Two pages in my art journal

I made two pages in my art journal this week, with mixed media collage. Actually, I made three but I can't show you the third one now! That one is for a tutorial I made and I will show you somewhere in the second half of March. One thing I can tell you is that I was thrilled to be asked to make this tutorial....Did I make you curious now? Good! (lol)

I'll start with a funny page:

Did it make you smile? Great!

My second page is much more serious:

I'm not going to explain all about it but it has something to do with not taking it as it comes but to be more active in purchasing my goals. Not waiting till the moment that it will happen but going after it myself!

One of the things that helps me to reach one of my goals will hopefully be this:

I decided to sign up for this e-course and I'm so looking forward to it! The class starts tomorrow and it will take three weeks....Three weeks loaded with inspiration, fun and meeting lots of new people. Christy Tomlinson has opened a complete 'classroom' where we can log in, see all her video's, download pdf's, chat on the messageboard and get inspired by all the other 'students'. I've seen people from all over the world on the messageboard now: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Russia, USA, Great-Brittain, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands too! I can't wait to start!

TFL!

Sandra

Back in time with Tracie Hudson

For this layout I was challenged by Tracie Hudson, who was cleaning up her scraproom. She was challenged by a friend after she had found some papers of maybe 6 or 7 years old to make something with this. "Just because its old and no longer in vogue, it doesn't mean its useless..... you can still create with it. "
And isn't that also a reason why we scrap-addicts collect everything and never throw anything away? We might use it on some kind of project some day...
So I dived into my stash and found this:

Some papers of Scenic Route, the North Shore collection. That is to say: one complete patterned paper and two pieces...This collection is from 2005!!

And of course you want to know what I created with these scraps.

Here it is:

I thought a little tribute to Tracie was in place, because I get so much inspiration from her.

So I scraplifted this layout of Tracie. And did you see this cute heart she made, with all the punched flowers on it? I loved it! So much that I made one for my layout too:

The punch I used for the little flowers on the heart is even older than the papers I used. This was the first punch I bought...back in 2004!!! Who would have thought that it would get a second life in 2011?!

I used it to create the little orange flowers on the banner too.

I didn't have any flowers to match my papers so I created the orange rose and the tiny roses (on the left of the heart and on the banner) myself. I used a small and a big six petal punch for these.

The green and white flower was made of five e-line flowers, which I layered for some dimension.

I stamped some butterflies, cut them out and embellished them with some rhinestones.

While working on my layout I was thinking that distressing techniques were probably unknown, back in 2005. Well, at least for me! And how about layering and creating such dimensional layouts that they don't fit in an album? I know I didn't, six or seven years ago!

Banners in 2005? Nope!

Border punches? Nope!

Glimmermist? Nope!

So maybe it isn't about the newest papers, but more about the newest techniques? It's for sure...for me it works! I'm gonna dive again in my stash...old papers, new techniques...I love it!

TFL!

Sandra

She Art workshop, with Christy Tomlinson

Christy Tomlinson is having a great 3 week e-course soon, starting on the 28th of February: the She Art Workshop! This online class is all about creating backgrounds, textures and lovely art girls on canvases and other surfaces.

(The class is open for three months so you can follow the class at the time that suits you the best.)

I'm still thinking whether I want to sign up for this class or not....Well, I would love to sign up of course, but it is more a matter of 'limited budget' now...sigh...So, while I'm busy thinking about it, I can at least try to win one of the 3 free spots in her class. She is giving away those spots here: Where Women Create , another great inspirational blog! I hopped on over to this blog for the first time today because I was already following the blog of Christy Tomlinson, but I will definitely be going to visit it more from now on! 

Anyone else interested in doing this e-course? I would love to know!

Sandra

Happiness...

...often comes from the smallest things!
Yes, that's right...like in creating a zentangle for example. The newest theme at the Dutch Zentangle Group was HAPPINESS. At first I didn't know what to draw. The only thing I had in mind that there had to be shamrocks in my zentangle. So I started drawing these and hoped the rest of my zentangle would follow automaticly...and it did! That is the exciting part of zentangling!! You never know what it is going to be like untill it is finished. After the shamrocks I added the horse shoes, another symbol of luck and happiness. Than the 'lucky' fragments were added. I connected all the elements with zentangle patterns. By the way, I sketched this zentangle first and traced the lines afterwards with my Sakura Pigma Micron pens. I finished the zentangle by shading with a soft pencil.

