Spill it!

You know how the other day I was saying that I want to embrace being a messy journaler, and that neat and tidy just isn't my thing? Guess what I stumbled across the other day:

Straight Talk with Carmen from Carmen Torbus on Vimeo.

How coooool does that sound? And her enthousiasm is killing me, it's great to see!
So hurry on over to the Spill It workshop page to sign up, and have a peek at Carmen's blog too!

All I want for Christmas...

Almost every week we drive by this sign, and today was the day to finally take a picture of it.
Oohhh yes, vintage is hip, baby! And just in case you did not understand what vintage horse shit means, this is what is says on the other side:

Also note the Please return bag, thank you' on the sign. Not only are you getting horse shit that is already rotting away, you need to take the bag back so it can be used again.

Vintage and recycling. Who said farmers can't be cool?

Had enough of neat and tidy

I don't think I could ever be a traditional scrapbooker. All these bright colours, everything exactly half an inch from the side, or an inch from the other.. The precut materials and layouts copied from books and websites, I don't know.. It just isn't for me.

Lately, I've been bloghopping a lot. I tend to do that when I'm bored. I check out who replied to blogs I read, and then go to their favourites or the blogs they follow etc. etc. Keeps me busy for ages. And on one of these bloghopping afternoons I found Steph McAtee's blog. Now she takes scrapbooking to a whole different level.

Yes, she still uses pictures and blocks of text like the more traditional scrappers do, but her pages are grungy and dark and layered and I love them! I think this is more the way I want to start Art Journaling. Not that my life is grungry and dark and horrible, but there is just something about getting all messy that makes me very happy.

Even before I found Steph's blog, I did this page below. I first added gaffer tape to my cardboard, and then layered paint on top of it. The text is done in permanent maker (not Sharpie because it died a fairly horrible death when I tried to use it on the page) and then dots on the letters in white Posca, my new favourite white pen.

Enjoy!

About that Travel Art Journal...

I had great plans. I had a little suitcase full of materials. DIY paper, collage paper, tags, more pens than I knew what to do with, my trusty gluestick, tape, and four pages a day in my Art Journal.

I would journal every single day after Tye, my family and me came back from whatever it was we went to see. After our shopping trip in Birmingham, after our days out in Stratford-upon-Avon, after going to see Warwick Castle. I would write and add anything that I would find along the way. Brochures, receipts, leafs, little notes.

And I did journal. I wrote about how we got to the campsite, set up our tent, and what we did in Birmingham when me and Tye and my sister went for a shopping trip there. And when we went to Stratford-upon-Avon I picked up some amazing Shakespeare tape, with the titles of all his plays.

And then, that was it... I did not touch my Art Journal until after we got back. No time, not enough space, and it felt a bit strange to get the journal-suitcase out when we were enjoying a drink and some nibbles after spending a long day walking around seeing the sights.

But hey, it's finished now, and I love it! I covered it all in Shakespeare tape and hopefully in years to come I will still remember what we went to see, the meals we had and how I teased my parents and sister by singing the song about Henry VIII.

Getting back into the swing of things...

Coming back from holiday with tons of laundry to do it's sometimes difficult to get back into the swing of things. I know it took me a good few days before I was used to hectic life again, with phones ringing and schedules and getting back to healthy food. ;) Yes, we're still on the 'No More Crap' diet, but it's proven more difficult this time then when it was when we first started.. Oh well....

And then there's my new Art Journal. I'm still not completely sure if I like doing the backgrounds first, adding bits here and there until it's 'finished', and then adding the journaling. I loooove the background work.
Getting messy. Not really thinking about things, just adding paint and magazine clippings and DIY paper and scraps. It makes time fly! But to then flip through to another page, and another, and another, without finishing what I started... hmm... not so sure....




I know I felt better after adding some journaling, complaining about this very thing..

Maybe I should just give it a bit longer, to see if I might end up liking it after all....

First pages in my Art Journal

I know, I know, it's been a while (again), and after posting this I'm packing my suitcase to go on holiday for a week, so I won't be posting for another while either.... but I wanted to show off the progress I've made so far in my new Art Journal.

I decided to just slap on some colour and already start working on backgrounds, going back and forth through the pages. It's amazing how time flies when you do that!


This one is almost ready for journaling. Maybe I'll add some more bits here and there, but I think I will just put down some lines and then journal my heart out.

Using up old DIY paper I made ages ago. Sticking it on there, and then I'll get back to it when the mood strikes me.

And this is my first finished page in my new Art Journal:


(OK, OK, I might add some borders or something....)

For now: see you soon! I'll be taking a prepped Art Journal with me to play with while away, I'll probably end up having to do loads on that when back, but I'll show you when it's done.

Bye oma!

Today it's eight years since my nan (or gran or 'oma' in Dutch) passed away. It's hard to believe it's been that long.

She was a great knitter, and she enjoyed sewing too, so it was not that strange that she started to collect thimbles. Whenever we went on holiday, or on a daytrip or even schooltrip, we would try and find her a thimble.

When she passed away, my aunt took over her impressive collection, but not before I took out the couple I knew for sure I gave her. One from Eindhoven, the first place I lived when I moved out of my parent's house, one from Dierenpark Emmen, a wonderful zoo in Holland (sorry, link is only in Dutch and German), and one from Lourdes....

I was hoping to take a picture of the sky today, as she loved cloud formations and would always tell us 'Oohh, look at those clouds!', but it's grey and raining again today, so this was the next best thing for this sad anniversary.

Dag oma!