January Daily: day 17-24

Here is an update of my January Daily. Up till now, I managed to finish each page at the end of the day, by writing some journaling and adding some magazine cut outs. I must say the further I get in this daily journal the harder it is. I think it is the size of the album...too small to do some fun collage art. And the pressure of completing the album, without skipping one day (yes, I'm a perfectionist, remember?!) is weighing heavier on my shoulders. It is a good thing I prepared all the pages and most of the edges before January, otherwise I don't think I would have made it to this point....Only one week to go! And I still have to create a fun cover for the album too...but hey, that is the fun part!! Only I haven't decided yet what to do with the cover...;-(

TFL!

Sandra

Finally...I did some scrapping again!

As you may have seen I did a lot of art journaling lately..(lol)..but now I finally found some time and inspiration to do some scrapping again! Yeah!
I had some great pictures of my daughter, which really needed to end up on a layout.
The latest sketch at Sketchy Thursdays seemed to be the right start, so here is my layout:

I couldn't forget about the art journaling completely...why should I? Both art journaling and scrapbooking go together perfectly! So I tried some techniques I did in my art journal on this layout.

I stamped a pattern with wallpaper (in orange and added some white with my Signo Uniball later).

I stamped the swirly pattern on a piece of watercolor paper and colored this with my watercolor paint, adding some white again later on.

I doodled some swirls too.

The journaling is 'doodled' as a small border around the layout. 

The layout is about my 10 yo daughter Danique. She loves to dance..or even better..she LIVES to dance! Last Saturday she was part of a big show, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the school where she gets her dancing lessons. She is a great dancer. (Still wondering from who she's got the talent since both my husband and I can't dance!). It was a great, wonderful show and I loved every second of it. I was so proud to see my girl performing on stage in front of a big audience!!

And....I even made a birthdaycard this week. I made one for my mom, celebrating her 69th birthday. She always makes cards for my kids' birthdays and for mine of course. I thought it was time to create something for her too:

I used the June Bug collection from Basic Grey for this one. I'm not a great cardmaker and I don't have as much fun doing this as when I'm scrapping or art journaling, but I'm very satisfied about how my card turned out...and even better: my mom loved it!

TFL!

Sandra

I love art journaling!

I love art journaling, because it is so versatile: painting, stamping, collage, journaling, drawing..and much more! I believe my mind is translating every thought and every thing I do to an art journal page or technique. Luckily I don't actually DO every crafty page I think of....(lol). It would be a 24/7 activity!
But to give you an example..I was in a DIY store last week because our thermostatic crane (is this the right english word?!) had to be replaced. So we needed a new one. Searching the store I passed the wallpaper section. And as you might know all these different wallpapers are presented with a small sample which you can take home for free, to see if it matches etc. I couldn't resist taking 'some' (..sssshh..don't tell it was a few more...!) but not because I wanted to renew my wallpaper at home. No, my mind screamed 'art journaling' when I saw these pieces of beautiful structured wallpaper!
Look what I got:

My first thought was to use the wallpaper for stamping.
With these two pieces...

I created this background: 

I painted the background first, by scraping yellow and lime paint with an old creditcard.

I cut out the designs of the wallpaper, covered these with different colors of acrylic paint and stamped the design on the background. Love how it turned out!

And how about this one? With this piece of paper...

I created this background:

I first painted the background red and then stamped with some golden acrylic paint.

But I wasn't done yet...I stamped some more:

I painted the background turquoise and stamped some borders with different wallpapers. I tried some doodling too. I cut out a piece of each wallpaper and glued it to the page, so I know next time which paper pieces to 'rob' from the DIY store!

Slowly, I'm learning to play in my art journal and blocking my mind for wanting to create the perfect page.

Of course, I finished some more pages too:

I wanted to play with masks after I found my Tim Holtz mask again. (I did a page with a Heidi Swapp mask too..will show you later!)

I used the TH mask with three different colors distress ink. I splashed some water afterwards, with a toothbrush. Love the effect! I added some magazine cut outs, stamped with some borderstamps and I managed to do some journaling. Yeah, I love this page!

And last but not least....

Have you ever heard of Zentangles? I did...last summer!

Zentangle is the official name for the doodled patterns you make, when you are on the phone or waiting for someone, etc. Zentangles are beautiful created images using these patterns.

You can read all about Zentangles here or google 'zentangle' or 'tangle patterns'.

