Drawing Challenge #elleaimetekent

Elle Aime is a shop in Rotterdam where Lisa Manuels, illustrator herself, sells all sorts of handmade creative goodies that make you happy. I was there a long time ago when it was just a little improvised shop. A couple of years ago she moved to a bigger space. Every time I am there or just walk past, I really really want to have a shop like that of my own.

Beside the creative workshops she organizes at her shop, she also organized a little drawing challenge on Instagram last week (there were a few before this week and I guess there are more to come). She posted a list of 7 combinations of 2 words. Make an illustration out of it. It can be quick and simple, or you can put a whole lot of work into it. You can be skilled artist or you still draw sticks as arms and legs. I doesn't matter. Just be creative, enjoy yourself. Then post your results to #elleaimetekent where you can find the drawings of everybody who joined.

I joined the challenge and drew a little something every day of the past week. I tried using different materials and techniques each day: papercutting, watercolor, ink, fineliner and pencil. And be original, which is not that easy when you are joining a creative bunch of people. But I'm pretty happy with the results. Thanks to Elle Aime for the inspiration and the challenge. Looking forward to the next round! 

Here they are: 

1. swan + sock

2. pencil + donut (I made two, first idea was posted too many times...)

3. camera + cotton candy

4. stamp + lamp

5. panda + apron

6. slipper + marshmallow

7. banana + bow

Sunny side up!

Just a little experiment with a puncher and colored paper. That turned into this egg and peas.

Our big 100 days of summer postcard project

While we were on our 100-day trip along the Mediterranean coast, M and I had a couple of little projects going on. One of them was take a duo-selfie every single day, so I could make a 100-frame video of our changing (tanning and growing beards. Him, not me) faces and changing surroundings. Lots of fun to see that now we're back home.

The second project was send ourselves a postcard from every place we were visiting. Arriving in a new town we had three tasks: get a postcard, get a stamp and find a mailbox. Sometimes it was easy, sometimes it was hard. But we always managed to send our postcard. We have both written a few sentences on each, so it's a bit like a travel journal.

After 100 days of traveling, we had sent about 60 postcards. Once we got home, we found a big lovely pile of memories in our mailbox. There's only one missing. It was a bit of a challenge making a book out of it, since the cards are all different sizes and the pile is rather large. I thought about it for a while and figured out the best way to do this. Even though I bended the rules a bit, my bookbinding days paid off.

Here's the result.

This is (most of) the stuff I used. What's missing in this picture is bookbinding glue. It's just a big ugly white bucket.

Bug-a-boo

I am back from my awesome crazy ridiculous 100 day trip along the Mediterranean coast. Yes, hello again! Tapas in Spain, hiking on Corsica, exploring the most gorgeous beaches of Sardinia and Sicily, eating all that delicious pasta in Italy and wandering through lovely towns, swimming in the bluest waters in Greece. Seeing the sunset almost every night, soaking up the sun. Yep, I would highly recommend :) I have been drawing along the way and there's some stuff I want to show here as well. But I will get to that later.

Being back home,  I wanted to start again slowly, give Stoffer + Blik a lot more of my time than I did before I left. I made the decision on the road to focus on illustrations and the things I really love. But as soon as I was back I was bombarded with a lot of cool projects and so I have been working a little more than I planned or even wished. But last week most things were rounded up. The inspiration was there all along, I just needed the time. And there it was: time. I finished two of the projects I had in mind. (I will definitely show you the other project too, it's too cool not to. Next blog!)

So that free afternoon I took my sketchbook and headed over to the Natural History Museum in my home town. I love the cabinets with all the bugs and shells. I spent a couple of hours sketching the creatures there. When I got back home my brain had worked out a little plan.  

I refined one of my sketches and started carving away...

Once the cutting was done, I made a test print to see where the stamp needed to be refined. And then it was finished. I am so pleased with the result that I feel like making a whole series of bugs and fellow multi legged creatures. This butterfly like creature is now a greeting card and for sale at Stoffer+Blik. Check it out here. 

Whale for sale

Instagram and Pinterest are great for inspiration. I scroll through their pages a lot and I usually feel like getting to work immediately. A few days ago on Instagram was no different. I came across this account of a guy who was making linocuts and prints. So lovely. And it immediately made me want to do that too. The larger lino's I saw on there were too much for 'right now', but a stamp was only a little carving away. So I did and that same evening a new Stamp Family member was born. A rather large one: Whale.

I really love how it turned out. I love the simplicity and the shape. Luckily I also still have a little stash of reclaimed wood to mount it on. It's all finished now and you can get 'Stamp Whale' at Stoffer + Blik. The image above might be a postcard one day, what do you think?

Freshly made: Clipboard!

Brand new at the Stoffer + Blik shop: This wooden clipboard with a corner of it painted in my very favorite Celadon Green.

I made myself one of these clipboards a while ago to see if I would be a nice addition to Stoffer + Blik. I love it, so yes it should be in the shop. I am using mine a lot. I change photos, postcards and in the kitchen it is holding different recipes.

I'm definitely not doing without my own, so I had to get to work and make another. So I finally found the time to get the wood, drill the holes, glue on the clip and paint the wood. And voila, there it is! At the moment there is just one for you to buy. I do have plans to add a couple in white as well.

Do you like it as much as I do? You can check out the result of my little photoshoot here at the shop.

One of my to-do lists just got shorter

I have a list of to-do lists. And it tends to get longer instead of shorter. I just add a lot, really. I do get to cross things off and I am about to, right after I click on publish here. One of the things on my Stoffer + Blik list was 'write a blog about the new handmade book'.

I added that when I finished making that book. It was the hand bound notebook that I covered with a vintage map that I found on a flea market. I was (and am) really happy with the result and wanted to share that with you. I say was, because a few days ago I sold it. And 'sold' in handmade-unique-one-of-a-kind things means 'gone'. I miss it. Boohoo.

So I am a little too late really, because I am about to show you something that is no longer for sale and that you cannot have. Sorry.

But it's pretty all the same. So here it is anyway. I made this hand bound book, without any cover in the course I took last year in hand bookbinding, so it was laying around for a while before I actually finished it. Then I found the perfect paper to make the cover: a beautiful vintage map of the United States, with NYC as the center of the cover when I folded it around. Perfect!

Usually I would say: you can get it here! But you can't... I should have written this sooner, I know.
I am now all out of these hand bound books. I am thinking of ways to get my hands on a good paper cutter so I can make some more. I'll get back to you on that.