Weekend activities: Tilburg Penshow and SeinFestijn Haarlem

TGIF! Time to relax and plan some fun things to do for the weekend! Need some recommendations for what to do? Here are my picks :)

This saturday is the 27th Penshow held at the Natuurmuseum in Tilburg. This will be my 3rd time visiting the show and I am curious what I'll be finding there this year...

 

On Sunday there is a food and Lifestyle market in Haarlem, called the Seinfestijn. In April we went there as well and did this amazing hand lettering workshop at Papier Atelier.

An impression of one of the previous edition

Looks like fun right? It sure was :) 

Maybe We'll see you either in Tilburg or Haarlem this weekend? 

Either way, have a great one!

namaste

Pens and Ink: Visconti honey almond and SBRE Brown Ink

One of the things I like is to find a perfect fountain pen and ink match (and with the occasional nail polish match) and I thought it would be fun to add this segment to my blog. Starting off with a very special combination.

The Visconti Opera Club Honey Almond with SBRE brown ink.

 

This is a special ink, is launched by SBRE Brown just recently and is available at La Curonne du Comte at their webstore and also at the Tilburg Penshow this saturday. I was lucky enough to be one of the few who got to test this ink at an earlier stage. Seeing that Stephen Brown has a love for Visconti's, I thought this pairing would be quite fitting.

It's a nice rich medium brown with red tones. Has some great shading. 

Not too wet but flows really well in this juicy 14k gold Visconti nib (F).

A page from my gratitude/mindful meditation journal where you can see the flow and shading of this ink pretty well. The older gold nibs from Visconti write just so well and it's a shame they discontinued them (also this older opera model is no longer easily available either, it was another lucky find).

The ink is also a limited edition! Only 300 bottles are made so if you want one, grab one while you can at La Couronne du Comte! I am definitely enjoying this ink and pen combo :)

For a detailed review of the ink, please visit Gourmetpens Ink shot review. 

Thanks for stopping by!

namaste

Join the Inkadinkadutchies ATC swap

At inkadinkadutchies we're hosting a bi-monthly ATC trade and we would love for you to join us!
Information about the ATC trade is as following from the event page:

Welcome to the first ever ATC (Artist Trading Card) swap hosted by Inkadinkadutchies in coörporation with Lost Coast Designs! To get things started, we’ll just make 1 ATC for 1 partner. Sign up will start at the 15th of every second month.

The rules: If you want to participate in this swap, send me (Yvonne) your name and address. At the end of october I’ll send you the name and address of the person you will send your ATC to. This can be an international swap, so you might get a partner from outside your country. If you absolutely do not want that, please notify this in your sign up so we can take note of this. There is no promise that we can guarantee a swap buddy from within your country, this will depend on the sign up's we receive. Please be aware of that. All Sign up's for the swap must be in by October 31st. In the following week I will pm everyone their swap buddy’s address. It is your responsibility to send your ATC to your partner. You have 2 weeks after partner assignment to send your ATC. Please post a picture of received ATC and credit the maker.
For the first swap the subject of the ATC challenge is sender’s choice, the only rule is that there has to be at least one impression of a Lost Coast Designs or Carmen’s Veranda’s rubberstamp on it. Stamps for ATC’s you can find at Inkadinkadutchies: (you do not have to use the ATC stamps specifically for the swap, any rubber stamp from LCD and CV are free to use)
The size of an ATC is 2,5 x 3,5 inches.

So the theme is sender's choice and if you'd like to join, please click the join button on the event page at facebook and send Yvonne your mailing address.


Some inspiration for the ATC trade:

Hopefully this inspires you to join the first ever inkadinkadutchies ATC swap!

namaste

10 years of Swapbot commemorative mail art swap!

Holy smokes, 10 years of swapbot! I can still remember my first swap there in 2007, which was a kawaii matchbox swap  very clearly. I used to swap via personal swaps on flickr/yahoo groups and I really enjoyed getting to know Swap Bot and the convenient way of swapping there. And now, so many years later, I am still very much enjoying swapping there and am proud to be one of the first international swap bot ambassadors. 

