Delight in the Little Things - VLVS!

Hey friends, it's my last post over at VLVS! I'm sharing a little ATC and Watercolor project with you in which I made this inspiration card. Be sure to check out the blog post HERE.   

I absolutely loved being a part of this fantastic team! I hope my posts there have inspired you as much as I loved making them. My term there has ended and have not reapplied because of time constraints as I am planning on doing a new studies. But will definitely be an unofficial ambassador of this wonderful stamp company as I LOVE using their stamps in my work. 

May the new year bring you beautiful delightful moments. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

Pens and Ink: Favorites of 2017

Even though my pens and inks post were few and far in between this year, I still have been using and enjoying my fountain pens pretty much daily and wanted to share my top 10 faves similar to what I have done last year. It was tough to narrow it down but these made the cut. You can see most of them in action on my instagram account Present and Connected and half of them are made by small business owners and are handmade. They are not placed in a particular order,  I really enjoy using them all equally! From left to right: Momiji leafs in night sky made by 18111.com, TWSBI ECO turquoise (special edition), Mojito by Woodshed PenCo, Lecai with Twsbi stub nib, Franklin Christoph model 45 in blue pink black (special edition), Herbert Pen Company Pink seaglass, Sailor Sapporo Purple Cosmos with music nib, Pelikan M625 Ruby with BB nib and the Edison Nouveau Premiere Seaglass LE of spring 2017 (a collaboration of Goulet Pens and Edison PenCo). Let's take a closer look at them.

WIP: You Tube channel overhaul!

Hey all, hope you have had a wonderful holiday celebration with your loved ones filled with laughter and joy! I certainly had a wonderful relaxing time and took a little time off to enjoy the festivities. Now I'm doing a bunch of work behind the scenes and did a little overhaul on my YT channel. I have also uploaded a couple of video's which I have made for VLVS! earlier this year, so if you have missed them, feel free to check them out. My goal for next year is to make and upload more process video's of my work. The tricky part is to find the time to do the editing because I rather be in my art room creating than behind the computer in my spare time, you know? The goal is to have bi weekly video's on my channel and thankfully I have a few lined up. Hopefully I can get a better sort of handle on editing time that as I go on with it. If you have any tips on that it would be much appreciated!  Anyhow, I've also tried to make the thumbnails more unified and personally like the look of it. Would love feedback on it and if you are interested in seeing more of my process video's in the future, please make sure to subscribe to my channel. 

As always thanks so much for stopping by and your continued support!

Hello Sunshine, fancy a cuppa?!

Coffee is always a necessity for me and esp. so in these dark winter days. It's the fuel that helps me through the day. I've made a quirky fun mixed media card using stamps and supplies from my fave companies this year. 

The base is made with Distress Oxides, distress crayons and glimmer mist. 

Coffee cup, beans, splatter and "fancy a cuppa"  stamps from Viva Las VegaStamps!

The sentiment stamp "you and coffee are the best" and Hello Sunshine die cut from Stamplorations 

And the tuckered out person (= me pre-coffee in the morning ;) is Blackeyed from Stampotique Originals

Over at Coffee Loving Card maker's Blog there is a fun blog hop going which I am linking this project to. 

I'm also linking this to the Stamplorations Never Ending anything goes Challenge

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

SDC288 - Christmas

Hi everyone, it's only a few weeks before Christmas and this is also the theme of the last challenge of the year at Stampotique Designer's Challenge blog. And we would like to inspire you with Christmas themed projects. 

I've made the above journal page to inspire you for this challenge. I have used india ink over a pine tree stencil, let that dry and then used magenta and green ecoline inks for the background color. Then traced the stencil back over it with a white marker. Then created the scene using the following Stampotique Stamps:

Cecil

Front door Shrubbery

Terri's Alphabet

Kate's Texture cube

Flower cube

You can link up your christmas inspired makes HERE (please read the rules carefully before entering) and the challenge runs until january 2nd. We'll be back then with a new challenge theme and also some great new releases! Hope to see you playing along in the challenges in 2018 as well :) For now we wish you all a wonderful holiday season and a great start of the new year!

Also linking this up to MooMania's Christmas theme :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Mail Art Monday - In the pale Moonlight - VLVS!

It's a beautiful winter wonderland outside and it inspired me to create this Mail Art Monday envelope using a bunch of lush VLVStamps! I've got a step by step tutorial on the VLVS! blog, so take a look to see how I created it. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

WIP: Nightly watercolor practice still going strong

Working in my moleskine pocket book at night ...

As you might have read on how Exhaustipated I get during winters (esp. when you're home sick with a strange type of flue which is going around it would seem!) I also wanted to share what helps me through these dark days. And that is color therapy in the form of doing water color practices at night. By now I have a little collection of different water colors tins filled with paint handmade by lovely artisans and the familiar brands like sennelier and schmincke. In the Black Friday Sale from a few weeks ago I've also purchased a few tins from Prima marketing series: Shimmering Lights and Decadent Pies.

