Hi there! It’s the 10th… Here’s the June instalment of Inspired by!

Let’s keep it short and sweet today!

I don’t feel like I’ve been that creative… This month was more about digging deep, dusting off, blowing away cobwebs and letting go. There just wasn’t much room in my head for anything else! It also affected my #100DaysOfUsingACamera, so I’ll start there in a moment!

I did spent time filling my inspiration well. I saw Wes Anderson’s new animation film ‘Ilse of Dogs‘, I went to the ceramic museum the Princessehof in Leeuwarden with my mom, and I visited Flehite, one of our local museums, on the last day before it closed for renovations.

I also ordered a couple of creative books to read this summer, and watched ‘Krabbé zoekt Gauguin‘. In this television series the Dutch actor, film director and fine artist Krabbé tells the story of Paul Gauguin’s life, who he was, and what influenced him and his work.

None of these things has inspired me to create. Yet. But you never know when it will come in handy!

The 100 Day Project
I made it to day 56 of the project. I missed nine more days since last month’s post, twelve in total. Which doesn’t have to be a huge deal, but I did skip five days in a row at one point. In my defence: I’m still in the middle of a major decluttering session, and there was scaffolding in our backyard. Everything was in a massive state during that week, and I just forgot about photographing altogether.

I decided against quitting though. Because something is percolating on my Marshas100DayProject feed. It may not be apparent to anyone else, but I’m learning ‘things’. And I want to see if I can get clearer on what it is I’m precisely learning in the next 44 (or more) days.

The Stencilfied Journal
I started a new journal last week! Fellow StencilGirl® Columnist Tina Walker initiated a super fun collaboration challenge called ‘The Stencilfied Journal’. ⠀

From June through September Tina will post one prompt a week (16 in total), and we’ll be creating a ‘Wreck this Journal’-esque journal StencilGirl® style. Tina already had me at ‘collab’, but the idea of ‘wrecking’ an art journal is just irresistible.

The second prompt will go live tomorrow, and this one will reveal a bit more of what’s in store for the next prompts!
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If it sounds like something you’d like too, then check Tina’s Instagram or Facebook feed, grab a notebook, and follow along with the prompts.
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For the first prompt, I stencilled my pages using StencilGirl® stencils, a mini Gelli Arts® gel printing plate, and Dina Wakley Media acrylics. I drew the circles with Posca markers, and the übercute die-cuts are designed by Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk for StudioLight.
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I’m using a tiny 3.5″ x 5.5″ sketchbook, but any journal size will work. Just keep in mind that the journal *may* get wet, ripped up, stomped on, etc.!

Feathers
Here’s a perfect example of how filling your creative well can have results long after the fact.

Back in March one of the prompts for Birgit’s ‘31 Days of Gel Printing Challenge‘ was to gel print on feathers. The feathers I had in my stash were too fluffy, and not suitable for printing on, so I decided to use them to print with instead.

The results were stunning!

Fast forward to this month when Gelli Arts® sent new supplies for upcoming videos. The package contained these beautiful white feathers! They came in just in time for my next video tutorial, so I didn’t have to think twice about what I was going to demonstrate!

You can watch the video tutorial here: Gel Printing with the Gelli Arts® Feather Printing Kit

Krijt
The last thing I want to share is another visit to a local museum. You really do not have to go far to seek artful inspiration and to have a little fun.

I only went to KAdE to escape the renovations at home for a bit, and I came home with fun video footage and lots of inspiration!

That’s a wrap!
That’s it for this month’s Inspired by!

Don’t forget to stop by Riikka’s blog Paperiliitin to see what she was up to in the past month.

Inspired by is a blog series by my friend Riikka and I.

On the 10th of each month, we share what inspired us that month with you and each other.

It can be anything from a person, a film, a book, a painting, to an item, something found in nature or in the city, a colour scheme or some materials we bought or discovered.

We will also share how the source of inspiration affects our work. Consider it a window into our creative minds!