Mixed Media project

I spent my ME-time last week on a mixed media project. I made this little screen, my second after I followed  Linda Elbourne's workshop in May earlier this year.
The screen is about 14cm high and 28cm width. The base is chipboard.
I decorated it on both sides with lots of layers.
This is one side:

Images: Cemerony collage sheets

Borders: my own artwork

Journaling: Life is a carnival, live it for all your worth

(from a song of Elvis Presly)

And this is the other side:

Butterflies: Lisa's Altered Art collage sheets

Journaling: Butterflies danced on invisible strings, showing wings they borrowed from a rainbow

(from a song of Clif Richard)

I decorated the chipboard with several layers. The first layer is collagede with pages of an old swedish book. Loved the font that was used in this book and Sweden still has a special place in my heart, so I loved to put that extra little bit of me in this project.

I covered the bookpaper with layers of colorwash and used some great TCW stencils.

The last layer is acrylic paint which I dabbed through punchinella and magic mesh to create some texture and I added some doodles with my Micron pen.

On one side I added a lot of butterflies which I had printed from a collagesheet. I cut the butterflies, traced some lines with my Micron pen and added some white dots. Than I embossed them with Ranger holografic embossing powder to give them a lot of sparkle.

Do you like it as much as I do?

I would love to hear it!

TFL!

Sandra

Angry!

Here is a page I finished yesterday...
The journaling says: Sometimes I get so angry that it doesn't help to count to 10 any more...
I was inspired by the soap that is now going on here at home regarding my sunscreen. A long story (I won't bore you with it)  about a man that is f**king up the work I am supposed to pay him for: attaching my sunscreen to my house again. He has had eight weeks now to do the job. It cost me lots of patience, phonecalls and emails. Since I told him that I will search for someone else to do it he has become a very unpleasant man...
People like him make me very, very angry!
The good thing about all this is my art journal page, inspired by this soap:

I love how it turned out! The background and the image are all magazine cut outs. The head is some kind of heart shaped flower, the body is a water lily. The red balls on the bottom is an add about cranberries! I put my new 6x6 TCW stencil 'Numbers' on top, traced the lines and colored these with a green Sharpie. The rest of the page is finished with blue, black and white Sharpies.

TFL!

Sandra

Change is the process...

...by which the future invades our lives.
I thought this quote would fit very well on my page.
For this page I was inspired by Kate Crane. I sprayed my background with colorwash and added details with acrylic paint. The image is a stamp from Stampotique, which I enlarged, printed and traced around the contours with my Microns pens. I filled in the detailed lines myself. I colored the image with distress ink, made a hole in my page and glued the image behind the page. I finished it with Sharpies.

TFL!

Sandra

If flowers could talk...

I felt like doing another SheArt girl the last two days. It has been a while since I made some girls and I made them all on canvas. (Better: I sold them all too!!!) This time I made one, completely for myself, in my big art journal.

The background with the blue sky is a paper napkin, the second layer with the flowers too.

The girl, especially her pose, is inspired by Julie Nutting. You should really take a look at her blog. She makes beautiful girls, even more beautiful than the SheArt girls from Christy Tomlinson ! (Sorry, Christy..). I used a piece of old scrapbookpaper to create her skirt and shirt.

I'm not very happy about how her legs turned out but I'm ok with that.

TFL!

Sandra

Two pages in one day!

It turned out I was in a creative mood yesterday...I finished two pages! Ok, in my small 20x14cm journal and with no difficult techniques, just collaged elements and paintmarkers, but I'm very happy with the results. Simple but effective!

Especially this second page has become one of my favorites. The background is just one image I cut out of a magazine. I loved how it looks like the bird is walking on water. I only added the quote, which I wrote in my most elegant handwriting...directly with my marker! Am I brave or what?! (lol)

TFL!

Sandra

Everybody should believe in something...

My first entry for the challenge over at the Stampotique blog. The theme: Clean & Simple.
I stamped with my Cat's Eye inkpads through a TCW stencil to create the background. My background is only one layer..can you believe it?! I stamped my 'Linda' on a piece of bookpaper and gave her a cup of coffee. I wrote the journaling with the help of some alfabet stencils (Yep, TCW too!).
So here it is:

I'm very happy about this page (20x14cm). It was a real challenge for me because I have a lot of troubles with 'white space'...My pages are mostly loaded with layers or a lot of collaged elements and letters.

Like this spread (40x14cm)...

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.

I collaged a lot of elements from Crowabout Studio's collage sheets. It was in my journal for quite some time now and still waiting to be finished, which I did yesterday.

TFL!

Sandra

Drawing portraits

Inspired by some How to draw-tutorials on YouTube I sketched my first portrait.
I had this picture from a glossy magazine to base my portrait on:

And this is the result after two evenings of sketching:

I sketched it on a big piece of sketchbook paper because my art journal is an altered book...which isn't a very good background to start a first sketch. Still I wanted it to end up in my art journal so I decided to glue it down. I had some drawings of my 3 y.o. daughter Laura lying on my table and that is when I decided to create this spread:

Laura drew a picture of her daddy, one of me and her holding hands and one where we put out our tongue (..lol). I think she can draw very well for a three year old. (She can write her name too!) I loved the drawings so much that I glued them in my journal, wondering if she will still be this creative when she is an adult. Yes, I know what you all will be saying: Of course, with a mom who is creating every day....!   ;-)

TFL!

Sandra

It's not what you look at...

...that matters...It's what you SEE !

Lately, I have been inspired by a lot of portrait-drawing-artists. I have never had the courage to draw a portrait, simply because I was afraid the result would be too disappointing...Sometimes it looks so easy but when I try it myself it often is much more complicated!
Yesterday I was searching on YouTube for some tutorials on how to draw portraits and than I bumped into a great tutorial from Mark Crilley on how to draw a realistic eye.
I tried to draw an eye, just like he did and I was so happy about the result! I drew a big eye on one of the pages in my 20x14cm journal. ( I love this journal because a spread is sized 40x14 cm!!..always a challenge...) This morning I looked at 'my eye' again..still happy!...and I saw that the other page 'needed' an eye too. I didn't manage to make the other eye at the same size, but I'm ok with that.
This afternoon I added the quote...et voilà...here it is:

It isn't a portrait but I loved to do some sketching in my journal, with only a pencil and an eraser. No paint, Sharpies, Mod Podge or other messy things this time, which is a good thing with a puppy in the house...Timo is doing great but he is still a baby of course, who needs a lot of attention. He is very sweet, not extremely naughty...although he loved to 'play' with my curtains, which now have a tear thanks to some doggy teeth...He is even a bit lazy and he loves to hug..if possible all day long!

I call him 'my teddybear in training'...lol.

I have been working in Timo's art journal the past week too. By the way, should I call it an art journal ? Or is it a scrapbook? I'm using art journaling techniques but adding pictures and journaling makes it a scrapbook too, right? Maybe I will show you some pages later. He is growing so fast...I feel like I literally SEE him grow.

TFL!

Sandra

Welcome home, Timo!

Today is the day! Today we got Timo! Now it is all up to us to make him a happy, healthy dog.

TFL!

Sandra