Journal Page

Today I'm sharing a page I did yesterday.
That I would use pink (waaaay out of my comfort zone) and grey was the only thing I knew when I started.
This is what it became in the end

Ingedients involved:
Palette knife, acrylic paints, DIY and other stencils, one handcarved stamp and one from the fabulous Master Andy Skinner, Stabilo all marking pencil, a google search for quotes on women, Derwent graphik line painters black and white and wonky handwriting :-)

It reads
Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.
(by Virginia Woolf)

Thanks for having a peek.
Hugs, Suzanne xx

pimped notebook

Hi everyone ...
I'm so sorry I haven't been around for some time. Life - you know.
As a member of the blogger outreach program I pimped a notebook. It was plain silver and I didn't like its look.

front

 back

At first I primed everything with gesso. For the front cover I used the peeled paint technique as a background and added modeling paste throuhj stencils, Andy's snake's web.. Finally I applied some paints and metallic lustre with a small piece of cut'n dry foam. The cover was sealed with decoupage glue in the end.

On the back I stencilled Andy's sculduggery and painted everything over with paynes grey.This was rubbed off in some areas and more paint was added.

Decoart products I used:

gesso

modeling paste

decoupage glue

paint

americana acrylics yellow green

eggshell

pineapple

mississippi mud

transparent iron yellow oxide

metallic

dark patina

 

fluid acrylics

paynes grey

quinacridone gold

green gold 

metallic lustre

cosmic blue

orange flicker

stencil

snake's web 

Thanks so much for stopping by and having a look. Have a great weekend everyone ... finally it's warm and sunny around here.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

mini Voodoo Kit

Hi all ...
Long time no see .. I'm so sorry. But I won't go into details.
As a lucky member of the decoart outreach program I (see sidebar) I'm sharing a mini Voodoo kit in a shadow box today.

For the background I used the image transfer technique with the pic of a Voodoo doll from the web (not to be recognized anymore ;-)), applied crackle glaze clear and washed quin gold and yellow iron oxide into the cracks

I had a small mini Voodoo booklet for many, many years. From this I copied a few pages and aged the paper a bit (distress ink stains, Aquawax, quin gold ...).

I also had two knobs from a certain Swedish furniture shop that I rusted with reactive metallic paints and adhered them to either side of the box.

The little bottle has been treated with crackle glaze, matte medium and quin gold and wrapped with a rusted wire (vinegar, salt, water); the bottlecap was treated with reactive metallic paints again.

For the frame I used an Andy Skinner technique that he teaches in one of his online workshops, some decoart americana paints and antiquing cream burnt umber and carbon black.

Finally everything was assembled.

 

Products involved:

• Decoart Americana acrylic paints light and dark avocado, carbon black, yellow iron oxide.
• Decoart media fluid acrylics quin gold, paynes grey
• Decoart antiquing creams burnt umber, carbon black
• Decoart media crackle glaze clear
• Decoart media satin varnish matte
• Decoart matte medium

Thank you ever so much for stopping by, hope you like the shadow box.

Have a great day everyone.

Hugs, Suzanne xxx

workshop retreat and other inspirations

Hi all, a warm hello to those who are still visiting :-) I'm so happy to see you here.
As it is - and will be at least for the rest of the year - (you and) I will have to settle for occasional posts and comments only further on. Family- and the rest of everyday life has become a struggle for me for quite some time and I/we need lots of time and patience.
Of course I'll do my share for my favourite design team from the de stempelwinkel blog but I have no clue how regularly I'll be able to share something else on my blog.

That said, I wanted to tell you about last Saturday, Oct. 25th.
I've been to Ede/NL, home of one of my favourite shops: de Craftorij. Lia and her busy and invaluable team had organized a craft retreat for Saturday and Sunday. I decided to join Andy Skinner's workshop. He shared some of his gorgeous timeworn techniques, using examples of wallhangers with a base from foam board. It's great stuff to work on :-)
This is what I did with all those yummieh fluid paints, embellishments, and loads of other terrific stuff Andy provided us with:

It was - once more - an overwhelming experience to join one of Andy's workshops and I just can't thank Lia and her team enough to keep cooperating with him and thus giving me and all the other enthusastic fans :-) the chance to learn from this great artist! :-D As I got to know him - well, the little bit I did *g* - Andy is a fun, patient, relaxed, down to earth .... kind of guy and I enjoy participating in his artistic skills an awful lot.
So, enough sweet talk, just take the chance to experience for yourself, you won't be disappointed.
I just relished working more or less concentrated (good thing you didn't see me, my cluelessness, and my mess LOL) in a relaxed atmosphere with so many talented ladies and without feeling the need to talk nonstop. I'm looking forward to the next time.

I also met and talked to some stunningly gifted and interesting ladies too, of course.
It would be unfair to name some and others not, so I'm just mentioning Miranda Bosch-Thurlings, who just released her first Art Journal book and who is rightly proud of it :-) It contains many many tipps and examples as well as comprehensible steps and explanations to start art journaling right away. Congrats, Miranda! Very well done.

Following one of her youtube tuts I painted a mobile case these days:

This, too, was lots of fun to do and I'm sure it won't be the last piece I made. Sadly I can't find anything suitable to treat like this around here at home just now ...

That's it so far.
Thanks so much for paying a visit and your patience with me ... hopefully :-)
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

DAY #15 OF THE 31 DAYS OF HALLOWE'EN – the book of secret ingredients

Hi all ...
Halloween is around the corner and we, some of the designteam of the de stempelwinkel designteam blog, are happy to join in. You can find the details here.

It's my turn again and I'm sharing one of Tim Holtz' configuration boxes:

Please hop by the de stempelwinkel designteam blog and follow the Halloween-ish makes the dt members will create for the hop.

Thanks so very much for stopping by.
Have a great day everyone.
Hugs, Suzanne xxx

Book of Redemption

I've been lucky enough to get a place in Andy Skinner's 'Cracked Angel' workshop at De Craftorij in Ede/NL (if you ever have the chance to visit this shop - do so. It's absolutely great and run by very nice and generous ladies) - and what a terrific day it has been!!! It was so totally worth the trip I took far abroad (have been on my feet from 5 am to 10.30 pm *phew* - so very unusual for me...) LOL

I'm so very delighted to have met Lia - one of the nicest shop owners I ever met; I certainly will visit her shop again as soon as I get the chance to :-D (of course the other lady has been very nice, too - shame on me I don't even know her name :-()- Elly and Alie whose artwork I love. 
In a very relaxed and familiar atmosphere we (a group of 14 women - poor Andy LOL - whom I enjoyed very much meeting, too :-) ) were shown and told through various steps to alter a wooden book box - and this is my result:

front cover

back cover

details

the spine

and the drawer

To be honest I didn't think I'd be 'good enough', but I'm quite happy with the result. I certainly will do some more.
Thanks to all the parties involved for an extremely extraordinary day!!
(I also used the opportunity to stock up with stuff - my poor purse was aching - will show my sins later ...)

Hugs, Suzanne xxx