MASTERPIECE

it took me like 16 hours to make this one....after a Donna Karen Vogue Pattern...





and now I lost some weight (yay!) and it is TOO BIG!!
Anyone interested?

Secret Santa Sneak Peek

This ornament is on its way across the ocean......
Can't wait to see my secret santa ornament.. until today I have not yet received anything.

Do you remember....

.... the comforting sound of a sewing machine from when you were young and your mother sitting behind the machine, doing all these magical things with it?
I can't tell you how happy I am that the sewing machine is no longer a mystery to me, but a great tool that I can use to make the most adorable clothing for my little girl.
Like this (I used THIS tutorial to make it):



and this:



and my masterpiece for her until now... a fantastic 1st birthday dress:



I can tell you... it's ADDICTIVE!

Nothing more boring....

.... than a blog without regular updates :-)...
I actually stopped posting after the weekend Nat was in Amsterdam... a weekend soooo relaxing, that I tried to avoid the computer as much as possible in my free time!
We spend 2 wonderful days shopping, walking, relaxing and we already did some Christmas preparation shopping here and here. Nat got me the text stamp as a present..yay!!



Besides that I have been busy sewing and sewing and sewing. This new hobby of mine needs a lot of practice and consumes most of my free time.. which is fine by me. I always thought sewing was not my thing but I am loving it!!

I am currently working on this pattern with this cool Alexander Henry fabric "Birds of a Feather". Hope to finish it this saturday when I go to the 2nd day of the advanced sewing course (btw...that is my skirt on their homepage).



I am sorry to say that I missed out on a month of Sunday Postcard Art.. they continue to come up with great themes and beautiful cards!

Furthermore I joined the very first swap in my life:
The SECRET SANTA ORNAMENT swap.

ooops...I hear a baby crying... it's mine..gotta go now!
Later!!

HELP! I'm turning into a fabric junkie!

Taking sewing lessons is one thing...but before you know it..you find yourself scanning the web for hours for (free) sewing patterns and, worse, online fabric shops!
I have already ordered a few yard at Buy Fabrics Online, a webshop totally dedicated to the amazing prints of Alexander Henry Fabrics. Fast service and although the cotton is not really high (thick) quality, the cool prints make up for that!

I want to order some fabric at Reprodepot. Take a look and see the cuteness of all those japanese prints! aarrhghghghgh....
My advice for shopping here: don't forget NOT to look at the prices...just order and don't look at your creditcard receipt.

I tell myself everytime that instead of hoarding yards and yards of fabric I MUST actually make stuff with it before ordering some more.
Am trying here not to make the same mistake as I did with scrapbookpaper..
hoarding sucks! I have soooo much scrapbookpaper... I will never finish it!
Anyone recognize the problem?

It's that time of the year again....

..... Autumn is starting to manifest itself.
Leafs are falling, the house is getting a bit chilly in the evenings and the sun spreads a different light..... I am loving every minute of it.. at least this weekend haha!
For Sunday Postcard Art I made the following card for this weeks Autumn topic...
No deep thoughts this week, nor was I very inspired when I saw the prompt, I was just happy to use these leaves for the very first time...and I already have them for 2 years! I also got to use some of the new colours I got last friday of watersoluble Caran D'Ache crayons :-)



Enjoy your Sunday everyone and have a good week at work..or whatever it is you do this coming week!

Life is a circus....

.... and some people just can't handle that!




this weeks topic at Sunday Postcard Art is Circus.
Again, I did not want to go for the obvious tiger, clown, bearded lady, elephant.. and so on. Searching for inspiration led me to the one and only circus I have ever liked: Monthy Pythons Flying Circus :-)!
Their absurd sketches were my inspiration this week.
I have embedded one of my favorite sketches ever "The Lethal Joke"...
Warning..you might die laughing!




Enjoy your Sunday!

Rose is a rose is a rose...

A very busy week has gone by...without any time for creativity..until today!
For this weeks topic at Sunday Postcard Art I altered my favorite flowerpaper from Scenic Route and the text on the card was inspired by this quote

Have a good week everyone!

Postcard Make-Over Show

Not only are we being Amused to Death on television with one makeover show after another, at Sunday Postcard Art they want to you alter a "real" postcard this week and to give it a new look!
I say: "No problem!"

Here is my BEFORE



and AFTER



This altered nude is originally from painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani and I dressed her up a little and gave her some tattoos because nudity on blogs should be strictly forbidden!
JUST KIDDING!
Actually, when I first saw her I thought: "she hasn't got anything to hide"... so I can't explain why I covered her up...
Well..I love her anyway; dressed or undressed, she is just beautiful I think!

