WOYWW 463: the aftermath of Art Specially 2018

This past weekend was one of the favorites I had of the year (so far ;) as it was time for the yearly ART Specially mixed media event. This time we (yes my husband likes to accompany me for these crafty events, when he is able to) only went on Saturday, but what a day it was! So many wonderful people (got to meet some of my wonderful Stampotique DT mates Yvonne & Arwen!), doing workshops and getting all the supplies you've always wanted for a really good deal. So this week's desk shot for WOYWW 463 is mostly showing off my new stuff haha ;) On top of the glass mat the projects made; learned a new stitch for book binding in a workshop provided by Art Specially and cards we made at the AALL and Create booth. Autour and Olga were there doing some demo's and their stamps are just amazing! I also got to see some sneak peaks of their new stamp designs coming up later this month :) The glass mat is something I've always wanted and so happy to finally have it! And by all the mess around it, you can see I have been happily using it already :)

And this is the full haul shot and I can't wait to play with all of them! I already played with the elegant writer, paper collage people and some of the AALL and Create stamps. Results will be at some point for sure. But I can show you this: 

The art journal I made during the bookbinding workshop. We didn't have time to make the cover on the event, but I completed it last Monday. Used gelli prints made with Stencil Girl Stencils/masks, Katzelkraft stamps and vintage magazine clippings. 

It was definitely a great day and also a wonderful distraction from all the events that happened over the last few weeks. My dad passed away on the 6th of April and we had the funeral on the 12th. I talk a bit about it on my Present and Connected instagram account if you're interested in reading more about it. But all I can say that it was as peaceful as it could be and he's now lying next to my mom at eternal rest. I also wanted to say thanks to everyone whom commented on my post a few weeks ago, about the situation with my dad then. It was heartwarming to read them and feeling support from miles away. Thank you wholeheartedly. 

Hope all you deskers' out there are having a wonderful wednesday.  (For people who don't know who the desker's are, check out Julia's blog to see more about it.)

Thanks you for stopping by. It's a beautiful spring day here and hope you all are enjoying it :)

Shopping Highlight: Art Specially 2017

Well as I hinted last Friday, last weekend was spent at the wonderful Art Specially event in Nijkerk. My lovely husband came with me (both days) to share in the crazy fun and also to make sure I didn't spend too much. Well the latter spectacularly failed, haha! But we definitely had crazy fun!

There were a lot of workshops/make and takes were offered this year again but we only had time for a selection. Also there were lines for the very popular workshops, like the notebook decoration by Papillon Hobby. We sat in line for 1 1/2 hours for that one. It's good to have a buddy with you so you can take turns in waiting. It was well worth the wait and fun to use a new to me product; Cadence brands wax, stencils and media. We also had workshops with Dylusions paints (dress card), paper artsy and infusions powders on gelli plate (the Happy cards), Dina Wakley paints (the house tags), Distress ink layering (swirl tag) and dual emboss resist technique (the happy day card). 

On the left works I made and on the right the works my husband made. He got a lot of fun comments on being one of the few guys there attending the workshops :) I learned a lot these two days and I can't wait to implement some of these fun techniques in my own works. And I learned a great way to customize my Rhodia/Leuchtturm notebook!

The trends/pushed products on the event this year were: Distress Oxides, Cadence products (seriously almost every stand was pushing this new brand!), Pan Pastel, alcohol ink on yupo and gilding wax/faux metallic effects. I managed to resist buying a few of these pushed products, like the gilding wax, but also came home with a great deal of other things. 

Well... like I said, not spending too much has spectacularly failed this year! So happy this is just a yearly event! I had pre-ordered the Distress Oxides and saw Corrie Herriman live doing a demo with them at Hobby Compleet de Duif stand. I'm really excited to give them a whirl! I also pre-ordered the Lindy's magical shakers and am very happy to have found the Scribble Sticks. I'll to a comparison of both those products with similar products because I am curious on the differences between them. Will of course share my findings with you. All the paints and deco arts media were on sale and well since I love a good sale and wanted to have the dylusions paints for a while, so I went for it! A bit light on the stamps this year around, but that´s because I had my eye on different media to try out. You gotta make choices somewhere right? ;)

My husband also made some purchases and went for a set of ZIG's Clean color brush set

Got a set (and some extra) Zig Clean color real brushes at the Artspecially crafty market last weekend. To learn a bit more about blending, color and this whole, "coloring" business because they just seemed so accessible. My first real "attempt" at using them in the corner and little Meesha giving her (dis)aproval 😅.

