New art journal 'Inspired by Nature'.

Now my 'Inspired by Teesha' art journal is finished I needed a new journal. Well, needed isn't the right word perhaps....I'm working in several journals but I really liked the size of this last journal, including the flaps. So I started binding and painting the pages. I used a cheaper brand of paper which was just a little bit too thin. Somehow I wasn't satisfied with the way the pages looked like after painting them. I threw the journal in a corner...To get rid of the frustration I decided to refill my stash with magazine cutouts and went through all the magazines I still had laying around. I even bought a new pile of second hand magazines. These 'new' old magazines were dutch magazines about nature, called Grasduinen and I found some beautiful page sized pictures. (The magazine is called Roots since recently.) I kept staring at these pictures and really wanted to use them...but how? Than lightning struck (in my mind...) and the idea of using these pictures to create backgrounds in my art journal was born!

Did I make you curious? Here is the preview of my new art journal:

My intention is to fill each page with more collages and journaling.

Of course, I couldn't wait to start in my new journal. Here is the first page:

(size: 25x30cm)

I will try to translate the journaling as good as I can...:

Vicious Circle

If you look the way you've always looked, you will keep seeing what you've always seen.

If you see what you've always seen, you will keep thinking what you've always thought.

If you think what you've always thought, you will keep doing what you've always done.

If you do what you have always done, things will keep happening to you which always happens.

I hope my poor translation is enough to show the meaning of this short poem....or is it a long quote?

I have had my doubts about this page though. The black letters are sometimes hard to read on the dark background. On the other hand, I didn't want the journaling to be on the foreground either...so I left it like this.

I would love to hear your comments on this page..and the preview of course!  

TFL!

Sandra

A new art journal page...with my first video!

I wanted to make a video about the proces of making my collages on my journal pages for some time now. Well, this week I did my first attempt!
Here is the final page:

(size: 30x30cm)

And here you can see how it all happened:

I would love to hear what you think of it and please...I welcome positive feedback!!!

Let me know if there are parts that are too fast or too dark. Maybe there are parts in the video that need some more explanation...anything...Let me know!

TFL!

Sandra

Dear blogreaders...

I've had a couple of emails the last few months from blogreaders who couldn't comment on my blogposts. Somehow Blogger didn't open the window for typing comments. I'm so glad these bloggers sent me these emails to let me know about it...and of course, I loved it even more when they wrote how they loved my work!
But....now it seems like I have finally fixed the problem. I have searched Blogger's Helpdesk for a long time, trying different settings and it looks like I found it...
So for all of you who haven't been able to comment on my blog...please try again!! And please tell me if it still doesn't work...

I also have another page to show you.
This was the background with only acrylic paint:

The dots were made by pressing a big stamp with dots into the wet paint. Thanks to Marlies, who loved the colors while I was painting and desperately wanted to press her texture stamp in it!

This is the finished page, after adding images, rubons, journaling and perlen pens:

For the journaling I used Nikki Sivils Willie-Bee's Font stamps. I traced these with a white marker after stamping. The flowers have an outline made with perlen pens. The rubons on the borders are from Basic Grey. I outlined these too, but now with a black Faber Castell Pitt pen. The image of the frog is a magazine cut out.

TFL!

Sandra

Bad...busy!...blogger...

Yes, I know...I have been a bad blogger! I didn't post anything for more than a week! But you know, it is even worse...I hardly created anything this week...I had some busy weeks and today is the first day that there is not a single appointment in my agenda. Of course, I always make time to journal every day but the results simply aren't 100% satisfying. And yes, I know...not every piece can be a masterpiece...It is all about the journey...blablabla...Still, it feels so much better to create a page that you like than a page that is 'just ok'!
For now, I have to do with 'just ok'...

Last week I had a 'get messy'-date with Marlies. We will be going to the Mixed Media Circus of Nathalie Kalbach and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer together. It is in two weeks from now!! We did get messy but I only finished two backgrounds. Here is the first:

I used acrylic paint and foam stamps.

And yesterday I finished the page by adding a magazine cut out and doodling with black and white markers:

As I said...not a masterpiece but 'just ok'.

I really have to get back in the right mood to journal so hopefully more next time!

TFL!

Sandra

Go as far as you can go...

...From there you can see farther.
A completely new way of making a collage, inspired by Michelle Remy's 'Ornithological Oddities'.
No magazines this time for me, but only old books with different fonts.
Michelle has made a whole series of canvases for a show, as you can read on her blog. I love each and every one of them. Well, the ones she showed on her blog...I wish I could have seen the show IRL.
So I had to try to make a collage like this myself. Not on a canvas but on a piece of watercolorpaper(I'll glue it in my AJ later!) to try.
Here it is:

Size: 17x25cm

I love it and I'm especially very happy about the colors. I love working with all the colors of the rainbow and adding black and white details.

(I got the peacock here.)

I'm now thinking of making a new 'Inspired by..' art journal...not inspired by Teesha Moore this time but by Michelle Remy! To be continued..I hope...

TFL!

Sandra

Last page and first AJ flip!

I finished my 'Inspired by Teesha' art journal! Yeah..my first art journal without any left over white pages!
Here is the last page. This time I made a picture before and after 'the big paintmarker attack'.
This is only the collage on a painted background:

And this is the finished page, after using paintmarkers, FC pitt pens, Sakura glaze pens, Sharpies and 'perlen pens':

This 'Inspired by Teesha' journal was made during September and October. Because I got a lot of requests to show the complete journal when I finished it, I made my first art journal flip. (I even had to buy a new webcam for this...lol...)

Here it is:

TFL!

Sandra

Metal art and a new page

In my previous blogpost I wrote about the fact that I had a great idea for the cover of my Grids circle journal.
Well, here it is:

Inspired by this YouTube video:

I bought some metal tape in the hardware store and created the cover on a piece of a cereal box.

I didn't have all those great tools unfortunately but I used the corner of an old creditcard, the back of a small paintbrush and my eyelet setter instead.

It was fun doing this and I really want to make some more metal art. How about some ATC's?

I also received another page..a double sided artwork!...for my grid CJ:

From Elvy:

Love it! Thanks, Elvy!

And last but not least, a new page in my Inspired by Teesha journal:

(Journaling: Some people ask for the truth while they can't even handle the lie.)

TFL!

Sandra