Collage Sunday 5-8

5. Random Cuteness. Do you know about Troelie Woelies? They were called Snugglebumms in English. I had the pink Moma Snugglebumms when i was little (still do, she's in storage in Amsterdam). When you hugged her, she would light up. Very cute. The bottles are pretty. And it happens that i've drank those in real life too. Mongozo Fair trade coconut and banana beer (tastes very sweet, nothing like beer) and Arizona (love Arizona, gorgeous bottles, nice different flavors!) What else to say? Cute images make me happy.

6. This page started out with a piece of wrapping paper in the same pattern as what i've put on my livingroom wall. Added was an image of a somewhat melancholic looking girl, an old Indonesian stamp, a iron tag with the word 'Foreign' on it, some text scraps, "Nederlands-Indie" (Netherlands-Indies before it became Indonesia) and "De reis duurde een maand." (The journey took a month). So this page started telling it's own story. The story of my family. How they had to leave Indonesia and were put on a boat to go the their new country the Netherlands.

7. Okay. So this is one of my least favorite pages of this collage journal. But i said i would show everything, so i'm showing all. This is just one of those pages that doesn't really work, didn't come together, is still missing something, or will just never get there. Pretty images, but the combination is not ecstatically how i would like it to be.

8. This one i do like. A lot is happening here. A lot of pink. I love pink. I like to add a little splash of a different color in there to break the pink-ness. A blue bodyscrub on the right page, a vintage sticker of a cute blue bunny on the left page. The 'No Name' card is a flyer i got as a young girl when i was on holiday in Salou, Spain. I remember i was way too young to go out to a club, but felt real 'mature' when i got a flyer! ;) I saved it and now it made it into my collage journal. What else? Stickers, a squirrel, a tiny tiny folding Happy Birthday cart with a heart on it (right page lower left corner). Oh, i mentioned the Hema stores the other day when showing the cute stamps i got from there, the image of the pink polkadotted bottle on the right page comes from the Hema too. Just so you know. Ha.

That's it for this week's Collage Sunday. Hope you enjoyed yourself!

Sunday Collages

As promised, i have taken pictures of the pages from my collage journal. Since it is so thick it didn't fit under my scanner anymore and i had to put a piece of glass on top to keep the pages flat. This doesn't improve on the quality of the photos. I'm sorry about that. But still, here are the first four pages for your viewing pleasure!

1. This page was shown (in a smaller size) on my blog before. Back then there was a blank space on the lower right corner. Now a cute shiny dog found it's way there. The small photo on the left page shows me with my mom and older brother. If you could see my face close up, haha! I think i was looking into the sun and maybe i wasn't having a very good day, i don't look amused. (will post a close up of the picture another time, just to make you laugh)
The stamp on the left page is a very old Dutch stamp, from way before the Euro time, when there still was the good old Gulden currency and the face of the former Queen Juliana. The monkey is a vintage sticker i found in one of my old school workbooks.

2. Fabric scraps adorn the right side. The collage photo on the top right of the left page is a small version of an oversized collage i made a long time ago. A bigger version can be seen in my gallery pages. The photo on the right page is Woogie, a crafty creation of mine in front of a estate garden backdrop. Large version appeared on my blog before too.

3. I like doing color coordinated collage pages. (you will notice as more pages follow) This is a somewhat blue/brown composition. The deer and bird image is an illustration i did called 'i dreamt about a forest'. The Asian girl sits on a striped fabric swatch. The borders on the left and right came from the packaging of a set of candles. I love great designed packaging!

4. As i said, packaging. I am a sucker for packaging. The Pillsbury dough boy is something you don't have in the Netherlands, so when i was here in the States on one of my trips i had to get the package of Banana Bread with the cute dough person on it! Celestial Seasonings is just great tea and when there is a pack with a sleeping panda i have to get it.
Mona Bitterkoekjes Pudding. How to translate that for the non Dutchies out there? First of all, now that i don't live there anymore i really miss all the wonderful puddings and yogurts the supermarkets sell there. Mona is a brand with lovely (large) puddings. Bitterkoekjes are somewhat oldfashioned cookies (shown on the box) which they incorporated into the pudding. Nice!

