Pyssloteket firar sin makeover!

Pyssloteket firar sin nyligen gjorda makeover med en liten tävling. Tävlingen går ut på att skapa något i Pysslotekets nya färger, d v s turkost och blått. Tävlingen har tre kategorier, 1.) skapa en LO, 2.) skapa ett kort, 3.) skapa en art journal/canvas/ATC. Man kan vinna en gäst-DT plats för en månad eller ett fysiskt pris.

Jag har varit i stugan i helgen, stugan ligger på en ö. Jag har tagit mitt första dopp i och sedan har jag skurat altanen. Vattentemat i mina alster kom så att säga naturligt! Jag deltar i två kategorier, kort och art journal.

På kortet har jag använt två stämpelset från Paper Smooches. Bakgrunden är målad med två olika färger från Radient Rain/Luminarte, den skimrar lite vackert precis som vatten. Jag har stansat ut vattenbubblor med en vanlig håltång. Jag gillar inte att slänga saker så det utstansade fick även bli lite vattenbubblor kring fisken som simmar sin egen väg. Fisken är målad med Promarker och Wink of Stella.

You're special!

Närbild. Om man kollar noga kan man se
fiskfjällen glittra!

Jag älskar vatten! Jag älskar havet, sjöar, fontäner, bäckar, vattenfall och dammar. You name it! Jag mår så himla bra kring vatten. När jag var liten så fick mamma sitta och titta på fontänen i parken mitt i stan tillsammans med mig, det var vi och pensionärerna! Jag dras till vatten så det nästan är lite konstigt. När vi är ute och åker bil så dras mina ögon till bäckar och sjöar vi åker förbi på millisekunder. Jag missar inget. Jag känner en enorm attraktion till vatten. Det är mitt rätta element. Letade ett citat som skulle passa bra och hittade detta från Pippi Långstrump, faktiskt!





Min art journal

"I am the sea and nobody owns me"

MATERIAL:
STÄMPLAR:
Paper Smooches - Surf & Turf, Sentiment Sampler
FÄRG:
ProMarkers
Wink of Stella - Gl. Clear 999
Posca - vit
Artline - svart 0,3 och 0,1
LuminArte Radient Rain - Med Blue, Teal Zircon
Adirondack Acrylic Pain Dabber - Lake Mist
Lucas Cryl - Smaragd-metallic 4447
Panduro Acrylic - Titanium White,
M Scrapbook Colors - Marine, Manila
Pebeo Traditional Craft paint - Sage, Flesh Tone, Lagoon
ANNAT:
Zutter - Round-It-All
Håltång

Take the Challenge March 2015

 

It's right about time for spring!

Over at the blog of Faber Castell, Design Memory Craft, there is a challenge by Mou. She challenges us to create something with the prompt TIME. Well, I think it's right about TIME for spring!
I wanted to use the petals from the Technique Tuesday set as the pointers on a clock. My art journal was to small for it so I decided to make a piece to frame. There is still some time before spring comes here in Sweden, now I will at least have some flowers on my wall!

Oh, please spring! It's right about time!

I started by making a collage on a watercolor paper
and then I cut the paper to a square.

Added some gelatos.

Added a layer of gesso.

Added some dimension with modeling paste through a stencil.



Stamped some flowers, added some more gelatos.

Attatched the petals to make them look like pointers on a clock
and finally the dymo.

MATERIAL:
STAMPS:
Hero Arts: CL510 Sweet Threads Label
Technique Tuesday: Loves Me, Loves Me Not Large
COLOR:
Gelatos: guava, pistachio, bubble gum, butter cream, mango, metallic melon
PITT Artist Pen: scarlet red 118, permanent carmine 126, pink carmine 127
StazOn: Black
Kaisercolor Crafters Acrylic : White
Adironddack Acrylic Paint Dabber: Mountain Rose
Panduro Acrylic: Lamp Black 
OTHERS:
Watercolor paper
Art Basics Heavy Gesso
Patterned papers
Sheets from different books
Liquitex: Light Modeling Paste
Stencil from Claudine Hellmuth: Wall Flowes
Brads from Panduro
Fabric flower from YouDo
Plastic sheet
Dymo
Sewing machine and black thread

Pysslotekets jultävling

Jag vet inte om jag ska kalla detta inlägg för året sista eller årets första. Det känns som om jag håller på att ta nya tag med bloggandet och skapandet. Så det får bli årets första! Vi kör på nya tag och krafter!

