Last Sunday, I made it to the Kreadoe arts and crafts fair at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht! The last time I was there would have been 4-5 years ago but with the moving and of course the pandemic, I never got around to it again. Then this year, I decided to make the move. Glad I did, as I had a wonderful time! It certainly opened up my horizons for my creative hobby, and of course I stocked up on quite a few stuff: Lots more stencils, stamps, kawaii stickers, washi tapes along with inks and paint particularly fluorescent colors which tends to be the recent trend. Now I’m so excited to start using them! So why not a bit of art journaling here to share my experience and try out some of the goodies I got at Kreadoe?
Pencil Sketch
On my A4 Strathmore Art Journal sketchbook, I started with a pencil sketch on a two-page spread depicting my excitement at this event. Me strutting around the exhibition floor with shopping bags loaded with all my haul. Just a little practice too drawing myself in front view, rear view and from both sides. So far so cute!
Start with Background
I typically start with painting the background first so it’s easier than trying to fit it in the end especially as I will be embellishing it in the end with a variety of mediums. For this, I gave it a wash of pearlescent yellow D&W acrylic in combined with “that cheap acrylic paint” in Pastel Green I had gotten at Action the other day. An acrylic-base is most handy when working on mixed media as you need not worry about colors bleeding and ruining the painting.
Let’s Get Painting!
I firstly painted myself. For the hair and face, I went for water-soluble oil pastels by Art Philosophy and spread the color with a set brush. The letters were then traced over with a black Faber Castell’s Pitt Artists Pen. Both of these media I already had with me and not from the fair. And the fun now begins! At the fair, I helped myself to a pan of Neon watercolors by Finetec Premium, which claims to be one of the top quality. And they are! I put them to a test by painting my dress pink and the shopping bags in blue and purple, all fluorescent. Look how vividly the colors pop out! I see why neons are popular now.
Further Fun Begins!
How exciting, more stuff!
- After having traced over the letters with black Faber Castell’s Pitt ArtIst’s Pen, I wanted to try out other kinds of markers too. One of these are Chalkmarkers by Securit which give a rather matt and as the name implies, chalky appearance. I tried the pastel colored ones out on the lettering as well as the gold ones for the eyelashes. It’s pretty much like Uni Posca, except less permanent.
- Another marker I experimented with were the glitter markers in neon shades by Spectrum Noir, used on the handles of the handbags. The glitter is not that noticeable unless you look closely with the naked eye. Still, I do like how the colors brightly pop out as they are neon.
- And now, the Neon inkpads by Hero Arts… I bought all the five colors except for pink which was sadly out of stock there. Gotta order it soon online! The neon orange was used with the stencil I had also gotten there but unfortunately doesn’t look too neon against the yellow background. Will try again on another background. Meanwhile, the neon green turned out fine. Also purchased at the fair, a few leafy shaped rubber stamps were used with this green.
- Next I applied a little blob of Special Effects Glamour Glitter by Art by Marlene as my earrings. They are little tubes of glitter glue which, if you see my past work, I’m also obsessed with. This one is in Diamond. I of course wasn’t wearing any but I applied some of the glue here merely to try it out.
Looking great so far!
Embellishing the Painting
And now just to finish it all off, I introduced some stickers and washi tape. I didn’t buy as many stickers at the fair as I did the washi tapes, but there were quite a number of cute ones. Love the Teddy bear pack so much I bought two sets of them! And here I share a few of them. Aren’t they kawaii? The Cat anime was also sweet, so I stuck one on here on my dress. Although I don’t use washi tapes much, I feel they could be incorporated in my art journals more often. They frame the composition wonderfully. And here, I went for the green plants and red mushrooms. To fill in the page more without getting it all cluttered, I added more green leaf stamps with the same neon ink and introduced some small flower stamps (also bought at the fair) using Neon Red inkpad. Some of those flowers were further decorated in the center with the Spectrum Noir glitter pen in neon red. Now I am really loving the look of it all!
What a fun adventure that was at the Kreadoe arts and crafts fair! And further fun creating something cute with my many purchases. There’s more of course but here are some of them and for the rest, I shall definitely be incorporating in my future work. I don’t do much crafty stuff like stenciling, washi tapes and ink stamping but they’re great for art journaling. That said, there is no reason why I can’t combine them in my paintings too. Looking forward to getting even more creative!
A closer look from each page:
My Kawaii Quarter 