Lately, I’ve been making a lot of collages and cyanotypes on heavy paper. I keep most of them in a drawer where they subsequently rarely come out.
That’s why I was looking for a way to bind the nicest ones into a booklet that I can easily take with me to show to others.
In another article, I described how to make booklets from plain paper, but these methods were unsuitable for thicker paper or single sheets. The Japanese bookbinding method I have tried is perfect.
Using layers in any creative computer program is a marvellous way to enhance our creativity. In this article, I will explain how to use layers in Photoshop, applied to an Easter card.
Once you know how to benefit from working with layers, you can use them for any kind of creative expression.
Besides using them for masking, I often toggle between layers to turn them ‘on’ and ‘off’ so I can judge differences. Making variations and looking at which one pleases me most, is easy that way.
The grandchildren are coming for Eastern and I am planning for an Easter egg hunt with them as well as a decoration with eggs. It’s fun to think of different ways to decorate Easter eggs.
A couple of years ago I made the decoration together with them. I had cut eggs from sturdy cardboard and they decorated them on both sides with felt-tip pens. Then we put a hole in it and hung them on 2 cross-linked branches to form a mobile.
They don’t like crafting themselves anymore, unfortunately, so I made the decorations myself and I used real eggs this time.
Some years ago a Dutch friend, Jenny van Diggelen, Blauwwerk, gave me a workshop on Cyanotype Printing. I wasn’t sold right away because I was in the middle of emigrating.
Once in order in my new house, I was again inspired by the blue colour and the possibilities of cyanotype.
It took some getting used to the Spanish sun and sometimes the sun really shines too bright to make nuanced tests. Which makes experimenting all the more interesting.
Sometimes the budget is scarce and the wish to make an outstanding item is big. For example, you want to have a great present for a birthday or anniversary. Or you want a gift as a souvenir at a customer meeting, like a friend and I did.
In this article, I explain how to make a booklet by folding it, without the need for any other resources but paper and an A3 printer.
And I show another way of folding a booklet for which you don’t need a printer unless you want to use text.
In my personal challenge, an assignment to make a collage daily for 365 days, I am focusing on one aspect a month. More or less. It’s not written in stone, of course.
The month before, I primarily worked on art journaling, using illustrations and text. February 2023 was dedicated to transferring pictures to the Gelli prints.
I used several methods. The main difference was either Gelli printing or using the copy machine on tissue paper.
My personal challenge, an assignment to make a collage daily for 365 days, is almost halfway.
This month I focused on the combination of text and image. As I describe in another article, you can make text in many ways.
In some cases, very few tools are needed, whereas, in others, a bit more effort is required.
Either way, just as making images unleashes a lot of creativity, so does making texts. 🙂
Even if you consider yourself as non-creative, as a lot of people unjustifiable do, it’s pretty simple to make something.
These 3 ideas for DIY Valentine cards will inspire you to have a fun afternoon beforehand and a great day on February 14th.
Valentine’s Day used to be about secret love, yet has turned into a commercial fest. Personally, I don’t like that. It’s so simple to go to a store and buy all kinds of stuff, or even order it online.
When I was living in the Netherlands I made abstract, sculptural ceramics. You can see the sources of inspiration and the results of what I made in another article, but here I want to answer the question “Can you make ceramics at home?”.
In order to work properly, you do not need your own atelier – several of my students used their kitchen table – although a place you don’t have to tidy before every meal is an advantage.
The space I used was a small building located in the garden, which suited me perfectly. It was my atelier where nobody disturbed me and I could work quietly. And where I taught my students, so at times it was not quiet at all!