As promised...

...I love to show you what I bought in Sweden, at the 'loppis'. Loppis is big in Sweden!
Loppis is Swedish for second hand and can probably be compared with the American garage sale, I think. In Sweden lots of people sell second hand goods in an old shed at their house or outside in partytents. One of the loppis we visited looked like this:

I didn't think of making some more pictures of our visits to these Loppis. Each time we visited one I was so excited I jumped out of the car and started looking for 'treasures'.

I found some pictures on the internet of how Loppis looks like in Sweden.

A mix of goods:

A big Loppis, all goods sorted: 

Or Loppis that makes me want to leave a.s.a.p.... 

With a simple wooden sign with just the word 'Loppis' painted on it, you are directed to their 'shop'.

I'm glad I speak a little bit of Swedish, because a lot of the Loppis-shops were run by older people, who don't speak English (or pretend they don't...) But I think that is also a charming part of buying at a Loppis.

This is a picture of my new treasures:

 The two white bowls have the words 'Jordgubbar' and 'Grädde' on it, which means strawberries and cream. Very simple but I had to have them...
One real treasure is this old psalmbook. It is very small, only 7 by 9 cm and has a cute little metal lock. It has been made in 1884!

There is a handwritten message on the first page, from 1888:

So special to have over a 100 years of history in the palm of my hand!

I bought another (bigger) old psalmbook. This one is from 1851: 

I love the lettertype on the pages: 

I haven't decided yet if I just keep the book or use the pages for my backgrounds of my journalpages...

The third book I bought is this one. It has been made in 1887: 

It also has pages in it with a beautiful lettertype. 

This one will definitely be altered with lots of gesso and paint! I plan to make an art journal of it, with all my dreams and thoughts written down in it. Isn't it great to have an art journal of more than 100 years old? (lol)

To be continued!

TFL!

Sandra

New artwork...

As I told you in my previous blogpost I did 'some artjournaling' during my holiday in Sweden.
I have found some time to show you, now I took a day off from redecorating my living room. (lol)
Every day I tried to make a simple collaged page in a small journal, dedicated to my holiday. I collaged tickets, brochures, found objects, pieces of packaging, etc. On the back of the page I did some journaling about that specific day. No difficult techniques, nothing special, just something to remember my holiday.
Here are a few pages:

For my Dutch readers: yes, indeed, you will find lots of pieces of the latest issue of Flow!

I also used Swedish words, found 'everywhere':

Pieces of the packaging from some of our favorite Swedish food...:

I used a piece of the brochure from the moose-park we visited as a background and glued the ticket on top.

The blue and white striped piece on the bottom of the page is from a typical Swedish ribbon. These ribbons are tied in the trees to mark the territory of the moose hunters. I took off a small piece...

Before I went to Sweden I planned to make more pages with my alter ego 'Ikke'...I only did one....:

Somehow my inspiration for her was gone....

But I did make some other pages. I didn't bring my A4-journal with me, so I used a tourist brochure, made of heavy paper. I collaged pieces of the Dutch magazine Flow, pieces from Swedish magazines and some tape to cover the pictures and some text in the brochure. I didn't bring my gesso so I used a thin layer of white acrylic paint on top. I colored the next layer with the few Neocolors II I had with me. A layer of stamps, a collaged image and more black and white paint on top.

The text comes from the Dutch magazine too.
Another one, with a cute Dutch poem I loved. I stamped the text with tiny alfabet stamps:

This one is a bit out of my comfort zone. I cut out the image, which was a black and white sketch and colored it with acrylic paint. This time, I wrote down some personal thoughts...Yes, real art journaling! (Instead of quotes, poems or songlyrics, which I use most of the times.)

This page inspired me to use more personal thoughts in my art journaling. I always thought that I wasn't able to write something but when I started writing the words came very easily. I have never been a writer. Most of the time my thoughts are hidden in the quotes I use. Time to change that!

I promised you to show you the old books I bought in Sweden. Because this has become a blogpost with a lot of pictures, I'll show my treasures later! I hope you don't mind...

TFL!

Sandra

I'm back...

Only a few days left and it has been a month without any blogpost from me....Time to change this right now!
Of course there has been some reasons for my absence here: the end of the school year, my summerholiday in Sweden and right now I'm busy redecorating my house. Not much art journaling done lately....
First, let me bore you with some pictures of my holiday, which I spent with my family in the beautiful surroundings of the Värmland region in the middle of Sweden.

Our holidayhome...

Great views, more shades of blue and green than you can imagine:

 

 

  

Great sunset on the way back...on the ferry from Denmark to Germany: 

 

 Meeting my 'friends': 

Sweden is really ahead on Holland when it comes to recycling.

Look at this...at the gasstation..you can recycle all the bottles, papers, car parts etc. 'living' in your car while your filling your tank.

My husband made a few pictures with his mobile phone with a special app. Great effect!

Enough for now...more later! I bought some great old books in Sweden. Of course, I did some art journaling too, although not much.Will show you soon!

TFL!

Sandra