Lifebook week 12

It has been a while since I posted some work for Lifebook. Lifebook has two lessons each month and I skipped the lesson before this one. It was about making a scrapbookpage about people that are/were important in your life. Although I have done a lot of scrapbooking in the past I just didn't feel like making this one. I didn't have any good pictures either so I decided to this lesson later this year.
The most recent lesson was one from guestteacher Wyanne. She showed us an amzing technique with fluid paints, like watercolor and watered down acrylics. She showed this by making a tree, but I just didn't want to make a tree. I decided to try the same techniques on a face:

It is hard to explain the techniques but it has to do with adding little drops of paint to a wet surface which makes the paint flow and mix. Her 'hair' is done with leaves cut out from coffeefilters. I didn't have the results I wanted with Wyanne's technique, so I glued the leaves to my page.

The background is painted with black coffee, which gave the page an interesting vintage look.

I used a white oilpastel instead of masking fluid to prevent the coffee from soaking the leaves.

The lesson was about overcoming your inner critic. Wyanne made an envelop of her page in which she put prints of great blogcomments and emails, etc. I decided to stamp a quote that spoke to me and added some inspirational words.

I still have some doubts about the white space on the page...It is too much! But as the quote says: Have no fear of perfection...you will never reach it!...so I decided to consider my page as finished...

TFL!

Sandra

New page

I'm feeling the virus again for making collages with magazine cutouts....although I'm also working on a new page for my Lifebook, which is a complete new technique with watercolor paint and coffeefilters, etc.
But first my new page:

Size 25x35cm

TFL!

Sandra

New WOW-girls and an oldfashioned collage

I spend the last one and a half week on drawing new WOW-girls. All the girls were drawn and painted on heavy mixed media paper and cut out afterwards. I'm planning to create a separate background for each girl but I'm waiting for some new goodies to arrive: the Dylusions spray inks! I really can't wait to get my hands on these sprays...I ordered all twelve new colors!
Here are my girls:

Her wings are heat embossed with holografic embossingpowder. It's hard to see on this picture...

Her shirt and her tail are heatembossed too. This time with gold embossingpowder and a small Prima script clearstamp. If you look close you can see very detailed letters! 

Somehow my scanner wouldn't scan this girl in one piece, untill I put her on a (temporary) background...I'm not sure yet if the swing will be hanging on a branch of a tree or maybe from a cloud. What do you suggest?

This last girl has golden embossed stars on her dress. I'm thinking to let her pick some stars or fireflies...Any suggestions?

While I was waiting for my goodies to arrive I felt the urge to do an old fashioned collage. I had made this journal in the beginning of January and it was waiting for the right time to start in it: yesterday!

This will be one of the pages now:

I'm very happy about this page!

It feels good to finish something again...

TFL!

Sandra

A sidestep: inspired bij 'Sterren op het doek'.

I love to watch the Dutch televisionprogram 'Sterren op het doek'. In this program you see three Dutch artists create a portrait of well known Dutch people, in their own style. Each episode has three new artists. One of them was mixed media artist Frank 't Hoen and I was so inspired by his style of painting portraits that I wanted to try this myself! I bought a canvas (50x50cm) and some new paint in reflecting colors. I made pictures of some of the steps.
First I drew a portait of my youngest daughter (in graphite and in black paint) directly on the canvas. I used this picture...

...and created this with a little help of Photoshop:

,
I collaged a layer of pieces of magazines and books.

The next step was to apply the paint, which I did with a paletknife (first time...) and I added some texture with background stamps.

I wasn't really happy with the results, since 'messy' is not my thing....
I applied another layer of paint. This time with a brush! I also stamped with some bubblewrap and used sequinwaste as a stencil. I painted her hair too.

Better, but still...not completely satisfied....

More layers of paint followed, a lot of frowning (what should I do???), I worked on the eyes some more...Added some touches of my own, like lettering!

Anyway, this is the final result:

I love the painting but I'm a little bit dissappointed that it doesn't really look like my daughter any longer. When I drew her portrait in graphite (sorry, no picture..) I loved it for a 100%, but after lots of layers of paint now, I lost some of the important details in her face.

Anyway, art journaling and mixed media is all about experimenting. Trying new styles, new tools, new techniques...I'm very happy that I finished this big piece of art instead of throwing it in a corner because I didn't like it. I'm proud of myself that I went on and kept on adding layers untill I was finished. And I learned a lot: I learned that I love to work on a big canvas, but also that I love to work in detail instead of 'messy spots of paint'. When I worked with these new colors of paint, I noticed that they blend very nicely into more beautiful rainbow colors. I love the collage underneath all the paint but I also learned that I have to use less paint next time...because the collage is nearly visible now...

In case you are wondering where the painting will end up now it is finished: my husband loves it very much and wants to hang it in his office. My first 'out of the house' art is a fact now!

TFL!

Sandra

Project 52

Since I'm working on a slightly bigger project this week than I normally do..a canvas sized 50x50cm...I don't have much to show you, so I thought I'd share with you an update of my Project 52.
I started my Project 52 on the first of January this year. Last year I noticed that a lot of the pictures I had taken throughout the year ended up in a file on my computer. No prints, no scrapbooklayouts, nothing! In 2010 I did a Project 52 also, One Word Each Week and I still love to go through this album once in a while. Although I loved to do this project, I also remember the pressure to make a page each week and I often had to force myself to create time to keep on track by scrapping several weeks in a row. I don't have my own studio and always have to work on the dining table. So I always have to get my things on the table and afterwards clean the place again. This doesn't work when I have half an hour in between two things. 'People with a studio' sit down and create in these few minutes, walk away and continue later on...I mostly sit down and do some bloghopping or some chatting because my computer is always there!
So for Project 52 I decided to go digital! No mess and always there to create for a few minutes!
No need to print photo's or edit them in the right size either.
My Project 52 costs me half an hour each week, mostly on Sundays. I choose which pictures I want on my layout. Than I choose the template. Next step is adding the pictures to the template, add some text and embellishments..et voilà! Althoug there are so many ways to create digital layouts and so many digital kits available, I decided to keep it simple...After all, I don't want to feel that pressure again to create complicated digital layouts each week.
Here are a few of my layouts so far:

Hopefully, at the end of 2012 I have 52 layouts (or more). I plan to create an album with these and have it printed by a photo printservice.

TFL!

Sandra