I created a few Zentangles last year, I loved doing it...it really is a Zen moment!!!...but I didn't know what to do with them. So it faded to the background...untill a few weeks ago! The Dutch ATC Group on Flickr was doing a Zentangle ATC swap and so I discovered the Zentangles again. (Can't show you my Zentangle ATC's yet, but I was extremely satisfied about my results!) One of the ladies of this Dutch ATC Group started a Dutch Zentangle Group too and invited me to play along. Of course I couldn't say no!

They post a theme every one or two weeks and invite the members to create a Zentangle with this theme.

The first theme was 'Spring'. I googled for a drawing of some tulips, printed it and used it as a base for my Zentangle by tracing it with a pencil. This is the original:

And this is my first Zentangle of 2011:

I filled all the sections with different patterns. Once started, I couldn't stop! I finished it at about 1am...

And the reason why I renewed my love for Zentangles is obvious now: I can incorporate them in my ATC's and in my art journal! I made this Zentangle in my art journal, added some journaling et voilà: an art journal page! (Yes, I kow...an art journal page doesn't have to contain words! But to me it does!)

I have some more pages of my January Daily to share too, but this has become quite a big blogpost, so I will show you later!

TFL!

Sandra

January Daily day 12-16 and some more art journaling!

Here is an update of my January Daily, day 12 to 16:

(front)

 (back)

I did some more art journaling this week. I finished two pages in my A4 sized sketchbook:

I was playing with layers and some collage. I'm not completely satisfied with this one but for now I think it is finished. But...it might happen that I come back to this one some day and add some more...

For the second one, I was inspired by Julie Balzer's guestblogger Sherri Pelletier. She did a great blogpost about Listhography, which is all about making lists in your art journal. This was my first list:

I did some more backgrounds, created with masks, this week. But I thought I didn't want to show these before they were finished. Just have to add some journaling...

TFL!

Sandra

Art Journal Every Day: Update week 2!

Another week has passed...a week loaded with art journaling! (But....I felt the virus of creating a scrapbook layout for the first time since long, so maybe this might happen next week....!)
I finished two art journal pages this week and I am still on track with my January Daily.
I played with my watercolor paint:

Guess who was my inspiration for all those colorful leafs?! (lol) The pattern for these leafs is a zentangle pattern I bumped into, when I was searching for patterns for a zentangle ATC-swap. It is called Pokeleaf and I love it! I found some great letters in my stash to create the title, by tracing around them and painting these also.

Another page I did was all about doodling. I bought this second hand book last week:

It is an issue from 2007 and it is mostly about doodling on your scrapbooklayouts. But to me it is a book loaded with great ideas for doodles on my art journalpages!

To practice some doodling I made this art journal page:

Just to make a start I copied the big doodled flower from the cover of the book and from there on I created the rest of the page, by using ideas from the book. I colored the page wih my Sakura glaze pens.
While I was working on this page I noticed I was being the perfectionist again...coloring exactly between the lines, using the right colorcombinations, being careful not to destroy my page, etc....So you can imagine how I came up with the title! I really want to play more, which seems to be very hard for me. I want to be chaotic and messy on a page, see what happens, just for one time...and if I don't like it than it is ok, but I want to explore that road too!

In my previous blogpost you can see my January Daily update till January 10th. I finished day 11 also, so here it is:

TFL!

Sandra

January Daily day 5-10 and another Project 52!

Here is day 5 to 10 from my January Daily.
As you probably can see I'm having troubles finding the right journaling pen. I prepared all my pages a few weeks ago by painting them with acrylic paint or watercolor paint. I added some darker accents to the edges with my watersoluble pastels (Neocolor II) and faded this with my fingertip. But I found out that this Neocolor background ruined my fineliners and paintmarkers!
Ok, I know...it is part of my journey through Art Journal Wonderland...but for now, having all these half finished pages I have to find a way to do some decent writing...To be continued!

And I started my new Project 52 just about half an hour ago! On Ronda's blog I read about this Project 52 : make a picture of yourself every week! I started thinking about this project..than I had forgotten about it..untill I read about it again on Jenneke's blog today. My first doubts were about whether I wanted to add another project to my To Do-list and I prefer to be behind the camera instead of in front of the camera...
But documenting all those memories and pictures of the rest of my family and nothing about me, isn't right either! So I decided to start this Project 52 today. I missed week 1 but who cares? I will probably miss some more weeks this year...I know already...and I decided not to care about what I missed but to be proud on the weeks that I succeeded!
I don't have any plans yet what to do with these pictures. Maybe I document these afterwards in one book or maybe I will use them on a layout some day...let's just go with the flow and see what happens!
I don't know if I will share my pictures on my blog every week either but here are the results of today.

