Summer is at its end!

When you do things from your soul you feel a river moving in you, a joy

Had so much fun making this spread.... 

The Flamingo was Happy Mail from Becky and the Pin up girl

was a card through Postcrossing from Russia!

I love these colors! Also love the Qoute ...

She arted again!

YAY!!! ... She arted again!

I have been under the weather and on and off sick.
And ... it was so tropical hot in the Netherlands, far too hot to do anything inside....

But .. As you noticed ....I have arted again! Here are my latest pieces!

The first three are in my new mini-moleskine, I really like the format!

This is in my new Gluebook, mostly cut & paste

 

This is aWatercolor Moleskine Sketchbook

A4 size - I finished this spread,the faceI had already done earlier !

Trying to find my own style!

Vintage style, antique card in my Mini journal

Bought a Mini Moleskine Scetchbook - love the size!!

"on the other side of fear lays freedom"

 

My latest spread!

 Collage/mixed media

"The purpose of our life is to be happy!"

Finally I made another page, Birthday and vacation where in the way.

For that Bday I got many great materials.

For an art prompt Shades of.... I made BLUE

Mothersday Spread    13 may 2012

I had such a great Mothersday this year.
It was the first time since my daughter lives on her own.
She took me for a Grand High Tea, afterwards we arted together, it was lovely! 

FACES

The last couple of weeks in BOD we did some Faces

It was fun but I somehow end up with the same

cartoonish style, I wish I could make them different

gotta work on that :)

After watching a lot of SHE Art Videos

I had to try these techniques myself! 

So I bought three canvas artpanels (half A4)

 Boy ... did I have fun! 

I loved working with the 3d modelling paste (top left corner ) 

and I think on this I used all my stuffs! :) 

Two of them went to a couple of my best dutch friends 

for their Birthdays  last weekend.

The blue one I made just for ME !

By the way - You can ORDER one if you like !

Mail me for more info please ! 

On Facebook , 
I overheard some people talking about 

"What is your Animal totem"...

I looked it up on Google and found some crappy 
Quizes about the theme. 

Everytime I took one I had a different totem....GAH! 

That didn't work obviously.

Then I started thinking... 
what Animal has been and is sort of always around me... 

As I child I was always on the look out for Ladybugs.
I even held them in jars! But never too long..

They tend to land on me a lot, 
and I always make sure they are okay 
and fly away again safe.

When we moved back to our house with our Office,

we cleaned and I found a Ladybug 
(mind you: this was in january!)

Later on that day, sitting outside having a beer in the springsun,

 one landed on my chair!       So ..... LADYBUG it is! 

  

left page

Love all the things that belong with the Ladybug totem, 

they really resonate !

 

right page

Funny thing is, my soul-mate and me are totally in love 

with Holy Mary Statues. We have at least 10 of them

standing around in our living room!

And guess what: The Ladybug used to be called  

"Beetle of our Lady"

Gotta love it!:D

This was the first SOULISTRY spread I made in the first week of april 

and I have to admit... I really LOVE IT.

Working on this was so wonderful!

The week was already very special, spiritually wise. 

One evening I had picked a great Goddess Oracle card (by Doreen Virtue)

The Goddess was Ixchel ...

 31 march 2012

This spread took loooooong, I just couldn't get the background 

and layering the way I wanted it..

The angel is dressed in antique French lace :)

4th april 2012 

I am really happy with this one, but the face wouldn't have worked

 without the guidance of Effy Wild  

 (Being a Fairytale Lover, I picked a quote 

from Hans Christian Andersen)

 This has become my spread for the entire Month of March

Here are the Close ups

The pages speak for themselves I think :)

March was just so good for me!

 The Spring weather, my work and my relationships,

even online in the Book of Days Sisterhood  

... my dear sisters in Art.

Lots of Mind-fullness going on :))

I am totally in balance with myself

and so GRATEFUL for everything!

THE EARTH LOVES IN FLOWERS

These pages I made over last week.

Inspired by Effy Wild's video of monday and
Milliandes Seed journal

First I did the backgrounds. Gesso and lots and lots of layers...

 Mind you, after the first layers I actually got up from my chair, 

and stood painting like a real artist *lol*

I even started to fingerpaint out of the bleu.
And my new BFF the Brayer did its job!

(The red heart was send to me by Pattie B. !)

 

The poppy's and poppyseeds are my '3 am people' and all the new
ones that have come into my life through Book of Days

I was really going out of my comfort-zone artwise here!

I am always terribly neat and very organized.

It almost felt like I ran a fever, I have never been so dirty after arting!

It was so not me, so new and so out of the box

it felt GREAT!

BOD Volume #2

My Book of Days volume 2 is ready to go! :)

I think this one will be a crossover between  
Art journal and Junque Book of Days

I am happy with the cover and the back, the colors are warm
and the layering is deepand I feel totally in Balance with it.
Worked on it for more than 5 hours!

Of course my word of the Year : CHERISH 

will be remained, it feels just what it should be for 2012!

Before I got totally hooked on mixed media in my Book of Days, I did a lot of arting on smaller pieces of paper! I was (and still am) totally in to ATC - MAKING and ALTERING ROLODEX CARDS....


If you are interested, here are some examples

Click here for more ATC's 

And here are some examples of my Rolodex Cards
  
Click here for more of My ROLODEX cards

Some people really liked the Postcards I was talking about before!

These are mostly from my active Post-crossing time

Want to see my complete COLLECTION?

Go here:   My Picasa

"I found my family in a Book"

The prompt of this spread read :Who are you really?

I have had a crush on Japanese culture for my whole life and by that

 I mean especially the Maiko and Geisha !

 I am just so interested in their culture, the clothing and the traditions.

I am corresponding with some lovely Japanese women.

I have a large collection of Japanese Art Postcards 

you can see them here: Japanese Art Postcards

And here are my Cultural (Geisha/Maiko) Postcards
 Japanese Culture Postcards

So that's where this page came from 
The Dutch Geisha and that is of course me :)

The rest of the spread is Journalling about 
a trip to one of my fave Artshops ...

well a Artsy girl never has enough stuff and supplies lol...

The japanese symbols say "I love myself"

and YES... that is the pretty truth after almost 50  years !

Bon Dia :)

 I am back after a great sunvacation in the Antilles

 

                                                  

This is my Valentines-spread,
I was so inspired after a couple of wonderful snorkeling trips

we made, when we were on our yearly vacation in Aruba!

We spend lots of hours on the beach (with a good book)
and in the wonderful blue Carribean waters.
Everything underneath the surface is so (!) sound and peaceful.

The silence, the fish, the colours and just you and your heartbeat.

I love it, it gave me so much energy!

 TOAST RULES

* What were you taught and told as a child? *

Next to "Always wear clean underpants, 
you just never know if you end up in a hospital"

and also

"Don't ever complain, carry the burden and pray for better "

I was constantly and always told : First the bitter, then the Sweet!

 Looking back on that: This saying would apply to almost everything! 

The chores you had to do, at family visits (gets you wondering), 
the food on your plate, on vacations and during Holidays.

First the suffering and then the reward....

 I still do it ..... lol ... get the shit out of the way and play with the nice!

I don't think I have taught my daughter any of these, I'll ask her! :)