Prima marketing Shimmering Lights color swabs

The Shimmering lights are beautiful golden/orangey tones with a slight shimmer. They also are quite strongly pigmented so they can be used for glazing over colors as well as being used on their own. They are labeld as artist grade paints and I'm very excited about this set. The Decadent Pies however, not as much...

Stamp by Stampotique Originals, first layer of color with Prima Marketing Decadent Pies

There are some fun colors in the decadent pie set, but even though it says "artist grade" on the wrapping labels (not on the tin like on the shimmering lights!) it behaves more like student grade watercolors. Like the KOI Water Color set I had before I ripped those out of the plastic pans and filled with sennelier colors. OK, to be fair these do behave better and are more saturated in color than those KOI ones but still did not like the set as much as all the other sets I have. The set also have 4 shimmering colored pans, but no doubles from Shimmering lights. Didn't mean for this post to turn out like a mini water color review, but there you have it.

Stamps by Carabelle Studio's, DaVinci detailler brush size "2/0"

At any rate, I'm really enjoying the self-created "water color Therapy at night" routine (next to my writing meditations) which help me through these days where I am in much of need of sunshine. It's like I said to a friend "Color is like Vitamin C and works like an energy boost in dark times" and wouldn't you agree?

Sharing these watercolory desk shots over at my desky friends at Julia's blog for WOW 444 (such a magic number!) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a lovely week!

Exciting news- Published + Design team update

Hi friends, I've got some exciting news to share! First off, did you know that the latest issue of MixedUp Magazine is out already? Well it is and it had a bunch of wonderful tutorials including a video tutorial of yours truly :) I've altered my Traveler's notebook midori cover and show you how you can do that yourself as well! Below a little sneak peek of how it looks now

It's got a wonderful galaxy swirl now to it and I have used all sorts of DecoArts Media products to achieve this look. So head out an buy the latest copy to see this tutorial among 100 pages of other inspirational projects and galleries!

And another fun thing I would like to share on the Design Team front; I'm super happy to announce that I'm part of the Craft Stamper Magazine Take it Make it Blog Design team :) 

So very excited about this because I always love to join their challenges and see the wonderful inspirational posts the DT makes. Now it's such an honor to be a part of it :) 

Next year I'll be sharing some projects for the monthly challenges to hopefully provide you with inspiration to join in :) 

Thanks so much for stopping by and hope you all are having a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Exhaustipated! - VLVS!

Hi friends! It's my turn over at VLVS! blog today to share a creation. It's almost december and all the year end holidays are coming up and for me it's always such a tough month. The business of the festivities, hustle and bustle to buy presents (buyer's stress) does not mix well with my Seasonal Affective Disorder, so I just feel sooo tired just thinking about all these busy days ahead and dealing with the lack of sunlight which is a much needed fuel for my body. Often people think I am a real Grinch when I let these feelings out, but it's not about not wanting to celebrate. Being forced to be happy about the holiday season while I'm dealing with some tough things on a physical and emotional level, sometimes just takes its toll and I rather be honest about it than fake going through being "happy camper" about "this festive season".

Anyhow, I didn't had a word for this feeling until the brilliant people at VLVS! came up with this awesome word stamp "Exhaustipated: too tired to give a shit." and OH MY what a relief it was to create this art journal page about what I am feeling! So cathartic and meditative. Also this woman stamp is just my avatar around these winter days. To see the process of this page, I invite you to go to my blogpost at VLVS! HERE which also includes a list of other VLVS! stamps I used. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and if you have any sort of similar feelings about this topic, let me know, so we can support each other in solidarity. Wishing you a wonderful day!

SDC287 - Thankfulness

It's the second week of the Stampotique Designer's Challenge theme of Thankfulness and I have this fun and quirky thank you card to show you. It's definitely a fun one to send out to fellow coffee lovers :) The base is a piece of scrap paper on which I have made some coffee rings with actual coffee. Then added color with Distress Oxides vintage photo, antique linen, walnut stain and black soot. Stamped some texture with Kate's texture stamp and splattered some brass metallic distress stains over it with a brush.

The main image is Cocoa Bird which I colored in with promarkers on a piece of sticker paper. The sentiment is a die cut from Stamplorations which I got earlier this year along with a coffee cup die cut. I am glad I got them when I did because they don't seem to be available anymore. Anyhow, the little stem the bird is sitting on is the bottom part from the cup and I've cut them all out from the paper I left in my spray box. So many spatters and glitterly shines are on the words and stem.

We would love it if you would share your creations fitting the theme with us. Share your projects HERE (please read the rules before doing so) and you could be in the running to win some wonderful stampotique rubber stamps at the end of the month.

I would also like to enter this card in the Stamplorations Giving Thanks bloghop party

with gratitude that they are giving a chance to win items from your wishlist this month if you link it up with a project you made. 