Enjoy your sunday and hop on over to the Sunday Postcard Art blog to see more make-overs

Week 5 already!

When you haven't seen the original collagesheet that was uploaded by Crowabout in the Flickr Crowabout group, it is hard to imagine that this bird was made out of a lot of square images that absolutely didn't look like a bird at all!
While cutting out the elements I was holding the sheet up side down and for some reason I then "saw" the bird! aaaah...I love being inspired!

(if you ask yourself why this image is so huge, I have copied the html code from my flickrupload of this image. Blogger would never make it this big)

Her name was Lola.. she was a showgirl

When I saw her face on the collagesheet..
this song popped into my head immediately

Easy does it

It's Sunday again and that means it's time to post a new postcard!
This week the theme at Sunday Postcard Art is "Crowns and Wings".



For some reason I had no problem whatsoever to make a card this week; it took me about 10 minutes and I felt immediately inspired when I saw the theme.
My design was based on the famous Irish Claddagh Symbol, but I replaced the hands with wings.. and the heart... well ... a heart is a heart :-).



Enjoy your Sunday!

I CAN SEW!!

I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!
I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!I CAN SEW!!



I subscribed to a 3 day sewing workshop in Amsterdam here and I had a great day!

Babette progress - 2

What can I say.... I love it!
I love working on it
I love seeing it grow
I love the idea seeing my mini-moi with this blankie
I love the colours
It's a great project and I totally advise it for everyone who wants to learn to crochet. If you finish this blanket you are sure you can crochet!
I taught myself using 2 crochet books of Jan Eaton:

- Encyclopedia of Crochet Techniques
- 200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets

These 2 books are all you need to become a crocheter :-). Have fun!

Collage with Crowabout week 2

Working backwards :-)... the group is already in it's 4th week...got some catching up to do!

Sunday Postcard Art - Mystic

Once again the prompt on the Sunday Postcard Art blog led me to a journey on the internet for inspiration. From Mystic River to Mystic Pizza and these 2 Wikipedia pages: Mystic & Mysticism.... I finally came up with the following:



Have a great week!
Hopefully I'll see you back later this week for a new Crowabout Collage (maybe 2), an update on my Babette Blanket, and the result of the first day of the sewing class I attended yesterday. There is also the possibility later this week for a new Studio DaphNat post... we are going to do some product testing this time :-).

Apparently she has bad breath....

Altough I'm not posting regularly at the moment..that doesn't mean I am not creating. Last 2 weeks I have been in a websurfing mood and I've encountered great blogs which will lead to more creativity on my part! More on that later this, or next week.

Visiting the blog of one of the Sunday Postcard Art hostesses, Mandy, my eye was drawn to this post of hers.
It led me to Nancy Baumiller aka Crowabout, and I found out about her amazing collage project in which I immediately wanted to participate!

Each week she posts a collagesheet in the Collage Play Flickr group and all the participants have to make something with (preferably all) the collage elements on the sheet! Have a look at what some of the others did here!, and enjoy my collage...inspired by one of the greatest singers of all time.....

The couple and the background are mine, the rest was taken from the collagesheet!

Sunday Postcard Art - Children

Pff..time flies when you have a baby and work 32 hours a week and feeling sick... But I have promised myself to not miss any of the Sunday Postcard Challenges, so a card might be the only thing I create in a week.... I need this creative time although it is not much.

The topic this week is Children!
Although it would be obvious to use a pic (altered) of Bincke, I decided not to go for the obvious. Instead I used a vintage diecut of a little girl. The black looking square is actually mirror paper, which I used so that you could look in to the mirror and see your own inner child haha...
Well....the scanner messed it up.



The background for this card was made a long time ago.
Now and then when I don't have inspiration to make a specific thing, I just start making backgrounds to be used in a later project. This one was made using versamark resist technique and Ecoline.
If you want you can copy it from my blog and use it in one of your own projects.
There is only 1 restriction: you gotta show me how you used it okay?



enjoy your sunday and have a look at all the other Children .

Love List

For a while now I have a bloglines subscription to Chrysti's blog.
I found her on Flickr while I was looking for vintage pictures
and I joined her group Collage images; an amazing collection of pictures to use in your personal artwork.

Just recently I ordered a book in which she is featured...but unfortunately it is not yet published :-(. Check out this amazing artist for yourself and have a look at her photostream on Flickr or visit her blog.

Because one of her photo's was published on the cover of one of the amazing Stampington publications: LIFE IMAGES, she now has a contest on her blog (which ends today... gosh..I'm slow!).
Click the link to see what it is all about.
I decided to enter the contest by writing a Love List

So here it goes....