As always, comments are very welcome. Questions about what you see are welcome too!
More pages next Sunday, so collage lovers, stay tuned!

Raining all day

It's raining all day here. No fun. What better to do than get to work on the promise i made to make pictures of the collage pages inside my beloved collage journal?

While going through the pages i started to think how to actually go about doing this. It's a project on its own. I did decide to just show everything! All pages. The ones i absolutely love and the ones i think could have turned out better. Maybe hearing what my visitors think will even change my mind on how i feel.
All these pages won't be piled into one blogpost obviously. I'm thinking of picking a certain day each week to post a couple of pages.
Then there is the question if i should talk about the pages. Like the process of making the collage, where i found particular scraps or images, some pages have messages or themes, others are just collections of images.
Should i talk or should i just show the pages and shut up? ;)
Not sure about this last question. What is sure is that as of next week i'll be showing off the collage pages! Maybe Sunday is the perfect day to do so each week. Sunday for collages.

Now, can the rain stop please? I want the sunshine back!

It's out of control

My favorite collage journal is officially out of control. There is no way to get it flat anymore. Or anyway near flat.
I already had made a elastic type strap out of polkadotted bias band but even that can barely hold it together anymore. But that is not really the problem. The journal is to thick to put under my scanner! And it is filled with lovely inspirational pages which i would love to share here.
So i guess i'll have to take pictures of the pages, but how to keep the journal open on a certain page?
And how to post them is another question, one, two maybe three large posts filled with photos of pages or a page a day (or weekly, or ad random)
Let me try some things out and ponder it some more.
In the past i had scanned some pages from this journal and my other collage journals, but then i could still fit it under my scanner...

Dollhouse Bedroom unveiled

Woohoo. I must admit i was a bit nervous having my room unveiled over at Cruststation. Luckily there were some kind visitors leaving sweet comments so i'm not scared anymore that nobody would like it...
All other rooms are currently unveiled. They are gorgeous!

We were all asked to write down our thoughts on this project. Here are mine. Unedited ;)

Name: Ismoyo
Blog address: http://www.ismoyo.com/ismoyoblog.html
Room: Bedroom
Thoughts on the project:

In the words of my 3 year old cousin "Can we play the bear and the turtle game? Pwease?"

I loved this project from the moment Babelfish first mentioned her thoughts about setting it up. I almost missed signing up for it, but luckily i could get in on the fun! I was assigned one of the bedrooms of the house, which i was very very happy with. But then again, i think i would have been happy with any of the rooms.
What i wanted was to end up with a room that could be loved by anyone and at the same time would be in a typical 'ismoyo' style. That meant there had to be some pink in it and ofcourse a little vintage feel.

The project gave us so much freedom as to what mediums to use, the possibilities and my ideas where endless. But i got very much limited by my personal situation (moving overseas and moving apartments a lot, thus having my craft supplies all over the place but mostly in storage).
But my beloved computer was with me, so i choose to do a digital collage with some illustrations in it.

I had to put a cup of coffee on the nightstand 'cause it so says "New York" to me, plus the fact i can't start my day without a cup of steamy coffee.
The framed artworks on the wall are scans from my personal vintage postcard collection.

While working on this project i got company from my little cousin from time to time. It started out with the question "Why can't that lady walk?" and me having to explain what a sewing mannequin was, which resulted in a lot of puzzled looks.
Then he discovered the bear on the chair. He looks like he wants to play! Oh, the wonders of layers in Illustrator and Photoshop! We made the bear jump up and down on the bed, play on the floor, hide under and behind the bed, until the bear got bored and wanted a playmate. In came mister turtle. Oh how much fun they had! After playtime they took a little nap on the big bed and got back to their favorite places in the room, the bear got comfy on the chair and the turtle liked his view from being on one of the shelves.

"Can we play the bear and the turtle game again? Pwease?"

