A bit of this and that

The last two weeks have been a bit of a mixed creative bag. I'm not a great cook, and it's not something I particularly enjoy. I cook because I prefer home cooked food prepared with fresh ingredients instead of processed, pre-packaged ready to make food. I've become much better at it in the past few years, but I don't really quite know what I am doing. What has become more and more important for me recently, is that I use as much local and seasonal ingredients as possible. My recipe need to be quick and easy, and to require as few pots and pans as possible - three is definitely the absolute limit I can handle. I like using the oven. Shove it in and wait till i'ts ready. A couple of years ago, I started an illustrated recipe book, to collect recipes that work for me. I call it "The Onion-free Cookbook", because I hate onions, and I've never bought an onion in my life. Me and onions, we really just don't get along. It's enough for a waiter to walk past my table with freshly cut slice of onion for my eyes to start to sting and burst into tears. I haven't got very far with my recipes, but I've finally added an other one. Puff pastry pizza.

I haven't been very successful with my daily faces project. It seems that whenever I enjoy doing something and turn it into a little project or challenge, I immediately lose interest in it. I have been drawing faces, just not every day. But I've drawn other things too, so it's alright, really. At the moment, I love using all kinds of black pens.

They both look a bit grumpy and disapproving. I can relate to that. I'm not happy that there is no sign of snow yet. And when you do some lettering, it's always a god idea to really concentrate on what you're writing, and not let you get distracted...

These two pages started with the cup of tea on the left, but I thought that just adding "Earl Grey tea" was a bit boring, so I looked up some facts about Earl Grey tea and added them. I so much enjoyed doing that page, that I decided I wanted to do another one next to it. At the moment, you can get "Grittibänze" everywhere. They are a bread roll shaped like a little man. They're traditionally eaten on the 6th of December, but these days, it's more than just the one day. And since I had just bought one for my breakfast, I thought that would make a good page. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add some colour to the cup of the and the Grittibänz, or if I should just leave them as they are, black and white.

Two weeks ago, I finally started working on my Christmas cards for this year. Since I was a bit late, it had to be quick and easy. A little Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer-Robin was quickly carved, stamped and painted. 

Then I stamped the text. The Swedish version is definitely the easiest. The English isn't too bad either, but the German one definitely the trickiest and needed a lot of concentration. Unfortunately, most of my cards are in German.  The writing is the hardest part of all, but I'm glad to say that they've all been sent now.

And for the first time ever, I've made some "Wienachtsguetzli". In the German speaking countries (and probably in some other countries too), it is customary, to bake Christmas biscuits in December. There's a whole range of them, and many people bake different varieties. I decided that two were enough. The first ones I made (on the right below) were "Mailänderli", which are probably the most popular ones ever. They're a bit like shortbread. The traditional glazing is egg yolk, which gives them a rich golden colour, but you can add a bit of variation. I used lemon icing on some of them (top ones), which is why they look a bit pale. The other ones (on the left) are "Zitronestärnli". They were a bit of a pain to make. The dough is made of ground almonds, sugar, lemon zest and a bit of egg white. Try ot roll that out! I'll probably never do them again, but I'm glad I tried. And I'm happy to say that they all taste quite alright.

At the end of November, I spent a day in Schinznach. It was a beautiful autumn day, and I went for a walk along the river, taking some photos.

Stamp carving and a little pattern on a rainy Sunday afternoon

Even if I haven't done it very much, I love carving stamps. It's such a nice process. Drawing your design first, either directly on to your stamp block or first on a piece of paper and then transfering it on to the block, and then slowly carving off all the excess linoleum, until your design emerges. And then the first test stamp to see how it all turns out. Some more refinements, until you're happy. And what a joy when it turned out quite well.

I really like how this one turned out. It was just a quick one, drawing the leaf directly on to the (inked) block, and the carving didn't take more than 10 minutes. Of course the time depens on whether you want just the lines to stand out and the rest white (like I did with my Christmas card stamp, which took a lot longer), or the other way round, like here, which is a lot quicker. The first option allows you to colour your desin in with, for example watercolours, while with the second option, the colours comes from the ink you stamp with, and gives the whole a much more printy look.

And of course the good thing with having carved a stamp is, that you can use it again and again and again. And also create some nice patterns too.

I definitely want to spend more time making my own stamps. I'm thinking of doing a little series of different leaves. Which I think means another lunch time trip to the art shop, as I've only got very few stamp blocks left. Yay!

