An inspiring workshop at Posthumus Amsterdam

On saturday the 21st of november I was lucky enough to join a very popular workshop at Posthumus stamp store in Amsterdam, the Christmas layout workshop given by Miranda Degenaars. Her workshops are always very popular and sold out within hours. But the day before a message on Posthumus facebook page said that someone had canceled due to illness, and they had a free spot. So I grabbed that chance and got to join in.

Miranda had made four layout designs which we could choose to make in the 3 hours there. The one that really stood out for me was the one with made with all the Zenspirations Impression Obsession rubber and clear stamps (designs by Joanne Fink) What we get to make was this A4 sized stamped work.  It was just beautiful! 

This is the design I signed up to make and *gulp* it was a tough one. Miranda did say that we probably would need more time to finish this project than the time was given at the workshop. She was not wrong! But I started on the daunting task anyway. 

The project consists out of a back layer and a bunch of loose cut elements, 15 to be exact, to give the 3D effect. So we started with stamping and embossing the loose elements first. 

Because there was so much embossing to do in this project, we needed to get that done first before we could get on to the coloring. After the loose elements were done we did the embossing for the back ground of the piece.

I love how the 'poinsettia' mandala and 'circle dangle' stamps on the right are superimposed. We used a mask for the mandala and then stamped the circle dangle rays over it. The border stamps on the bottom and top are among my fave of the bunch. The black ink used is versafine black and the gold embossing powder is by WOW embossing. 

At this point all the gold embossed elements were done, so it was time to color stuff in. And this was the most relaxing part of the workshop. Everyone was quiet and highly ZEN on their coloring.

We used Tombow Dual brush pens and a kuretake water brush pen for the coloring. Since it's a Christmas theme, a lot of red and green colors were being used to color in the elements. Not everything was colored in, and we left the back ground accents black and white mostly because all the cut elements (remember those were a whopping 15!) were all being colored and that's where the accents of the piece lie.
By this time the allotted time for workshop has nearly come to an end and I did my best to get all the pieces colored there because I didn't have the right colors of Tombow brushes at home. But at home I cut all the pieces (with help from my husband, because there was just too many to cut) and assembled the piece together with a flurry of 3d foam tape squares to give it that raised look.


And this is the end result. I forgot to color in the 'Merry Christmas' square at the workshop so that's why those colors are a bit off, but with every thing else, I am quite pleased! Now to find a nice frame for it!


A few other ladies at the workshop chose to do another layout which was even more daunting than this one and it's the one below.




Look at that amount of detail! Amazing! And I do love that color scheme. But this was a bit too 'busy' or 'crowded'  for my taste. But I do love the paisleys behind the flowers. I have an idea to try something with loose paisleys like that for a LCD /CV layout. 

Thanks for the inspirational day, Miranda and Posthumus gang! 
It was a delight to be there.
Hope this inspired you readers as well to work with embossing powder and tombow markers.

Thanks for stopping by.

namaste

Today is reminder to always be thankful

Today my American friends have a national holiday, Thanksgiving and though it's not a world wide celebrated day, I do appreciate the sentiment of what it means to give thanks. So it's a good moment to pause and remind yourself what you're thankful for. In the wake of terror of what happened in France a few weeks ago now, in these terrible and strange times we live in, it's so important to be grateful for the things you have in life. I for one am thankful for a fact that sometimes can be taken for granted; Freedom. To live, laugh, read, write, choose, create, breathe, love... We have the freedom to celebrate life and no one has the power to take that away from us. So today is good reminder to always be thankful. 

The above card I have made for Goulet Pen Company's month long Thanksgiveaway celebration/write in contest. See their blog for a lot of inspiring and heartfelt letters. If you want to join in, you can until november 30th :) 

Thanks for stopping by.

namaste

Monthly planning with sakuralala's 365 stamps in Traveler's Notebook

A while back I entered a giveaway on instagram for the cute Fall 365 stamp sets by sakuralala and I could not believe my luck that I was actually one of the winners!! These babies arrived in the last week of october and they are just fantastic in real life!

The Fall Collection consist of clear stamps sets: alphabet Fukuro, Frame, School, Aki and Daily. The little stampers are just perfect sized for planners! I decided to give the monthly planner thing a go to properly use these stamps. I already have a dated weekly planner for work stuff in my Passport Traveler's Notebook so I decided to try the open monthly planner refill 017 for fun stuff in my new Blue Edition Traveler's Notebook which my husband gifted to me (he knows me so well!)  

NB: they are sold out every where but Misc Store still has a few of them left! 

Thriftfinds Thursday - Inky goodness from across the border

On a recent impromptu trip to Antwerp for my wedding anniversary last weekend, we came across a few fun pen stores: Penworld, Kockx and Pen and Pencil. They are definitely worth the visit! I found a few vintage fountain pen ink gems I want to share with you here.

At Penworld I found the Caran d'Ache blue in a J. Herbin bottle. They are pre Colors of the earth series and I was lucky enough to find a turquoise bottle not too long ago at de Roos in Heemstede, NL. 

Also at the same store, in a little corner tucked away, I found these super cute mini baby bottles of sheaffer skrip inks. 

They are the size of those tiny baby bell cheeses, super cute! I do love cheese, but I rather have these inks than those baby bells though. Just saying in case you were wondering ;)

Then over at Kockx which is the oldest fountain pen store in Antwerp (and also has a lot of exclusive and expensive pens) I found the montblanc violet ink. I am very curious how this compares to the lavender purple. 

