Category Archives: Blog Exclusive

Here’s all of my projects that I posted exclusively on this blog, so no video, photos only. Enjoy!

Prima Romance Novel altered treasure chest, pt. 1 – Preview / Work in progress

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I’m working on a commissioned altered box at the moment, and I thought it would be fun to share some of the progress.

The person I’m making this for wants to send an altered box to his dear friend in New Zealand (yea, I’m being shipped overseas, woohoo! :-)). He has sent me some short notes he wants to be written on the box and furthermore he’s asked me to do something with a dandelion, or a dandelion theme, as this flower has special meaning to him and his friend.

Here’s what I came up with so far:

  1. I’m going to use the Romance Novel design paper stack, I don’t think there’s a paper out there that’s more fitting! It has everything you could want for a commission like this: it’s gorgeous, it’s romantic AND it has a love letter theme, including vintage postage stamps and the like! How cool is that for a gift that will actually be sent overseas by mail!
  2. I decided I wanted to find a way to create an actual paper dandelion, 3D, life size. Didn’t have a clue how to do it, but I was going to find out and make it work!

So, here’s some pics of the work in progress, enjoy!

The wooden box I’m altering. It’s kind of a mini treasure chest and it’s about 3.5×2.5×2.5 inches (9x6x6 cm). Isn’t it adorable?

First I removed its lock and the hinges on the back. Then I painted it dark brown except its little legs which I painted gold, using simple acryllic paint. I mixed it with a pearl paint to create a pearly shine. Then I sprayed glimmer mist on the whole thing, using Tattered Angel’s Iridescent Gold and Vanilla Breeze. Nothing too fancy, but it does create a very nice, subtle effect. Plus, this box has Golden Feet! 🙂

Here’s the layout for the box. I sprayed each piece of paper with a bit of glimmer mist, using the same two colors I used on the box. Of course I’m going to distress everything as well, for which I’ll be using Tim Holtz’s Black Soot distress ink.


On to the creation of the dandelion. Fortunately the internet was there to teach me how to make one (check out Inna’s Creations, a very creative Israeli lady whose website I stumbled onto. She makes gorgeous paper art!). I started by creating the paper strip on this picture.

Roll up tight!

And spread the little petals. Done – A cute little life-sized paper dandelion! Thank you Inna! 🙂


I’m going to put this inside the box, so that when my friend’s friend opens it, a lovely, bright piece of summer will smile at her 🙂

So, this was part 1 – hope you enjoyed it!

I’ll be showing you the finished product in part 2. Until then, stay creative!

Candles to match your Easter / spring ornaments

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So I decoupaged some Easter eggs a couple of days ago. Saturday, the day before Easter, I decided I definitely needed some candles to go with them. So, here they are!

I used the same napkin technique, only this time with different glue of course, in order to be able to light them safely. It’s a special candle podge, which will prevent your napkins from catching fire – instead, they’ll neatly melt along with your candle. Perfect.

So, here’s the three decoupaged candles, and my springtime living room to match! 🙂

Dutch translation:

Drie geservette kaarsen in Paas-/lentethema zorgen voor extra kleur en gezelligheid! Let op: om kaarsen te servetten moet je wel speciale lijm gebruiken om ongelukken te voorkomen (zie foto hierboven).

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Season’s greetings – with decoupaged Easter ornaments

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Usually I don’t decorate my Easter eggs – assuming there are any Easter eggs in my house at all, which isn’t necessarily the case each year, I simply buy them in the color I want. This year however, when I bought myself some eggy Easter branch ornaments after all, I decided to decorate the few white ones.

I used yellow and two shades of pink, since at the moment gold, yellow and pink (of the vintage kind, like Tim Holtz’s Tattered Rose distress ink that you can see in my explosion card post) are the colors I’d already decorated my living room with.

There were four white Easter eggs in the stash that I bought, in three different sizes. I decorated them by applying the napkin technique and adding some gold stickles, and here’s the results!

By the way, I found some mirror-imaged stickers with a cute spring theme – and I decided couldn’t not use them: how often do we find mirror-imaged stickers right? So, I stuck them onto a piece of card board with a small piece of thread to create a loop. Then I added a little gold stickle on a few spots. And lo and behold: Yet Another Easter Ornament to hang from my “tree” (which is actually a lamp, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed from the picture above).

Dutch translation:

Tot nu toe versierde ik nooit paaseieren – als ik überhaupt al paaseieren in huis had. Dit jaar vond ik echter een paar mooie, makkelijk op te hangen paaseieren, van het een kwam het ander en ineens hing mijn multifunctionele staande lamp vol. Deze lamp staat er normaalgesproken bij als een soort populier, met de takken helemaal omhoog, en doet verder alleen dienst als kerstboom (takken helemaal uitgevouwen). Vanaf dit voorjaar heeft ie een nieuwe functie: de Paasboom, met de takken ergens halverwege populier en kerstboom!