Silent Night White Christmas cards and bulb growing

For years and years, I've been wanting to make my own Christmas cards to send to friends and family, but apart from the odd card, I've usually ended up sending bought ones in the last moment. But this year, I was determined to make them myself, from start to finish. As the easiest way to get the same motif on a number of cards is by stamping it, I had to make a stamp first. I haven't really carved a whole stamp before, so I decided to go with a simple design. A bit rustic, reminding of an old wood carving.

And here's the pile of finished cards, all coloured in. Now comes the hardest bit. Writing them. I'm not good at all at writing cards. It always makes me happy to get beautifully written Birthday and Christmas cards, and I always marvel at the eloquence of the writers, wishing I could do it too. But I can't. I'm just rubbish at it. I never know what to write. So I hope that this year, the cards will make up for the writing. And then I just hope that the recipients will enjoy the receiving the cards as much as I enjoyed making them.

I've also caught the bulb bug. A few weeks ago I read about the different bulbs you can use to grow lovely flowers for you home in winter in a magazine, and decided to try it out myself. Now of course, amaryllis bulbs aren't anything new at all. But I think I had one once, years and decades ago, and I can't even remember if anything ever came out of it. So I thought I'd give it a try this year. I bought one called Aphrodite, a white one with pale pink around the edges, that came ready planted in a pot. I'm totally enjoying watching it grow from one little green tip just visible, and I've been drawing the stages in my sketchbook every week. And they grow so quickly! And there's definitely a flower pod beginning to appear. Can't wait until it starts blooming! I bought another, smaller, white one, too, and I'm thinking about getting a couple of crocus bulbs too.

Dreaming myself away for a while

I've been feeling a bit low recently, so what better to do than taking out my art journal and dream myself away a little.

One of my favourite colours, a shipping tag, a postcard and some other stamps, and a strip of paper with a copy of the title of The New York Times sent me away to my two favourite places, Sweden and Great Britain.

I'm going to visit both of them this year, so I guess it's a good year. I'm certainly looking forward to both trips, even though they're still quite some time away.

It's been a busy week, but it's Thursday evening at last, and I've got a veeery long 5 day weekend ahead of me to look forward to. And tomorrow I'll be off for a day trip to Germany, including even a little visit to Sweden for a few hours. I'll tell you more about it during the weekend, and hopefully with a few great photos to show :).

Posting this today already but linking it up with Paint Party Friday tomorrow, and looking forward to visiting you all during the weekend!

My favourite London shops ~ Stamps Galore: Blade Rubber Stamps

I only discovered Blade Rubber Stamps this year. Before I left for London for my annual summer holiday, I did a little internet search to see if there were any shops selling rubber stamps in London. There was a shop, and even better, it was basically just around the corner of where I was staying. And it's a wonderful shop. Stamps galore, from floor to ceiling, on all the walls. Wooden mounted and unmounted rubber stamps, acrylic / clear stamps, foam stamps, metal stamps, and of course a great variety of ink pads to go with them. And there’s loads more. Patterned papers, stickers, rub-ons, stencils, embellishments, punches – a whole range of scrapbooking supplies in short. The shop has a lovely atmosphere, with friendly, helpful staff. I ended up going to that shop not only once during my two weeks summer holiday, but three times. And of course I went again in October.

They also have a Made To Order Rubber Stamp service, run classes and have a blog with lots of ideas, blogging tutorials, freebies, workshops, videos and links.

The shop is just opposite the main entrance of the British Museum, in Bury Place, and it’s pretty much in between Shepherds Falkiners and the third of may favourite London shops. They also have an online shop, and when I asked them if it was possible to order from outside the UK as well, was told that they ship to everywhere and only charge the actual postage. The only exception are punches, which they don’t sell via mail order, as they are too heavy.

A bit over a year ago, I took a scrapbooking class (my first online class ever, and it was then, and because of it, that I started this blog). I enjoyed the class, which was based on colour, but I soon discovered that scrapbooking wasn’t really my thing. I completed three layouts, which I keep moving from one corner to the other, as I don’t really know what to do with them. Also, I found the whole scrapbooking supply industry far too overwhelming. There’s wonderful stuff there, no doubt, but it just left me with a feeling that it was all mainly about spending lots of money on all kinds of supplies, in order to create something, while I think that you should be able to create lots of stuff with only a small, but essential, supply of things. However, there are a few things, I must admit, I have come to love, most of all rubber stamps. I like to use them in some of my paintings, mostly in my art journal.

