ATCs

 

Not much going on right now.

I made some new ATCs the other day, that's all. When one first get going, it's much fun to make them and it's quite challenging too. It's a small surface to work on, so at least my brains needs some adjustments. I always think I shall use small bits and pieces for this kind of work, but ending up choosing other material.
I ment to publish this post early today, but my computer broke down and I've spent the day fixing it. Don't ask me what I did because I couldn't tell you. At one point I was ready to throw my laptop out the window and go to buy a new one. How are your reactions to these occations?

I better let Handyman havr a look when he is back from work. I might have done alot of changes.
Enough of that, here are my newly made ATCs, which of course are sized 2 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

This one I made this morning, and inspired by the break down of my computer.

I'm not quite sure this is how I felt during the day.

No words needed

Ditto

This one could fit in at a certain point of the day.

They're all free for trading, so if you feel like trading just let me know.

I hope your day will be less frustrating than mine.

Route 66

 

We have decided to visit US coming summer. 

Together with my brother and his wife, Handyman and I are going to drive Route 66.
Yesterday evening we had a meeting over at their place to do some planning. Handyman and I planned a little surprise for them. I made us an outfit to look like  some sort of cowboys, fringes, hats and "guns" We all had a good laugh when we arrived shooting and shouting. Oh my......
Have a look, this is how we met with them. Our son shot this photo before we left home.

Handyman really looks like he has done it before, and he probably has, as a child.

We're flying in to Chicago and spend the first night there. Then we'll make a turn into Iowa and Des Moines and spend some nights there. My sister in law has family there, so she wanted to visit them before we turn back to Route 66. After that we'll drive all the way to Los Angeles.

We're really looking forward to this trip, and we have alot of planning ahead. Any suggestiones or hints are welcome.

Have a playful day.

A colorful morning.

 

We had this beautiful sunrise today.

Minutes after I took this photo the sky was dull grey and it seems we're going to have something down pouring, snow or rain. I always feel this magic during the few moments of sunrise. With these splendid colors it's even better.

Earlier this month I picked up a broken branch and put it in water. That act paid off well, now it's flowering and the leaves are on their way. Can't wait till spring, it's closing in now. Enjoy the sight.

By the way, it's a branch from my forsythia bush.

Man in Nature

 

I have been painting on canvas lately.

The more I do it, the more I like it even if I feel it's kind of difficult. This specific one I started without having any thoughts of what it should be. The process of searching for a meaning in the painting and then adjust to that is, for me, a bit timeconsuming. I even think it's important to give it time too. Hang it or leave it on the easel and look at it for awhile in a distance is very helpful too. Below you see how my painting looked at one stage. Lots of changes have been done since that.

For a long time I thought of calling it Waterbirds, but ended up with Man in Nature. Some parts of the painting have been done over and over again, searching the best result.  I'm still not sure it's done, but now I'll put it aside and then use fresh eyes later on.

How is it for you, do you often struggle to achieve the result you are aiming for?
Next I'm going to play with different values of one color only, to see if it's easy to achieve light and shadow that way. Might be fun.

Now, I have some errands to run for Handyman. Better get it done.

A day away.

 

Yesterday was a different day.

We got up early ( 05.45 AM) and went for the city of Kristiansand. It's a three hour drive. Handyman had to attend a meeting there and I went with him for company. ( and some shopping)
I'm sorry I couldn't photograph the nature during our drive, too dark, but you should have seen it. Lots of ice running down the huge stones/mountains. It's been a long time since I saw that. The main road is quite narrow and those ice walls on both sides of the road was an impressing sight.

When there, the weather wasn't as good as I had hoped for. Snowy and windy, with other words cold. Handyman left me and I had 6 hours to explore the city. Always exciting. A big disappointment was to discover that the museum was closed each Monday.

I did a little shopping, nothing serious just small artsupplies. Some black paper, erasers, tags, yarn, purse and a tool to change paper into waves (don't know the correct word)
We returned home 19.30 PM. A long day, and Handyman was so glad he found me in the city. He knows me well enough to know that I completely miss the sense for location.
He called me after parking the car and two minutes later I was there. To his big surprise. He forgot to think about the fact that I had spent 6 hours in a relatively small center.
All in all a good day. Today I have been relaxing and thought of some new challenges to do.

I hope your days are good too.

Still frost.

 

The weather is still beautiful, clear sky, sunny and freezing cold.