I can't wait to swab these on my Maruman Mnemosyne word card tabs. 

What is your latest lucky vintage find?

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté

Mailart Sunday: Typewriter fun

This month's challenge at Inkadinkadutchies is mail art and this is what I made for it.

Stamps used: 

Postcard Backgound  and Typewriter from Carmen's Veranda and Pencil border and Loopy Calligraphy from Lost Coast Designs.

Materials used: 

home made ecoline spray in amber and moss green. Lemon Zest Dylusions spray. Kaleidakolor autumn leaves stamp pad, Versa fine vintage sepia, memento tuxedo black. Diamine Golden Sands shimmer ink. White craft paper. 

How I made it:

On the front I stamped the typewriter with tuxedo black, then masked it. Then stamped the postcards background with versafine vintage sepia, made sure that the pattern covered the whole envelope. The back I stamped with loopy calligraphy and the pencil borders with the autumn leaves stamp pad. I love the color gradients shown. 

I chose ecoline inks with similar colors of the ink pad and sprayed them on the envelope by using mini misters.Together with the bright yellow of the Lemon Zest Dylusions ink spray they made a nice blend. I then splattered some Golden sands ink on it and heat dried it with my heat tool. took away the mask of the typewriter and colored parts of the typewriter with the same amber and moss ecoline with an aquarel brush. Then made a cut through the typewriter to fit in a piece of white craft paper for the address and glued it in place.  

Tip: before mailing off pieces like this, always seal it with a sealing spray, so it doesn't bleed through when it comes in contact with water. 

Hope this inspired you to join in with this month's challenge.

Namaste

Shopping Highlight: Traveler's Pop Up Store at Misc Store Amsterdam

From october 24th to november 24th there is a Traveler's Factory pop up store at Misc Store Amsterdam. With great goodies from Traveler's notebook and other midori items some of which are exclusive to Japan only. The picture above gives you an impression of what you can find there and you can browse through my flickr album to see the close up pictures of exclusive goods there. 

This weekend 7th and 8th of november they have a special "Traveler's Company Caravan make your own spiral notebook" event!  An array of delicious papers to choose from to make your very own unique notebook! It's definitely fun to do and I'm planning on standing in line tomorrow :) 

Maybe I'll see you there? 

namaste!

Happy Fountain Pen Day 2015!

Today is the first friday of november and that means it's time to celebrate a beautiful and versatile writing tool, fountain pen! This day was brought to life 4 years ago and it's been a popular event among fountain pen enthusiasts all over the world! For more information check out Fountain Pen Day site.

My collection of Omas fountain pens, one of my preferred brands of pens.

So what can you do to celebrate fountain pen day? 

Here are a few suggestions from the FPD blog:

1. Write a letter to someone with your favorite fountain pen and ink. Under your signature you can write the pen & ink you used. 
2. Go through your stationery collection and use some of those you have saved for a special occasion. Surprise a friend with that vintage paper. 
3. You can make up a FPD “intro to fountain pens” pack for a friend like this. 
4. Post on your favorite forum or blog by writing it out with your fountain pen. Then take a picture of it and post it. Again, under your signature write what pen & ink you used. 
5. Instead of typing Facebook status updates and tweets on Twitter, write them and upload a picture of them (mention the reason that you’re doing it at well.) 
6. Take one of the pens you don’t use anymore and send it off to a friend with a handwritten note. If you don’t have any pens you want to part with you can shop one of the online retailers and have it sent direct to them. 
7. Make that the weekend you have your pen club meet up. 
8. Turn off your computer and put down the phone and spend some time writing. 

These are really great suggestions and I for one am going to celebrate it by ogling my pretty pens and of course writing with them (pretty much what I do every day, LOL!) 

Another suggestion I have is: introduce a newbie to fountain pens. Lend or give someone who has never written with a fountain pen before an inexpensive FP so they can see if it's something for them to give a go on the long run. Hey, I got my husband hooked on using fountain pens and he was an avid rollerball user. Now he won't leave the house without his Lamy's and Pilot VPs :) 

Also keep watch on the FPD blog for giveaways and deals by the many sponsors of this events! Some pretty sweet raffles going on for great Fountain pens and also many offer sales and discounts on their (web)shops!

So, what are you doing to celebrate fountain pen day? What ever it is you're doing, make sure you have inky spots on your fingers, otherwise it doesn't count ;) 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

namaste!

Pens and Ink: Omas Blue Angel with Organics studio Nautilus Blue

On a recent trip to Akkerman in The Hague I was tempted yet again by a gorgeous LE Omas Alba. This time a stunning blue cocktail, named Blue Angel.

Blue seduction in a box.

But what had my heart racing even more was the fact it was fitted with a beautiful stub nib! I definitely could not pass this up.

The ink I chose to accompany this beautiful pen, is sadly now from a discontinued line. Organics Studio Jules Verne Nautilus blue, is the adventurous deep ocean blue that certainly matches the depth of the blue in the pen very well.

The nib writes excellent and is quite a looker too! I had to give it a good rinse with luke warm water to clean the feed from factory oils, but after that it just writes like a dream!

What is your current fave pen and ink combo at the moment?

Thanks for stopping by!

namaste