I really like these patterned cardboard letters I bought in October. The only problem with them is that I’m afraid I’ve already used up most of the useful letters and am now left with all the funny consonants. So now I’ll just have to use individual letters, rather than words, if I want to use them up.

I enjoyed doing these two pages in my art journal. I didn’t really know what I was going to do, I only knew that I wanted to use some of the supplies I had bought in the shop – the patterned papers, the stamps, the ink pads and the letters. I used acrylic paints matching the patterned papers as a base. The words then emerged in the process. Inspiration has been a big word for me this year. One of the biggest things to inspire me endlessly is nature, and colour has always been the driving force that made me pick up paint and brush in the first place. But it’s also the various products and techniques that inspire me to be creative and try out new things. I hope to give back to others a some of the inspiration I find in so many places and with so many artists out there.

And inspiring and inspired life – that is really what I’m looking for, and what I’ve been working hard at since the beginning of this year.

At Blade Rubber Stamps, they also have a great supply of magazines, such as Artful Blogging, Somerset Studio, Art Journaling, Stamper's Sampler, and many more. These magazines aren't available here in Switzerland, apparently, so it's nice to pick up a copy of some of them when I’m there. To be honest, it’s probably better they're not available here, as most probably, more often than not, I wouldn't be able to resist buying them. But it's nice to have the one or other from time to time. They're really inspiring, full of great ideas and photos.

So there’s now only one shop left in my little Favourite London Shops series. Next time, we’re going to take a step back in time and look at some very traditional materials – but in a different form.

Autumn in Russell Square, Bloomsbury, London

Art Every Day Month: Week Two Summary

Week 2 of AEDM (Art Every Day Month). I posted day 8 separately, so here's the rest of what I've been doing during this second week. It was quite a busy week at work, with a big do at the end of the week, which meant long hours and having to spend two nights at a hotel. But I took my sketchbook, pencils, coloured water soluble pencils and one of those clever water fillable travel brushes with me. It was just a bit playing around, and trying out those coloured pencils, but it was fun to do, and definitely a good way to spend the evenings in a hotel room.

Wednesday, 9 November: I did just some simple drawing exercises. Blind drawing, drawing with left hand. I just realised that I forgot to scan or photograph them, but it doesn't really matter. The important thing is that I did something.

Thursday, 10 November: At the hotel, coloured water soluble pencils, inspired by all the coloured and fallen leaves, musing about the seasons and how the trees and leaves change during the course of the year.

Friday, 11 November: It was a long day and a late night, but I still managed to spend a little time sketching before turning in. I'm getting very fond of these coloured pencils. They're perfect for short trips and holidays.

Saturday, 12 November: I bought some more individual coloured pencils, as there aren't many browns and earth colours in the box. I only wanted to buy one or two, but of course ended up getting about ten. I can just never resist colours. But they're just perfect for this leaf. Glad to be back home again, but still inspired by those coloured pencils.

Sunday, 13 November: Finally time to paint, all day long. I did some art journaling. I've been thinking about dreaming and what my dreams are a lot lately (that's the things you dream about for your life, not the dreaming during the night while you're asleep ones), and when I put my thoughts to paint and paper, they always turn up as bubbles, circles, polka dots. I've added parts of Edgar Allen Poe's poem Dreams: I have been happy, tho' in a dream. / I have been happy- and I love the theme: / Dreams! in their vivid colouring of life, / As in that fleeting, shadowy, misty strife / Of semblance with reality, which brings / To the delirious eye, more lovely things / Of Paradise and Love- and all our own! / Than young Hope in his sunniest hour hath known.

Monday, 14 November: More art journaling. I wanted to try out at last some of the supplies I had bought in London last month for my second post in my Favourite Shops in London series - which I'll post later this week, together with more pictures.

Image transfer

I was so excited when I learnt about the technique of image transfer. Transfering images on to a page without having to stick the whole paper on. Just transfering the ink on to the page. The effects looked so great. I couldn't wait to get started. There are different methods to achieve the transfer. Glues, gel medium, paint, gesso... Christy explains different techniques in the She Had Three Hearts workshop. In a book, I found detailed descriptions about two different techniques. I didn't try all of them yet, but I tried one or two. It sort of worked, but the results weren't quite too exciting yet.