I took my camera to photograph the frost and got some great photos. Our conservatory has single glass windows and they are beautiful frosted. Have a look.

Indoors the sun makes some marks too. I caught this shadow the other day.

Ant this is what caused the shadow.

Our old stove. In fact it's over a hundred years old.
I haven't done much art lately, just a canvas painting that needs more work before I can show it. Dinner guests today so I'll have to start cooking.

Enjoy your day.

Penwork done.

 

It's incredible how much a painting changes during the penwork.

At this specific one I tried to be careful, not to overdo it, but still I see something I could have let out. Often I go back to older paintings to see how I did something I think of as good. No secret that I love making a sort of 3D effect. It's quite a job to figure out what to do with the black pen without overdoing and not repeating myself all the time. Still, I very much enjoy doing this sort of paintings. They are both playful and colorful which suits me alot.

Anything you would've done differently?

I still keep getting new ideas for this kind of paintings, but what I imagine isn't easy to draw. I might have a try though.
If one look at the background and especially the blue color, does it look messy or more like it's giving life to the piece? I can't decide. I would love it to be plain blue, but that's impossible using watercolors.
All in all I'm pleased with the result and above all it makes me smile.

Work in progress.

 

Have you ever dealt with the small folks?

Ever since I was a child I have had the beliefe that the small folks lives among us. I'm sure they live in our house, and handyman thinks I'm turning crazy when I speak of them. Well, I'm NOT but when I know I left my glasses on my studio desk and can't find them, I talk to the small folks. Loud and clear I say, I know you are here will you now come back with my glasses. Then I leave the room and do other things for awhile. When I return to my studio I find my glasses, but never where I left them.
It's no big deal, it's just what I believe, others may have their own beliefs.

This is what I'm working on at the moment. I have just finished the coloring. At this stage I always doubt wether to leave it this way or continue with penwork. Most often I do the penwork.
What would you have done? Do the penwork but be careful, don't overdo it.
To start with I make the drawing. It's time consuming because I can't deside what to bring in. My head is full of ideas but it's not easy to draw them. Next step is coloring. I use my water soluble crayons, first scribling on a glassplate, add water and then paint with brushes. To do it this way the black pen will write on top. Otherwise it can be difficult to write on top of wax crayons.
The size is A3.
Enjoy your day.

Sort of scrambled eggs.....

 

I was so inspired by Janet's leaf design that I had to try it.

Very soon I realized that they are not mine. I can't make them fit in. The two lower ones might do but I feel more comfortable with other forms.
My piece is made just for testing an idea, the layout or structure is totally missing. I didn't think of that when I made this piece. My next one is going to be much improved. 
While doing this piece new ideas came and that's what I'm going to try in my next one. I've spent three days, to and from making this one.

I very much like to see how one piece changes from just coloring to after the penwork. Perhaps you find it interesting too. While doing the penwork I often notice things to change/add more color to. And I like it with all the different forms in one piece. One can look at it over a long time and discover new things over and over again. I hope my next one will have even more of that.

We've had this beautiful weather for some days now. Frost without snow, trees and grass are blinking white in the sunshine. Morning with all the white frosty trees is almost magical. But cold!

Have a beautiful Sunday !

Finally it's time for a new year.

 

Now that my birthday is over I can finally concentrate on the new year.

I had a wonderful day yesterday, lots of greetings, phonecalls and friends coming over to spend some time. I received alot of flowers and other beautiful gifts. My Moster gave me something very special, something selfmade which I appreciate alot. Have a look at these beautiful christmas bells.

The smaller ones are ment for hanging on the tree and the large one in the window. I simply love them, and can't understand how she can manage to make them with these tiny little beads. It certainly costs her a whole lot of work and I will always treasure them. Below is a closeup of the large one.

Today I don't do much other than relaxing and enjoying the new year. This is a beautiful day, no wind and the sun shining from a clear sky.
I have been doing a tiny bit in the studio, but nothing to show you yet. I need some time to get started for real. Let me show you one of the flower arrangements that was sent to me yesterday, a beautiful pink and blue one. All the others are equal beautiful, but this one was the easiest to photograph.

Have a nice day you too!

Hooray, it's my birthday!!

 

Today I'm turning 55, and am happy with that.

Best of all, Handyman surprised me more than ever this morning. To tell you about it, I'll have to tell you what my ongoing project is all about. Stampmaking and everything.