My swap preferences migrated from kawaii based swaps to ATC and mail art swaps over the years. And seeing this is a Swap Bot themed Mail Art swap, hosted by founder Rachel Johnson ,  definitely can't miss this commemorative anniversary swap. 

If you feel like joining in, you can sign up HERE until October 1st. Swap send by date is October 15th. 

And if you're new to the site, please be sure to read the FAQ and make your own profile before you can sign up for any swaps. 

Maybe I'll have you as my partner for this swap? 

:)

Namaste

Inkadinkadutchies Challenge - September One Layer

InkadinkaDutchies is a Dutch based webstore where rubberstamps from brands Lost Coast Designs and Carmen's Veranda are being sold so there is better European access to these stamps. I am happy to say that I am part of their design team :)

Today we start our monthly challenges on Inkadinkadutchies. We hope you are just as excited as we are! There is also going to be a bi-monthly ATC swap that will start up later this month. So stay tuned for that! 

First of all, here is the topic for this month's challenge: Make a “one layer project”. That means just use rubberstamps and ink. No embellishments, layers or model paste etc.

To inspire you here is my example I made for this challenge

Davinci's Muse

This is how I imagine Leonardo DaVinci's Muse must have looked like...

I used "back view woman" stamp from Carmen's Veranda and "steam punk fly girl" wings from Lost Coast Designs. For the background I used semi-glossy paper. First I stamped the woman with Memento Rich Cocoa and then just inked up the wings part of the Steampunk girl with Staz-On Jetblack to give her wings. It took me a few tries to get the placing right on her shoulders. Then I took a q-tip and dabbed it with stazon cleaner and gently rubbed away parts of the steampunk girl that I didn't want to have in the over-all look. The image is colored with Letraset Promarkers and Copic markers. The background is colored with a waterbrush and distilled peeled paint & fired brink and spatters with distilled dusty concord distress stains. I matted the piece on purple cardboard to give it a finishing touch. 

If you found your muse and feel inspired to play along with the challenge,

this is how you enter: 

We have created an album on the Facebook page. Click on 'photo's' and put the photo of your project in the album called “Challenge September 2015”. Last entry dateis Wednesday the 23rd of September. State your name and let us know what materials you used to make the project. 

The winner will be announced on the last Friday of the month, in this case on the 25th of September. Inkadinkadutchies will give 10 Euros on rubberstamps, as a prize, to the winner whom will be chosen by the Design Team. 

The Challenge topics are the same as on the official Lost Coast Designs blog so you can also enter your project there and have two chances to win. (The more people participating, the bigger the prize). Just make sure to read the Challenge rules at the LCD Designs blog. 

Good luck everyone and have fun :)

Namaste

Thriftfinds Thursday - Vintage Montblanc edition

During my holidays in Sweden I like to search the Loppis stores (thrift stores) and auktions (yard sales) for some fountain pen and craft related items. This year was a pretty well year for some cool finds. A few of them are from the brand Montblanc.

I found these lovely vintage Montblanc fountain pens at a loppis, the grey Monterosa and the black 342. Both of them have some wear and tear, the black body is marked up with scratches and the grey one lost the top and clip, but they still write really well. I revived the old ink that was in the pen to give them a test drive. The royal dark blue one still had some pretty good sheen to the ink!

The nibs, after some cleaning look good too.

In a store craft in Stockholm, I came across these montblanc ink bottles.

As you must know by now turquoise is my fave color, so I just had to snag these up. They are made in West Germany and the ink color and quality is still very good.

A comparison of the two older ink bottles, both turquoise ink. The bottom one I found at a local store in Amsterdam not too long ago. They were using it to dip test their pens in *shudders* so I am glad I saved it from the store from further abuse ;)

To provide you with some writing samples of both colors:

Ink from the bottom bottle a bit more saturated ink. 

Ink from the west germany bottle, a lighter turquoise. 

The first one looks a bit more saturated but it can also be the difference in how both pens write, nib width and such. But I do enjoy both these shades of turquoise :)

Hope you enjoyed seeing these vintage gems! 

Thanks for stopping by!

namaste