Last week, I found this post on Donna Downey's blog, and I was so impressed. My goodness, she just peeled the paper off, without even having to wait until the whole thing's completely dry, and there it was, a perfect image transfered to the page! Magic. Of course, I just wanted to try it out myself immediately. Well, the result didn't look at all like in her post. In fact, it was even worse than the ones I've tried before.

I tried it twice, with equally bad results. The few details you can actually see on the right side (my favourite café in London, at Kenwood House, Hampstead Heath) are in fact the paper, which I hadn't removed fully yet. At the end, I actually didn't bother, I just left it where it was, stuck on, and put some ModPodge over it to make it a water resistant, workable surface... The other image is just a complete mess. Although, if you try really hard, and have enough imagination, you can just about see the outline of the branches of the beautiful old tree.

Maybe I've got the "wrong" kind of gel medium, maybe I should have let the printout dry longer. Well, I'll just have to go on practising, trying out all the different methods, using different mediums, until I find the one(s) that work for me. I still am fascinated by the process.

The image transfer desaster didn't mean that I didn't want to go on painting though. After all, there are so many more fun techniques with mixed media, so that when something goes wrong, well, just cover it up and work with it :). Most of all, I wanted to try out all my new script and other stamps I bought in London. My, I just love them! I've only discovered the world of stamping last autumn, but I'm a complete stamp addict now :)

Oh I just love these new stamps!! But note to self: next time, do try not to put it on upside down... Also try to be more patient and let the surface dry properly before attempting to write on it with ink...

I like using techniques with painting that have an element of surprise, beyond control. One of the ink splashes turned into this funny face shape, which reminds me of those early Pacman games back in the 80s. Well, it's certainly been some journey from there till now, in many ways, both personally and generally.

I really enjoyed creating this art journal page, which turned out to be about "journey". It looks a bit messy, but that's life's journey, full of details and surprises and  imperfections. Not always going according to plan, needing to be patched up and adjusted at times, accepting mistakes and making the best of it to get a satisfying result in the end. It's what makes it interesting, I guess :).

As to the image transfer business, I've actually ordered a book that's all and only about image transfer techniques. I am determined :)

Inspired by...

in·spi·ra·tion /ˌɪnspəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/: someone or something that gives you new ideas and the enthusiasm to create something with them

I discovered Donna Downey's blog "simply me" this week, and her Inspiration Wednesday series. I absolutely loved the page created on the latest post from July 13th, the greys, blues and blacks, the splattering effect, the white areas, and of course the stamping. It inspired me so much that I just wanted to get home, get out my colours and start painting.

Inspiration, though, isn't about minutely following instructions and creating a copy, it's about taking the elements that you like and inspire you and turn into something of your own. It might end up looking completely different, or quite similar but with a touch of your own creativity, as the one I did here.

To apply the colours, I used a palette knive instead of a brush, and I went for some bright red acrylic ink splashes rather than the yellow ochre paint. Instead of printing out some text to stick in (I had something about inspiration in mind) I decided to use one of my new rubber stamps instead, together with a bright red ink. "Listen to your heart" just seemed so right for this.

And even before I started working on these two pages in my art journal, I knew that I wanted to use another of my newly aquired gorgeous rubber stamps.

I just really love that stamp. It's so full of life, joy and energy.

I didn't do any sewing either, as I don't have a sewing machine. But I used a fern branch from the park outside the library to add an element of nature.

I'm really pleased with the result. I love the colours and the technique, and the variety of elements and techniques used. You can clearly see where the inspiration came from, but I think I managed to make into something of my own, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.

Differences Between Inks

What I probably love most about scrapbooking are the gorgeous patterned papers and the beautifull flourish stamps. When I had a look at one of the online shop websites, I noticed the great variety of both stamps and ink pads. Up till now, all I knew were the good old wooden stamps and, well, an ink pad. But apparently, there's so much more to inks and stamps. Rather confusing, really. So I did some research on stamps and inks, and here's what I found about the differences between inks and which to use for what:

Inking Techniques

Difference between pigment ink and dye ink

Difference between dye-based and solvent based and pigment based inks

Video Dye Ink vs Solvent Ink

My new beautiful wooden flourish stamp. Love it with gold ink.