Chunkies for a swap

See here 4 Chunkies for a swap with a friend in the States.
The themes we picked were:
1 "My Muse" - 2 " Fairy Tale character"
3 "Antler people" - 4 "Mermaid"
They made it there before Christmas, which was nice for both of us.
Little Christmas present for JoAnn
and peace of mind for me
with all the busy postal activities around this time of year
....and....she loved them :-)
♥

Merry Christmas ~ a Red Robin

Well I've had 5 afternoons of Art Workshops

with a group of kids.

Pre Christmas Workshop.It was FUN !

But now I am ready for Christmas, to put my feet up and have a bit of quiet Art time for myself....hopefully......

♫ Ho Ho Ho ♪

I saw this great cartoon by Garrick Tremain in a Magazine this week,
I just had to save it somehow
so I made a page in my altered-diary-journal

(which is basically a beautiful diary from last year where I want to alter pages, make some completely of my own
and sometimes try to incorporate the existing photographs)

So here: for a good laugh

♫ Hohoho ♪

Counting down to Christmas

This year it has taken me some time
to get that Christmas feeling....
It's been such a weird year here
Well anyway, last Friday we had rain (Yeah !)
and it was chilly and I had the lights on in the tree
and Xmas songs playing all day
The kids were already home -school broke up on Thursday-
and finally.....
there was that Christmas feeling I was longing for......
So now, I'll be counting down...
...6 more sleeps...
and here are some Xmassy things I have been making lately

some cards I made for a group of crafty friends....

A try out of some sort, that I want to use for cards still

and some fabric balls I made today with the kids.
from an idea by my Brazilian/Swiss friend S☼l Santiago
(meet her here at Borealis Shine)

My Zazzle store

Here's another spot where you can shop:
I opened a Zazzle shop
there are cool Iphone and Ipad cases,
necklaces and more accessories.
Great ideas for Christmas !
Just click on the pic to link through

SAGITTARIUS

The last Zodiac sign in my challenge

This was fun and this page sort of feels like and ending

shooting for the stars....onto something new.....

2011

Shoot for the Stars !!

Little Mermaid Paper doll

Having a little play with my Mermie Paper doll

Scorpio

The 11th astrology sign in my self imposed challenge

one more: Sagittarius
It's been a lot of fun doing the Zodiac

(I now have to come up with another challenge for 2011)

Wearable Art ~ Jewelry

3x1 inch pendants with artist prints on 26 inch long vintage necklaces

embellished with assorted Italian glass beads

I have posted them in my Etsy shop

perfectly in time for Christmas !

Just click on the images

Zodiac backlog - LIBRA

I am behind with my self imposed Zodiac Challenge !

So this week I suddenly got an idea for the Libra

that was next on my list.

I got inspired by my son's latest crush on

Ang / The Last Airbender

and subsequentially Buddhism.
The weighing off of good and bad - yin and yang etc.
So here it is....

I tried out paletknife painting for the background

together with my special copic markers for the body

Two more signs to go (working on Scorpio as we speak)

Caught in the Abyss

Mixed Media on 8x15 inch woodpanel

Remember her ?

This is after her "facelift"

The Butterfly Project - Effect

Together with all te mermaids at the moment

I have also been working on some other things.
One of them my butterfly for the Butterfly Project
or hosted as the Butterfly Effect through Two Dresses Studio
They are aiming to collect 1,500,000 butterflies by June 30-2012
I have a link button at the top left here in my blog, so
if you have some time join this wonderful project !
If you need some encouragement to do so
view this video clip
Well without further ado...this is my butterfly, front & back

Gray scaled Mermie

On A4 sized paper, playing with different materials and styles

The Abyss

I am finding myself in te Deep Dark Sea.....the Abyss....
it sometimes happens of course
that things don't go the way we want...
and am there now...at least with one of my works....
and I got all surgical with her and gave her a facelift....
let's hope her recovery is going to be good....
will keep you posted of course.
Luckily I have other projects to work on in the mean time...

Murky Waters Nixie

On A5-Watercolour Paper

I don't know if she's completely done,

but I'll let her rest for a while, so far I have used

Aquarel paints and pencils~acrylic paints~stamps~inks~Crayons~Pastels~Glass bead gel

The Murky Waters Nixie

A digital play as preview to my "Murky Waters Nixie"

I will have to photograph her tomorrow with daylight.
I am not an aquarel expert by all means, but I did this one on watercolourpaper with watercolour paint and pencils and then I added inks, stamps, acrylics, glaze, more watercolouir paint and at last some Golden glass bead gel which I covered with some more diluted sparkly paints.
She is my "Halloween" project for this year,

since I am all submerged with the water sprites.....

