Lark books

I got invited by Lark books to submit three images for an upcoming publication tentatively titled 'Design Inspiration Guide: Animals' due for release in spring of 2011.
Still far way from now but I'm excited about it. *jumps giddily up and down*
These are the images that I chose to submit:

InvincibleCuteOh Deer!

I know that the invincible one is a fable animal but still, it's an animal! ;)
I hope that my raw digital material will suit their high standards...

In search for fun ideas...

Two weeks from now, I'll be celebrating my birthday. Those days usually pass like any other day as every day is a celebration for me. However, I like to do something different this year. Something extra-ordinary or just something silly. But what?
I have been thinking and thinking but have not come up with anything more clever than this... (as I know it would make me extremely happy)

Just send me a note or a card (no presents!) with a suggestion what I could do the 13th of December.
Jip, via snail mail.
Because I love to open the mailbox...

In return, I'll give away this special feeling to the most awesome idea/card.So, let's go! :)
Mitsy Sleurs | Spaarzaamheidstraat 20 | 3500 Hasselt | Belgium

Granny squares in progress

After making a few squares to decide on the colors, I just can't stop making granny squares. That's why I decided it will not be an in between project. :)
I posted the picturs of the colors I used in Flickr too. I put a note on one of them that I was hesistant about using the same color twice in the squares. The sweet & talented EmmaLamb suggested that I could use a very soft yellow to go with the moss green. I love the idea so I decided to go with that. These will be the definate colors:And I already have 2 stacks of 9 squares. I will need at least 11 more of these stacks so I'll be happy hooking for a while! :)

Secret Santa wants to know...

... what makes you smile...

But unfortunately, Santa has been really busy and has not found the time to write this weeks blogpost. He would love it if you could help out and post a link to a picture that makes you smile or send it to mitsy@artmind.be.
He'll put the pictures on this blog asap! Please let Santa know if you would like this to be anonymous or not. :) Thanks so much for your help.

This is what makes me smile: steelblue sky with fluffy clouds & I love to find figures in them! :)
Kim from Viltalakim chose this picture and I love it! She also linked to a very funny video that will bound to make you smile! Check it out! :)This is Jessica Jo's little girl. Her name is Alice and I can see why she makes Jessica Jo smile!Suzi from preciouslovearts sent me this sweet picture of her cat Bob when he was only a few weeks. Smiles indeed! :)

PhotogenicGallery smiles at her nephew Jordan (he's 24 now) looking at this picture. This makes her smile reminiscing about how joyful he was (and still is) & I can remember how his laugh took over his whole body!

Hehe, this is Fleurfatale's photogenic son. Apparently he doesn't like to be photographed but I'm glad she did caught this precious moment where he shows off his drawing with a chocolate covered mouth! It makes me smile too! :)These rascals make Kylie smile. I bet she's mighty proud of her daughters being so silly - I love that one of them is doing the donkey-sign! :)Frida Khalo (her cat) is what makes Anapina smile. I love the picture in the upper right corner - what a cutie! :)This photo makes Vadjutka smile. It's a photo from a Mongol film called Story of the Weeping Camel. He weeps, because his mother left him after he was born, not feeding him with milk. Inhabitants of the local community try to convince the mother camel to feed her baby, but she is very stubborn. Int he end the magic violin-player comes, and he plays so beautifully that the mother camel starts to weep and gives food to her baby camel. On the photo you see the baby camel. :)
Thinking back on a holiday in Egypt makes Charlotte Hupfield smile.Ingermaaike gets very happy when she sees a briliant idea, some may need a little more work...This cutie makes DeerLola smile:The dogs of StarOfTheEast are making for many smiles...Bollywood movies is what makes Swiedebie smile:
Secret Santa is a game played by the European Streetteam on Etsy. The idea behind the Secret Santa is that you make something for a teammember and also receive a gift yourself.
Since I try to organise the game for our team, I get a lovely reward: reading all the questionnaires and knowing all the teammember's secrets! :)
What I also know is that lots of people of the team would like to read them all too... That's why I share part of the answers on the questions in my blog. And even though it's anonymous, it's still fun to read what other people wrote... Hope you enjoyed to have a peek in our team.

You don't have to be part of the team to send a link to something that makes you smile... I'd love to see it! :)

My creative space

It's not a fun day in my creative space today. I need to sand a lot and I really dislike sanding. It makes my hands go all dry and rough. The pieces that need sanding are mainly all things for the secret project. All teeny tiny little bits that rather jump out of my hands then stay in there. But when this job is done, I can finally do a porcelain firing & I'm looking forward to that so I better get on with it! :)
Can you see the barbie hands that were in my post last week? :)

Want to show your creative space? Hop over to Kootoyoo's to play! It's fun! :)

The secret project.... work in progress

Remember my struggle to mould Barbie's hand last week? Well, the last option with the partly silicone, partly plaster mould worked OK. Not entirely satisfied but I did mould quite a few and hope that after sanding I will have a few good ones left to use.And monday a lovely surprise arrived in the mail. My secret partner had sent me some left overs from colored glass. I could not wait to experiment with it. And so I did of course. It did not come out all well but two of them I find really lovely. I hope she will like 'em and will be able to use 'em.This week, I'll be firing a batch of the first production process on porcelain temperature. Will ship it next week and then my secret partner can make the final product with it. I'm very excited about this! :)

To know the idea behind the secret project, go read the first blogpost here or click on the label 'the secret project' to see all the posts about it.
Can't wait to receive your guesses but think about it carefully 'cause you can only guess once! :)
You can send your guess to mitsy@artmind.eu and can not change your guess so think about it carefully...

