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Weekly update 16/52 Penstore contest and Cricut Joy In the house



First week back in Düsseldorf after Easter break. It is beautiful here now more and more trees are blossoming and nature is going through the green explosion. 
My creative week
Beginning of April I saw on Instagram that Penstore ( Art store online) was arranging a talent contest. They were having kits you could order which contained 8 pens or pencils from international well-known brands. I didn't know before hand which pens or colors I would get in my kit but from these 8 pens create something using all of the pens and no others. I love challenges so I decided to give this contest a go and also so fun to try new pens and pencils which I normally would not use. During Easter in Sweden I was testing the pens on different papers and decided early to stick to my style with red Swedish country house, nature and my characters. Although looking on Penstore´s Insta #penstoretalents2023 people are so talented and I feel inspired but also I feel I am a child and my drawings not worth to be called art but anyways this is my style and I decided to post my contribution to the contest. Last day to enter the contest is today. What do you think?




Here are the pens and pencils I received
Sakura Pigma Micron 0,5, black ( this pen I use all the time so was happy to see it was in the kit)
Sharpie fiber point, red
Winsor & Newton promarker, denim blue
Tombow brush pen, red
Lyra super ferby, metallic blue
Derwent Inktense, sun yellow
Faber-Castell classic colour, green
Pilot pinor, orange


I have used most of them in other ways before but the pencil which really caught my attention and that I might explore more is English brand Derwent and their Inktense a soft pencil which is working as a watercolour pencil with water but apparently it can also be used on fabric. 
This is how Derwent present Inktense
 A highly pigmented, intensely vibrant, watercolour pencil that offers exceptional layering without moving previously dried layers of colour. Effective on paper, fabric, ceramics, wood and other porous materials.

What else I have been up to is called Cricut Joy - a little machine which can do digital cutting, drawing and writing. My friend bought the big Cricut machine earlier this year and has been talking so much about it and was also helping me to cut out faces for my Easter bunny bags. My first thought was not a chance that I will get my own machine it will only make me stressed to come up with ideas and how to use it. But seeing my friend using hers I more and more felt that it would be fun to try. And so before Easter I ordered the smallest of the Cricut. If you ask anyone with a Cricut what you do with it and what you can make. They will reply ANYTHING you want. Which is making it even harder to come up with a creative idea. Luckily my Joy came with some starter kit to make cards, stickers, vinyl and iron-on vinyl. 




So far I have mainly been testing cutting text and figures using iron-on vinyl which I have ironed on some new t-shirts I bought at Aldi



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