Collage Journal Fun

Now that all my things are out of storage and in the apartment i finally had access to all my paper scraps and collage journals again. So much fun! I had missed my inspiration books very much. I did some small collages to get back into it. As soon as i get my scanner i will show new pages. Maybe you will get some inspiration out of them too.

Started a new collage journal

In honour of my new collage journal i'm showing some scans of pages from my previous journal.
I started a new one not because the others are completely filled yet, but because of my moving around so much lately, a lot of my stuff is currently locked in storage. Yep, even my inspiration journals.

Paper doll house project 2007

My dear online friend Babelfish is doing a great job organizing the Doll House Project.
Due to my overseas move i haven't had much time before to work on it. But i'm getting there. Wasn't expecting to be moving so much in my first two months here. (moved apartments again this week! ohoh, and i'm not a moving person at all)
but i've got the feeling i'm in a good place now, where for now i can get things up to speed again. i'm so behind on so many things. and i hate it to keep people waiting.
But about the dollhouse project. It is supposed to be done by the end of this month. I will have it done by then. That's my plan at least. Get it send out first week after. Risa had her room done way in advance. You go girl! You can see her wonderful dressingroom on flickr.
I won't be able to get all crafty crazy with this project unfortunately, but i'm making a digital collage mixed with illustration in Ismoyo style. So i'm hoping to be able to send out a vintage/cute bedroom when i'm done!

Easy wall art

This isn't something i just did, i just haven't shown it here before.
There used to be empty wall space above the couch in my living room. You know, such a space of which you keep thinking, i must find the perfect piece of artwork for it, but never come across it.
So if you can't find it, make it!
I traced the outside of a cd cover as the base size for loads of magazine cut outs. It's so easy, choose your favorite images, decide what is the best part of the image, cut it out, collect a pile of those and arrange them how you want. The fun thing is that you can add extras when you want and enlarge your artwork over time.
It's quick and easy and it will personalize your living space!

Magazines, magazines, magazines

Woohoo! Just the other day I got a box loaded with magazines from my friend!
Thanks hon, you're great!
Where to start? So much to see, so much to cut out and paste in to my collage albums. Some treasures are the gorgeous design and advertising magazines, there were stock photo albums and even a large photography annual of the Netherlands.
And then yesterday, i walked down the stairs and what was on my doormat? A pile of large stuffed envelopes. Yep. A pile of them! How wonderful, my friend surprised me with loads more magazines. Lot of advertising, design and other creative mags. Wonderful!
So expect some pictures of new pages of my collage book soon!

Missing my collage notebooks...

When i last was in NY, i have left a lot of my stuff there, i like to travel light and don't always feel like taking everything with me around the world every time. So i also left my thick collage notebooks. I thought i would have been back by now, but plans can change and I'm still in Amsterdam. And i miss my collage books. Have been missing them for a while now. What else to do than take another gorgeous journal and start collaging in a there?

I scanned in some of the pages that i like from my new book. Ran into the problem of input. Searched through my house for forgotten magazines that i could cut up. Went through all the pages. I was in a zone. If i had enough pretty pictures, stickers, labels and stuff i could have filled the entire book. I was flying. But then there was nothing no more. I had used everything already. Oh oh what to do. It felt so good to be collageing again...
In comes my friend. Without knowing all of this she sent me an email asking me what my favorite magazines are. Is she psychic? She works at a publishing company and apparently went by all sorts of departments picking up magazines that would otherwise end up in the paperbins. Now there is a box of magazines waiting for me in her car! I hope she finds her way over to my place soon! Thanks sweetheart.

ATC's anyone?

I'm talking about Artists Trading Cards. How come I have been missing out on them before? ATC are a brilliant idea based on the older sports-themed trading cards, collectables. The only 'rule' to these cards are that they have to be 2.5" x 3.5" in size, but other than that, you can go crazy altering, collaging, painting, drawing, or otherwise personify your art.
On the back the name and contact info of the artist, as well as the title of the piece and number if it's part of an edition.

