I'm taking a break!

I'm taking a blog break....till the end of December...
Just because I think I need it...
My head is full of things I wánt to do and things I háve to do...
I'm still feeling creative. I've started crocheting this week...I like it very much!
Right now, I feel like curling up on the couch with my crochetwork or a good book...
Watch some TV or just do nothing...

I will be back for one day this year....sharing my participation in Riikka's Christmas Calendar!
She has a great line up of participants for her calendar and I feel so honoured to be part of this.
So don't miss it!

Take good care of yourself!!
See you in 2013.

Sandra

Paint your dreams (+video!)

Last week I was completely inspired by Julie Balzer's blogpost for Art Journal Every Day. She wrote about cutting your own stencils. Not that I hadn't heard about this before, the idea wasn't new to me, but her blogpost just came at the right moment. I was a bit bored by the stencils I had and there was simply no budget to buy some new ones. So I started googling for some nice patterns. I made two stencils, one with several paintsplashes and one with a spiderweb. I simply printed the images on some printerpaper, traced these on a plastic sheet and cut the images. (Ok, the cutting needed a lot of patience...)

I made a video in which you see me creating this background with my new paintsplash stencil and some Dylusions sprayinks:

Of course, I added a collage to my background!
This is the final page:

And here is the video:

In case you are wondering, after seeing the video, how the different stages look (I mean the steps after collage, after the black marker, the white marker and the journaling.) I will show the the pictures here too:

The collage glued on the background:

The page after doodling with only a black marker (Faber Castell Pitt Pen small point):

The page after using a white opaque marker:

And again, the finished page with the journaling and some checkerboard squares added:

Of course, there are so many possibilities with my paintsplash stencil. I'm sure you will be seeing more of it in the near future!

TFL!

Sandra

Two pages...

I created two more pages in my new journal last week. I still call it my new journal...although I have made a few pages in it already....so it is not so new any more, huh? I always give my journals a name or a theme. This way it is easier to keep them apart, also with filing my pictures of the pages on Flickr and on my harddisk. I decided to name this journal: DbD&Me. Complicated? Not at all! It is a Ranger journal, by Dyan Reaveley as you might know by now. So this journal is 'Designed By Dyan & Me' ! A sort of collaboration..(lol)...
The first page is this one:

I made the background with one color of Dylusions sprayink..yes, the blue one...duh..
The light layer was created by spraying some ink on a craftsheet, picking it up with a baby whipe and spreading it over the page. The dark layer on top was sprayed directly on the page, through a stencil.
The green squares were first bleached with water and then colored with the green sprayink.
Some paintsplashes and stamps on top before I added my collage.
The word 'happiness' is made with alphabetstickers, the rest is stamped.

My second page this week:

I painted the background black with acrylic paint and put my collage on top. The white 'milk splash' at the bottom is also cut out from a magazine. It required a lot of patience cutting it out, but I'm very happy with the result!
I'm working on a new page right now and I filmed a big part of it...so hopefully my next blogpost will have a new video for you! Stay tuned!

TFL!

Sandra

Inside your head...

I'm so happy with my new journal! Finally back to A4 instead of A5 and all the sizes in between...Now I realized I have missed it so much!
I felt like playing with something else than acrylic paint or sprayinks so I grabbed my Neocolors this time.
I also collaged some pieces of pages from a children's book (great font!). The final layer was done with my new background stamps..which I had in my stash since spring...oops...and my new embossing powder.

A few days ago I was digging through my digital scrapbooking files and bumped into this kit: Wonderland my blue from Ptite Souris. I loved the little Madhatter in this kit, so I printed him and glued him on my page:

I also love this quote from Albus Dumbledore from the Harry Potter books so I added it to my page too.
It turned out completely different than my 'normal collage style' but I love it so much. I will definitely use my digital scrapbooking kits more on my pages and I think my collection of embossingpowders will grow in the next few months....although I hate the mess caused with all those shiny powders....(lol)..

TFL!

Sandra

Evolution of a collaged image (video!)

Often people ask me: what magazines do you use for your collages? And my answer is always: Anything! From cheap, weekly women's magazines (for my Dutch readers: Libelle en Margriet) to more expensive glossy's like Cosmopolitan and Elle. But also brochures, Tv-guides, magazines about gardening, flowers, animals, etc. Mostly I get those magazines from a small network of family and friends, who give them to me after having read them.
Most of the times, the next question is: But how on earth do you create those fabulous collaged images?
In the next video I tried to capture a part of this proces. As you will see, I started with something completely different than with the image I made at the end. This is what happens to me most of the times, when I'm creating collages! Which makes it so hard to film this part, because I'm constantly shuffling with the pieces, adding more from my stash of cutouts, cutting parts of the cutouts, replacing them, etc....
I hope this video shows you a peek inside my brain:

And here is the page I created with the image. I made it in my new 'Dyan's Journal'. I love this journal!!! The background is made with Dylusions sprayinks and Dyan's ghosting technique.

TFL!

Sandra