Art Journal: There is a universe inside you

It's been a little quiet on my blog, due to some things happening on the personal front. My dad has been in the hospital for a week and the fact is he's not going to recover, this time, from the heart attack he had. He's getting palliative nursing care at his home so he's being well taken care of until that moment arises that he is no longer with us. Acceptance is the only way to move forward, things are settling down and there is some peace and calm again, within and around me.

So last weekend I finally sat down in my art room and started to create again. It felt SOOOO GOOD! What a relief it was for me to pour it all out on blank pages. Creation is definitely good for the soul. There is like this whole universe inside you that wants to be seen and heard and can be awakened if you let yourself be immersed in it. I finished the journal pages over the last few days.

This is the end result of the art journal pages and creating this page really was very soothing and freeing. I used some of my fave products from my fave companies:

Liquitex gesso, paints and gel medium  specimen stencil from TCW, Succulents stencil from StencilGirl, Alice (by Janet Klein) stamp from Stampotique Originals, The large rose stamp from Octopode Factory and several mixed media stamps from VLVS! as well as "dreamer's only" and "there is a universe inside you" stamps by Cat Kerr. I also used paint over pens, wink of luna metallic brushes, distress crayons and pearl rubs. 

Let us all find that universe inside us and pour it out on blank pages. 

Sharing the above desk shot with WOYWW #460 at Julia's wonderful blog. Sorry I've been a bit out of touch, now you know why, but hope to connect with you all again this week. 

I also would like to add this journal page to the following challenges: 

Try it on Tuesday: Call for Spring

The mood board was wonderful and I am absolutely longing for spring to arrive. 

The sky blue, magenta/pink colors and flowers inspired me with this page.

Spring theme at Art Journal Journey 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #46

I used a couple of stencils, liquitex paints, gesso and gel medium as well as alcohol markers, staz on ink, paint over markers, distress crayons and more. 

Ans lastly Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge with "Inside the box" theme.

I interpreted this as I myself being the "box" in which there is a whole other universe inside to discover. As we all do, I believe :) 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Art Journal: Silently Correcting Your Grammar

Have a fun and quirky art journal page to share with you today. Using one of my fave VLVS! quote stamps in combination with collage elements from vintage en fountain pen magazines.

The background was an experiment with various textures and Tim Holtz Distress paints. I've also used the a ledger and script stencil from The Crafter's workshop. I kept layering and removing pants with a baby wipe to get a distressed and aged paper look.

Created some shadows with distress crayons and added some text and postage stamping plus white and gold spatters before adhering the collage images on top.

Detail close up. I also love that the vintage magazine image also has some grainy texture to it.

Definitely love how this whole page came together!

I'd like to enter this art journal page in the following challenges: 

Stamplorations January MixedMedia challenge

Try it on Tuesday - My favorite things 

I love creating art journal pages and experimenting with back ground techniques.  

Art Journal Journey - New Year, New Adventures

Well in the theme of writing and doing something new I have started a new studies this year through Coursera online studies which is an adventure! I get to use my fountain pens even more regularly now :) 

Thank you for stopping by and have a great day!

Art Journal: There is no place like home

Today I am sharing a journal page I have made a while back on the theme "what is home?"

I've moved from Amsterdam to Leiden now I think 12 years ago and it took me a while to call this city my home, but I do love it here now. I tried to convey my feelings for this city in this art journal spread. It is going to be a picture heavy post of details of this spread, so you'll see more after the cut.

Art Journal: Enlighten we are on a spiritual journey

Today I would like to show you an experiment in my art journal using heat embossing over modeling paste. I've used the enlighten stencil from Donna Downey Studio's as my focal point in combination with this amazing Journey Collage stamp from Stampotique Originals.

I started off by prepping an A5 page with black and gold gesso from The Crafter's Workshop. Then I took my pallet knife and scraped some light and fluffy modeling paste (also from TCW)  through the stencil. I let this dry really well.

To add some color I sprayed some Dylusions sprays in yellow and red over it and some perfect pearl glimmer mist too. It gives the gesso's background also a really beautiful shimmery shine.

