Life and Scrapping

Right now... in the studio...

Hi there... got a few studio items to share that are on my desk right now...

First, i got this tip from one of my blog readers Mariken...

this new magazine is really inspiring... a feast for the eye, great to the touch 'cause the magazine (140 pages thick!) is made with different kinds of paper (glossy, card stock, a kind of newspaper material), great photographs, good tips and real life stories... a good read to start your weekend with, i can tell you! Thanks Mariken!!

Secondly, i could not help myself and added this little tool to my ever growing pile of stuff...

I think it will be great for adding just that extra bit of texture to my next tag for the 52Q project...

And i got an email from Nancy, who was curious about the way i store my eyelets... well, that's not hard to answer, 'cause i have no special way or system... i just tuck my eyelets away in a see through Hema box (i'm really a Hema kind of girl)...

And yes... you spotted that right, i keep those little buggers in their original packaging... i did that because i had to give notice (when i worked for Pien's design team) of the manufactures name of the supplies that i used... and i did not want to mess about writing names on tiny little notes, putting those on tiny little containers or something...

I keep my brads in the same way...

And for now this system works fine... until i cannot close my boxes anymore... (and that moment lies ahead in the very near future i think)... but then i buy probably a few boxes more...

Oh, and i had some sweet company this afternoon in the studio...

My sweet pink and glitter loving 4 year old niece came by to play with a few of my (selected) goodies... and she made an adorable pink mini book (i had some Hi Kitty scrapbook paper in my stash, and that was júst the right thing for here)... in the end my scraptable was covered with a thick layer of glue and glitter, and it took me a half hour before i could use my workspace again without sticking to it, but she had fun, and that's what counts!!

And Stach and Gerard joined us later and they made a racing car on Stach's woodwork table... so it was a crafty afternoon! Love that!! I could not get much done myself, but i made a start with a LO of Stach in his spiderman costume, and i jotted down some notes for my 52Q tag...

Have a good Sunday!

Art journal page...

Finished the first page in my new art journal this week...

I choose heavy duty watercolor paper for the pages in this album, a great surface to experiment on... and because i purchased this new workshop by Donna Downey, i thought to give it a try... it's all about layering various materials and dulling them down a bit with diluted paint... (btw Donna's workshops are great, so if you have not seen them, go check them out!!!)

{ Materials used: old book paper, scrapbook paper - 7Gypsies and Autumn leaves, math paper, rub-ons - Rhonna Farrer, hand colored fabric, stamps - 7 gypsies, gesso, paint - Making Memories, chipboard letters - Scenic Route, letter stickers - Making Memories, eyelets - Heidi Swapp, ultra fine art glitter... }

Although it's not really my own style, i like the result... so i guess you can count on seeing more of this in the future on this blog!

52Q tag two

New tag, new question... am i afraid of change?

Now, i don't know what it is with this project, but it definitely triggers my imagination! For this tag i thought it would be nice to make some 'doors' on it... so i did...

 

To make sure the tag will fit nicely between all the other tags in the end (remember, 52 tags when the whole project is done) i needed something to keep those doors closed... so, a little piece of black string tied around those darling blue belles did the trick!

To achieve a nice 'distressed' effect, i  put 4 layers of gesso down all over the tag. The last two layers were dabbed on, to provide some texture. I painted the front and back with black acrylic paint, and when that was dry, i sanded the whole piece to reveal the texture again. I dabbed several colors of ink on the tag and let it dry.

And i must have been insane, but i actually hand sewed all those tiny little beads around the picture. But i really like the effect, so it was worth the effort!

I have some fun ideas to for displaying all my tags... but i'll share those with you later!

For now... have a good Sunday!

Right now... in the studio...

Thursday is my day off, and usually i do a lot of household duties and play a bit in my studio, besides 'mothering' Stach after school hours...
Unfortunately i had to work from home this whole morning, so my schedule had to change a bit...

