WIP: It's all coming 'round (F* yes, we can!)

This past weekend was an amazingly hot one. We needed to get out of the house and we went to the beach for a nice walk. We wound up in Katwijk aan Zee where on Sunday the parking is free. Needless to say we were not the only people with this idea! So after a bit of driving to get a parking spot, we had some nice fresh fried Kibbelingen and off to walk to Noordwijk, which is about 45 minutes of leisurely walking. There we sat ourselves down, had a beer (or two) and a Fentimans Rose Lemonade (which is AMZINGLY GOOD - T-Stands for Tuesday girls, have you tried this beverage?!)  and out came our "toys" aka pocket notebooks and fountain pens for a little play session. The above pens are made by Woodshed pen Co, the Creme Brulee I did a post on a little while ago and behold the "mojito"! A thing of beauty!! I just love that minty sea green material. See a fun video of it HERE. After a shared Pizza and dessert, we had our evening walk back to the car. My calves still hurts from all the walking, but it was an amazing day!

My work in progress for this week is this die cutting project I am doing. Which is incidentally also a question raised at the WOYWW #421 post of today over at Julia's Blog - what is your fave cutting appliance? Mine would be my under used Cuttlebug! I have a flow magazine 365 perpetual mindfulness calendar. But after having it for 5 years, I am perpetually done with it! And of course I could just not throw it away, how mindful would that be? LOL, so I took a little round stamp and die which I bought from SPAMPlorations and put it to good use. I cut out a whole bunch of different images with this fun stamp & die and worked on an art journal page.

Here you see the journal page in progress. It has a circular theme to it with coordinating stencils (the crafter's workshop and carabelle studio) and stamping in the molding paste. I'm sorta sad I didn't do a process video for this one because the end result looks TOTALLY different from what you see here now. So I am glad remembered to show at least one work in progress picture here.

This is what the background looks like with added color and texture. It's always amazing to see how much color can transform a look of things. I used dylusions paints, caran dáche oil pastels, some Dina Wakley Scribble sticks here and there, dylusions and stampotique texture stamps and black fine liner paint (those handy dandy little squeeze bottles from Dina Wakley) for the circular outlines. I was contemplating on what to put on the pages or just leave it like this. But I had something that would fit just right...

This little well dressed lady is cut out from a vintage fashion mag and I just loved the way she looked here. Grey tones on a colorful background, it just fit. Of course, she needed to say something. And the look she has, tell me this...

The sentiment is contracted from two different stamps from VLVS, Fuck Head and Yes I can. With a black border around it I called this one done :)

I would like to enter this journal page to the following challenges: 

STAMPlorations Mixed Media Challenge June

And seeing I used a STAMPlorations product I am entering the never ending anything goes challenge as well :) 

Art Journal Journey - Circles theme 

Try it on Tuesday - letters / numbers or both 

Stamps and Stencils - Words with meaning challenge

Linking up to our challenge over at Viva Las VegaStamps! 

June is 'Flock of birds' with this juicy mood board

I am sure that we ladies are in it together (as a flock of birds) saying "fuck yes, WE can!"

Also wanted to mention that Dina Wakley and Ranger Ink have launched a new monthly challenge which is called "show us your MEdia" which invite artists to show their art work over at their social media with #showusyourMEdia. How I incorporate ME in my media? Well I always try to show ME in the work I am doing, a little quirkiness and humor, are always things I try to add. This spread being no exception. I don't really write in art journals but I do like to incorporate text stamps to phrase a particular sentiment I might be feeling at that point. Or to vocalize a tone the work I have done is saying. Thank for this fun new challenge Dina Wakley and team!

And with that mouthful I am wrapping things up today. 

Have a great day and see you again soon :)

Pens and Ink: Woodshed PenCo "Creme Brulee" with Diamine Golden Sands

We're in halfway through 2017 and I have realized I have not been sharing my pens and ink pairings  on the blog like I have planned to do. My art is now the main focus of this blog, but Fountain pens and ink are still a very big hobby of mine. I have been sharing them on my FP centered IG Pensandpolish and while I have entertained the idea of creating a separate blog for my Fountain Pen endeavors, it's just way too time consuming for me to do. So I will continue to share some of my favorite pairings on the blog here, esp. ones that are made by independent manufacturer/pen makers. Starting off with this gorgeous handmade pen from the up and coming pen manufacturer/maker Mike Allen from  Woodshed PenCo.

I've purchased this beautiful yellow golden colored swirly pen from Mike Allen at his sale on Instagram. He doesn't name his pens, but I dubbed this one "Créme Brûlée" because it looks like that beautifully burnt sugary caramel top of my fave dessert. The nib wasn't provided in this sale, but it takes the #6 size nibs I had a spare 1.1 nib from Franklin Christoph which fitted  beautifully on this pen. As for the ink I went with Diamine Shimmertastic Golden Sands, the color just matches the pen body perfectly. I've written on a Muji dot grid notebook on which the nib just glides and the ink shades and shimmers beautifully! 

My absolute fave of the first line from the Diamine Shimmertastic series. 

A little more about The Woodshed PenCo - Mike is an US Air Force veteran whom got into making fountain pens not too long ago. He shares his process on his Instagram and has set up a Kickstarter campaign. I was lucky enough to have bought from him through a sale he was having on his IG and he has sold his pens through Etsy as well.

He just has one type of model so far, but more could be in the works. The pens he has for sale are really well made. The model is a bit cigar shaped and the cap does not post. I do like posting pens (so I won't loose the cap) so it was a little getting used to, but now I know to hold it in my left hand when I write. The section is tapered and fits very elegantly in hand.

With every pen purchase you also get a hand knitted pen pouch/sleeve which is super fun! Not only does it protects the pen, but it also adds to the handmade feel for the pen :) I got a super yellow one with my pen which is awesome :)

If you're interested in one of Mike's pens, do follow his instagram and keep a watch out on his kick starter campaign. I am in no way affiliated with him, just a very happy customer and glad to support a small business. I am looking forward to a second pen coming my way and perhaps 3rd of his make will be added to my collection soon :)

 Oh by the way, if you want to have more updates on my fountain pen adventures, please have a follow on my Instagram account PensandPolish where I also try my very best to color coordinate nail polish to the pen and ink of choice. And if you post a color coordinated pictures in IG yourself with the hashtag #pensandpolish I'll feature you on my IG as well :) 

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