Where do I belong ?

One of the journal entries...

While I was starting to draw something over the gesso layer that I had painted over my text,

I suddenly had to think about the little hermit crab with its house on its back, that little hermit crab belongs wherever it is, because it's got its house with him.

A comfy thought....

Mermaid Journal so far...

I am steadily adding more to the Mermaid journal/sketchbook

... thought I'll post a "so far"...

here are some excercises with paints and materials

some prompts I worked on

...there is more...

...which I'll show at a later stage...

Retro-ish

A cover I did for my Journal/Sketchbook

where I keep all about my mermaids

limited print now available on Etsy

Tangled Maids

These are Chunkies, the challenge was Black and White

I thought this was a nice opportunity to do some

Zentangle practice

for a swap at atcsforall.com

dowN wheRe iT's Better

Down where it's Better ~ Under the Sea ~ The Seabed

PiraTeS love MErmAidS Yo Ho !

"Yo Ho, Yo Ho , a pirates life for me

we pillage and plunder, we rifle and loot

Aye and we're loved by our Mermies to boot,

Drink up me 'earties YoHo !..."

(my own spin on the lyrics of "YoHo" by Xavier Antencio)

Pensive

A work in progress or no longer ?

I like the unfinished kinda look to it

and the monochromatic with a hint of colour,

we'll see if I can keep my pencils

and brushes off her long enough...

Virgo

in my personal challenge

to do all the signs of the Zodiac this year

here is my take on

Virgo

the sign for 23 August - 22 September

School of Mermaids

Step-by-step to the School of Mermaids

~and me trying to get the hang of editing~

Frida Kahlo meets Coraline

ATCs I made for a swap with my friend Malin.

I know she likes Frida Kahlo

and maybe because Halloween is slowly creeping onto us

or maybe my mind started wandering for a change...

...so Frida met Coraline...

Leo

the other one I still had to finish
I used my Pan Pastels for this one and I cannot tell you how SMOOTH this feels to the touch, those Pan pastels are AMAZING !
I Love them !!

Leo - Zodiac Sign for 23 July - 22 August

Cancer

I've been catching up on my Zodiac challenge,

I got behind/stuck/pre-occupied....

you name it...

Cancer- Zodiac sign for 21 June-22 July

Eskimo Blues

"Snow falls thick and cold

the Eskimo takes a deep breath

and pulls up his hood"

~

Haiku by Joyce van de Lely 2010 ©

~

I really like making these little Haiku or Poems with my work now, every time I draw something I find my mind wondering to find words that would go with it.

So this is another combination of ATCs I made for a swap and a little poem to go with them.

Antler Maiden

"Deep in the Forest

I found two peaceful Doe

and captured them with paint"

~

Haiku by Joyce van der Lely © 2010

~

I have been a bit disturbed by the Earthquake we had Saturday

and we still have aftershocks regularly throughout the day and night.

I try to get some peace and quiet by making my Art

but I am not always succesful with this

it's a creepy experience

I hope a -once in a lifetime thing- only...

Mermaid Amigurumi

Mermaids are everywhere !

I have been thinking about doing a little Amigurumi again lately,

I see so many nice ones around,

so I thought of looking for a mermaid pattern.

There are some free patterns available on-line

and some that are for sale for a small fee.
Here are a few pics with links to the proper owners/places.
When I have made one, I will post here of course.

and look ! I even found a (knitting) pattern for a mermaidtail for a Barbie Doll

for those of you that have little girls that want to play Mermaids too.

Needle felted Mermaid

Here's a needle felted mermaid I made a while ago

I found her again and I realized I have to do one like this again soon

Dry-needle-felting is great fun !

(stay focussed or you'll poke your fingers...believe me, I know...)

-I used New Zealand Merino wool-

Here' a youtube tutorial for sculptural needle felting

Fur Babies !

Two of my friends just got FUR BABIES !!

They each have an 11 week old Miniature Schnauzer (they are sisters...the doggies, not the friends...) and tonight we had an impromptu Puppy Shower for them.

It was so much FUN ! We had shortbread biscuits in the shape of doggie bones and other yummie stuff too and of course the two little ones were there as well, receiving their presents.I got them a bag of puppie bones to chew on and some beef jerky treats and I made them a card. Just simple pencil drawings - monochromatic with a little pink on creamy cardstock

A Mermaid Booklet and her value studies

I am doing colour value studies

for La Sirena

(the back-to-school-feeling is creeping up on me, haha)

but of course I cannot resist the odd little portrait in between the excersises