Er zaten een paar witte eitjes tussen de gekleurde en ik besloot om die dan toch maar te gaan versieren. Ze waren van kunststof en verven werd me te ingewikkeld (moet je eerst weer gaan primen en zo). Daarom koos ik voor de servettechniek. Omdat de rest van mijn woonkameraccessoires ook geel, goud en oud-roze zijn heb ik servetten in geel en twee tinten roze gebruikt. En vervolgens afgewerkt met gouden glitterlijm.

Hierboven het resultaat!

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Photo editing: Happy Easter! (Vrolijk Pasen!)

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Season’s greetings!

Wishing you all a glorious Easter, reflected each spring in the lovely colors the Lord paints our beautiful Earth with, celebrating the New Life conquered for us by Jesus’s death and resurrection! (in case you forgot Easter’s true meaning due to all the distractions of Easter eggs & bunnies 😉 )

I tried to capture a fraction of this colorful Glory in this picture, which I edited with Paintshop Pro XI. Of course featuring one of my very own top model guinea piggies – her name is Queen Ester, and isn’t she gorgeous! 🙂 (Meanwhile, she’s grown into a curly-haired beauty)

Enjoy a blessed Easter!

Je zou het niet zeggen, maar het is Lente! Tijd om te genieten van de mooie voorjaarskleuren waarmee God onze aarde elk jaar schildert, kleuren die het Nieuwe Leven uitdrukken dat Jezus voor ons heeft veroverd door Zijn dood en opstanding! (voor het geval je door alle paaseieren en paashazen de echte betekenis van Pasen vergeten was 😉 )

Ik heb een fractie van die kleurenpracht proberen te vangen in deze bewerkte foto, bewerkt met Paintshop Pro XI – met in de hoofdrol trouwens een echt caafje, mijn eigen Queen Ester! (Inmiddels uitgegroeid tot een prachtige langharige dame)

Ik wens iedereen een vrolijk en gezegend Pasen!

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Fashion Tip: Customizing Your Own T-shirts!

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Although a t-shirt is not necessarily a fashion statement in and of itself, you still want it to express something of your unique personality. Sometimes the shirts that wait for you in your local fashion shop just won’t do. They are either ridiculously expensive ($70,= for what in the end still is a t-shirt?!) or they have a silly image, logo or text that simply doesn’t appeal to you at all.

That is why now and then I customize, by choosing or creating an image to my own liking and having it printed on a shirt, hoodie or tank top.

Of course a holiday picture or a photo of my family wouldn’t do, but… there are other options. How about picking a painting or piece of art that you like – or better yet: created yourself – or a text that you love, or, like me, scenes from your favorite comics!

So here’s six pieces of clothing that I had customized, plus two more that I did myself. I edited every image by giving them nice frames, and sometimes blending them with another image or adding a different background. Then I had them printed on pieces of clothing.

Black hoodie + black t-shirt

Green Lantern comics fans will recognize the picture I used here as the logos of each of the Lantern corps (except the Black). Being an ardent comics fan, I’m very pleased with how this one turned out and I actually wear this thing a lot – and I never wear hoodies! 🙂

Again a Green Lantern theme, although more subtle than the previous one: the Green Lantern logo blended with a fantasy landscape, which I did with Paintshop Pro XI:

White t-shirt 1

A scene from Nonplayer this time – with digitally customized borders – this is such a fan-tas-tic comic I don’t know where to begin to describe it! (apologies for the frumpy look: I searched and searched for this darned little tee, and finally recovered it – from the laundry hamper! :oops:)


White t-shirt 2

Back to Green Lantern, with a view from Odym:
Black t-shirt

An underwater action shot from Fathom:

(image from the website’s cart right before I ordered)

The print turned out nice enough even though the colors were too blue, but the shirt itself wasn’t quite as lovely as shown on the site, due to its straightness and lack of waist. Bummer. So there’s a risk when ordering online…

White t-shirt 3 – bought a white shirt in a store, then took it to a sportswear printing company and mailed them the image. This turned out to be one of the cheaper options, although I had to drive there twice (once to deliver my shirt to them, the second time a couple of days later to pick it up).

This image is from Seven Warriors (a great comic!), which I edited by giving it some customized borders with Paintshop Pro XI, creating the “wiping” effect you can see here:

Of course there is always an alternative option:
D.I.Y.!
Use your home printer to print your image on special photo transfer paper, cut it to size (following the image borders as close as you can!) and then simply iron it onto your t-shirt.

This is relatively cheap, but I consider this more of a one-time-use solution because usually after only one or two laundry sessions your image will start to crack or fade, or both.

The examples below show pictures of two of the guinea pigs from my caviary, that I digitally gave new backgrounds; I usually wear these only once or twice a year, when I go to a cavy show ;-):

So who says that customizing your t-shirt is only for family happenings or company team building sessions?! Be your own unique self and start customizing those boring white t-shirts in your closet!