Sadly I don't have a in between photo of the embossed parts, because I had to work quickly but patiently not to over heat anything. I first stamped Carabelle Studio effervescence stamp and the Journey Collage stamp by Stampotique Originals with versamark and interference violet  WOW embossing powder over it. I heat set everything with my heating tool in parts making sure things didn't bubble up.  Then I took the effervescence stamp and stamped with versamark again on the corners and embossed with Opaque white embossing powder. I did the same thing with the words "we are on a spiritual journey" to emphasize that sentiment. When everything was heat set I spayed more sunshine yellow dylusions spray on the bulb and added neocolor in back for outline and shading. The word enlighten is outlines with a black posca marker. It's a gorgeous shimmery page in real life and I just love this mindful art journal page. 

I would love to enter this art journal page in the following challenges: 

Mixed Media Monthly Challenge #37 - A year of choices

Combining #32 and #36 of this past year's challenges

WOW Embossing June Challenge

Stampotique Designer's Challenge "Stencil It"

And my last entry for the Stamps and Stencils' Challenge Words with meaning

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

ATC: Be True

 

This is an ATC I made inspired by one of the many wonderful and inspiring process video's Jenn Engle has on her You Tube. In this video she uses letter stickers on her art journal background for extra texture and serendipitous design. I loved the idea so much I created an ATC using some number letters stickers of which I have so many and almost never use!

I've used one of my fave butterfly stencils and next to it I added the numbers in a cascading flow over the stencil design. Then gessoed the piece with white gesso and then around the edges with black gesso. In the white parts I dripped some Roher and Klinger calligraphy ink in Alt Goldgrün and Cyan Blau. The calligraphy ink is thicker and has a shellac base so it clung to the gesso pretty well. I did spritz some water over it to get it to dilute and flow better over the raised edges. The sentiment Bue True (from VLVS!) was well as the butterfly was stamped on a left over piece of water color paper, and before I adhered it with pop up dots I spattered some white and magenta ink over the card. I added some threads in the same colors around the popped up aria's, edged the card with white ink and matted it onto black card stock. 

I really loved using the stickers this way and with definitely use this technique again :) Thanks again for the inspiration Jenn :)

I am entering this in the following challenges:
Stamps and stencils fabric and fibers
Stamping sensations May Butterflies, fairies and fantasy

STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge May 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

MailART Monday: Venturing Out

Freidrich of Stampotique Originals is fast becoming a fave stamp to use in my works. Last week I used him on the text background postcard and this week I'm sharing this MailART envelope I made. Because you can place him in various ways it's a really fun stamp. I like to place him on objects he precariously balances on.

The envelope I used this time is an A5 size and it was already somewhat decorated, but I eventually didn't like the look of it in the end. So I covered it with opaque paints from Deco Arts in the Traditions line, Red Violet, Phthalo green blue and light green. I used mostly my fingers to apply the paints from light to dark (letting the bottom layer of light green dry completely) and then spritzed some water to get some movement going and dabbing some paint away for texture. The envelope already had some texture on it, from a stencil and heavy matte gel medium. The texture showed through the paints nicely while being covered with color. I then added some more texture with Kate Crane's texture cube and coordinating staz-on inks. Lastly I stamped Freidrich on with staz-on jet black where I wanted him on the envelope.

I adhered an address label before I stuck on the colored (with promarkers) and fuzzy cut image of Freidrich. I wanted him to balance on something and I found the perfect stamp in VLVS! the Writing Triangles which stamped flipped on the side look like arrow heads. I love how he looks so very concentrated balancing on that particular point!

Lastly I spattered some liquitex inks! in silver over some spots, swiped some around the edges and adhered some vintage stamps. It's now ready to mailed off :)

This envelope contained the card I sent for publishing in Crafter's Magazine May 2017 issue. And I'm excited to announce that I have a card published in it :) Look out for a card I designed for the New beginnings theme in ready set stamp section in the magazine below:

And a close up of the card that is published :)

I'll post a tutorial on how to make this card on my blog sometime later this month :)

I would like to enter the mail art envelope in the following challenge:
Art Journal Journey - Magical Mystery Tour
It's not a journal page, but I still thing it fits the theme ;)

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

WIP: bright and sunny

Beautiful spring days are here and not only the weather is bright and sunny, I am feeling that way as well. Some exciting things are coming up and I can't tell you about it just yet :) But I wanted to share a little sneak peek of a recent work I did. I tried do convey the bright and sunny feeling on the vintage magazine page using colors that really speak to me a lot at the moment. The stencil is from the Crafter's Workshop and I used trims from my Courageous Mother Nature project. Come back next week on Wednesday to see the finished piece and with it the exciting news I have to share.

Also wanted to share a little reminder that you can still play along with the March Challenge over at Viva Las VegaStamps! blog and can link up your projects until the end of Friday! 

