Boxes .... (what else ....)

Yes, well it's getting a bit boring but I'm still working on my boxes. Although now they're more like little paintings. I've put the canvas that I made this week on top of the box, and gave the box a colour wash. Now, that was fun! I was wondering how to put some colour on there while still leaving the wood grain shine through. And then I had a light-bulb moment: I took a small sponge, dipped it in some water, dipped it in some paint, and wiped the whole box with it. It was done in like ... 1 minute! Whoooosshh! Why didn't I think of this sooner? I'm always painstakingly working with a paintbrush to cover my boxes with paint, while this is so much easier, quicker and nicer. It's a perfect technique for bare wood boxes.

This is what I have so far:

I still need to varnish it and put the lock back on. But I'm wondering whether to leave it like this or write a quote on there (or maybe inside the box). What do you think?

This is what the canvas of the smallest box started out as (it's 3 boxes that came together and fit inside eachother) (should've bought way more of these now that I've discovered how much fun this is....)

I finally saw something in there (after layers and layers of ink and paint....)

This is what I made of it. I'm seeing birds everywhere again :-) This is the box:

And this is the middle canvas:

I didn't make anything of this yet. I see 2 things: either a smiling face, or a long-necked lady looking sideways. Do you see it? But both have a guy wrapped around their neck. Not sure what I'll do with that one ☺ The image is so strong that I have trouble ignoring it, but on the other hand it may look really weird. Have to think about this one ....

And the boxes that I finished the lids of last week are also done now:

Made 2 more Christmascards (it's addictive):

Well, that's it for this week. I'm having some more things in progress that I'm not very happy with at the moment. Not sure what I'll do with them ....

I'm sharing this with all the wonderful artists of Paint Party Friday. Go have a look at the other participants, it's well worth it!

Thank you so much for visiting! Have a great Friday, and I hope your weekend will be filled with warmth, relaxation and happiness. ♥ ♥ ♥

Boxes, christmascards and decisions .....

Well, the time sure flies! It seems the older I get, the faster it goes. And. I. Do. Not. Like. It!

I've been working on some more boxes. I felt like painting, and I had 3 wooden boxes that came with a little loose canvas on top. So I decided to spray some paint on there and look for images to appear. The biggest one I saw an image right away, but the other two I've been painting and spraying over and over again, but I still can't see anything.

Oh well, I still have a few more days. This is what I had for the biggest one:

I admit, when I see it on the computerscreen the image is not so clear. But seeing it in "real life" the image jumped out to me. So I went with it:

Have to varnish it and then glue it on top of the wooden box. Not sure what I'll do with the rest of the box yet. Maybe I'll just give it a colourwash.

I've made some more Christmascards too, because I'm getting some prints made of my paintings and I want to try out printing some cards too.

And then I've been looking into opening an Etsy-shop. The problem is: I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I want to do it right from the first time. And if you want to do it right, you can't do it in a rush. You have to read and try out and look at other shops and gather ideas. That takes time. Which I don't have right now. Besides, it's only 2 more weeks of school before the summer holidays start here. And we will probably be going on vacation, which means I would have to close my shop anyway for a few weeks. Is it worth all the hassle, I wonder..... ? Last night I made up my mind to just leave it till January. Now I'm hesitating again .... Sometimes I get very tired of myself ....

We'll see what I get done this week. Because I really don't want to get into fullblown stress-mode being not ready for my market. I want to be really relaxed and zen next week when I go to my market, instead of runnning around like a headless chicken and staying up half the night to try and get things done (like it usually goes ...)

Off to the printers now to get my prints done! Thanks for visiting, I'll see you on Friday for the Paint Party!

Almost done with my boxes

The things you learn from having a blog ..... Before I had this blog, I'd never even heard of Black Friday and now I just see it EVERYwhere! It's supposed to be the biggest online-sales weekend in the year. Damn, I knew I should've set up my Etsy-shop sooner ......I even thought this morning "shall I just make a shop real quick..." But no, I better not. First of all: I don't have time, secondly: I wouldn't know how to start. And it would probably look really sloppy too. Too bad. I'll still try to set it up in the next two weeks, but I know I really need to get moving then.

