Intohimona Skräppäys 2012

I can’t believe how fast this weekend has gone past. It was just over a month ago that Revlie asked me if I would consider going to Finland on her behalf… And now Intohimona Skräppäys 2012 is already over!

I had a hard time imagining what it would be like before hand… I really had no clue what to expect! Thanks to Mira, Riikka and Minna from Amalia Askartelu, all the wonderful students and my lovely travel companion Birgit, I’m glad to say that I loved every little bit of my flying visit to Finland!

It all started on Friday at noon, when I met Birgit at Schiphol Airport. We first had to fly to Helsinki and there we had to get on the next plane to Jyväskylä. This plane had a delay and I think we arrived at the Jyväskylä airport around 20.00 hours. Riikka and Minna were there to pick us up and drove us to the Peurunka Spa Hotel, where we were welcomed by Mira from Amelia Askartelu.

After settling in, we had nice diner with Elina, ‘Creomi‘ and Riikka. We had an interesting tasting dessert: Dill marinated pineapple, raspberry sorbet and licorice…

On Saturday it was workshop time! Birgit kicked off with her ‘Blossoms of Color’ layout workshop and I followed with Revlie’s ‘Hello goal’ layout workshop:

Loads of great colour combinations going on! I don’t think any of the lay outs were completed before the end of the workshop (there were more details on Revlie’s example than noticeable at first glance…), but I did spy some of the finished projects online :-D.

Here’s Emmo showing her version of the layout to me (and Revlie, who was following everything via Instagram):

In the evening Birgit taught her ‘For the love of Masking’ mini album workshop, jam-packed with masking techniques. There was a lot of misting action going on in this class!

After Birgit’s class, we went to the Areena, where all the cropping tables were. Riikka was there to give us an big, beautiful handmade bag full of awesome Finnish presents! (You can get a closer look at the bags here)

I even got to do some art journaling at the crop! It was bedtime before we knew it… because on Sunday we had to rise early for another wonderful day of workshops!

The weather turned for the better on Sunday and we were fortunate to see this beautiful view first thing in the morning:

And then, after breakfast, I had this view of students stitching felt and fabric during Revlie’s ‘Rev it up’ mini album workshop:

I loved the relaxed atmosphere, the Finnish chatter and I especially loved seeing all the little personalized details that made every take on the project different and unique!

In the afternoon it was time to eat, pack a couple of things and then teach our last workshops for the weekend. Birgit taught her ‘Home is wherever with you’ mini album workshop and I taught Revlie’s ‘Today’ mini album workshop:

There was even more relaxed stitching going on, a little bit of misting and a couple of funny Finnish stories were told (Minna kindly translated for me).

And after that, it was time to really pack our things, check out, eat a lakritsi ice cream, say our goodbyes to Mira and then… hit the road! Minna drove us from Peurunka all the way back to Helsinki… and told us all kinds of things about the places we passed along the way (like the Panda licorice factory) and about Finland in general.

This is the place where we paused while on the road. Look at that blue sky!

We got to the hotel just before midnight and after we said our goodbyes to Minna too, we checked in for a very, very short night… Because Birgit and I had our minds set on doing just one more thing before we got on the plane back home :-).

Hei & kiitos!

… to all the wonderful ladies I’ve met at Intohimona Skräppäys 2012 over the weekend! I made it home late this afternoon and I’m going to try and share some of my pictures with you tomorrow!

From the weekend

This weekend was packed with fun things: new nail varnish, a friend’s first art exhibition (followed by a nice lunch with Harold), creative time and a trip to the Art Specially stamp fair in Zeist with one of my colleagues and her daughter.

Practicing Finnish

1. Kuvaa

2. Kangassakset, sakset

3. Neulat

4. Lempikuvioleikkurit, ympyräkuvioleikkurit

5. Kangasliima, puikkoliima, liimapisteitä

6. Kyniä

7. Kulmanpyöristäjä

Happy Easter

Today: sleeping in – brunch for two – me: baking for tomorrow, Harold: playing music from de zwarte lijst – playing Where’s my water on my phone – diner – blogging/watching TV

(Side effects of) Taking it to the Second Floor

Remember the Mixed Media Circus event that I attended in Hamburg last November? Well, some of the things that I saw and heard back then still resonate in my mind. Nathalie Kalbach and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer know their stuff and they’re not afraid to share their experiences. So, when they wrote about this new challenge they had cooked up back in November, I thought it sounded pretty cool. And… I thought I didn’t have time to play a long.

I have been going from one deadline to another these past months and I was really beginning to dread going into my studio… Because there would always be an assignment there, waiting for me. And yes, there are still more assignments to be done. But Nat and Julie had planted a persistent seed…

The idea of gold paint got stuck in my mind. And then, when I found myself near an art supply shop, I just had to go in and buy some gold acrylic. And as I was working on my assignment for the myStamp BOX and Faber-Castell Blog Hop… I found myself seeking ways to incorporate gold into the project! So once I finished that little canvas, I gave in… I dug up a blank canvas that I had been saving forever and took the Second Floor Challenge:

Now, the deal is not only to let yourself play with no expectations, but at one point you also have to ‘take it to the Second Floor’: step out of your comfort zone and experiment.

Well, with painting a whole canvas (that I’d been petting for ages) GOLD, I was already stepping out of my comfort zone… on steroids. After some trail and error, I found that slapping the paint on with a brush and then swiping it smooth with an old (credit) card was the best way to go about it. I had made sure my gold paint was opaque, but it still took more coats of than I’m willing to admit and in the end I’m still not completely happy with the coverage.

