Reflecting

 

Hello everyone,

Or should I say: anyone? Is anyone still interested in the good old crafty arty blogposts? I have to admit, I don't visit them anymore. Then why would you write a blogpost yourself, you could ask. I don't know, I just felt like reflecting on the years I spent here and the art journey I went on because of starting this blog.

It was 2012.

I stumbled upon a book called The Scrapbook of Frankie Pratt.

Forest Fairylands

 

Hello dear friends!

Is there still anyone out there in Blogland? Or did we all abandon it for Instaland? As much as I like Instagram, I still prefer blogging. A blog to me is a piece of home one creates. And Blogland is the place where we meet, where we visit one another and have tea and a chat. In Blogland there is still time for such indulgence, while in Instaland I feel like we mostly have a quick peek through the window, wave, and then leave for the next window.

Updates and hellos

Hello my dear blog friends,

It's been a while since I last wrote you. And I'm missing you and our Simply Neutrals gatherings! And my stash of yummy fabrics and laces, the needles and threads, the papers and glues, making mixed media books... But alas, no time at the moment... Alsn alas no time yet to have another Simply Neutrals party, I'm really sorry.

At the moment I'm over my head in illustration work (as in work I do for study purposes, not for paid jobs yet unfortunately). I hardly have time or energy left to be social besides family time and the social media side of following an intensive year long online study and trying to set up my illustration business. But I thought you might like to get an update on what's going on here and why I am so silent :)

So here it is.

Recently I worked hard on the children's book part of the year course at Make Art That Sells. This is for a story written by art director Zoë Tucker (she wrote it especially for class) about a pack of wolves and a little girl. The wolves are really naugthy and destroying the forest by their reckless behavior. They also eat way too much and grow bigger and bigger and bigger... And that's where this page spread comes in. I took that sentence a little further and imagined that the wolves were getting so big that they took up all the forest, nay, they become the forest themselves! :)

Gorgeous collage received by Jesse of Lace Age Girl

Hello dear friends,

Today I'd like to share with you a gorgeous gift I received, which I mentioned earlier in the last Simply Neutrals post (which you can find HERE, it's still open for new entries). This gorgeous collage is created by dear Jesse of Lace Age Girl. Jesse was so sweet to also send me a beautiful rose patterned piece of fabric, gorgeous lace, sheer fabric, and strips of vintage sewing measurement tape. Dearest Jesse, thank you so much, you're a sweetheart!

You can find Jesse on her beautiful blog Lace Age Girl.

Wishing you a beautiful day!

Big hugs xx

Wen

Simply Neutrals 52 and happy New Year

Happy New Year dear friends!!!

And a warm welcome to our (very blue here) Simply Neutrals gathering of January 2019!

May 2019 be a blessed year for you. A year full of love and joy and interesting adventures. Do you have plans for the coming year? Or wishes or dreams or goals?

Besides doing a lot of illustrations, I'm learning how to make pattern designs. Both surface pattern designs as well as patterns for embroidery designs. I have this dream of having my own fabric line and using my own fabrics in my needlework projects. I love creating with threads and fabrics and it will always be a big part in my creative life. And I also really love illustrating and making pattern designs, so I thought, why not combine? I have a lot of ideas and plans, a bit too many really, so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to seeing everything materialize! I'll keep you posted :)

One of the things I want to learn is how to quilt. Do you have tips and tricks to share with me? And where do I start??? I know how to embroider, but my sewing has never been very neatly done. I'm a bit of a messy stitcher. As you can also see with my project for today. I call this my crazy collaged little quilt thingie.

Er... it's far less neutrally coloured as I had in mind, lol!

The quilt thingie itself has a lot of neutrals, so I thought it would do for our party. But then I added it on a very blue page of a fabric book of mine, and well... It will have to do though, because everything else I could share is all very colourful.

The fabric journal is one that I had started a looooong time ago, but never came to work in it. It is meant to become a heirloom book. You can find the beginnings of it HERE.

I gathered some scraps of fabric. Some come from old blouses, some from an old pillow case, and some is new (or was new I should say, it's been around here for a while already). I collaged these scraps on a piece of white muslin, keeping the raw edges visible. And then I started to embroider and add some embellishments. I let my intuition guide me. The embroidery stitches I used are daisy stitches, French knots, (double) feather stitches, satin stitches, bullion knots, whipped backstitches, ... I think that's it, but I have the feeling that I'm forgetting one or two stitches...

Anyways, on to the party of this month!

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FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Dear Alison was really on the roll with neutral projects last month, which she shared with us. One of these is the feature of last month, because it reminds me very much of a vintage Winter with a hint of Spring. (And I do long for Spring!!) And the tags she created are just gorgeous! Plus, I really loved the story she shared with them, how they came to be when she was creating with others. I so much enjoyed their creative gathering story, you can read it HERE.

Merry Christmas!

Dear friends,

I wish you a

merry Christmas!

May your home be filled with joy, peace, and love.

And if you're in distress because of illness, sadness, or something else, may your pain be softened and your heart filled with peace. I'm sending you my warmest love and best wishes.

Big hugs,

xx Wen

(PS: this is a page from a fabric book, one of my w.i.p.'s that I never came to finishing and I doubt I ever will, but hey, who knows?)

Simply Neutrals 49 - bird illustrations and mixed media journal

Hello dear friends, a very warm welcome to Simply Neutrals for October 2018!