And I'm still working on my boxes .... I brought some boxes to that shop that is going to sell them for me (hopefully ....) and now I'm finishing up the last ones. Next week I'll concentrate on my prints and postcards, and I want to make one more mosaic mirror. And maybe some other bits and pieces ....

Here are the boxes that I finished this week:

 

I have made 3 of these in the past, and they sell really quickly. Hopefully it'll be the same now ... ☺

This is another one with a magnetic closure







And these are just the top-lids of 2 square boxes that are not finished yet on the sides.

I might make these into cards, I'd quite like that I think ....

And that's it for this week! I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, don't forget to go and have a look at the other artists there!

Hope my visitors from the US all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! See! Another thing I learned through blogging: I knew Thanksgiving was somewhere in November, but now I know which day, and I even know that Canada also has Thanksgiving, but in October! I tell ya, blogging is like sitting in class and learning things about the world, but in a much nicer way ;-))

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope those of you with online shops all have their sales going through the roof!

Enjoy your weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

Artists that inspire me: Cassandra Rhodin

Well, I think this will be the last "inspiring artist-post" for this year. I think all artists are way too busy now with other things and don't have time to answer any emails .... So I'll just leave them alone for now and start again in the new year (my first new years' resolution ....! in November!!)

So this time I "cheated" a little bit. I want to show you some illustrations from Cassandra Rhodin, a Swedish illustrator that I really love. She is inspired by France in the 1920s. But that's about all I can say about her.

There seems to be no website, no Facebook, no blog, no nothing. Lots of sites and blogs that show work from her, but nothing from her personally. No email-address either.

So how to contact her? I tried. I really did. But it seems as if she doesn't want to be found.

And since the other artist I contacted didn't reply (again!), I decided to show Cassandra's work anyway.

A few weeks ago I was at a Brisstyle-meeting, and we were talking about social media. The speaker there didn't think twice about showing work from other artists. She figured if they put it on the net, it's available to everyone. As long as you mention who the artist is, she saw no harm in it.

I tend to agree with that. Which doesn't mean that I won't try everything in my power to contact the artist first. But hey, what can you do when there is no way to contact them?

The artists that I contacted and that didn't reply, well, I won't show their work. But this is something else I think.

Anyway, enough blabla. I love her illustrations, very feminine and strong at the same time. I hope you like them too. And if any of you know how to contact her, please let me know!

Did you see my daily quote on top of the page? Giggles from Happy Tiler told me how to do this! Thanks Giggles! I am a quote-addict, so this is perfect for my blog.

And Gina finally received my print that she won in the give-away for 100 followers. I was getting worried there, since Anja in Germany received her package a week sooner. But everything arrived all right and she wrote a blogpost about it. You can see it here. Thanks Gina!

That's it for now! Thanks for visiting, and I'll see you on Friday for the Paint Party ....! ♥

Christmascards

Taking a break from my boxes again☺. Played around in Photoshop to make some Christmascards. Not sure yet whether I like them and whether I'll keep them. But it was nice to try....

Here are some:

The print and the calendar are on their way to their new homelands. I hope they arrive safely.

Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my previous post. I'm happy that you seem to think my boxes will fly off the shelves ;-) Let's hope the people here appreciate them too .... Well, actually, not only appreciate them, but buy them ☺

I went to an information session from Brisstyle on Saturday. It was about markets, things that you should think about when you want to sell at markets. A session packed with information. I'm so happy that I went, my head is spinning with ideas that I want to work out before the market on the 8th of December ... Needless to say I'm getting into stress-mode ...

And now it's bedtime again .... Thanks so much for visiting, I'll see you on Wednesday with (hopefully!) another post about inspiring artists. Stay tuned ♥

Still working on my boxes, and two winners!