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Shopping Highlight: a stationery tour through Berlin

Last month we had a little city trip to Berlin, Germany with my husband and in-law family. Of course I also had to look up some great stationery stores there and in this post I would like to share the ones I visited. It's going to be picture heavy visual tour from here out which I hope you will enjoy.

Heartfelt Thanks!

Any day is a good day to show gratitude and I'm sharing this handmade watercolor card made with this gorgeous Heartfelt Rose stamp set from Stamplorations.

I've embossed the image and sentiment with gold honey pearl WOW embossing powder on watercolor cardstock. Then colored it in with Sennelier watercolors and handmade watercolors from Cloves and honey. Matted it onto grey card stock and rounded the corners. Then adhered it onto a 4x6 notecard on which I have adhered a piece of gelli printed paper. I like how the design comes together.

If you tilt the card into the light you can see the shimmering of the watercolors in the rose. 

Over at Stamplorations is a wonderful bloghop and annual wishlist linky party going on in which new designs are being showcased and you could potentially win your wishlist if you link up and share projects! So come and join the fun :) Want to know what's on my wishlist? Take a peek here (and I just keep adding things to it because there are just so many new wonderful designs!!) 

I'm also entering this in the Stamplorations Never Ending Anything goes challenge

I hope that all of you whom are celebrating Thanksgiving today are having a wonderful time with your loved ones. Thanks so much for stopping by and hope to see you again soon :)

Mail Art Monday: Autumnal Greetings

Not sure if you have noticed but my Mail Art Monday section has been quiet lately but today I finally had some mojo back to decorate an envelope as I also finally was getting some snail mail ready for a friend. So I thought I would share it right away as well, seeing the last days of autumn are nearing...it's getting colder and slowly the grey tones are taking over from these lovely amber tones. The base is an ivory envelope and I took a few autumn leaf stamps with a script stamp and just build from there.

And this is the back of the envelope. I used a few distress oxides to blend inwards and added come accents with a gold marker. I edged the envelope with memento cocoa ink and called it done. It took under 15 minutes to make, a nice and quick envie to get my mail art juices flowing again.

These are stamps and tools I used. Only think missing is the script stamp from Paper Artsy. From top to bottom the stamps are from Impression Obsession, Inkadinkadoo and Hero Arts. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all are enjoying the last days of autumn as well. 

WIP: Watercolor Practice

The past weekend I have been working with my water colors again and sharing some work in progress today.  I took out my Jane Davenports Neutrals and Brights sets and went to work in my Watercoloringbook (A pocket moleskine I stamped some fun rubber stamp images in) This cute little fairy is from Sweetpea designs and I wanted her to have a fun autumnal look. I really loved working on the hair and stripey socks on this one :)

On a scrap piece I colored this fairy from VLVS! and used a lot of glittery watercolors from Cloves and Honey. You can see the finished art journal page HERE.

And another fun VLVS! design and she has an ATC format. A little sneak peek to a future post where I turn this into a little inspiration ATC card.

I absolutely LOVe working with my water colors and I have found that coloring my rubber stamped images with them really brings so much joy :) Sharing these desk shots over at Julia for WOYWW today. Looking forward to catch up with you all. 

Thanks for stopping by and hope you all are having a wonderful day. 

Art Journal: Whimsical Sparkly Fairy - VLVS!

Hi everyone! It's my turn today over at VLVS! blog to share a project I made. If you have been following me on my instagram, you perhaps have been seeing this process in my stories and some sneak peeks on my feed. This Whimsical Fairy Lady from the newest releases from VLVS! is a cutie for sure and she does leave a sparkle everywhere she goes :) 

To read more about how I made it and which stamps I used, I'm inviting you to go over to my blog post at VLVS! for more close up and process pictures. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day! 

Art Journal: Spiritual Journey

Today I would like to share another Art Journal made with a lot of movement, color and soul.

This piece started on a gelli printed paper which I have applied color on with distress ink pads to give it a Galaxy color theme. Then stamped the wonderful Journey Collage stamp from Stampotique Originals with Jet Black Staz on ink. I stamped Scribble Circle from VLVS! in the middle and around the edges with Royal Purple Staz on and Versamark and applied gold embossing powder over it. After that heat set I added gold and white spatters. I love how this resembles fire flames from a sun. 

The Text "we are on a Spiritual Journey" from that Journey Collage Stamp and the Face from Impression obsession became my focal points. The text was stamped on a left over piece of gelli print on which I have used a Prisms stencil by Stamplorations and I have added accents to it with a Tombow marker and a gold marker. Then adhered to the page in the composition you see here.

I really love how this piece came together and while there is still so much going on, there is still some harmony over all.

I would like to enter this piece in the following challenges: 

Art Journal Journey - 101 ways to keep warm 

This journal piece represents a fire within, a calm and peaceful flicker of a candle I always have during my meditation sessions and carry with me wherever I go. 

Craft Stamper Take it Make it Challenge november 2017 

Moo Mania - Make it Feminine 

Stamplorations Mixed Media Challenge november 2017 

Stamplorations never ending anything goes challenge 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!