Jag råkade ramla på Pysslotekets julutmaning och tyckte att den verkade spännande. Utmaningen var att skapa något i rött, turkost, vitt och svart efter en skiss. Hiskeliga färger, och jag har ju länge skytt rött. En riktig utmaning. Jag beslöt även att börja i min nya, helt oanvända art journal. En utmaning även det! Jag har tidigare skapat på lösa papper men 2015 ska bli i bokform.

Sista dagen att skicka in är idag, nyårsafton, och eftersom vi inte firar nyår p g a en skotträdd hund så sitter jag här i mysbyxor och otvättat hår i en knut och skapar och bloggar.  Men jag klagar inte! Jag hade nog gjort det även om Bea inte varit rädd, men kanske att jag hade tvättat håret åtminstone!

Så här är mitt bidrag. Bakom granen har jag först limmat ett tårtpapper. Bakgrunden är gjord med fyra olika röda nyanser akryl. Jag har duttat färg genom en snöflingeschablon för att få bakgrunden lite mer intressant. Granen är en bit tapet som fått lite kulor och pynt med tre olika nyanser av turkos akryl. Min hidden journaling finns bakom granen så den är dittejpad med washi i stället för fastlimmad. Lite Wink of Stella för att få lite glitter. Streck och stjärnor med vit och svart Posca och avslutningsvis så har jag sprejat lite svart akrylfärg för att få det lite mera grungigt. Toppstjärnan är stansad folie.

Första sidan i min nya art journal för 2015
(även om den handlar om julen 2014!)

Närbild

Detalj på tårtpappret och stjärnorna med schablonen
 



Pysslotekets skiss
 

Life Book 2014 - week 25

Life Book 2014 - week 25
Main lesson: Reverse Excavation with Effy Wild

This was an interesting lesson. I liked the idea of working for 15 minutes a day, but I think my painting just got worse and worse as the week passed. I didn't know how to save it. It was not until the final day as I managed to rescue it. Actually, I'm quite pleased with it now. It ended up as a self portrait - although my hair isn't that golden! ;-)

Day 1 - collage

Day 2 - paint and stencils



Day 3 - mark making and doodling

Day 4 - create focal images

Day 5 - shading and glazing

Day 6 - tending

Day 7 - tending

Life Book 2014 - week 14

It's still raining here so I spent another day in my studio and I chose to make week 16 - Springtime Journaling Collage Bonus Lesson with Dyan Reaverly. This was also just what I needed right now! Amazing! I love Life Book!

I loved to see how quick Dyan was working. She, just like Traci Bautista from week 16, made multiple pages at the same time not to waste any ink. It was also very nice to have all the material used for a change. The only thing I didn't have was the stamps so I drew my flowers and skipped the stems.

I haven't seen much of Dyan before but I've understod that she is a very colorful person with lots of make-up and bright red hair. In this video she had no make-up to help raise awareness for cancer. I did the opposite! I normally don't wear make-up but I actually went to put some on before I started creating just to make myself a little more colorful when I was going to create like Dyan! I think it worked! I'm happy with my colorful piece!

Dyan told us that we didn't have to be deep or profound when art journaling, she wrote just to empty her head because the journaling was not ment to be read again. I did the same. I emptied my head and it felt good. There's a lot going on in my mind right now. So many sad things have happened the past year and I need to focus on being grateful for what I've got instead of dwelling in the past. It's up to me to decide. And just when I finished my piece my aunt called and wanted us to go and plant flowers on my mother's grave. So, I am thankful that I've had a mother for 41 years, I'm thankful that I've got money to buy flowers to put on her grave and I am so grateful that I still have my aunt!

The phrase Dyan used suited me perfectly so I used the same. That phrase really spoke to me. 'Bloom where you're planted'. I need to remember that.



'Bloom where you are planted'

The material I used

Life Book 2014 - week 16

I am so behind in Life Book. In order to catch up a bit I decided to start with a lesson that looked quite easy and quick to do. Little did I know that I had to make my own stencils and rummage around the house to find different utensils for mark making in this Main Lesson: In the Moment with Traci Bautista! It took all night! I left my husband all alone in front of the tele! But I had so much fun. This was just what I needed right now.

Traci tought us to be and create in the moment and not to think too much about what we were doing. She works on multiple pages at the same time. Besides the art journal page she made she cleaned her tools on another page which she uses later on. I did the same thing. I created one page and cleaned my tools on another page. I actually don't know which turned out the best! Interesting! I believe I learned a lot from this workshop. I need to let go and just be in the moment. I also loved Traci's way of doodling and writing illegible at times.