I LOVE

the sound of my coffee machine,
the feeling of a cat's tongue licking my hand
to prepare a homecooked meal for my baby instead of prefab babyfood
the smell of Stazon
knitting
nailpolish on my toenails
to float on water with my eyes closed
walking barefoot
eating sushi
to do the laundry
buy new books
the smell of new leather shoes
buy second hand furniture
a fresh hot cup of tea
to see birds take a bath in a little pool left by the rain
the smell of grass after a rainstorm
to walk in the rain during summer (on my way home, not to work obviously)
to keep a little piece of chocolate in my mouth until it melts completely
apply paint to a canvas with my hands
sing out loud when watching Hair
making art on small surfaces
to talk with little children
to spend a lot of money on lingerie
trying on new shoes
to make soup
candles..although I never lit them :-S
to shower before I have breakfast
talking
small groups of people
second hand bookshops
Audrey Hepburn
to eat together
clean sheets
my hair being washed at the hairdresser
the feel of the wind on my face
saying hello to someone sitting next to me in public transport
tulips
my plastic Harry Potter cup
going to the craft store for acrylics and coming home with a bunch of supplies that I actually didn't need
writing this list... takes me longer than I thought though..

pffffffff...
Great exercise!
Try it yourself and join the contest on Chrysti's blog!

Sunday Postcard Art - Doors

A week has gone by since my last post...pfff... I didn't feel up to anything this week, maybe because the week started out so bad on monday with the most HORRIBLE CONCERT I have ever seen! I met my friend Danielle and her husband there...read their "reviews" of the concert on their blogs. I don't want to spend any more words on it :-(...

So..all in all.. I only got this postcard done this week, and I think it turned out great. The challenge at Sunday Postcard Art this week is Doors.. and I found my door right here.
Check out more doors on the Postcard blog. Enjoy your week!

Sunday Postcard Art - Bicycle.... where?

If I told you that the topic this week at Sunday Postcard Art is "On yer bike", would you believe me after seeing this card?

This is what happened:

I saw the topic, and the first thing that came into my mind was a sentence from this U2 song.
Then I tried to find the lyrics on the internet and ended up on this website.
there you have it... my inspiration for this weeks card :-)... a feminist approach!

Have a great week everyone...with a lot of sunshine :-)!

Sewing Project for Baby

Since THIS PROJECT failed because I have absolutely NO sewing experience whatsoever, I enthusiastically started a new one LOL!
But I just learned from my colleague who can actually sew that I have to finish it by hand.. hey..that they didn't say that in the pattern!
So now it lying here waiting to be finished... not sure when I am going to get to that!

Babette Blanket Progress

This project is actuall going faster than I expected,it is soooo easy to crochet a few of these blocks every evening...almost addictive! It is soo great to try out colourcombinations, and the good thing is that with crochet (as opposed to knitting) it is no problem at all to take away a row or two and start over with another colour.. when I have to do this when making a mistake with knitting, cold sweat appears on my forehead!
Sooo... I am enjoying this a lot now, especially with this warm weather... some white wine hehe....
However...I am not looking forward to weaving in all the ends, but I don't have to worry about that now just yet!

ATC - Skull

I love alcohol inks, but I hardly ever use them. So I still had some pieces of transparency lying around with from the "testing fase" when I just bought alcohol ink.
This ATC was made by stamping the skull with black Stazon on a transparency scrap. I attached it to some cardstock, also a scrap, that I covered with some Ecoline.



Do you dare to trade or is this one a bit too scary for you?
Of course when you want to trade you got to offer me something equally scary :-).

Sunday Postcard Art - Trees

This weeks theme at Sunday Postcard Art is trees!
My instant reflex was to create something happy and green but the creative process is unpredictable and this is how it turned out:
a depressed woman, behind a castle window.
Maybe she is depressed because it is winter....the tree is completely without leaves. She can't play outside in the haystack with the gardener because it is too cold outside and has to wait for Spring until she can finally meet her forbidden love again. Or maybe...well.. you can make something up yourself

Although the card looks a bit depressing did however start out with the happy tree paper from KI Memories..you can still see some of it shining through the background that was coloured with gesso and Ecoline.
The window is a stamp that I ordered at Stampfrancisco and I just cut out the empty space. This really is the BEST online stamping shop I have ever seen! Whatever you are looking for..they have it!



You might want to see more trees... then check out the Sunday Postcard Art blog or their new Flickr group...to see the complete collection.
Enjoy your sunday and come back later this week to see an update on my Babette Blanket, a scary ATC, and a cool sewing project in progress!

