What do you want to learn?

Hello everyone, as I told you in my last post, I am about to explore and investigate new possibilites. Very exciting!

I am looking to publish several inspiring online creative workshops and can do with your help. Please click on the following link and fill out the form! Your feedback is highly appreciated!

Kitty's art & crafts - only takes one minute!

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!

Working on a new YouTube video

This week I have been working on a new YouTube video. The pictures are taken, the canvas is fnished and now I just have to put it together and publish it. It will be a video on how to create a Mixed Media Canvas in 10 steps. Here is the end result.

Nieuwe workshop data!

For my Dutch readers ;-). New workshop data.

Zoals sommige van jullie weten, geef ik 2 workshops bij de Volksuniversiteit in Soest.

Op donderdagavond 7 en 14 november 2013 geef ik de workshop "Paneeltje van klei-tegeltjes".
Tijdens deze workshop maken we een klein paneeltje met diverse tegeltjes. We maken deze tegeltjes zelf van klei met verschillende technieken. We werken met polymeerklei, stempels, verf, mica poeder, bladzilver en -goud, diverse bedeltjes en we leren om tegeltjes te maken met afbeeldingen. Polymeerklei is een kunst-stof boetseerklei. Het materiaal is goed kneedbaar en blijft zacht zolang het niet gebakken is. Afbakken kan in een gewone keukenoven met lage temperaturen.

En op donderdagavond 6 maart 2014 geef ik een workshop Mixed Media Canvas.
Wat is mixed media? Mixed media betekent in het Nederlands gemengde technieken. Tijdens deze workshop maken we een schilderij door toepassing van verschillende technieken, zoals bijvoorbeeld schilderen, collage maken, stempelen, enzovoort. Ervaring met schilderen is niet nodig. We werken met papier, verf, afbeeldingen, stempels, stencils, inkt en verder van alles en nog wat. Eerst komt de achter-grond aan bod en daarna schilderen we de afbeelding.

 

Inschrijven voor beide workshops kan via bij de Volksuniversiteit Soest

More alcohol ink

Two more paintings with alcohol ink. The first one is for the Beginners course with Karen Walker. This week's subject is masking and lifting. The anemone was made with pouring the ink on the Yupo paper and lifting the ink with alcohol to create more shapes. I also used my Promarkers to get some more detail in the center.

 



 

And this painting was done on my new A4 Yupo paper that I bought in the Netherlands (Yippie!). Lots of pouring and letting the ink flow, with a few lifted details. I am not sure about the vase. I posted the picture on Facebook and everyone loved it, but I am still not sure...

Poppies in alcohol ink and flamingos in watercolor :-)

My sister came for dinner yesterday and after dessert we decided to play some more with the alcohol inks. My sister is more of a mandala/zentangle/doodle kind of person, I am more a painter. But we both love working with alcohol inks!

I made painted a few poppies. With two of them I created lovely note / greeting cards. These are for sale in my Etsy Shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/Kitty69

And I painted flamingos in watercolor for the WDE (Weekend Drawing Event) on WetCanvas. I just love flamingos and the reference photo really caught my interest. The size is 9" x 12".

 

Finally I was able to upload a picture of one of the alcohol ink paintings I did when I was in Monterey CA 2 weeks ago. The Lone Pine on the 17-mile drive was my inspiration. I have created 4 paintings, 3 of them are for sale in my Etsy shop.



Workshop Mixed Media schilderijtje in 1 avond - 27 juni

Voor de workshop Mixed Media schilderijtje in 1 avond op donderdag avond 27 juni zijn er nog 2 plaatsen beschikbaar! Iemand interesse? Kijk dan op mijn website www.kittysartencrafts.nl voor meer informatie.

Hello, I am back!

Hello all, I am back from vacation. Me and my sister had a great time! We travelled to the US, flew to Los Angeles and spent a few days in Laguna Beach before attending the art retreat CREATE in Irvine. I will show you some of the products of the workshops I took later on this blog. From Irvine we went to Los Angeles, on to San Luis Obispo. Then travelled on the Pacific Coast Highway 1 (beautiful!!) to Pacific Grove, where we spend some lovely days in a beautiful old cottage. And then the final few days were spend in San Francisco, before heading back home.

And now I am back, jet lagged, not competely unpacked, but ready to show you some new work. I followed a workshop on working with alcohol inks and I just love it! The inks go where-ever they want to go, they are hard to control but it makes great art. I wanted to show you some art I did with the alcohol inks but Blogger turns my pictures and I cannot fix it... So I will show you one work I did in the workshop I took with Chris Cozen, deeply layered collage. I love the process of collageing and painting with the Golden fluid acrylics.

 

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.

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).

Nieuwe workshop en nieuwe data!

Nieuwe workshop
Er is een nieuwe workshop: in één avond maken we een ATC (Artist Trading Card) van polymer klei. De workshop is gepland op donderdagavond 16 mei 2013.

Nieuwe data
De workshop Mixed Media Canvas is op donderdagavond 27 juni 2013 en de workshop Mozaiek met klei-tegeltjes op zondag 23 juni 2013.

Kijk op kittysartencrafts.nl voor meer informatie.

Workshop Mosaic with polymer clay tiles

Yesterday was the evening of the workshop Mosaic with polymer clay. There were 6 students in the class, all of them made a lovely mosaic panel with handmade polymer clay tiles. We created the tiles with clay, pictures, mica powders, embellishments, paint, etc. It was great fun! The panels are 15 x 15 cms canvasboards.

(Sorry for the picture of Mariella's work, I cannot seem to get it uploaded as it is... it is on it's side). Any tips are welcome.

This mosaic is made by José

This mosaic is made by Mariëlla

This mosaic is made by Karen

Cards with my Swallowtail stamp

Remember that I bought the Swallowtail stamp from Stampin Up two weeks ago? Today I made some greeting cards with this beautiful stamp. I stamped with embossing ink on cardstock and used clear embossing powder for the orange card and a copper embossing powder for the other one. Then I spray the cards with Dylusions ink. I Love how they turned out! I am going to make someone really happy when they receive a card like this!

Lazy day

I have been making some more ATCs for the Valentine athon on ATCsforall and traded almost all of them.

And I have some other news. The polymer clay tiles workshop from March the 14th is full! If you have not gotten round to register, let me know. I am planning another one later this year, besides the one I will teach at the Volksuniversiteit Soest in November. The workshop for the Volkuniversiteit Soest is a 2-evening workshop and preliminary scheduled for the 7th and 14th of November.

And I am also working on a new video on how to create some art journal pages. Watch my channel!