Two blog posts in a day?

Technically no, because it's after midnight here in the UK, but to Blogger I think it's still the same day...

Annnnyyywayyy....

We were at the park again last Monday, and of course my Art Journal and camera had to come with me! I had tons of fun making this video, trying to ignore the 'cool' girls looking at me filming myself. They must've thought, what the hell is she doing?

I also edited it myself, with tons of help from Tye, but I'll try and learn how to do it all by myself so he doesn't have to wake up early in the afternoon (he works nights poor thing) because I Want My Video Done Now!

Enjoy:


(and yes, it is a self portrait, kinda...)

Still sketching

Between working in my Art Journal and working on a Top Sekrit Project I can't tell you anything about just yet I have not giving up on my sketching.

This is what I did last night;

I am pleased with the result, although it looks a bit wonky but then the picture I used was wonky too.
I especially like how the nose turned out, am getting better at doing them.


Still need tons more pencil work before moving on to paint, but it's going really well so far.

The New Journal

As the last page of my current Art Journal is in sight (just three more spreads to go!) I was thinking of a new book. As much as I liked the tiny journal before this one, a new one would have to be roughly the same size as the current journal, but maybe not using pages out of an old book like the one I'm using now...

And then I found myself doodling on an envelope. And then I decided to test out different pens and crayons...


So that made me decide to make a book out of brown envelopes. Yay! I folded five envelopes into a signature, and figured three signatures would work best.


Using cardboard and an old T-shirt for cover and spine:


More envelopes for the cover:


And then the cover was done!


Making holes in the spine


Using my trusty dental floss to bind it all:


A very simple out hole 2, in hole 1, over to hole 3, back into hole 2 binding..


And then it was done! A nice size brand new Art Journal!



Just three more spreads to go! I am still thinking of making this new one more sketchbook-y... the brown of the envelopes is perfect for it. The cover still needs some work, and maybe a layer or matt medium to protect it because it's now just paper, but I'm not going to worry about that just yet. Need to finish my current Journal first and then I get to play in this one!

Paper bead swap

If you're like me, you know that making paper beads is very addictive. You can't just make a few, you have to make at least twenty in one sitting, if not more. And then you'll make your first necklace or bracelet, and another one and another one... and you'll end up with odd beads that are left over from those projects.

Janice from Paper Beads is setting up a paper bead swap. She is looking for at least 16 participants. Details will follow on her blog.

Come and join the fun, and end up with lots of new beads for a brand new project!

Hot pink!

Love glitter? Love HOT pink? Love this necklace!


Come and have a look in my ArtFire shop, there's lots more to see!

Guess what I've been up to this week?

You guessed it, I had to have 'that' check up this week. And what a joy it was. Here in the UK they start testing you at 25, and you are sent a letter to make an appointment once every 3 years. That's better than in Holland, where I'm from. There you don't get tested until 30 and every 5 years.

This page is about more than just the test itself though. It's also about the frustration that my womb is empty and might never be filled with a new life. The clock is ticking HARD and FAST and although I'm very very happy for her, hearing that my Love's sister is pregnant with number 4 did bring out the tears.



I wrote down all the frustration and tears in the uterus-shape, then covered it with watersoluble crayons. I did not use water but watered down gesso to activate them, covering the text. I glued down bits and pieces of the little brochure that came with the letter asking me to make an appointment. All the fun stuff about what to expect from the test, that it might cause 'discomfort or pain' and that in England around 900 women a year die from cervical cancer. I covered them with blue paint because it looked a bit too clean.

Still not satisfied with the result I added some charcoal pencil to grunge it up a bit. I now actually like it. It is by far the most personal page I have ever done.

More sketches

Tye got me a set of sketching pencils and of course I had to try them out.
Here is my first outline:


And then I took a longggg time just trying to get the shades right. It still looks nothing like the picture reference I used, but atleast it looks more like a real person than the first sketches I've done did.

Zendala zendala!

You've seen me do zentangle inchies about a month ago, but yesterday I tried my hand at zendalas. A Zendala is a mandala, meaning a circle you fill up with different designs, in zentangle style.

If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that every Thursday night, or Friday morning for me, at 7 pm. US central time or 1 am for me, I go over to the Artistic Biker's Usteam show. He plays in his Art Journal while a bunch of us sit in the chatroom and watch, ask questions, but, to be honest, we mostly talk amongst ourselves about art journaling, techniques and stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with those subjects. It's a great laugh, and I highly recommend stopping by if you're interested in Art Journaling and hanging out with some fun people.