I took Stach to the toy store this afternoon... he saved a lot of money so he could buy himself a Spiderman suit... it's filled with soft material, so he looks like he's some kind of body builder... it's hilarious... (hopefully i can get him tomorrow on camera!)

But i spent my evening in the studio...

Yep, that's a piece of the 52Q tag 2 to be...
and glitter...
and that's not the only place were the glitter got to...

Time to call it a day now, but before i go to bed, i think i'd better wash my hair...

Just blathering...

Hi there! Nice to see you again at the blog...

Not much exiting to share today... i have been working my butt off all day at the office and came home about 18.30, just in time for dinner!
My head was still spinning from al that information that i had to deal with today, so i was happy that i could spent my evening on some creative time. It's the best remedy for unwinding, playing around a bit in the studio.

I worked on my second tag for the 52Q project, tried to listen to the Diva Crafts lounge (but the program broke down in the middle of broadcasting), had some tea (still drinking Christmas tea, i love the spicy smell and flavor!) and some MM's to nibble...

I had quite a few reactions on my posted tag on the 52Q Flickr group, all very nice. I must say, it was actually a very easy technique, just applying some e-z walnut ink on canvas. I was very surprised how it turned out myself, cause i had that bottle stashed away in my studio for years, and i used it for the first time! Definitely something i want to use more often.
For you out there who never used walnut ink, it's a bit similar to the Adirondack alcohol inks, but they don't stink, are not 'tacky' and work best on paper, card stock and fabric. They're not made for plastic and metal, although i managed to heat set it on hard plastic slide. But that did stink (!!!), and unfortunately the slide started to melt on me...

Anyway...  this afternoon, in my lunch break, i bought a few extra bottles.... 

I work next door to Pipoos (not the best thing for my bank account, i can tell you...) and they had a sale going on, so i had a good deal on these... i payed for two, both almost at half price, and i got one extra for free!

Oh... (and this is really very random info!!) for you who actually took the trouble to read through my wishes for 2009, take note... remember resolution no.4?

Hmmm, you spent a lot of time on manicuring and polishing your nails in a nice shade of pink... you play around with some gesso and black paint and see what that does to those shiny fingertips!!! Yes people, and this shot is taken after i washed my hands!!!
Well, that's all in the name of art, right?

Have a good night!

52Q tag one

Yesterday evening (very late!!) i finished my first 52 Questions tag... it's the start of a project where i answer (as creative as i can be) one question a week through the whole year. The questions are asked by Emily Falconbridge, and you can read more about it here, if you're interested.

This first question was: what are your wishes for 2009?
As mentioned already yesterday, i covered the front with canvas, and used e-z walnut ink tintz to color it. I sewed on strips of patterned paper, dyed book paper and hand colored fabric. I added a Chinese coin for good luck    (no idea what the characters on it mean, but as long as i that stays a secret to me, no harm done, right?). To finish it off i added several matching eyelets and the stamped question...

The same techniches are used on the back, except for the canvas bit... i decided to print my wishes, to keep them within the boundaries of the paper.

Actually it was a bit funny to answer this question, because i had no intention at all to make new year resolutions. But hey, now i've done it i think i did a good job...don't you?

And to keep the spirit into the project, i've already started on tag no. 2!
More to come tomorrow!

Monday again... creative time in the studio...

Hi there!
Wow, the weekend flew by...
Luckily G. didn't feel to bad, and he managed to stay out f bed most of the time.
And although Stach was in a terrible emotional state (poor guy: very very angry at least ten times a day!! It's always hard for him to get back into the daily routine for a few weeks afters being ill) there was time to enjoy and relax...

Unfortunately i had taken a lot of work from the office that had to be taken care of.
So i spent the whole afternoon comparing a huge pile of data and forms... (of course it took much more time than i had expected!!) But i got it done (thanks G. for helping out!)...
and therefore i can enjoy some creative time in my studio now!