(The original size of my paper is 8,5 x 11 inches.)

I think I want to frame this one too...just like my Valentine Heart...

TFL!

Sandra

Finally!...My first cover!

I finally can tell you all! One of my designs made it to the cover!!! That is...the cover of 'By Edding'...lol.
You will probably have question marks circling around your heads right now...What is 'By Edding'??????
It is a magazine from a company called Edding, the one which produces the markers, fineliners, etc. I got their magazine when I was buying some new markers on KreaDoe last November. There was a contest in it to design the cover for their next magazine. The winning design would not only be printed on the cover but also win an iPad ! I had some great ideas and sent in four (!!) designs, all made with mixed media collage.
And I won!!!! Only I had to wait to tell you untill the moment that the magazine was printed and published....that was last Saturday..And today I received the magazine in the mail!
Here it is:

On the inside some more about the contest:

..and a little tutorial on how I made the cover design:

And of course...the iPad is also a big bonus prize! (Especially my kids like to play with it...games! )

These are the other designs I sent in:

(I cut out the head of the managing director of Edding from the magazine and used it on my collage...Fun! I hope he appreciated it...)

The magazine is out now...you can get it for free at the Edding booth if you go to the 'Huishoudbeurs'. (For my international readers: this is a big show with everything about household, food, hobby's and other things the dutch housewives love to see or do. I'm glad I received my magazine in the mail because this show is so crowded...with women carrying shopping bags loaded with all the stuff they can get for free or very cheap..Believe me, you don't want to be there unless your top priority is your household...lol)

Nevertheless, I'm very proud to see my design on the cover!

TFL!

Sandra

Happy Valentine's Day!

Today is Valentine's Day! A day spent by lying on the doormat, waiting for the mailman to arrive with bags full of letters from all my anonymous admirers! Wow, wouldn't that be great if it was true? (LOL)
I made some Valentine's projects last week and decided to do a Valentine's blogpost to celebrate love!
Here is a mixed media collage page in my art journal:

Yes, I know...kind of twisted but that's me...sometimes...!

The background is painted with acrylic paint and stamped with bubblewrap. The images are all magazine cut outs, except for the horror-head. This came from a digital Halloween kit.

The second one is a zentangle I made for The Dutch Zentangle Group on Flickr. I made it a few weeks ago and decided to share it with you on this special day:

I'm very proud of this zentangle. When I started with the heart I had no idea what to do with it. Than I thought of the zipper I used on one of my layouts recently and this was my starting point: I drew the zipper in the heart. I added the flowers and when I started thinking about which zentangle patterns to use on my heart, the idea to this heart came to life. It has become a very symbolic heart to me! I love how it all came together in one zentangle: hurt but still there, alive, happy and light! I think I want to frame this one and hang it on the wall!

And last but certainly not least, my latest journal page...finished this morning during breakfast!
I made it for the love of my life...my dear husband Michael.
It is a page in my watercolor art journal, which is normally a landscape sized journal. I turned it 90 degrees and now I had a very long page...40cm long and 14 cm wide! I was inspired by the stamps of Stampotique, the ones of Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney. I LOVE these stamps!!! But unfortunately I can't afford them right now...so I decided to copy the image of the stamp by sketching it in my art journal. I stretched Supergirl all the way over my long page. I traced my pencillines with a Micron pen and filled the page with my Neocolor watersoluables.

Happy Valentine's Day, dear hubby!!!

TFL!

Sandra

March GDT Challenge at Sketchy Thursdays!

Sketchy Thursdays is having her monthly GDT challenge right now...the winner will be Guest Design Team member in March. I thought I'd give it a try this time!
The challenge was to use this sketch (of course...lol):

And some extra challenges:

♥ Pink & Green or Red & Turquoise
♥ Hearts
♥ A list about something/someone you love

Here is my take on the sketch:

As you can see I replaced the banner by a photostrip. The list about the girls I love is written down in the shape of a heart. The title is handwritten on black cardstock, cut out, matted on a piece of white cardstock and cut out again. I painted the chipboard snowflakes with some white crackle paint. And I finally used my sewing machine on my layout to do some freestyle stitching!