Een bericht gedeeld door Blaze8t88 (@cornelius.grayl) op 5 Apr 2017 om 2:23 PDT

and I love that he is trying out this new to him medium :)

I am looking forward to use my goodies this weekend.
Have a great one you all and thanks for stopping by :)

Art Journal: A study of Hera part one

At the Art Specially event earlier this year, I got a whole bunch of stamps and among them was this huge XXL Héra Stamp from Carabelle ( I got it at the Leuke Stempels booth) Well, to correct myself, my husband got me this stamp as a present :) When I saw it I knew it has so many possibilities esp. for my art journal. I am doing a series called "the study of Héra" in my art journal and I'm going to share them with you in parts.

I have all these vintage A-Z brown colored papaer index tabs (which I saved from being thrown in the trash can at work!) and I used one of them for this project. First I gave the page some color with blue distress stains. I wiped some on my craft sheet and sprayed water on it. Then put my page in the puddle. It gave a nice blue back ground wash effect. After that I stamped Héra with Staz-on Stone Grey (I had to reposition her to get her hair fully on the paper) and then colored her with Distress Crayons.

I really love these! I love how soft and creamy they are and you can blend them nicely!

I created a dark blue border with distress stains straight on the paper, sprayed some glimmer mist over, added some texture stamps in dark blue and lavender brilliance ink and then adhered the colored page to it. That's basically it for the first studies, it's simple and effective!

The dark border really makes the image pop out!

Next time will show you another page I created with this stamp. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

namasté

Art Journal - Plant ideas and watch them grow

I have not shared pages from my art journal in a while, that is because I didn't have any inspiration to make any pages. But that all changed after visiting the ART Specially event in Nijkerk on April 9th... like every year, it was a breath of creative air! So the days after I was inspired to create some more pages in my art journal.

These are the pages I did the days after the show.

The Dream Big marbled and rubber stamped page, I did a while back for a mail art project and used it as a tip-in for the journal. The Cityscape stamp is from Lost Coast Designs, I have used the large version. A tip-in is a good way to start again, for me anyway, it gives a nice prompt for the next few pages. I had so many ideas and I just started to work with color on the pages (direct to the paper) to see what would come of it.

The items I used to color the page are distress stains, dylusions sprays and glimmer chalk mist. I used the silhouette flower stamps from joy crafts and Lost Coast Designs dictionary word "grow" - alphabet stamps used are from Image tree. Stamped with Staz-on stone grey and hydrangea blue and Brilliant Lavender on front to make it pop. 

The sentiment "plant ideas and watch them grow" rings true - I have so many ideas for fun creative stuff, I just need to set away some time to work at them. So hopefully once I just plant these ideas onto my journal pages, I will be able to share more with you here :)

Have a wonderful creative weekend!

Thank you for stopping by! 

namasté

Mailart Monday - Art Specially inspiration

Every year I look forward to this event, the Art Specially weekend, and this year it was on April 9th-10th. We went on saturday and it was fantastic! So much to see (and buy) and to do!!

I didn't have time for a lot of make and takes, but this one given by the people at "leuke stempels" booth was a lot of fun and inspiring. A very easy step by step tutorial was given and very easy to make.

Stamps used here are from Darkroom Door postcard and and Indigo Blu peony and Butterfly. After stamping with staz-on the flower/butterfly was colored with distress crayons. Then matted with gel medium to protect the color. The rest of the color was also added with the crayon and because the surface is smooth after the gel medium layer, you can dip your fingers in a baby wipe cloth and blend the colors together more smoothly.

You can see the card I made on the top left. After blending the crayons together I overlayed a stencil and added some color off with a babywipe. Definitely creates a fun effect. I will be making some more to send out to my mail art friends!

The other two make and takes were at the Craftorij stand, on the right Art Foamies with mexed media by Marieke Blokland (blokenote) and the Tag on the bottom by Marleen whom designed some new stamps at Unity. These were all so fun to make! I especially loved the mixed media art flower piece, learned a lot on how to combine certain products like oil pastels over paint. Very useful!

The day left me inspired to create and I definitely got a whole lot of supplies to play with! I got these distress crayons at Leuke Stempels booth

Beautiful bright colors, in the color line as all the other distress products, they are so fun to work with!

And this is the loot I brought home:

Stamps from so many companies, but definitely from my favorites Lost Coast Designs, Carmen's Veranda, Katzelkraft, Stampotique, Tim Holtz, Dylusions, Image tree... Looking forward to use these in future projects!

Have a wonderful and creative week!

Thanks for stopping by!

namasté