I have this little sketchbook where I do nothing good. I have it to play and try new things in it. It feels so good opening this book knowing I can do anything. Yesterday I was inspired by a house in our village. It's an old traditional Swedish keyhole-house.

 It's a rough and fast sketch in gouache and colored penciles but I had so much fun while doing it.

Love Julia

I recently got a notebook. Not a fancy one but perfect for play and just to have fun in. I work in it those days when I just don't make it out to the studio but still want to paint something. This book is not meant to be "good" but a place where I can draw my faces and try a new medium; gouache.

 My thought on gouache is that I think I really like it! I like the look of it together with watercolor and that it is so opaque. However I feel that when I paint with these Panduro Gouache that something is wanted. That they are missing something. I know that when it comes to paint you get what you pay for and in this case I think that is very true. So on my Christmas wishlist this year; a set of gouache paints, a nice set!

 I  have come up with a few steps that I follow, a receipt if you will, in this sketchbook:

1. watercolor background

2. Pencil in the face 

3. Paint the lady with gouache

4. Add details with color pencils. 

5. Start over... 

 I'm having so much fun testing out this new, to me, medium. I love the look of all of these different mediums coming together and just how opaque the paint is!

 I love the end results of my ladies with the different layers and texturs. I'm having so much fun testing out different colors, shapes and stiles!

Love Julia

The 30th July I had my first open house in my new studio. The space is in our stable that dad is re-building, so cleaning that took days!. I have to say I was a bit nerves, thinking that maybe no one would show up, the fika to run out or you know, just nerves. How ever it went great! Here is how it looked before everyone came:

"Wildlife" wall

 fika table with 3 different traditional cookies and coffee. 

 the swans

 Inside my studio to the right

 Studio though the door, just love how clean it is!

 and to the left

It really was fun, many came and many of my painting got new homes. I also got a few custom orders. That was really great so now I have so work to do!

Love Julia

Hello all lovely people!

Today I have 2 pieces to show you! The first one is a art-journal page and the other is a card. Kristinas scrapbooking is selling out the Bloom-Girl stamps and sens I was going to pick up a few new distress marker I saw my chance to get my hands on one of them! I pick Joy, she is just so beautiful!

So in normal order I just had to play with her and my new markers ("seedless perserves", "ripe persimmon", "squeezed lemonade" & "mustard seed") So I thought I would show you what I did!

So starting with the art-journal page:
I wanted a really fun page with allot of colors and a water color feel

 Skin & hair: "tea dye" & "walnut stain". Eyes: "peacock feathers" Flowers: "ripe persimmon" Berries: "seedless preserves" Leafs: "peeled paint" In the centers of the flower I painted with gold

 The background is distress markers, white paint, gold paint and chunky embossing powder.

 On all of the berries and the purple heart, I went over them with a glittery nailpolish.

 The title is partly hand written and partly is from Rhonna design

 Love Julia

*new video HERE*

Hello everyone! Today I have a layout to show you and just so you know; I love It!
The reason you why you can feel surprise in my voice is because I used a sketch and I normally have a hard time with them, so you can understand how happy I am now when it look so good! The sketch I was inspired by was Primas- BAP (Build-A-Page)


I grabbed my Prima papers, bling and leafs, put on some music and just had a really good time with inks and allot of paint.

And as you all now I´m on a mission to use up my scraps, all the papers are Prima but from 3 different collections; "Romance Novel" (the only 12*12) the rest is scraps from: "Sea Shore" and "Time Travelers memories" .

 I´m so happy with this black flowers with the gold edge, even the leafs got a slab of gold on them

 The layers behind the photo is packaging from different collections, I have to say that I love that Prima makes such cute packaging so you can use it and don´t just through it away.

 Here she is, The Queen, on the windowsill. I took this photo a while back but she is always sitting on the windowsill, odd cat.

 The "Time travelers memories"- bling fits perfect! 

I hope you like it and if you want to see how I put this together check out this video: *HERE*

Love Julia

It´s finally here! Midsummer´s Eve. Here in Sweden it´s a big deal and it´s party all day long with strawberry cake and dancing. And of course the mandatory flower-reef on our heads. This I know can sound odd, but here in Sweden it´s really a celebration to the sun (it´s the longest day and it´s only dark a few hours today!) And sense we here in the north don´t have that many sun-hours we celebrate it! Allot of flowers and singing... It also almost always rain  on this day witch is kind of ironic...

So for all of you how aren´t in Sweden here is a little piece from me to you so you to can feel the midsummer feeling

Love Julia