Art Journal: The 8th Chakra

This Art Journal page emerged organically from an intuitive art session. And while creating it I also had no idea that the 8th chakra was actually a thing but doing some research after I created this page, apparently it is something I have been working on the past 3 years without realizing I was doing so.

 I played with different materials to explore a resist technique and then wanted to use the symbol 8 from a stencil and add a face to it and she just naturally came into being. Truly amazing!

See more of the process ...

MailART Monday: May Showers - VLVS! (+published in MixedUP Mag!)

Hey everyone! A little something special for this weeks Mail Art Monday! I'm over at Viva las VegaStamps! blog with a tutorial on these mail art envies I made.

And it's not just a tutorial, it's a video tutorial where you can see exactly how I created these envies :) So hop on over my VLVS! blogpost to check it out and to read which lush VLVS! rubber stamps I used.

In other good news, I've got a 4 page article in the new "musings" section on my Mail Art published in the June/July issue of MixedUpMag, which I am super excited about! It's a digital magazine and available for you to read on any multimedia format via pocketmags. I've showcased some work, talked about how i got started and also listed some tips on how you van get started in Mail Art as well, so be sure to check that out :) Here's a little sneaky for you what is in issue 7:

If you've read my article/seen the video, let me know what you think :) 

Thanks again for stopping by and your support means a lot to me!

Have a wonderful day!

ATC: Freaky little thing - VLVS!

Today I'm sharing an ATC I have made with wonderful Viva Las VegaStamps! over at the inspiration blog. It's based on this month's challenge inspiration board. 

 

The gorgeous blue green colors of the mood board inspired me! We'd also like to inspire you with words like SPRING! flowers, doodles, buds, whimsical, patterns, checkerboard, stars, wings, Mary Vogel Lozinak, banners, green, teal, white, black... and whatever else you may be inspired from by seeing the mood board.

I've used a fun and easy resist technique for the background with heavy matte medium and ecoline. I find that the bold complimentary colors make the image on the foreground pop. If you have a look at my blog post over at VLVS! you can see more pictures and info on how I made this piece. Hopefully this will inspire you to play along with this month's challenge as well. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!

A strong case of duality

There are a lot of brush pens out there, but these Tombow dual brush pens have been around for a long time. I had tried them last year december at a workshop given by Miranda Degenaars in Posthumus Store in Amsterdam (where you can also buy them). It was great working with them, esp. since they blend nicely with water. I was trying to find an alternative for coloring to my Letraset and copic markers, which are not water soluble. I finally decided to get a few (ehrm... maybe a "few" is an understatement...) and did a couple projects with them already which wanted to share them with you here.

So I have been noticing the hand/brush lettering rage on the social media networks. There are a lot of tutorials on you tube on how to use these tombows for hand lettering projects. I watched a lot of them and found them very useful and illuminating! Thanks to everyone whom has taken the time to do videos and uploading them, they are very helpful! I found the blog ByDawnNicole very useful! Tombow also have their own channel and blog with tips and tricks on how to use the pens. Traditionally they are used to color with and you can create a lot of fun background and lettering effects with the blending tool and some water. By the way, the light bulb brain stamp is from The Stempelwinkel and it's one of my favorites :) 

The following projects I used a resist technique. 

On white card stock I stamped the tree image with versamark ink and wrote 'hallo' with the embossing dual pen. I used Wow Bright white embossing powder and heat set it. The embossed parts will resist the inks. You can see the colors I used on top of the card. I used the brush tip to color directly on the paper, used water and a flat brush to create smooth, non streaky layers. Then with the blending brush I blended the transitions in colors, also added some more color and water here and there until I was satisfied with the result. I wiped away any residual ink that was left on the embossed parts with a paper towel. Then I masked the tree and word and stamped the Carmen's Veranda birds in flight stamp on the sky with Staz -on Stone Grey. Beautiful simple and effective result!

At Art specially I also bought some Winsor and Newton Masking Fluid which I always wanted to try out. The base is a light blue card stock and I used a dip pen to write down "hartelijke groet" (translated "with kind regards" in English) on it. It dried up clear and then I colored the around and over the words. Spritzed it with water and used a flat brush to blend the colors a bit. I dried it with my heat tool, stamped the star stamp with Brilliance lavender on top and bottom of the words. I rubbed off the masking fluid, and the light blue words are showing clearly through the colored background. It surprised me that it stuck so well to the paper! Such a fun effect! I ripped the edges off and matted it on a black note card which make the colors pop out even more.

I am completely loving these brush pens and eventually (after long internal debate) got the full set of 96 colors (found a great deal on the set through Marktplaats otherwise yeah they are pretty costly to get!) with the desk stand. My little Meesha was helping me organize the colors in the numerical range which I then placed in the desk stand. 

They definitely do look awesome standing all together, don't you think? I'm looking forward to use these in more projects which I'll definitely be sharing with you here.

I have them standing on my desk now, which would, I hope, prompt me to use them often.  

What are favorite pens to color with? 

Have you tried these brush pens? 

Oh and If you don't follow me on instagram yet, you might like to know I am hosting a giveaway for a calligraphy pen

Giveaway I am hosting is still open until April 30th! Repost this picture with #MT2800giveaway and the CM calligraphy pen could be yours! #giveawayalert #Fpgeeks #FPN #fountainpennetwork #fountainpen #instagram #funtainpen #calligraphypen #giveaway #winwinwin

Een foto die is geplaatst door cheetarah (@missthundercat) op 23 Apr 2016 om 1:33 PDT

You can still enter until tomorrow :) 

Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderful creative weekend.

namasté