Flickr Favorites

1. Cocoa beans, 2. chocolate and nuts, 3. Boon Chocolates, 4. Life Is A Box.

Yesterday morning I got this really sweet conversation from a customer on Etsy. She had ordered some mini-art-feelings and they skipped mighty fast to the other side of the world.
For those who have ordered feelings in my shop, they know that they come in boxes. These boxes are actually used to put chocolates in by Leonidas, a Belgian based chocolate company that can be found worldwide. So I always put in a piece of Belgian chocolate in the box. So I did with Donna's order. This is what she wrote:
'The packaging is gorgeous. I must confess I unwrapped them all to have a look. The chocolates, so sweet of you to put them in. My son, who is five, said "wow, Belgium makes the best chocolate! Can you ask Mitsy to make some more?" I love getting packages from around the world, my son and I look at the stamps, find the country on the map and talk about what life would be like there. I can justify my around the world shopping as educational!!
Angus does currently seem to think you and Belgium are one in the same but he is smitten by your chocolate making skills LOL!'
It made me smile big time and I think that Angus and I would enjoy munching chocolate together! :) Thank you, Donna for taking the time to write & make my day!

So this weeks mosaics is inspired by (Belgian) chocolate. We have a chocolate experience too here in Belgium and I love to go there!

Don't forget to look at my favorite mosaic from last week. I put every picture in my favorites! :)
If you like to play this week, make your mosaic and add a link to your blogpost (NOT your blog please) or Flickr in Mister Linky (click on the button below and fill in your name with the link to your blogpost or Flickr picture).
I'll pop over to have a look at yours. Can't wait to see your creations and find new favorites! :)

Get excited...

I found this "Get Excited and Make Things" on Flickr some time ago and I love it!
It's modelled on the well known "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster that's been making the rounds. You can download the image to make something of your own (get some ideas here) – but it's Creative Commons licence so please don't sell the things you make!
I think that today I'll get excited and make things, and you?

How to make felt light decoration?

Today I finished off a project I started about 2 years ago. I bet you have those laying around somewhere too! Well at least I hope I'm not the only one who starts something and never finishes it! Anyway, I decided to finish it and make a few pics to show you how to do it.

Here is what you need:
light chain, olive soap or soap flakes, wool roving, towel, plastic to make a resist, bubblewrap foil.
I made the plastic resist from stiff plastic (3mm) and cut out a 'witch hat'.
The triangle is 7cm wide and 9cm high. I added a little extra (1cm) on the bottom as not to make the felt touch the other side.
If this sounds like Chinese, read on, you'll understand later!

First you need to lay out the felt.
Hold the end of the wool roving loosely in one hand and
gently pull off a section with your other hand. Hold your four fingers
against the pad of your palm, trap the wool there and pull firmly.

Lay out three thin layers of felt. When you start out vertically, the second layer needs to be layed out horizontally
and the third one vertically again.

Then place the resist on top of the layed out wool roving.

Then lay out three thin layers of felt - mostly in the middle of the resist.

Then fold the felt on the sides over to the middle.

Put some soap flakes into the glas.
If you don’t have soap flakes, you can grate some from a bar of
olive oil soap with an old grater.
Pour hot water in the glass and let the soap melt a bit.
Then use the spoon to sprinkle some drops onto the roving.

Press lightly onto the wet roving and make sure that there are no 'holes'.
If there are holes, you need to add a bit more roving before rubbing lightly.

Sorry for the quality of the following picture but I find it hard to keep
my hands still while taking a picture. So this is an action shot! :)
Rub genlty onto the wool roving while it is on the bubblewrap.
When you feel that the fibers are more attached to each other
you can rub the other side and also rub it between your hands.

Then you can take out the resist and rub it some more.
As soon as the fibers are attached, they won't attach
anymore when taking away the resist.

Then rinse the piece in water.
I usually just rinse it under the tab but used a bucket of water here.

This is what it looks like when rinsed.

Cut off a tiny part at the top of the felted piece.

This is what it looks like...

Now cover the little lamp with the felted piece.

This is what it looks like when it's lighted...

But you need to make as many as your light chain is to get this...And from a distance...
the felted X-mas trees are mighty cute and are from ViltalaKim on Etsy
the round 'disc' is a ceramic piece made by me called 'infinity'

And this is what they look like when I use my flash.
I'll try to get a better daylight picture tommorrow. :)

In between project...

Still didn't get my red yarn for finishing off my Babette Blanket and don't feel like starting my ripple blanket yet until my Babette is finished.
So I've been doing some in between projects. Last week I made and send some granny squares for the European Streetteam project-blanket initiated by Baahar.
Did you know that making granny squares is addictive? I just couldn't stop.... so I decided to make 'em until I get my red yarn. I've been wanting to make a granny square blanket for a long time so this is just a start. I'll pile 'em up and see how far I get - don't even know how many I need to make a blanket really. I only have 9 by now... not even enough to cover my feet! :)

Secret Santa wants to know...

... if you like practical or whimiscal things...

OK, most people on our team did not understand the question right as most of them answered: 'both'. Hey guys, that was not a choice! ;)

All items below found via Etsy
One click on the picture will bring you to the listing! :)

Then, most people prefere practical things...And some peeps just love whimsical items...Secret Santa is a game played by the European Streetteam on Etsy. The idea behind the Secret Santa is that you make something for a teammember and also receive a gift yourself.
Since I try to organise the game for our team, I get a lovely reward: reading all the questionnaires and knowing all the teammember's secrets! :)
What I also know is that lots of people of the team would like to read them all too... That's why I share part of the answers on the questions in my blog. And even though it's anonymous, it's still fun to read what other people wrote... Hope you enjoyed to have a peek in our team.