I hade to substitute a lot of stuff and it didn't work out very well. I had no china marker and no Collage Pauge so I used a transparent wax resist crayon and some school glue instead. It didn't create much of a resist at all even though the glue created some nice texture. Instead of the Tulip Slick dimensional paint I found a dimensional fabric paint and some gloss gel I haven't used in ages. I don't know what effect the Tulip Slick dimensional paint gave so I think my substitutes worked out quite well.




My In the Moment art journal page

My cleaning-my-tools art journal page!

The material I used

Life Book 2014 - week 4

Week 4 of Life Book 2014 was a bonus lession: Be True to You with Kelly  Hoernig.
We were supposed to find a symbol that we could relate to (I chose a star), at least three things that we love (I chose an Italian text, die-cut stars, rubber stamps, handwriting and quotes). We were going to work with the colors from the first lession but I chose pink, red, orange and yellow. I love the bright and happy effect  they give when you combine them. Then we were supposed to use our word for the year again, but I got lost in finding a quote that I liked. I like the sentence "We'll be counting stars" but I ended up with the whole chorus from the song 'Counting Stars' with OneRepublic. I really like that song and I would like to count some more stars in 2014!



MATERIAL:
A page from an Italian book
Liquitex Matte gel Medium
Gesso
Die-cut stars
Panduro Acrylic: primary yellow, orange yellow, vermillion, fluorescent pink
Clear Art Stamps: Fairies Medium SM05
Distress Ink Pad: Black Soot, Pumice Stone
Dylusions Ink Spray: White Linen
A wooden die-cut in the shape of a star
Crackle accents
Staedtler Pigment Liner 0,8
White Posca Pen

Life Book 2014 - week 3

The third week of LB2014 was a main lession: Creativity & play with Carla Sonheim. It consisted of seven creativity exercises in order to create more freely and not getting hung up on 'perfection'. And an envelope pocket to store what we created in.
The exercises were One-Liners, Eyes-Closed Zebras, Wrong-Handed Knick Knacks, Imaginary Flowers, Animals in Tape, Found Poetry, and Blob Animals. I had so much fun! I will sure have use of what I learned later on. It was so freeing to create like this! Loved the lession!

MATERIALS:
Pastel colour: green, brown
Gesso
Watercolours: red, white, green
Spray fixative
Tim Holtz Tissue Tape
Masking tape
Staedtler Pigment Liner 0,8
Page from old book
 

Life Book 2014 - week 2

The second week of LB2014 is a bonus lession: A happy affirmation with Micki Wilde (The Secret Hermite). She challenged us to work with grey's and neon colors. We were also going to chose a Word for 2014. I chose bliss! I want bliss in 2014.
Normally I don't use a lot of grey but, as usual, I really liked to try something new. I'm not in love with arrows so I made hearts instead. You can either think of them as arrows pointing into the circle or as hearts spreading from the circle.

MATERIAL:
Gelatos: Squid Ink, Silver Ice, Earl Grey, Coconut
PanPastel: Paynes Grey Tint
TCW381s: Mini Quatrefoil
Chalk Markers; yellow, green, blue, Purple
Adirondack Acrypil Paint Dabber: Lake Mist

Life Book 2014 - week 1

The first week with Life Book 2014 has been just awesome! The first lession was by Tamara Laporte and we were to create our Inner Artist Guardian after a meditation. I knew that my Inner Artist Guardian was going to give me a color (I wanted it to be purple, orange and white) and a word (I wanted it to be 'accept') for this year to come. Nothing much happened during the meditation but just after the color petrol and the word 'heal' came to me. In order to heal I have to accept so I used both words.

I enjoyed the building of this painting in different layers. It has showed me that the first layer doesn't have to be perfect, it is something that I can adjust later in the process.
I had so much fun creating my Guardian Angel! I have been thinking of the song Guardian Angel by Nino de Angelo during the whole process. Oh, how  I used to love this song! And how I used to love Nino de Angelo! ;-)
Really, really good first lession!

My Inner Artist Guardian!

Close-up

Starting with the background

Some shading and some collage

First layer of the face

The first sketch

MATERIAL:
Watercolor paper - Moulin du Coq 325 g/m²
Pencils, different kinds
Neocolor II - Salmon, Salmon pink, Azurite Blue, Malachite Green
Distress Paints - Chipped Sapphire, Seedless Preserve, Moved Lawn
(to the face a mix of Wild Honey, Victorian Velvet, Antique Linen and some white acrylic)
Gelatos - Metallic Mint
Gesso, white
Mod Podge
Posca - white, black
Gel pen, white
Liquitex - Light Molding Paste
Diams - Vernis scintillant
Distress Ink - Black Soot
Stencil - TCW325s - Mini Swirl Garden

'Take the challenge' - November - all my projects...