Next step was spraying Glimmer Mist through paper doilies. That went OK… until I messed things up and I had to wipe it all down again. Not all of the Glimmer Mist came off :-). That’s when I came to the point that I didn’t care anymore and I just went and glued down cut out pieces here and there. Most pieces came from my box of scraps. Even the little houses!

During the process I thought that THIS could be my ‘trust’ canvas. ‘Trust’ is my word for 2012… And for the past three months I’ve been meaning to make a canvas for it, just like I did last year. I went to the Internet to find a couple of quotes I could use. And I found ‘Trust your heart’ which is part of the E.E. Cummings poem ‘Dive for dreams’. Which then sparked all kind of ideas :-).

Back to the canvas: I struggled with the lettering. I didn’t dare write on the canvas, so I decided to use Glimmer Misted raw chipboard Thickers. I knew from experience that they would fall apart. I went ahead anyway and after they had dried, I assembled them again and I clear embossed them. This also didn’t go smoothly, but… I embraced all imperfections and went with it.

And then… I thought I could do more… but instead I decided to take it to the Second Floor AGAIN and step away. I called it finished!

The fact that I didn’t dare write on the canvas didn’t sit right with me though and besides I was still very inspired by the E.E. Cummings poem. So I got out my art journal and I wrote… on an already finished page… and I didn’t stop there… I wrote on a couple of other finished pages too!

This may seem trivial and off topic to you, but… this is huge! Because up until now I was afraid to ruin my art journal pages with my handwriting. So… there you have it: a major break through, all because I decided to take the time to do Nat and Julie’s Second Floor Challenge!

I can’t wait until their next one… I’m soooo curious to see where it will take me!

Blog Hop: Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX!

Hello there!

Welcome to the Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX Partner Blog Hop!

If you just found our event, please begin your journey on the Faber-Castell blog. Many of our wonderful designers are joining us today to show off some inspirational creativity. See how well Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX products work together!

START AT: Faber-Castell
Marsha Valk (You are here!)
Linda Abadie
Jaine Drake
Janet Zeppa
Els Brigé
Jolene Johnston
Rita Barakat
Jennifer Mattot
Mou Saha
Isolde Pyncket
Agata Pfister
Jill Hildebrand
END HERE: myStamp BOX Blog

We are giving away some amazing product from both participating companies. All you have to do is COMMENT on all participating blogs along your journey to WIN. Our three blog hop winners will be drawn from all participants, so be sure to leave comments by Sunday March 25th at 6pm EST. We will announce the winners on the myStamp BOX blog and Faber-Castell blog on Monday, March 26th. Good Luck!

Here is what I made using products from Faber-Castell and myStamp BOX:

I took the myStamp BOX sets Cherry Blossoms and Lovely Houses and created a small canvas using lots of Faber-Castell Gelatos and the Faber-Castell Mixed Media Sampler Green.

Not only did I use the Gelatos for water colouring the stamped images, but I also took the metallic green and metallic gold Gelatos to highlight the texture of the background:

I am really happy with the result :-). Faber-Castell products are really great to work with and combining them with some of my favourite myStamp BOX stamps was great fun!

Now it’s time to HOP along and find out what the next talented designer has created. Your next designer is Linda Abadie! Don’t forget to leave a comment below for a chance to WIN one of our THREE product giveaways!

Another day, another museum

As if one museum wasn’t enough in one week, we visited another one on Sunday. Actually, the plan was to have fun in Haarlem. But… it was more rainy and grey and cold than we had expected and that… made us grumpy.

So we just had lunch, did some window shopping, visited the Teylers Museum, drank cappuccino and headed home again.

The Teylers Museum has a fascinating collection and the building is beautiful, but the overcast outside didn’t exactly make the inside of the museum shine. And there were just to many people around and… Did I mention we were grumpy?

I loved the floors though. And looking at this painting Harold impressed me by uttering facts about the time Willem of Orange spent in Antwerp… Facts he had picked up on last Friday… at the MAS!

Last week in pictures

Inspired by Els, who is engaged in the Photo-A-Day-project, I thought it would be fun to share some of the things I’ve done Monday to Friday.

On Monday I worked. Sorry… no pictures. And then on Tuesday I worked from home on an article that called for a few ‘Dutch’ shots (which I took with my DSLR: Hello… long time no see!).

On Wednesday I ran some errands, bought the new Flow Magazine and tried out a recipe for vegetable stock from this blogwriter that I’ve been following for a while now. The blog is all about healthy eating and I learn a lot from reading it. I volunteered to try out recipes from Heleen‘s new book and in return she sent me two of them. The recipe testing also meant we had to visit IKEA in order to buy a pan that was big enough for the second recipe…

Thursday was a particularly good day. The weather was really nice and Springlike. I took the train to Utrecht for a little bit of shopping. I grabbed some Starbucks before I boarded the train home again. I didn’t bother to tell the girl behind the counter how my name is spelled… It was a very pleasant surprise to see she got it right! While on the train I received a What’s App message from Harold with a picture of his fresh new haircut. Once at home, I pulled the new issue of Scrap365 out of my mailbox!

The last photo refers to my new iPhone addiction: Draw Something… We’ve been having a lot of fun with that all week!

On Friday we went to Antwerp. It was a little foggy at first, but the sun came through in the afternoon and we spent a lovely afternoon with Klari at the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS):

I took a lot of Instagram photos that day… MAS is a great museum and there were textures and shapes and colors everywhere!

St. Patrick’s Day

Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. So I drank tea from my new St. Patrick’s Day myStamp BOX Holiday Monkey mug and we ate a few freshly baked cookies (but not these green ones, because these were the ones ‘I made earlier’).

Head on over to the myStampBOX blog to see more gold and green inspired projects!