I see them also being sold on Ebay. Not sure what to think about that. How i understand it, ATC's are there to be traded between artists.

Who makes ATC's already? Anyone up for a personal swap of some kind? Random cards or go by a specific theme? Watch out with those exacto knives! They're SHARP!

Quick project: mini collage notebook

I.. Need.. To.. Be.. Creative..

Even though i don't have all my crafting supplies with me, there are some things i can do. Magazines and paper scraps are things i always have around.
I apologize for the quality of the picture and the background, i also don't have my photograph set up here as i do when I'm in Amsterdam.
I will put some see through plastic on the cover to protect the mini collage.

Side note: Current mosquito bite count: 43!

Project Spectrum: Green Collage

It's almost the end of May, so just in time to participate in this month's Project Spectrum color Green. (sst... little secret time: it's my newly married last name too!)

I wanted to do another photo collage of all things green in my house, like i did during Orange/Yellow month and Pink month too. But i just don't have that many cute green things.
So i went through my stash of paper scraps and made this collage. I need to scan it to be able to show it off properly, but it's too large in size for my scanner. Will do that when I'm somewhere where i can copy/scan A3 size.

Collage Journal: Sweetness

I keep different notebooks for all different things. I've got one to write down all my to-do lists, I've got one to do my 'drawing a day' (or every other day..), I've got one to scribble down all my creative ideas and pattern sketches, I've got one to write down thoughts and reflect. Everything special gets it's own beautiful journal.

I also have two collage journals. I've showed some pages from my 'regular' collage journal before. But I also have one where I keep all my sweet pictures. Some things are just too cute to throw away, but to have all these loose cute paperscraps and things laying around, no no. So I gather them and every now and then I put them where they belong: In their own special little book of sweetness!

Collage Journal

Besides the large collages i make, i also keep a smaller collage journal. It's fun and something constant in my life. I've kept written journals ever since i was able to write. My clearest childhoodmemorie are those involving me writing in my journals. And there have been many creative fases in my years, but creating collages was there from the start and never left.

I never know when pages ever will be 'finished' since i keep going back to them to add things when i find something that fits. When does something fit? I can't explain. It's the connection that takes place when my eyes see it, my heart skips a beat and my mind can only think 'Yesss!'.
Let me share some of the pages of my current journal with you.

I've bought this blank notebook a long time ago already during a sale at Urban Outfitter. Never knew what i was going to use it for, until i started glueing pictures in it and it got a purpose for being.

Inside the cover i have images (The flower image has a great composition and i like the serenity. The pink scooter i put in just because i totally adore it! The card with the pink shades i picked up at a paintstore.), there are stickers (one describing the word giggle, just because, well it makes me giggle. A tiny sticker with a small flower and the message God Bless. We can all use a little blessing. And one Happy Bunny sticker, the combination of cute and rude makes me laugh.), and labels (the flowery one i got from a shirt from Bershka, where i've found the small Q tag, i don't remember).

To me it's obvious that these pages aren't finished yet. But untill i find the right things to put on there, it will stay as is. The cute kids in the picture are two of my cousins when they were little. Awwww....

There's not a lot on these pages, but i do love looking at them. It started out with two different pictures of palmtrees near the ocean. I placed the image of the stamps on there as they relate to travelling, meeting new friends, having to say goodbye, past times and missing places you've visited, etc. When i look at them, entire stories form in my mind. On the right page i glued a plastic sheet with bright pink flower print. No explanation, it just 'fits' in a somewhat weird way.

I don't use it often enough, but i love green. These pages are a tribute to green. More to be added later on. Start has been made.

It's an Emergency! Just two images and some text, but maybe the most precious pages to me. My 'manfriend' (as he had signed the text) wrote a little note for me. I'm glad to love him too.

The image on the left is an illustration i made based on a picture of my mom in the seventies. It was the second digital illustration i've ever made! I just discovered vector images using Adobe Illustrator, it made me so happy! What to tell about the rest? Pretty flowers, and a picture on the upperright of my favorite bookstore in the world: Strand Bookstore in New York City.