The challenge over at Faber Castell in November was to show any project you are working on and this was an easy one! Boy, do I have projects in my craft room?! ; )

This is a mould for sponge cakes but it has a small hole in it so it is useless for baking. In an issue of Craft Stamper there was an article about making candle light holders with tins, Alco Inks, glitter and sequins and this is how far I've gotten. In Sweden we use candlesticks with four candles and light one candle each Advent. A very pretty tradition! Thought that I could stick four candles in this mould and fill it up with salt so it looks like snow. Could be very pretty, or could be very tacky! We'll see! ; )

This might be the beginning of my Christmas cards, I haven't decided yet! I bought this set - for children! - because there was a mould for making envelopes, which is quite unusual to find in paper making sets. I made a bunch just to try it out! It was fun!

These are two bags - for children again! (what is wrong with me?!) - I bought at the flea market. I plan to alter them. The spotted bag is in some kind of fabric and quite cute just as it is. I'll probably just stick some flowers and charms to it. The bag with skulls is in paper and I don't like it at all. I will cover it completely.

Oh, dear. I have been cleaning in one corner of the house just to leave the things piled up in another corner in the house. The blue labels are to put on envelopes from back when I was writing letters. They will go in to my art journal. One day. The alphabet stickers are to put on a suitcase, will also be used in my art journal, one day, as well as the wine label (Peacock - a really nice white wine and with such a pretty label!). One day.
I don't remember neither the English word nor the Swedish word for the squares at the bottom of the photo. It's like a chart with colors that you take from the shop when you can't decide what color to paint with. These are white and I thought of using them for the Christmas cards. Just have to nick a few more! ; )

These are Pringles tubes which I plan to make boxes to keep candle-ends in. In our summerhouse we have a special candlestick to put candle-ends in. I guess this is something typical Swedish too because when I tried to google it I couldn't find something in English.

On top of my Katy Crane calender challenge, which I still have from may until now to finnish (sigh...), there are small wooden cutting boards. My uncle gave them to my other uncle to put into the fire but my father rescued them for me! I'm thinking of painting them black and writing some recipies in white, maybe like a chalkboard. Could be really nice!

 

And finally, this is what I started working today, inspired by what Mou showed in the November challenge. We are getting ...ehum... three kittens over the next few weeks and these are art journals, one for each kitten, to help me to find names for them. I haven't gotten so far yet but will continue tomorrow, though it's just about time to find names for them. We have one Alice, one Bea and one Curry. Thought of finding names on D, E and F, just for the fun of it! ; )

'Take the challenge' October 2013

This month the challenge over at Faber Castell's blog was to create something that represents your cherished secret dream. Of course I have some dreams. Some of them I want to keep to myself but I have one dream that I can share. I really like to sing and would I like to sing more! I want to sing not only for my pets! I want to start in a choir. I'd like to take singing lessions and I'd really like to sing the opera! I want to be admired. But I'm to shy. I always sing in the shower and in the car listening to the radio. I have no idea if I can sing or not but once when I sang my cat bit me in the thigh! Oh, well! ; )

When I started thinking about the challenge and what I wanted to do I saw 'The Scream', the painting of Edvard Munch in front of me. I exchanged his anguished figure with my singing diva but tried to keep the background somewhat true to the original, but with brighter colors. I wanted to make it a bit happier but still that one can see the resemblance. Did you know that Munch made four different versions of this painting? I think this only one will do for me! ; )

 

The eyelashes are painted with Stickles
and the mouth with glitter glue



The earring in shrink plastic with a secret message!
 



The first layer of the painting with gelatos.
 



MATERIAL:
STAMPS:

Basic Grey: wild flowers/division b2 sta-1341

ARTEMIO: rèf 10001188

heidi grace: Day Dream Believer
OTHER:
Watercolor paper

Gelatos

Stamper's Big Brush

Gesso (transparent)

Black pen
StazOn: Jet Black

Shrink plastic

Quickutz pendant die

Glitter glue, pink

Glitter flakes from Panduro

Stickles: Black Diamond

I won the 'Take the challenge' June 2013!!

Yep! I sure did! And I'm so happy! Look what the nice people at Faber Castell sent me!

The parcel!

The content!