Altered wine box

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There’s more than one way to present someone with a bottle of wine. There’s gift bags and gift boxes, and then there’s the altered wine box!

Like this one below, one of my very first napkin technique projects – when I was still taking my first steps in this undiscovered decoupage country. Meanwhile, I’ve learned a lot more about the possibilities of designing with this technique, but I’ve yet to alter my second wine box. So, just to give you an idea of the sheer endless possibilities, here are some pictures of my first.

In addition to the napkin technique I painted this particular wine box with a color I mixed myself. Again, this opens even more possibilities. To think at the time I didn’t even know the half of designing your own decorations – and I’m learning still more with every project!

For this box I chose a theme with boats and water since I had a man in mind as the recipient. This colleague was pleasantly surprised by the original gift by the way! (I also put a bottle of wine in there of course) 😉

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Decoupage: Five tiny boxes

Gallery

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This gallery contains 5 photos.

This week I’m sharing five cute boxes that I altered by decoupaging them with napkins. The diameter of the little boxes in this gallery is appr. 1.75 inches (4,5 cm). A perfect fit for a fine chocolate bonbon! Red-White-Blue & … Continue reading →

Scrapbook calendar 2013

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I’ve always had a thing for paper and all related stuff – when I’m in an office supply store or, even better yet, an arts & crafts place, I always breath in deeply, to smell all that papery stuff. I’ve loved the beautiful 12×12 inch design paper stocks for many years now but never bought any, because I didn’t really know what to do with it. Yet!

Last December I finally got my chance: I decided I’d try my hand at scrapbooking – and what a ride that was!

My mother had asked me to make one of these digital print-it-yourself calendars, like I’d done each year for her for a couple of years now, but the pictures she wanted me to use were all mostly in black and white. And for a color addict like me, that simply wouldn’t do. So on an impulse I figured I’d add at least some color, bought myself some designer paper and got to work.

Oh, and did I tell you this was about three weeks before Christmas? Well, it was, and I had never scrapped anything in my life, plus I had my fulltime job… I discovered I not only needed far more materials than just the paper, it also cost a lot more of “creative time” than I’d thought – hours and hours of thinking how to layout this or that month, and how to get the small contraptions I wanted to design to actually work. I could have easily burned out with those kinds of hours days in a row – that is, if I hadn’t enjoyed myself so much!

Like April, for instance (see picture below). I wanted one 12×12 inch sheet to open with two different kinds of doors cut from and still part of that same sheet – and they had to be able to open and close without any magnets or glue (the reason for that was simply because that was the challenge I had given myself for that month).

Anyway, this was a great project to actually use full size 12×12 inch cardstock in all its gorgeous glory! How I love my paper…
I used The Natural Stack and the Immortal Love stack most of the time, both by DCWV. Plus two tiny bits of cardstock from DCWV’s Once Upon A Time, and some brandless cardstock from the Netherlands.

Enjoy the pictures below!

Btw, I apologize up front for its length; I guess I just had a lot to say for each month, and there are twelve months and a cover, so…. Plus, at the time I shot the video I had no idea I would start a blog two months later. Anyway, I’ll try to seriously cut down the length of my next videos. If nothing else, there’s always fast forward… (On the other hand, it could be quite a relaxed watch if you pour yourself a nice cup of tea to go along with it, and of course some cup cakes on the side 🙂 )

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Enjoying creativity

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Welcome to my blog!

This blog is meant to share with you what I’ve created, sometimes inspired by someone else’s creative ideas and building from that, sometimes just riding the wave of urgent creativity that sometimes sweeps me off my feet, taking me away to hours of dedicated – and, I admit, sometimes slightly obsessive – “creating”. The reason I’m posting these things on a blog, is that I carry within me the deep conviction that every person has at least some creativity inside him or herself, combined with the ability to enjoy beauty; maybe you’re already aware of it, but if not then perhaps it can be “triggered” by enjoying the creative ideas of others.

As for me, I have a deep, inexplicably ardent love for colors and color combinations – in every possible way: clothing & accessories, decorating my house, the way I design Powerpoint presentations at work. And so on and so forth. It’s hard to explain, but it’s as if color is like some kind of oxygen for my soul.

Since this is the introductory post, I’ll share a little personal information, just this once… My name is Katja, I’m from the Netherlands and I was born in 1971 (so you do the math). I’ve always been creative. At the moment I enjoy photography and altering images creatively, I’ve been writing stories and poetry, and I love to combine these to create what I call photo poetry – see image below for an example. I’ve dabbled in decoupage and napkin technique, I’ve designed and made my own accessories and right now I’m discovering and exploring the wonderful world of paper crafts. But most of all, I love to try and discover new ways to be creative!

Meanwhile, I’ll keep building and expanding this blog; which may take a while since I have to start from scratch. So please, subscribe to my blog! It’s free, and it’ll ensure that you won’t miss a single post.

Feel free to comment on any of my posts, I’d love to hear from you all!

Thanks so much,

Katja

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