Very long term project :-)

I had seen them before on Flickr and have been wanting to make my own Babette Blanket , but knowing myself I will start with great enthusiasm.... to never finish the project, or it will take too long and I will lose interest, only to start something new again.

Well.. remember that layout that I made in 2007 using the word Patience as my word for that same year?
I am doing a lot better now on the patience part, but I also realize that practicing patience is an ongoing exercise...
This is why I decided to stick another year with this word instead of choosing a new one. First I have to master the art of being patient a little bit more.

Anyway...I just ordered the pattern online here
a few days ago and have started right away..very patiently ;-)


If you want to see why I fell in love with this blanket, check out these links and enjoy:
1. Photo 081,
2. IMG_3277,
3. babette border,
4. the squares laid out.

Studio DaphNat Modeling Paste Results

Do I need to say anything about this page (besides that it is the very first photoswap I ever participated in)?
I don't think so...she kicks ass and I love her for it!

Sunday Postcard Art - Dogs

It is Sunday and time for another Postcard Challenge!
The topic this week is Dogs. Those of you who know me and have been to my house know that I am a cat person.... BUT...I love dogs too and if I ever win the lottery so that I can by my dreamhouse I'll definitely buy a dog..or two.
Actually, the dog on the card was my own dog. When I was young I had a Dalmatian Dog. He was just too cute with all the spots.

To make the card I sanded the picture(you might have noticed that sanding pictures is a new hobby of mine), and outlined the dogs features wiht a black Posca Pen. I "coloured" the dog with some gesso. Easy technique, great result! The tree (el arbol) is a tiny card of a set of Mexican Loteria cards...
I added it because dogs and trees go hand in hand.

Check out the other dogs HERE

4x4 Friday - Fish

My recent love for creating on small surfaces has led me to finally participate in one of the challenges on 4x4 Friday.
I have been visiting this blog for a while now and I love the different interpretations of the topics that are posted each friday.
This weeks challenge was to create a 4x4 card, with fish!



I have some cool fish stamps but when I saw this picture that I made 3 years ago in the Curacao Sea Aquarium I knew I had to use it!
First I cut out the fish, then I sprayed some water on it... what's a fish without water, right?
Then I sanded it with coarse sandpaper, brushed some blue Ecoline on to it, sanded it some more, rubbed it with a babywipe and added some details with Posca Pens. Oh..and sanded it some more :-)

If you are interested in working with Ecoline, check out Stamping Mathilda's blog for tutorials on this product.
The paper on the background is from Love Elsie.





Wanna see more fish? Lookie here

Sunday Postcard Art- Cake

Hey it's monday, but I wish it was still Sunday...pfff...
but somehow I managed to make this card :-).
The cake? It was delicious... I instantly burst out of my weddingdress and all my teeth fell out when eating just one piece :-)!



What's a postcard without text? I used the lyrics from Connie Francis to inspire me



If you want more cake...hop on over to the Sunday Postcard Blog by clicking here

Enjoy the week everyone!

Studio DaphNat - Modeling Paste & Chalk

I know you have got a box of chalk lying around, just like me, not knowing what to do with it anymore. Thinking of throwing it away, because every time you see it you are reminded about the fact that you bought something (again!) without actually using it ;-), and you hate to think about that!



Well.. after reading this post you might want to reconsider throwing away your chalk because Nat and I tried a cool technique which involves the use of chalk. The only thing is...you might need to go out again(!) and buy something you probably don't have in your craft stash yet: Modeling Paste! If you are interested in what you can do with this product, check out this link

Back to business now. This time Nat chose the technique and she send me a photocopy of the technique, taken from "Scraptastic" by Ashley Calder.

What you need for the technique is the following:

Cardboard
Gesso
Modeling Paste (I used "Molding Paste" from Golden)
Chalk

The point of the technique is make a textured background on cardboard and Ashley Calder shows 2 ways to do this, but first you have to cover your cardboard with a layer of gesso, let dry and then apply some modeling paste. This has to be a smooth layer (I didn't listen and applied the modeling past with a paintbrush...)

The first way that is showed in the instructions is to wait until they modeling paste is dry and then sketch a design in it with a fine point metal stylus. Check out Nat's blog to see how she did this.
I chose to make the texture with stamps, by stamping in wet! modeling paste. Make sure to immediately! clean your stamp in water.

When everything has dried you can start to add some colour with your chalks! Finally! You are using them!

Visual aid for this technique:






Enjoy your Sunday and have fun trying this technique.. be sure to also check out Nat's blog; she has tried the stylus to make the texture!