A new year, new business, new opportunities....

It was my birthday yesterday. And also the start of a new exciting phase in my life. Most people are probably not aware that I am a freelance project manager in my daily life. I am managing large ERP implementations (Finance and/or tax related, i.e. project managing implementations of Finance and/or accounting systems, tax engines, consolidation software, etc) at large multinational companies.

And .. that I combine this life with the creative part of me. I also own a creative business, teaching workshops in the Netherlands and creating and selling my art work on Etsy etc. I have been thinking for a while, on what I want to do with this business and where I want to go. And during this time of considerations, I received an email on how to create beautiful online programs. Mmm... you can call it luck. I think it is an answer to one of my questions :-). I attended the webinar and enrolled in the program. So the next coming weeks I will be learning on how to create beautiful online programs. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Spring is in the air!

I has been a while since I posted on my blog. I have been busy! Not only with my day-to-day job but also with creativity. In March I though a workshop Mixed Media Canvas at the Volksuniversiteit in Soest (Netherlands). 10 ladies created a beautiful canvas to take home with them. I love how these canvasses all start out the same and with the use of the same techniques, they all end up completely different!

Next season I will be teaching 2 workshops at the Volksuniversiteit Soest, a 2-evening workshop on How to start an art journal and a 2-evening workshop on How to create a portret in mixed media. When the site is ready for registration, I will let you know!

And then, after some busy weeks, I went on a marvelous trip to Andalusia (Southern Spain) for a week. So much inspiration, beautiful things and great people. I am back to work again, but must say I have some problems adjusting... ;-).

This week I ordered a few more bottles of alcohol ink, some new colors and a new brand, Pinata. I am happy to say they are now available in the Netherlands as well, at the same shop I order my Yupo paper. But I could not wait.... so I started to create some daffodils, spring is in the air!

Unruly PaperArts blog

Today on the Unruly PaperArts blog my second article this month on image transfers. This time I am showing you image transfers with gel medium. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't... for my second attempt, I used images from a travel brochure in my art journal and I love how it turned out.

Check out the Unruly PaperArts blog for the full article.

San Francisco in Mixed Media - finish

This morning I finished my Mixed Media painting of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge. San Francisco holds sweet memories for me and this is actually one of the first paintings I painted just for me.

I will show you the last stages of the painting. I corrected the pillars of the bridge and the background last time and added more collage to the piece. The first thing I did this morning was to paint the left side of the pillars with yellow and glazing medium. And I painted the rocks in the background.

Then I used more orange and red with the glazing medium. I worked on the bridgde and the pillars under the bridge.

I added some more shading under the rocks in the background and to the bridge. Then I declared this painting FINISHED! I love it ;-). When the painting is completely dry I will put a layer of gel medium on top to varnish the painting.

This is a detail of the background, with the rocks made from different kind of collage and textured papers, paint and glazing medium.

And a new background is already waiting for me.... ;-)

Thanks for watching and your lovely comments along the way!

Mixed Media Discoveries - Stencil Crazy backgrounds!

Always wanted to know how to create marvelous Mixed Media backgrounds for ATC's, inchies, chunky, journal pages and other Mixed Media projects? On the Unruly PaperArts blog I am showing you how in my first Unruly column!



More techniques on how to create lovely backgrounds can be found on my YouTube channel.

Black and white chunkies

Yesterday (Sunday) I had a 'pyjama day'. I had no where to go, no people to see, nothing important planned, so I went from my pyjamas into my jogging pants. And I watch some telly (a few re-run of a Dutch detective) and did some crafting, took a nap.... you get the picture. I just love days like this!

I printed some black and white backgrounds and images for the Black and White chunky swap on ATCsforall and took out my glue stick. I made these 4 chunkies. I still need to do the backs and then I can send them off to the host down under.

Blossoms in watercolor and some ATC's

 

This weekend I am playing in the Labor Day all art a thon at www.atcsforall.com. A full weekend creating with friends all over the world and lots of trading of course. So far I made 4 ATC's, I will show you two. One done in pen and watercolors, using a reference image from WetCanvas. And one mixed media collage.

 

 

 

And I have been painting with watercolors in my Moleskine watercolor journal (A4). This is a painting of a reference image in the Florals forum on WetCanvas (challenge for the month August).

Watercolor painting

This week I have been painting with watercolors. I made some journal pages with little paintings of California. I will be going on a trip to the US, to California in 10 days time and I want to make a smashbook/art journal/journal from our trip. And I know that sometimes time to create is limited during travelling, I already prepared some pages ;-). I will be flying to Los Angeles with my sister and we will start our vacation with a few days in Laguna Beach. Then we will go to Irvine, we both will follow some mixed media art classes at CREATE. Then we will move north, to LA, to Monterey and we will fly back from San Francisco. I am really looking forward to it!!