Have a wonderful sunny Wednesday and thank you for stopping by!

It's okay, breathe today.

Lately, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed. Maybe also because another birthday has come and gone (with a great trip to sunny Valencia in Spain, on which a report will be blogged at some point ;)  and faced with this perception of growing older I'm thinking "There so little time and so much I'd like to do!" But I need to keep in perspective that doing, doesn't affect the quality of BEING. I made this ATC/inspiration card to remind me of that. I took the butterfly base of one of my Cascading Butterflies sessions and played with paper Artsy Fresco paints, Liquitex INKS and Golden Fluid Acrylics in fluorescent yellow, which I received in the Artsnacks January Box this year. I love how that the spatters just pops up the whole image. The sentiment is re-mixed from this VLVS! text stamp. "It's Okay, breathe today" is something I say to myself when I feel like I am "wasting time" by not being "productive enough" and need a reminder that every breath has the same value, in doing or being. 

I would like to enter this artwork in the Moo-Mania challenge In Triplicate (so poetic that I made this ATC with this theme without even realizing!) and I love the fact that there is a challenge site that inspires to make some smaller works like Moo and ATC size :)

I also would like to enter this in the following challenge
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Things with Wings

Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

Enjoy it, even though all you did was breathe today :)

  

Courageous Mother Nature

Today I wanted to show you a Mixed Media card I made inspired by this month's Challenge Inspiration Board over at Viva Las VegaStamps!

Beautiful isn't it? I got inspired by the nature elements and the green and purple colors.

Last week I showed you how the Mixed Media base  of the card was made.
I added a lot of paints on to the card to get the bold colors layered well.
Some detail shots below:





Please visit my blogpost over at VLVS! to see the details on how I made this card and which stamps I used. Hopefully this will inspire you to play along with this month's VLVS! challenge as well.

I would like to enter this card to
Craft Stamper March Take it Make it Challenge

Creative Artiste Anything Mixed Media goes challenge 

heARTful Stamping challenge for Spring+stamp

Stamping sensations - Close to Nature

Mixed Media World #23 Anything goes Challenge

And lastly the Rubber dance Theme Challenge Everything Spring

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

WIP: textured base

A great way to use up those excess scraps and trims is to glue them in a pattern on scrapbook paper to make textured background. I started with a toned down 6x6 patterned paper, gessoed it and glued on all these scraps with Modge Podge. It's my go to glue for base collage gluing now.

Modge podge is a sturdy and flexible glue which I definitely like for these kinds of projects.

Then I got a fun stencil, this case dots to contrast the squares and modeling paste.

I definitely like the contrast this is giving. Added more dots to the whole page and when dried I sealed it with some Modge Podge shimmer varnish.

Layering process.#mailart #mailartist #mixmediaart #mixedmedia #mixedmediaartist #artistsofinstagram #rubberstamping #rubberstampart #rubberstamp #colorful #colorcoordination #art #collageart #collage #instaart

A post shared by cheetarah (@missthundercat) on Jan 8, 2017 at 7:54am PST

That shimmer varnish sure does sparkle! I really love how this base turned out and next week I will show you what the completed project looks like :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

The heart has its reasons

Today I am sharing a postcard inspired by Postcard Sunday's theme, butterflies. I got tipped by this fun group via Mixed Media Jenn's instagram where she mentioned she was hosting the postcard challenge this week. I have these gorgeous tissues with poppies and butterflies on them which I thought would be great to use for this theme. The base is an ad postcard (4x6) which I coated with gesso, paint (distress paints) and stencils (by the crafter's workshop) and then over layed the tissues with soft matte gel by art basics (prima marketing). The woman and sentiment stamp is from Carabelle Studio's. I have stamped the woman on thin tracing paper with memento black and also adhered with soft matte gel. Colored her in with pro markers and also used the markers to color correct here and there so no white was showing through. Took the polkadot stencil with a light blue distress paint to add more texture. The scrips stamp is from Paper Artsy.

The sentiment stamp was stamped twice and embossed for a better effect. Dabbed some of that light blue paint over it so it stands out more from the card. 

Also entering this card in the following challenges because it fits the theme nicely
Stamps and Stencils Birds
Time out Love/friendship (also it's their 3rd anniversary, congrats and hooray!)
Paperminutes Spring
Southeren Girls - Nature Inspired
Frilly and Funkie - Spring 

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