Weekend...Have good one!!

I just wanted to make a 'simple' drawing and ended up two hours later with this lady...Time flies when you're having fun :-)

Let the good vibes...

...get a lot stronger! A desktop calendar illustration I made recently for Freubelweb. The illustration is a combination of line drawing, collage and hand lettering. I wanted to create an image with a fun and festive feeling. I think that suits the month July perfectly! You can download the calendar here to remind you to enjoy every single day of this month. Have fun!

Loes from Freubelweb wrote a very nice piece about me on her blog, thanks Loes!

Eyespired!

I'm super proud that my webshop is now presented on the amazingly inspiring website Eyepired. You can find all kind of great inspiration their about Design, Art, Street Art and more. Take a cup of tea (coffee is fine too ;-) and check it out right now!

In the meanwhile

At the Hip &Handgemaakt market at the Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem. We have sunshine! ♡

New family member!

Say hi to the new family member: Uck! He's a sturdy kid's backpack in my Dirty Old Bag series. Lovely company for the ladies Berta, Geertruida, Sjaan and Mientje. They will by up in my webshop by the end of this week...Check it out if you'd like!

On tour: selling on designer markets

I love my webshop in the 'cloud'! But sometimes it's just very fun to sell your work in the 'real' world too. It's so nice to hear from people what they think of your products, I always get al lot of positive energy from it. This sunday you can find me at 'Hip&Handgemaakt' Market in Arnhem. It's the first time I'm enrolling in this market so I'm very excited and curious! The weather expectations are great  (warm and sunny) and as Arnhem is my home town, I'm expecting a super fun day. Come and meet me there!

My personal favorite

I love her on this wooden background! What do you think?

Great news!

Hurray! You can find my webshop now on the very cool Flavourites website! The ladies behind Flavourites collect all the nicest dutch webshops and display them on their awesome site. They also host a big webshop event every year called 'Flavourites Live' in Amsterdam, nice! Really happy and proud that my small shop is now part of their website. Go check it out for sure!

Illustration for the HARDER! magazine

I recently made an illustration for the HARDER! magazine of the Zwarte Cross Festival. 

Dominee Gremdaat wrote a short children's story and I was asked to illustrate it, super fun!

The magazine in for sale right now in shops throughout the Netherlands, how cool is that?

Botanical drawing

I had a great afternoon at Het Pakhuis in Hemmen where I followed a workshop botanical drawing by Wil Wessel. She explained where and how to start to start when making a botanical drawing. The first advice was: start small and simple to keep it fun! So I spent the afternoon staring intensely at a pretty oak leaf. And drew it as well. And loved it. So...to be continued!

 

Da Wanda shop online!

Yay! My new DaWanda shop is now online! For those of you who have no idea what DaWanda is:

'DaWanda - Unique Products from Designers and Creatives
Looking for a completely unique product, the kind that no one else has? Or maybe you need a one-of-a-kind gift for your favourite person's birthday? A lovingly handmade item for your child? Or perhaps you're in need of a little treat for yourself? Look no further than DaWanda for your handmade products, created by talented designers. We hope you have lots of fun exploring and discovering! '

The DaWanda site is a great and fun marketplace to surf around! Please visit it and let yourself get surprised by all the lovely stuff over there, have fun!

The day after

We had lots of fun yesterday at Amsterdam's Museum Market! Thanks for visiting!

Introducing these lovely ladies!

Time to meet Berta, Geertruida, Sjaan and Mientje! I've finally finished these ladies and am really delighted to present them to you now. Right in time for sales kick off this sunday at the Museum Market in Amsterdam! 

Pssst...you can already find them in my webshop now, take a sneak peak there!

Photoshoot

And then there was this fun moment of photographing my dirty old bags! I was already looking forward to shooting these pics in the dirty alley behind my house :-), which I thought to be a great location to fit the theme of the bags.

I love to look at my products through a lens. It just makes everything looks so different. When I saw all these bags together I could hardly believe I made all of these in such a short time. Soon you can find these beauties in my webshop!

Are you sure this is a great location for taking nice pics?!

Yes!!!

Sketching away

Last week I was surprised with a fun request to illustrate a short story for a magazine. So I started sketching straight away as there wasn't that much time to finish it. These are some first sketches I made on the subject. I find this first phase of sketching one of the most fun things to do, just playing and drawing around, no pressure. Just getting ideas out of your pen. Who doesn't love to play right?