This week I’ve been busy getting my boxes ready. I have found a shop near Brisbane where I can sell my stuff, and I need to bring it in next week. So I need things for that shop, as well as for the market in December. I’m starting to feel stressed …..

I was pleasantly surprised when I moved to Brisbane and discovered there are shops here where artists can rent a shelf or a cube or a place on the wall for a fixed price per month, and sell their stuff there. You just need to bring in what you want to sell, and the shop owner does the rest. Great idea! I want to try it for three months, mostly for my heavier and more fragile products, like my mosaic mirrors and some of my boxes. I plan on opening an Etsy-shop soon, but there I will mostly sell prints and cards.

But first, well, I have to get the market out of the way… ☺

Here are the boxes that I finished this week. They just need a coat of varnish and they’re ready to go.

 This one is without magnetic closure, so I still need to put the clasp back on.

Text says: "whatever you want to do, do it now. There are only so many tomorrows."

the front of my doodlebox

side of the doodlebox

back of the doodlebox

and the other side ....

These doodleboxes are so much fun to do, I might make another one ☺

And these boxes still need some work ….

 I got some great suggestions about the inside of the boxes and how to display them, so thanks for that!

And now for the winner of my calendar give-away. There were not nearly as many names in the bowl as last time. Is my calendar less popular? Was it too much work to write something about it? Or is everybody too busy with their own creations for the festive season? I don’t know and it doesn’t really matter. That way the people that did enter had more chance of winning ☺

Since both of my kids wanted to draw the winner, they came up with a great idea. Both of them would draw one name, and these two names went back in the bowl. Then I would (blindfolded of course ....) draw one of these two names, and that would be the winner.

That got me thinking. For my last give-away, I had two prints made. It was the first time ever that I made a print of one of my paintings, and I had no clue about margins etc …. But they came out really nice, so I’m happy to have found a place where I can go to get them printed. One of these prints went to Gina in the US (last thing I heard it was still on its way ....). The other print is still here. But for the prints I want to sell in my Etsy-shop I want to make the white margins a bit bigger. And since I don’t want to sell two different prints from the same painting, I decided to give this one away as well!

Which means …. I have two winners! A first prize winner, who can choose between the calendar and the print, and a second prize winner, who gets whatever the first one doesn’t choose. Soooo, who might they be?

The first name drawn by my daughter is:

 The second name drawn by my son is:

And lastly, the name that was drawn by me from these two is:

Congratulations Jessica! You are the first prize winner! I know that you already bought a calendar, but you might want a second one. OR you can choose the print! Just let me know, together with your postal address, and I’ll send your choice to you.

And congratulations to Natasha too! You will have to wait for Jessica to know whether you’ll be receiving the print or the calendar. But you can send me your postal address already, so I can send it as soon as I hear from Jessica.

For the ones who didn’t win: thank you so much for helping me promote my calendar, and don’t give up. There will be more give-aways in the future!

Well, that’s it for today. I am linking this to Paint Party Friday again. Make sure you check out all the great artists on there.

Thanks so much for visiting and leaving comments. I hope you will have a wonderful Friday, and a cozy, joyful and creative weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥

Something else ...

Well, I didn't get a reply from the artist I wanted to feature, so no inspiring artist post today I'm afraid. Which is a pity, because I really love her work and would've liked to share it with you. You know, it pisses me off that people don't even bother to reply. How long does it take exactly to hit "reply" and write "thanks but no thanks"? Ten seconds? If you can't spare that, you shouldn't say that people can contact you through that email- address. Ugh!

Well, now that I have that off my chest, I wanted to share something else with you. And I hope it works, because it's a video and I've never shared a video on my blog.

This is someting I came across a few months ago, and I'd forgotten all about it. Until yesterday when I found it buried between my hundreds of favorites. It's eerie and magical and gives me shivers. And it's otherworldly beautiful.