Thank you so much for your beautiful and heart warming link ups last month, I really feel this is a beautiful group of kind souls, encouraging each other and sharing our stories. Although I'm very busy with my illustration journey, I would not want to miss you sweeties! So I'm dedicated to keep this Simply Neutrals going for as long as possible.

The monthly Simply Neutrals gathering is a good motivator for me to keep on working on my Forest mixed media journal, which is mostly neutrals with green here and there.

For one of the projects for the illustration year course that I'm doing (and I will probably do another year in 2019!) I had to draw birds. If you know me, you know that I LOVE birds! So I don't mind drawing them, at all.

And one of them ended up in my mixed media journal :)

Above you see my journal surrounded by some of the other birds I drew.

In the (near) future I'd also love to embroider birds (and more flowers) in my journals, because besides drawing and painting and photography, embroidery is one of the things I'm passionate about. And besides illustration projects I'd love to go on with my exploring journey in textile and mixed media arts.

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FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Last month we welcomed Alison of alisonbomber.blogspot.com to our gathering. A very warm welcome to you, Alison! I was enchanted by the gorgeous nature themed tags she created. There is so much texture and layering going on on these small canvases. I love that she added dried flowers too.

Simply Neutrals 48 - working in my mixed media journal

Hello sweet friends!

Summer holidays are over, the kids are back to school, so I am back in Blogland! I hope you don't mind that I kept quiet during the summer holidays?

At the moment I'm really busy with an illustration/art course by the wonderful art agent Lilla Rogers, called Make Art That Sells. And besides the course my main focus at the moment is drawing a whole lot of all kinds of objects and living creatures, including human beings :) To practice practice practice.

I hadn't been working in the little mixed media books that I created (and which you can see some of HERE, HERE and HERE) and thought it was about time and wanted to draw a little tree in my forest book. I also added some lace that was gifted to me by SuziQ and Odetta, and a a clover four that I found and pressed. Not sure if these pages are finished yet. The whole book is a work in progress to which I keep adding bits and pieces here and there.

I'm wondering about the health of our trees lately, because we had such a dry summer here. It's been said that some of the trees really suffer and most likely some will not make it through autumn and winter...

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FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

Thank you for joining in the fun again last month!

For the feature I chose this month a most gorgeous card created by dear Karen of Roosterhead Designs.

I chose this gorgeous work by Karen because I so much loved the romantic beauty of it - the layering, the aging, the textures, the beautiful image.

As you can see in the work of both Karen and me, I really don't mind some hints of colour here and there in the work you share with Simply Neutrals. As long as the overall feel of it is in neutral tones. If you know what I mean :)

Simply Neutrals #46

Hello sweet friends,

Gosh, it's time again for another Simply Neutrals. Time flies... So...

Hello hello and a warm welcome to Simply Neutrals for July 2018!

Today I'm sharing some photos I took in the beautiful mountains of Switzerland.

This summer we will be spending some time in the mountains again, so it might take some time for me to be able to visit your blogs. But the SNT party will go on, so please join!

And dear Jo had a great idea: from now on the link up will last the whole month in stead of for one or two weeks only. So you will have the whole month of July to join the party of July. And if you feel like joining multiple times, please feel free to do so!

Back to my photos: top left of this second photo collage is a dairy farmer who is cleaning the huge pot in which he makes Alpine cheese the traditional way. Next to him is the oven.

The cheese gets its unique taste from the alpine herbs that the cows eat during the summer months, when they spend their time on the higher grounds in the mountains. I always love hearing the sound of the bells they carry. It's so typical for the Alpines. Can't wait to be going there again this summer! 

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FEATURE OF LAST MONTH

I don't think it will come as a surprise that the feature this week is a gorgeous fabric art journal created by dear Suzy of suziqusthreadworks. My goodness, just stunning! And what I really love is that it is a journal that has so many elements that are so close to Suzy's heart: the theme of friendship, the warm neutral tones, the pre-Raphaelite paintings, fabrics and papers that Suzy (eco-)dyed and printed by hand herself, gorgeously rich fabrics and laces, embroidery and a vintage bohemian style. What's not to love?

Please check her blog post HERE to see more of this gorgeous journal!

Simply Neutrals #43

the Sea Gull highschool :)

Hello dear friends, welcome to Simply Neutrals!

Last week we celebrated the 8th birthday of the City Crafter Challenge blog, run and hosted by Kirsty. Every week for 8 years already she is hosting the linky party there. I'm so much in awe! Because to be honest, I find it quite challenging to do this every week, and I only just started!

I know how much these neutral-love parties mean to you and me, the weekly gathering is so wonderful, inspiring, and it makes me so happy to have these cozy gatherings with you where we share and chat with each other. And you my dears have left me similar comments. But at the moment it is a bit too much for me to be hosting this so often. I hate to disappoint you, but my question to you is: Would you mind if we try to make this a monthly gathering instead? Like, every first Tuesday of the month? And see how it goes from there? Would that be okay with you? Please share your honest opinion and wishes.

FEATURE OF LAST WEEK

Dear Karen of RoosterHeadDesigns had shared this beautiful album before, but I'm glad she shared it again! I love how she honours her family by creating this gorgeous album of their wedding photos. I think it's such a wonderful idea! And oh my, how beautifully she's done it too...