 

I decided to join in this project by Emily Falconbridge...

i had absolutely no plan to start another project, believe me, with (in this case weekly ) prompts (i really want to finish many more pages from my JYC project), but as soon as i read her post i couldn't stop thinking about it! It's a very small format, fun, inspiring and a perfect opportunity to use the stack of sturdy tags that Marsha gave me last year to play with... so i thought... what the heck! GO for it girl!

So... i cut a small piece of canvas from the big role G. bought me, dug up the tags, made a cup of coffee and put on my Weepies cd... ready for some quality creative time! Keep you posted!

Oh no!!!

Last night we went to have dinner with Gerard's colleague from University College. They just had a baby girl, so it was a great opportunity for me to make one of my special T-shirts again...
So i took out all my fabric paints and a fresh white piece of fabric and played away...

I love the little pink sequins... it gives it just a extra bit of girlie shine...

We had a very nice evening, the mum totally lóved the T-shirt and we had a very nice dinner... but around 23.15 Gerard told me he wanted to go home... he didn't felt all that well...

OH NO!!! Not again... i thought we had closed the sickbay for al least a year after that disastrous last December month!! Wrong thought... Gerard is ill... maybe it has something to do with his last ice skating adventure from a few days ago, when he hit the water with one leg and decided he could skate for more than one hour with a half frozen leg? Who knows...

Anyway, the cough medication, ibuprofen and the tissues are all over the place again and the couch is taken all day with a sick person and blankly... poor guy! Hope he get's better soon... he hates being sick!!!

Because it's still freezing during the day, i thought it was a good idea to defrost our freezer... a job that was waiting to be done for almost a year now!!! (Hmmm, i háte defrosting my freezer!! The worst bit of household duties there is and will ever be!!!) Our tiny back yard is turned into some kind of outdoor walk-in freezer, so i could take out all my frosted vegetables, bread and pizza's in the garden... easy piezy...
I turned the freezer off, put a few pans with boiling water down on the worst frozen spaces and thought it would be a matter of hours before the polar cap in my freezer would be gone...

OH NO!!! Wrong thought again! It took the whole day ánd evening, and i even needed my hairdryer to get the worst ice caps down!!! I just finished (23.30!!!) putting all my stuff back in the freezer, fresh and clean and with drawers that can slide in and out again... but man oh man, i'm exhausted...

Piece of advise... don't wait for over three year to defrost your freezer!!! Not the best time to sent your day conquering the ice caps that have grown in there after all that time... i can tell you!

I'm sorry to say i didn't have time to play in my GO girl journal... hopefully tomorrow...
Have a good Sunday!!!

A new year...

The last few weeks haven't been what i expected... not really a time to relax, to celebrate or to make fun family trips (and not enough time to work in my Christmas album)... poor Stach has been ill for two weeks! But... he's feeling better now, and we can make a fresh start in a new year!
Always a special moment, the start of a new year. Time for new plans and projects... a whole diary with empty pages... a lot of time for a new schedule and new decisions...

So, (better late than never...) happy 2009! May all your wishes become true this year!

For me it started with making a fresh start in creativity. I made the decision to stop with the design team work for Piens. Time for new things...

And i choose my word for 2009... actually two words:

To me it sounds very powerful and stimulating... GO for the unknown, GO for new opportunities, GO for my 'creative self'... and hopefully it speeds me up a bit...(cause i'm not the fastest of girls, you know...)

The last two years i made a special project to celebrate my new word, (see here and here) and this year is no exception...(well, the speed that i made it with is... am i under the spell of my word already???)

I got very inspired by Tim Holtz lately, and used some of his techniques on this journal...

And i love how it turned out... the Ranger distress inks work very well on the old book paper i used, and the doorknob is the perfect finishing tough...

I even made a mini version...

And to remind me even more to stay on the GO, i ordered a lovely silver necklace (got inspired on Ali's idea) from Bellabuttondesign with my word stamped on it... can't wait till that one arrives on my doormat!

Oh, and i got two of Donna's new video workshops yesterday... very inspiring... that's centainly keeping me on the GO!!!