First attempt on armlength distance:

 Second attempt..but still not satisfied...

 Maybe I can ask my three year old daughter to take my picture..? No...funny but no good!

And finally..attempt number 4: I'm satisfied! 

This is 'my daily me'! (..right after cleaning the bathroom, taking a coffee break..lol)

And I didn't edit it in Photoshop..!

TFL!

Sandra

My debut for regional television!

Last Thursday the big moment was there! My TV-debut for RTV Utrecht!
Last November I was asked for this. The makers of this program had seen my entry for the KreaDoe contest, were impressed and found my blog. They asked me if they could make a little portrait of me. Of course! It wasn't something I had to think about. I felt honoured.
The program is about people with a passion. It is about what people in the region of Utrecht do in their spare time.
They filmed me (and my mother who joined me to the KreaDoe that day) during the attempt for the Guiness World of Record book 'Biggest Scrapworkshop in the World', a scrapworkshop with 250 people. Unfortunately we didn't succeed...only 222 people showed up. The rest was stuck in traffic thanks to a big failure of our fantastic railroadcompany! (Not!). RTV Utrecht also filmed us while we visited the craftshow itself. Later that day I was filmed at home, telling about my hobby and showing some of my creations.
A total of five hours of filming ended up in a little portrait of me of about 7 or 8 minutes. (I didn't count...)
You can watch the program here. (Sorry, it is in dutch, no subtitles...)
Although I was a little bit nervous when the program started, I felt relieved afterwards. I was satisfied about my portrait. I was a bit worried if I might be babbling too much and how I would look on tv. What was left over after five hours of filming?! Well, see for yourself!

TFL!

Sandra

Art Journal Every Day: Update!

Art Journal Every Day has started! Last Friday Julie Balzer had an amazing blogpost to start this journey, loaded with ideas to spend 10 minutes a day in your art journal.

I was so lucky to be able to spend more than 10 minutes each day and created a lot of journal pages!

I work in three different art journals now.

The first one is a book with watercolor paper, sized 20 x 14 cm. It is a landscape size. So far..I love it!

I spend my 'more than 10 minutes' by painting backgrounds, adding small collages of magazine cut outs and writing down quotes.

Here a the pages I have finished so far. And 'so far' has a double meaning: I think these pages are finished now, but it might happen that I come back later and add an extra layer or some doodles...

The first page:

My personal reminder to focus on playing in my art journal and forget every rule!

And the next one:

A spread, with some collage art.

My second art journal I'm working in is my January Daily.

You can read more about it here.

The album is completely inspired by Ingrid Dijkers. Her journal 'Over the Edge' is awesome!

This is what it first looked like:

The last few weeks I spend some time on painting all the pages, decorating some edges and adding some small collages of magazine cut outs. I'm still thinking what to do with the cover. Probably this will be one big collage or so...

I finished day 1 to 4:

( I blurred some of the journaling because of privacy reasons...sorry.)

(Day 1 has a front and a back side.)

(This page has a folded curly shaped flap.)

And then there is my third art journal. It is a spiral bound A4-sized sketchbook. I always glue two pages together to create a firm page, so it won't tear and to prevent the paint for going right through it.

I love the big size of this one when I'm creating collages. I often start with a big picture with the size of a magazine and build up my collage from there.

This is the page I did this week:

I painted the background a few weeks ago. Because I always work on the dinner table, with a three-year-old running around the house, I have to plan my painting sessions! During these painting sessions I cover the table with a big piece of plastic, make a plate with paint for my daughter and one for me and than we paint till the paint is all over the table...and on our fingers and clothes...and in our hair...(lol).

Laura found out about the monoprint technique all by herself last time. She created lots of paintings by simply pressing her paper on the plate with paint first and using it as a stamp to paint other papers. Because she had lots of colors on her plate the results were beautiful. We used all her papers to wrap the home-made christmas presents (...and I forgot to take a picture....)!

I'm planning to do a weekly update on my Art Journal Every Day every Wednesday.

Hopefully I will be back tomorrow with a link to my debut on regional television. For my dutch readers: tomorrow, the 6th of January at 13.30h, RTV Utrecht will broadcast a little portrait of me and my scrapbook-obsession. The program is called 'Gewoon Doen' and it is about people with a passion...and yes, mine is scrapbooking! Well, it was at the time they interviewed me in November last year...please don't tell anyone that I'm a little bit more passionate about art journaling right now...lol!

TFL!

Sandra