I've always taken interest in old times, how people lived, what their belives were and all such things. Way back in time we (in Norway and partly in Europe) had a calendar called Primstaven.

I'm planning  to write a series about primstaven, for several reasons.
I'm thinking of writing about each special day, explaining the signs, old traditions, weather marks and all that kind of stuff.
People have been writing about it already, but by doing it myself I will have it all gathered in one place. I would love it if you recognize any of the customs and let me know in a comment. Besides I love researching this stuff. The old calendar, primstaven has two sides one winterside and one summerside. I'll start writing about summer and the first post will be posted in first half of April.
When it comes to the stamps, my intention is to make my own artpieces from each mark on primstaven.

Well, back to Handyman again. To surprise me, he had baught one of these old calendars for me. How on earth he could find one for sale is a mystery, and he wouldn't tell. That means I'm now the proud owner of a primstav. ME!

He've heard me talk about it for awhile, that's probably the reason he did this for me. I'm so happy, best birthday present ever. And how fun it will be to write now that I actually have one in person. It also means that I can consentrate on this specific one.
Oh happy day...........

Time to put the Christmas away.

Yesterday was the last day of Christmas in our home, 

and today I'll put it all away. In fact it's nearly done. The last couple of days we've had this beautiful spring weather so it feels right to replace the Christmas with some spring colors.
We had a relaxing weekend, Sandra felt for taking it easy. She was just making some stamps.
Awhille back, when I was making mandalas, I made this one. I was planning to let it float on top of the background but something happened.

Do you see the all the holes around the edge? When I did that it was impossible to get the mandala floating, on the contrary that edge got the mandala secured to the background. But look what happened with the square border. Dosen't it look like the mandala is lifting up, and held down by the outer edge? There are so many new things to discover, all the time. Even though I feel all my mandalas looks the same, they don't. This one was made on a prepaint background. The square net was made in the end though.

I just needed a break in putting all the stuff away. Have a beautiful and creative day!

I had to do something different.

 

The last two days 

I've been in court. I was there to support a friend of mine, and it was quite interesting to attend a real case. When I returned home today I felt for doing something else than my project.
Sometimes I just feel for splashing colors all over in my journal, and today was such a day. Normally I don't like the result, but today it's not too bad. Do you often feel that way too?

I'm sorry the photo is a bit shiny, but it was the best I could do. I think I will try it more often to use more colors in the background. Not too many though.
Otherwise it's Sandra weekend so we have to do something fun. She got her own paint, canvases and easel for Christmas, so she's nearly a full artist now.
I hope you'll have an enjoyable weekend too!

My stamps.

 

I have to tell you about the stamps I made yesterday.

They're ment for use in a project I'm working on, but there's no way I can't share them with you.
All you need to make these are : a sketch of what you'll make into a stamp, fairly thin rope, a good glue, I use rice glue, matte medium or some fluid acrylics, and some sturdy cardboard. That's it.

I saw this tecknique on you-tube and was so inspired that I had to try it. And now, that I have a specific reason to make them, it's even more fun.

I made a tree, the red one first to see if I could do it. I could, but am not sure that this tree will do it in my project. I made a second one and I like it alot better. My stamps are sized to fit a A5 sheet.
By now I have made several tests, focusing on the stamp alone. Today I'm going to figure out how to achieve the right background. I have a vision of how I want it to be, so I'm searching untill I'm close to it.

The small ones abowe are just my first attempts to see if the stamp would do the job. Wow, this is so cool! I can feel I'm on my way to something here.
Have a try yourself, they are really cheap to make. Cost next to nothing!
Now my stamps are waiting for further adventures, have a nice day folks!

ENJOY!

Hello 2013 !

 

We're finally there, a brand new year has begun.

The old one past in an ocean of fireworks as usual. The weather was excellent for a firework, wet but not rainy. I'm glad it's over and we can start looking ahead.
Do you have any great plans for 2013?
I have decided on writing a series this year, and I'm working on it. I also want to make some stamps, and I made my first try today. The stamps will be included in my series, so I don't have anything to show off yet. I think this will be a great year. I'm planning to make more funny folks and old words too so there's alot to start with.
I hope you are ready for a great new year too, lets make it a wonderful creative year in blogland as well as in our own daily lives.
I'll leave you with a spread I made yesterday.

Just wanted to say hello.