Here's the website where they explain what they do and why. Art in the interest of nature! It can't get any  better than that, can it?

In the meantime, I've been working on my boxes. Here's the doodle-box, not finished but getting there. I hope by Friday they'll all be ready to be varnished.

Just one last reminder about my calendar-give-away. I've noticed that quite a few people mentioned they were going to blog about it, but they didn't yet (as far as I can see). Don't forget to let me know when you've done it, otherwise your name won't go in the draw. You have time until Thursday night, depending on where in the world you're residing. If you're in Australia, you have until Friday.

Well, thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy the video! ♥

a break from painting boxes ...

Today I wanted a break from my boxes. It's been too long since I did a "real" painting, and although I don't have time to work on my bigger paintings, I thought art journaling would satisfy the need. So I did a quick art journal page, and feel more satisfied already. Don't get me wrong: I love making boxes, but when you're getting things ready for a market, it feels more like work and less like playing. And today I needed to play. And the end result doesn't really matter then.

I might change some things again later on, but this is where I got today:

And just for the fun of it, I made another one-liner ☺

Now for something else: Anja received her give-away present in the mail, and wrote a really nice post about it! Go have a look at her blog. Thank you Anja, so kind of you! I feel flattered ☺


Also, thank you all so much for your lovely comments on my posts and on my new website! I cherish each and every one of them. And thanks to everybody who is helping me promote my calendar. You still have time until Friday to enter the give-away by either mentioning my calendar on your blog, on Facebook or on Twitter, or all three! And of course let me know about it, with a link if possible. One of my children (I haven't dared raise the question yet about who is going to draw the winner ..... they had so much fun last time that they both want to do it ...) will draw the winner some time on Friday, Australian time. So it's best if you let me know your link on Thursday night the latest.

Well, that's it for today! Thanks so much for visiting, and I'll see you again on Wednesday with another inspiring artist post (IF I hear back from the artist in question ☺)

♥ ♥ ♥

Painted boxes

This week I tried to finish my boxes. Didn't quite make it, but I'm almost there.... ☺

This one's finished (well, I still have to put some varnish on there, but the "hard" work is done ☺):

It's a box with a magnetic closure, and I just now realized that people probably won't even know what it is when they see it. They might think it's just a piece of painted wood ... I'll have to open it up a bit at the market I guess ....

These are in various stages of progress:

And these are almost finished:

Now I'm wondering what to do with the insides. Normally I would paint them, but if people want to use these boxes for teabags or something (that's what they were supposed to be when I bought them) they might not want any paint on the inside. So: what do you think? Would you prefer to have it painted on the inside or rather just wood? The square ones were already painted white inside, so I added my  own colour to them, but the other ones are bare wood. Smells good too .... I love wood.

Don't have much more to show this week. My new website is coming along nicely. Still haven't put all my work on there, and I have to finish some tabs, but all in all I'm starting to be quite happy with it. One thing I have to admit though: with these free websites, like Weebly is, you don't have much room for creativity. If you choose a template, you have to stick to the layout and everything. Quite frustrating sometimes. I like to make it my own. Maybe next year I'll dive into the whole Wordpress-world, and who knows: I might even come to understand it ... ☺ But for now, Weebly'll have to do. Here's the link, go have a look and tell me what you think. It's always good to have some outsiders' opinions....

Now for the give-away: the print and the postcards are on their way to their new home, and the calendar is still waiting patiently for the next draw. Which will be next week Friday, the 16th of November. You can still enter the draw by posting about my calendar on your blog, your Facebook or your Twitter. Here are the rules. Don't forget to tell me if you have posted somewhere (with a link if possible), otherwise I won't be able to put your name in the draw. And if you post on all three, your name will go in the draw three times! Thanks to all who have already helped me out with the marketing ☺

Well, that's it for now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, have a look at all the amazing artwork over there.

Enjoy your Friday, and have a lovely peaceful weekend! ♥ ♥ ♥