Last Thursday, the Artistic Biker, or Blade21292 on Twitter, was doing Zendalas. Now, I did not join in during the show, I was far too busy chatting with the people there, but I did do some the next day.

Have a look and tell me what you think!

Inspiration

What I love most about the internet is getting in touch with people. As a teenager, I used to spend my pocket money on postal stamps and envelopes and paper, so I could write long letters to my penpals all over the world. I lost touch with most of them (though my Norwegian penpal got in touch with my through Facebook the other day!) but the feeling of connecting with people all over the world, learning about their lives, getting inspired by what they do, that is still very much alive on the internet.


If it had not been for the internet, and sites like Flickr and YoutubeI doubt my creative side would have developed at all. I was a words kind of girl. I was always writing. I looked at pretty pictures every now and again, thinking how great it would be if I could do that too, but I never really tried, because, to be honest, I didn't think I had any talent and why waste my time.

For the last 3 yrs or so I have been art journaling (something I would have never thought of if it hadn't been for the internet!) and been inspired by so many people, through Flickr, Youtube and more recently ArtJournaling.Ning. One of those people is Connie from Dirty Footprints Studio, who this week has put up some amazing videos on Youtube, where she is doing what she's calling FEARLESS painting.


Last night I decided to give it a shot.

I had no idea where I was going with it, I just started with a few shapes and connected them and all of a sudden there was this little creature. I used colours I would not normally use, like yellow and a shade of green I don't particularly like, and just went with it. It was well and truly FEARLESS. And then, when I was finally happy with the result, I added the black outlines to finish it off.

Thank you Connie for being such an inspiration!

And the most amazing part?? Just as I was writing this, Connie posted a BIG announcement on her blog. She'll be hosting a new online art workshop, in which she'll teach you how to paint BIG, even if you have limited space. How cool is that??

Pogo printers are cool!

After seeing this video on Rhomany's blog, I do believe I have to have a Pogo Printer....!

Photo Manipulation: Zink-PoGo from Frenky on Vimeo.

(And maybe this is the right time to mention that there are a lot of really cool paper bead pieces in my ArtFire shop!)

At least they've said Sorry!

Does the Royal Mail employ small children? And do they not feed said children?
It seemed that way when we got our phonebill this morning:


Oh well, at least they've said they're sorry! (Now go and feed those poor kids before more important mail gets eaten!)

Art Journaling in the park

We finally had a bit of summer sun over here and to make the most of it, me and Tye decided to go to our favourite park, with some nice food, books, and of course my art journal.



Over on Artjournaling.Ning we have a special (free) workshop about playing in your Art Journal outside. Show us where you like to journal!

I sketch

For years and years, I've been envious of people who can draw. My art teachers to say the least were never excited about my work, and I gave up on art altogether for a long time until I stumbled upon art journaling and mixed media. But in my mind you had to have an exceptional talent to learn how to draw.

The other week, Leslie of Comfortable Shoes, posted this blog post about how learning how to sketch/draw takes practice and you need to stick with it in order to get better at it. You need to do the work, put in the hours, and develop a skill.

Boring, I know, because if you're like me you want to have the skill NOW, not develop it slowly over time. You want to be able to play the guitar NOW, not take lessons and start with just hitting the same boring notes over and over...

Annnyyywayyy....

I started to do some light sketching from memory, on a piece of paper I quickly grabbed one evening as I was watching TV, and the result was not half bad. Not as horrible as I remembered my sketching skills to be from when I was in secondary school. Maybe there was hope after all. ;)


I talked to Leslie about wanting to draw more, and she advised me to not use loose sheets of paper to work on, but bind them together so you can keep track of your progress. But at the same time you should not care too much about it, you're still learning...

Soooo... I took the front and back cover of a catalogue, glued them together so it was a little bit more sturdy, and some paper from my printer and binded it together with my trusty dental floss. So here you go, my very own, cheap as chips, sketchbook:


My Love and me went to the park yesterday, and of course I took my sketchbook and some magazines. Here is the first result, in simple mechanical pencil. Let's just say the sketch is 'inspired by' the photo rather than a picture-perfect copy...


But on its own it's not half bad...


I promise I'll keep working on it, filling out this sketchbook as I go along. I've got tons of magazines and if I can't find any more faces in the pile I've got there's always Flickr...