In between I painted this Tuscany ATC. For sale in my Etsy shop.

I am now selling vintage book pages in my Etsy shop!

I have been searching around on flea markets and yard sales for lovely vintage books. And I have found some! A lovely old atlas, with beautiful yellowed maps. And an old music book with marvelous vintage looking (yellow/brown) pages. A book on how to make (crossword and other) puzzles (?). The pages have illustrations of puzzles and text combined, making it great collage pieces.

The link to my Etsy shop is on the right hand side on this page. Check it out and get some pages before they are gone!

Painting for the WetCanvas Drawing Event

Today I have been painting a reference in the WetCanvas Drawing Event (WDE). This reference picture really spoke to me, but I found it hard to get started. The original plan was to paint it with regular watercolors, maybe use some salt to get the old rusty look. I know when I find it too challenging I kind of block. So I switched over to deli paper. I drew the truck first with my Pitt pens and then added color with my aquamarkers.

The black and white pen drawing is after about 1 hour, the colored version after another hour.

Video on YouTube from Evelyn

One of my art friends, Evelyn Havertz from Germany has posted her first art-how-to video's on YouTube. You can find her under the name of Evelynsdreaming and here is one of the video's. She makes lovely backgrounds for art journaling and other projects. Check it out!

Journaling

First of all; this week I had more then 1000 views of my art video's on YouTube. WOW.... more then a 1000 views, that is a lot!! Thank you all who watched (and hopefully enjoyed) my video's. For the readers who have not yet watch the art video's, here is the link to the latest video:

http://youtu.be/INw8R-5h7rg

And this week I have been working in my art journal. I saw a quote on Pinterest; words that matter. Love the quote and I made a page using the quote, it took me almost a week. I started with gesso, some selfmade paper (paper sprayed with Dylusions ink and stencils) and another layer of gesso. Then I made the cirkels, with markers, but also with ink. And added some more color with my Neocolors II and added some more cirkels before putting the words into the cirkels.

New art journal pages

I am not sure if I already showed you the blue art journal pages. The background is done with ink and the Tim Holtz flourish mask and the numbers stencil from Crafters Workshop. Finished with some cirkel stamps and a text stamp. The bird is painted with watercolors on deli paper and collaged to the page. Deli paper becomes transparent when you glue it with gel medium. The dragonfly is an image I found on the internet.

And I also made another page. The background is sprayed with Dylusions blue (London Blue) and the light green. I used stencils from Crafters Workshop. The peacock is painted on deli paper.

Art journaling workshop Saturday April 13, 2013

Today I was in Deventer. Teaching my art journaling workshop for 4 enthousiastic ladies. We had a great time creating lovely backgrounds and marvelous pages. Thanks Marjan, Saskia, Annemieke and Anita for the fun day. I hope you will / can use all the techniques in your own journals. Have fun!

 

 

New video on YouTube!

I have uploaded a new video on YouTube. This time I show you how to make a Mixed Media Canvas with a great background and with collage.

Whimsical birds

I have been making whimsical birds in my art journal. These lovely creatures are based on week's 14 lesson from Lifebook 2013. I have been watching all the lessons, but have not been creating all weeks. But this lesson really appealled to me! After the 2 little birdies in my art journal I have created 2 little mixed media paintings on canvas boards ( 13 x 18 cm).

New art journal pages

I hope you all had a lovely Easter with lots of fun and chocolate of course! The weather was not that great, very cold, but sunny and I had a great time.

I have been working in my art journal the last few days. This double page is made with a heart stencil. I cut out 2 hearts from a piece of cardstock and used both the hearts and the stencil to make the page. I attached the 2 hearts later to the page and stamped Love makes the world go round.

New journal page

This week I started with a new art journal, my Strathmore mixed media journal is almost full and I want to show this journal to some students that will participate in my art journaling workshop. I want to show the thickness of the paper, but this means I cannot work in it anymore...

BUT what a great excuse to start a new art journal :-). This art journal is 18 x 18 cm, with a spiral binding. The paper is not very thick, but with a little gesso it works fine. I have been making some backgrounds and today I finished the first pages. Fly fly little wing, fly beyond imagining (from the Celine Dion song).

New Mixed Media video on YouTube!

I just uploaded another Mixed media techniques video on YouTube. In this video I show you have to make lovely mixed media backgrounds with butterflies. Check it out!

ATCs for the Postage stamp athon

This weekend I have been making ATC's (Artist Trading Cards) for the Postage Stamp a-thon on atcsforall.com. The only requirement was that you would use at least one postage stamp in your artwork. I made some mixed media collaged ATC's.