.

I started by writing the word spring with a piece of rope, this is one of my hardware store finds for the let’splay theme of March.

Next I painted everything in a fresh spring green.

Finally added the only rub ons (that was the creative challenge with this prompt) I have in my stash but which coincidentally work wonderwell with the theme.

ARTicles 2

Hello,
Hope you had a great Easter and a lot of chocolates to enjoy.
Another week has passed so I'm here to show you  my pages in my ARTicles book.

Because the 21th was the beginning of spring I've created a spring spread, with yellows and a lot of flowers (which I hand drew and of which I'm quite satisfied thank you very much) and added this poem

Spring is here

Let's give some cheer!

Flowers bloom, trees grow,

water falls, winds blow.

Bees buzz, kids play,

say hooray! Spring is today!

Sadly the 22th everything turned black here in Belgium,

I made a separate entry in my book about these unfortunate events.

The next couple of days I didn't really felt like crafting, so my next entry is only on the 25th with a summary of all the good things Belgium stands for:

• good food (waffles, french fries with mayonaise, chocolates and beer)
• nice cities ( Bruges, Antwerp, Leuven, Brussels,...)
• we also have famous people like Jacques Brel, René Magritte, Stromae, ...
• Kuifke and The smurfs are invented here, as is the saxofone.
• we also have a wicked sense of humor, look at our "manneken pis"
• AND we are resilient and have a sense of solidarity.

Yesterday I wrote about the René Magritte plane that was presented earlier this week to the public. The plane is decorated with 2 artworks (La clairvoyance and Le retour) from the surrealist painter Magritte. Also the inside wasn't forgotten and has sky and birds on the overhead compartments and an image of René himself in the front.

Today is Easter of course and I found some Easter bunny tips for life:

1. don't place all your eggs in one basket
2. there's no such thing as too much candy
3. some body parts are meant to be floppy
4. the grass is always greener in someone else's basket
5. let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits

That's all for me this week.

the day after - WOYWW355

This is my workdesk today, the day after the cowardless tragic terrorist attacts in Brussel, only 20 km away from my home.

Luckily none of my relatives or friends are involved, although there were some lucky escapes, my cousin’s son for instance usually takes that metro to go to union but just not yesterday, he ran to catch a train instead. Or some of my colleagues had to take a flight but luckily not that early, they were heading out to grab a taxi at the moment the news was running in from the attack.

Also I’m glad that my son is still at an age (6 years old) that he doesn’t stand still at these facts, he was only disappointed that their planned outing with school was cancelled because a bomb exploded in Zaventem.

So what is on my workdesk today, a page in my ARTicles book, although I was planning on turning it into a positive news book, I just had to make this to process everything.

I made a black page because this is one of the blackest days in our history,

the date in red for all the blood that has been shed

and stars for all the lives that have been taken, notice that I made them white, I did that because we need to stay hopeful and don’t give in to the fear and panic the terrorists want to create.

JAM 11 favorite place

My favorite place is by far my home.

Ok, I like to go on holiday, to the beach or on a daytrip, but I’m always very happy when I return home.

And when I wouldn’t have all those trips I still would be very happy just spending time home.

I have  everything I need their, a comfy bed, a garden, the people I love and don’t forget my craft studio.

The creative challenge we got from Tiara with this prompt is to use torn or ripped paper, I’ve created a scene with our house all in ripped paper, even the circle is ripped.

I added some stamping, lovely creatures in the sky, flowers in the garden and lost of hearts representing the love that fills our house.  

I addeds some magical dimension to the hearts as can be seen here on a close-up.

I'll also be linking this page to the biweekly Craft Barn challenge where the theme is circles in the background as the page is a circle.

ARTicles 1

I am blowing new life into my ARTicles book.
My last entry dates from 25 July 2015.
I'm changing the concept a bit in that way that I will create a double spread per week and try to journal each day about some good news I have read.
Here is my spread from this week

What good news did I gather this week?

a story about a man who created a garden filled with lovely scented Shibazakura flowers for his blind wife  which took him 2 years, how romantic. It has now turned into a tourist attraction in Japan.

 2 stories about the Syrian refugees. 

One about how 2 young Dutch students got the idea of recycling all the lifevests and boats that are washed upon the Greek beaches and turn them into much needed backpacks for the refugees
and another where WWII refugees write letters of hope to Syrian child refugees.




I also found this neat project Google is working on, called Cultural Institute, where they digitalise and virtualize art works. They recently also created a 360° video from one of Breughel's most famous work, the fall of the rebel angels. Check it out, this is totally awesome.

And lastly a story about a woman who offered to pay the grocery bill of $7 of the person in front of her in the supermarket queu because he had forgotten his wallet. A month later she found out that this person had made an anonymous donation of $10000 in her name to a cancer foundation.

All one for one heartwarming, positive stories.
In a world that seems to be focused on the negative I think it is necesarly to search for the good and beauty, otherwise we all will become bittered.

Interested in joining in? 
GOOD NEWS... you can.
Just join the ARTicles FB page and share what you've created that was inspired by actuality in the broad sense of the meaning: this can be the news, hitlists, movie releases, personal news....
something you create and in a couple of years you flick through and get teleported back to the past.

masterboard to card

I promised on wednesday I would show you what this masterboard

would turn into.

Oops, the days have slipped by and it is already Saturday.

Well with the moto better late then never here is the card I made with the masterboard

I justed stamped this amazing image on it and cut it to size.

How did the masterboard come together?

I started with a large piece of watercolor paper and grabbed all of my circle stencils (because the biweekly theme over at The Craft Barn is to use circles in the background)

First I applied some texture paste through one of them.Then I went to town with my Dylusions spray inks.

Next I added some more stencilling and stamping with a stamp

 I made from anti-scratch selfadhesive felt from the hardware store, which in its turn is this month's Let's Play theme 

I still have plenty leftover from the masterboard ready for a next project in the nearby or not so nearby future, we'll see.