TFL!

Sandra

Three art journal pages!

I finished four art journal pages this week! I'm gonna show you three of them...the fourth is for Valentine's day..
The first one has a background, created with glimmermist and a mask. First I sprayed the yellow glimmermist over a circle shaped mask with lines. Than I added pink and blue glimmermist, which blended into green and purple on some places. I sprayed a lot so it could drip down the page.
I stamped some circles, squares and dots with acrylic paint. The image, the stars and the title are magazine cut outs. (I gave her a new head, new haircut and a longer pair of legs...all slightly out of proportion..lol!)

Somehow I feel it is not completely finished yet, but I wanted to show you this one anyway. Maybe I'll add something later...you never know!

The second one also has a misted background. No masks this time, only a little bit of dripping.

I found the image in a magazine somewhere and that's when I knew what to do with this background. I gave her a new head (lol) and a flower in her hand and turned her hanging chair into a bubble. I made the other bubbles with paintmarkers and some white acrylic paint. 

For the third page I scraped some purple, blue and turquoise acrylic paint with an old creditcard to create the background. Again, I only knew what to do with it as soon as saw the image in a magazine. It was originally a black and white picture and the woman did have a completely different haircut! The title is made of letters cut out of magazines. This one is definitely one of my favorites!! 

TFL!

Sandra

Sketchy Thursdays #2.3: Family, food, fun!

Here is my entry to this weeks challenge at Sketchy Thursdays. I gave myself an extra challenge by scrapping on 8,5 x 11 inch size! Not on purpose, but simply because I didn't have a complete 12x12 inch craft coloured cardstock. So I cut the piece that I had to the 8,5x11 inch size.
And because I thought that wasn't difficult enough for me...lol...I wanted to scrap with Sassafrass papers. I love the colors of these papers but the busy patterns make it so hard to scrap.I bought four papers of the Jungle Bungle collection, which is from january 2009....It was the only collection of this brand in my LSS...
and a sticker die cut sheet from another collection. (Can't remember which one..)
So, here is the result:

I'm very happy about my layout!

I created the folded flower myself...No, no TH die!!! Just cutting and folding by hand!

The title letters are also handcut, after I stamped them on a piece of dark paper. I had some beads left which I had made for my January Daily and they matched perfectly.



And..did you see those lovely little monkeys???!!!! 

TFL!

Sandra

Zentangle art

You must have seen it already in my previous blogposts..I discovered the art of zentangles again! I tried to zentangle a little bit last summer, loved it but had no idea what to do with it...
Thanks to an ATC swap with a zentangle theme at the Dutch ATC Group I tried to zentangle again...loved it again, but now I knew what to do with it! I could make zentangle ATC's, zentangle cards and incorporate it in my art journaling. Which I did....
Here are my first zentangle ATC's:

No, this isn't just one ATC! I took a piece of paper of 8,5 by 11 inches and completely zentangled it! I made the zentangle look like an eight piece puzzle. When I was done I cut the piece in eight ATC sized cards, so each participant in the swap got a piece of the puzzle!

I also made a card for the hostess of the swap: 

This time I added some colors afterwards.

Here are the ATC's I got back:

I made another two cards. No added colors this time, but I tried to do some shading to make the patterns look more dimensional:

Do you like them as much as I do?

TFL!

Sandra

January Daily: finished!

I'm so proud of myself! I finished my January Daily!! When I started this project I was a little bit afraid that I might not finish it because it was a big project. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to journal every day..or simply forget about it...but I didn't. Yeah!
It was a good thing that I prepared most of my pages in December already. Now it took about half an hour a day..sometimes more, sometime less...to finish my page each day.
Here is what my JD looked like before I started:

Pieces of pizzaboxes, cardboard boxes, an old calendar and a cover of an old childrens book.

Now it looks like this:

Quite a difference, huh?!
See the beads on some of the ribbons? I created these myself!
The old cover of the childrens book has been covered with a piece of yellow book cloth ('boekbinderslinnen') on which I created a zentangle. I did the zentangle with a black Sharpie. Unfortunately it started to bleed a little bit on the book cloth.
Here are some pictures from the inside:

Every page has a different edge and it looks very funky together! I love how it turned out!
You can see all the pages on my Flickr photostream here.

TFL!

Sandra