Dare to be different and learn to be lonely

Well, December was another wild month; I didn't get to go on the planned businesstrip (that is postponed to the end of January), but I had plenty of stuff to do.

We had elections in the Netherlands; my green party joined a collaboration with the socialist party in the hope of building a big left wing powerblock. Unfortunately more people voted for the angry right and those conservative parties are currently working on a coalition for government. *big sigh*

Happier happenings: my family celebrated Sinterklaas (Photos of the surprise packages I build and received in my Instagram) and my birthday was fun as well (Check out my awesome over the top cake!).

If you're on other socials, I now also have an account on BlueSky, let me know if you want me add/follow you there:) I'll share a complete list of my platforms next year. I will at least continue to share stuff on Dreamwidth and Livejournal. This final post of 2023 is a round-up of my Land of Art graphics.

( Challenge 11 - Fake it, Till You Make It )

( Challenge 12 - Cracked )

( Challenge 13 - A Panoramic Twist )

I handed in Golden Tickets for Challenge 14 - Hide & Seek Characters (Prep) because I was lacking time to come up with approved character types and create banners.

( Challenge 15 - A Silver Lining )

For Challenge 16 - Where is the End Point? everyone had to find mazes to share and solve. That was more fun than I initially thought, I did 27 of them! Here, have one, with bonus colouring option:)


( Challenge 17 - Associate This! )

( Challenge 18 - Characters Wear What? )

That's all for this year, hope to see you here in 2024!

J.

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/583421.html
Lurk or comment wherever you like:)

A final look back at my artsy creations and graphic designs from 2022. I updated my ArtMasterlist for 2019 and beyond [DW] with my fandom artposts for the 2022 SPN_J2_BigBang and the 2022 SPN_ReverseBang. I collaborated on two claims for the latter, so in total I made 3 artposts last year, which is the lowest since I started keeping track of my fandomcreations in 2010. I also was quite busy moderating the RB, so I did interact with fellow fans a LOT behind the scenes to keep things going. The main reason for not being as creative as previous years are the over-all slow down of the SPN fandom and my work taking a lot of energy causing me to more lurking and less participating online.

I was active in Land of Art again, which is all about graphic designs. I may have slipped in a bit of fandom here or there, but my favorite thing about Land of Art is that I can be creative without being restricted by fandom. However, one of the pieces I'm most fond of features Jeff/Jensen for Challenge 11, which is why they are not behind a cut;)

( Ch07_PH19-Tic Tac Toe )

Ahw, I was determined to get a 100% participation, but I missed Challenge 8 (Legends Never Die) because I was too preoccupied with work to pay attention to LJ :-( I was still busy when I found out and I used a golden ticket for Challenge 9 (Queen Elizabeth) which counts as participation, so I still got points for the round). In most of the challenges I didn't have time to go for full points, so this phase I often handed in additional golden tickets to at least get my team maximum scores. (And then Team Renaissance obliterated us in Challenge 17, we didn't stand a chance to that! Still: go Team SteamPunk!)

( Ch10_PH19-We Choose, We Create, We Vote )

Ch11_PH19-Blended
Blend at least two images together.



( Ch12_PH19-Read My Mood )

( Ch13_PH19-Cut Out Fake Background )

( Ch14_PH19-Two Color Adventures )

( Ch15_PH19-Horrific )

Challenge 16 was a game where you had to guess video games based on snippets of covers, no art was made and I scored 145 out of a possible 410 points, ahem.

( Ch17_PH19-Gotta Chatch'em All )

( Ch18_PH19-Colour Me Halloween )

Challenge 19 was a Pot O'Gold challenge, where you got to pick fandoms from a list to get a bunch of surprise points, like a lottery. I won 1x100 and 1x20 points, not too bad.

In the next phase I hope to have more time for playing and to finally get to that 100% participation again. It all depends on work, as I'm still crazy busy there and might do quite a bit of business traveling...

Anyway, this was it for 2022 creativity;)

In case you missed it, here's an overview of my Graphics for Land of Art Phase 19 Ch 1-6 You can check the Land of Art tag for all previous phases:)

J.

X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/579782.html
Lurk or comment wherever you like:)

Yay, lots of improvements on my shoulder mobility since my last update. I was able to get on my bicycle again and after trying it carefully in the weekend to do groceries, I also cycled to the office again every weekday.
I started on my 'senior citizen' bike, which has a low step and saddle, so I didn't need to put my full weight on my arms when getting on and off. On Wednesday evening I decided to try my regular (high) bike to cycle to my mom; this route includes a steep bridge, so it's good exercise;) It feels very good to have my independence back and to no longer need public transport or a ride from my mom to move around.
I'm still going to physical therapy; my left shoulder still needs kneeding and I've been getting new exercises to further improve mobility and strength in my arms. We'll see how much time I need to full recovery, but I'm already feeling like myself again. (Now not to have this happen again and learn to take regular breaks in between fiddling on the computer, both professionally and privately;)

Speaking of fiddling on a computer: here are the final graphics I made for landofart.

