Life and Scrapping

Life happens...

Hi dear bloggers, how's life out there?

Mine is filled with work, stress (whoops... not what the doctor ordered i'm sure... but the health care company i work for is merging with another huge health care company, and it's a very slow, difficult and painful process... it's the 6th time that i'm in a merge like this, and i'm getting sick of it, to be honest... hmmm, maybe it's time to change jobs and find something to do that gives me some energy instead of this total stressing out situation again and again ?), household duties and this...

Yep, because it looked like summer was totally over (but we have a beautiful day today :)) i started thinking about refreshing and decorating my home again... i had this little desk in my living room for year now, and it was patiently waiting to be covered in fresh white paint...it lakes a lot of sanding, painting, sanding and painting again, but the final coat of paint is going on today...

And just in time, because i got a call from the hospital last week that they can schedule me in for a another operation... for Wednesday the 28th!!! Yes, this Wednesday!!! I was on the waiting list already for November/December, so this was kind of sudden... anyway, i had some checkups and a mammogram planned already for Monday 26th, so this wasn't going to be a nice relaxing week anyway...

so, i'm quickly going back to the painting and decoration, because i'll  be home for 6 weeks after the operation, and it would be nice to recover in a nice, clean and cozy home...

No fun scrapbook pages, collage pages or inspiration Wednesday pages to be shared... hopefully i'll be able to make a few these next few weeks... keep your fingers crossed for me, okay?

Collage monday...

It's already late, and i have a busy day at work ahead... just a quick post to show this weeks collage monday entry...

Just like the original, i used a lot of rub-ons (letters: vintage Making Memories alphabet; swirl by Basic Grey), the green flowers are cut from a design paper by Amy Butler (for K&Company) and the black bird cage is cut from fuzzy vinyl my Silhouette.. wanted to try that material and shape for a long time now, so this was the perfect opportunity...

It's simple, but i like it!

Have a good night!

Inspiration Wednesday...

Another post and more stuff to show you...

Haven't the slightes idea what's going on with me, but i'm on a roll lately... maybe something in the water :) or the weather?

Anyway... i had a studio-day today and worked in my art journal on a new Inspiration Wednesday entry... Donna's was fabulous this week, so needless to say i got many ideas for my own take on it...

(oh, and for the non-crafters or -scrappers amoung you who haven't a clue what i'm talking about and think that  i have the days all mixed up... yes, i know it's Thursday today and not Wednesday... but you see... every Wednesday is Inspiration Wedneyday on Donna Downey's blog... but by the time i can get sit down andwatch her video and take out my own supplies, it's already Thurday over here...)

By the lack of the Inkadinkado Inchies clear stamps, i used a whole Amy Butler alpha sheet by K&Company... these are individual letters, but i left them all on the backer sheet, inked the whole sheet up and stamped it without using a clear block...

After embossing the letters with clear UTEE i followed Donna's procedure, taped off a frame and colored around it with my watercolor crayons (Neocolor II)...

After mixing the colored parts with water, and adding a watered down frame made with india ink, i searched the studio for some appropriated black rub-ons... hmm, not very many to be found in my dedicated basket hanging on the wall...

but then i remembered my very vintage stash of 7Gypsies rubbings... have them stashed away in a different location... and yes, they will do just fine...

No white puffy paint -like Donna used -to be found in all my various boxes and drawers, so i took out my Posca paint pen to add dots to the page...

i liked the added little square stamped tiles on the orginal, but still... no Ikadinkado inchies stamp... so i made my own squares by punching these stamped images...

and -like the original- i embossed the squares several times with UTEE...

hmmmm... not what i wanted... the white paper turned a bit greyish and the image wasn't as crip anymore... then what to do... i liked the idea of a shiny little tile... searching through my stuff again...

eureka! found a big role of clear packing tape, and that did the trick...

And after adhering the tiles with foamtape and adding many more white dots, this is the end result...

all those techniques work very well together, don't you think?

Love the way the color on the background looks like a wash... love the contrast between the blue middle part and the yellow/pink around it...  love how the watered down india ink gives the page a grungy feel... and the crisp black 'flowers' and neat black&white tiles gives the whole thing a clean look...

So... hurray for Inspiration Wednesday! I can never predict what the outcome will be, but it's always fun!

 

 

Sketch to Scrapbook...

If you want to scrap more pages, than a sketch can be a great help... and Shimelle has one every week...

This is my take on it...

Just like Shimelle, i mixed fabric (yellow checkerboard) with patterned papers (blue/brown by Paper Salon,  yellow on top  is digital from the Maybe collection  byDeena Rutter)

Journaling makes only sense if you able to read dutch :) but it tells the tale about a not so sunny but nice day at the beach at the end of our summer vacation...

Used some various digital goodies (by Karla Dudley) to dress up my pictures before printing...

and a page is not finished by my book without some little details (clear shaped hearts cut with Silhouette and a few tiny white beads) swen on by hand...