The final piece turned out pretty different then the sketches, although I did use elements out of them. When the magazine is published I'll show you the final illustration, a little patience please :-)

Museum Market Amsterdam

Yay, some fun news! Sunday the 17th of May I'll be a participant at the Museum Market in Amsterdam. I'll be showing my illustrations and my Dirty Old Bags. I'll be there together with Dafna van Aymone Bags. I'm really looking forward to it! Come and say hi when you're in the neighborhood? Nice!

The perfect present

The perfect present for a girl that loves old books: aged and torn leather cover, yellow turned pages, musty smell and beautiful old illustrations. Times two. Just awesome.

Sending love around the world - heART Exchange

"Your heART really does make a difference and receiving a gorgeous postcard through the mail makes even more of a difference to each and every person in our creative community who joins the swap" 

I read this line a while ago on the website of a project of the lovely Louise Gale. The project is called the heART Exchange. I wanted to join an art swap for some while already, so I was pulled into this small adventure straight away when I read about it. Within minutes I entered my contact details and I was in! Last week I started to make my 3 pieces of "Collaged Kindness",  the theme of this swap. I wanted to use the line "Grow your happiness". So I started playing, tearing bits and pieces out of my old books. Sticking some washi tape here and there. Adding a lovely detail with a sticker. In the end I finished the collages off with a piece of a washi tape that I wrote the line on. Along the way I shot some pictures of the progress. 

 On the back of the postcard sized collage I wrote a small personal note. I also included an extra postcard of my own making that suits the theme. These small pieces of handmade heART are now flying through Europe and the USA to some lovely ladies, hopefully they will bring a smile on their faces! Isn't that just a great thought?

Mother Earth

Truly the greatest artist...Mother Earth. So much detail on such a small flower, incredible...

Dirty Old Bag

I'm keep myself busy for sure! Here a small sneak peak into my new series of bags called "Dirty Old Bag".  They're all made of recycled material, old printed sailcloths. Because each bag is made of another piece of cloth (with a different print) they're all unique. I make them in limited edition in my own studio! I'll give you a look behind the scenes over here. I'll proudly show you the final results soon!

The Singing Whale

Tadaaaa, see here: some of my line drawings ended up on actual cardboxes for fresh ginger from China. Cool, isn't it? Most fresh ginger is shipped in plain boring white boxes but a client wanted to do some nice brand styling and asked me to make some simple drawings to accompany their brand idea. Right at this moment these boxes are cheering up packing houses, wholesale stores and grocery stores amongst other places. You might even run into one of these boxes whilst shopping in an Asian supermarket. I'd love to see that! 

From scratch...to finish

I've been working on different new projects lately. One of them is this one: 'Toss the Feathers', a series of one-of-a-kind-mini paintings. You can check out how I made them from scratch to finish in this small photo series:

One of my favorite parts, creating the backgrounds for the mini paintings.

I used bright spray ink to colour the feathers.

Then I added the feather and used white paint marker to create hand lettering. In some other pieces I also added a line drawing of my own using a transfer technique.

Tadaaa!

And this is how they turned out! I like them even better nicely framed and all. They went straight into my webshop, so if you want to take a closer look at one of them, you're welcome!

Small things that make me happy

....my refrigerator door :-)

Fresh from the press!

...'My First Love' design in A4 print! Aren't they just adorable? They turned out really lovely, the colours and design look great. You can find them in my webshop soon, framed and well. Ready to spice up your kids room!

Hurray, we're online!

Hurray, it's time to celebrate! Both my webshop and portfolio website are now online! 

I'm celebrating with a Facebook Like & Share action where I'm giving away 3 sets of my new postcards. Click here to find out more. I'd love to hear what you think of my new sites and products!

Sneak peak into...

My webshop!! Yay, it's almost time...I'm finishing my webshop right at this moment! Together with my webshop, my portfolio website will go online too. A whole lot of work, lots of evening hours & coffee further I can say I'm really happy with the result. So stay tuned to see the 'real deal'!

P.s. Forgot to mention, my postcards went fresh from the press straight into my new webshop too,  whohaa!