( Ch16_PH18 - What's Behind Door... )

( Ch17_PH18 - So That's Who You Like )

( Ch18PH18 - LGBT )

( Ch19PH18 - 4 Elements )

( Ch20PH18 - I Will Go Down With This Ship )

( Ch21PH18 - My Favorite )

( Ch22PH18 - Screencaps as Textures, What?? )

( Ch23PH18 - Mystery Bags of Loot )

( Ch24PH18 - Letter Association )

Previous Land of Art Phase 18 challenges: Ph18Ch1+3 | Ph18Ch2 | Ph18Ch4+5+7+8 | Ph18Ch6+7,10-15

I'm currently playing in the Land of Art Summerphase for Team Deep Sea! I'm also working on my (Paper!)art for the spn_j2_bigbang, which will be shared at the end of the month! How's everyone doing with their collaborations?

J.

DW: X-posted to https://beelikej.livejournal.com/575368.html

Pfff, what a month it has been! Or, months, really. I feel like I've been occupied with moderating the spn_reversebang forEVER. I didn't even have time left to check out the art or fics myself! Now that this event is done and the masterposts are up (SPN art&fic & RPF art&fic), I want to write a 'Day in the Life of a Mod', but first I need to get some other stuff out of the way.

I didn't have time to do a full picspam of our Sinterklaas celebrations, but for those of you who are curious about the creative part, I did share the surprise packages I built in my Instagram.

In between modwork and real life work, I did participate in a couple more challenges for landofart. Due to lack of time, I had to skip a few Hide & Seeks, as well as Challenges 14 (Mirrored) and 18 (My Favorite), which both seemed awesome, so I hope they will return in a future Land of Art Phase. Challenge 16 was a Halloween puzzle challenge and is therefor not included in my graphic designs below (I didn't solve the puzzles very fast, but I did earn 20 points for my efforts, yay).
If you missed it, previous creations for Phase 17 are here: Challenge 1-9. Below you'll find all the rest:

( Challenge 3 - Hide & Seek )

( Challenge 4 - Rainbow Things )

( Challenge 10 - Who Did It Best )

( Challenge 11 - Colored Association )

( Challenge 12 - Bookmarked )

( Challenge 13 - Hallowed Treats )

( Challenge 15 - Being Profiled )

( Challenge 17 - Christmasfy )

Comments are lovely, questions and concrit is also welcome!

To catch up with all the art & fic in fandom, I haven't joined any current events. Hopefully I can get creative again next year, we'll see.
If you have any recommendations of (recent) fanworks, let me know! I plan to dive into fandom in between work and making New Year's cards;)

J.

There. Am all up to speed with Twitter and just updated the NicknGreg Tumblr. Besides the paperfiddling I did for the QuickyBang (check it out here if you missed it!), I'm still happily playing in the landofart. Here's my latest bunch of graphics: wallpapers (1920x1080) and a set of Golden Ticket banners. Let me know what you think!

( CSI, Supernatural, Pride & Prejudice and more... )

This Land of Art phase is running until May, you can join in any time (and warm up for the next phase)) Ask if you want to know more:)

Am now contemplating picking another fic in the quicky_bang... There is one calling out to me... If no one beats me to it, I will grab it! See what's still available, SPN and RPF artists! Go go go!

J.

Wahey, first week of the 2021 is done! The Netherlands is still in lockdown, until January 19th at least, when the new COVID measures will be announced. Vaccinations have started; with the current schedule I'm up sometime in April. Fingers crossed everything goes according to plan. I expect the current lockdown will be extended, since the amount of infections is not going down. I don't think my office will open up in the near future anyway, so even if we're getting out of lockdown, I expect I will continue to work from home for the next couple of months.

In my spare time I've been reading loads of books and I got a whole pile of new books for Sinterklaas and my birthday to look forward to. Currently I'm in the middle of Lady Susan by Jane Austin; you can find my reading list on top of my LJ and DW.

As for fandom creativity, it will be interesting to see what Supernatural challenges will continue now that the show has ended. Somer and I handed over the reign of smpc to new mods, but I will continue to occassionally play there as an artist. I plan to open up a new round of the quicky_bang soon(ish). I should also start brainstorming on my artwork for spn_meanttobe in February!

Before I do any new arting, I want to properly round up last year, so here's the final bunch of graphic designs I made for landofart.

First up: three animations for Round 5 of Ph14Ch3 - Hide & Seek:


( CSI gifs for Animated )

( Ph15Ch09 - A Halloween Contest )

For the last challenge of this Phase we had to make snowmen in three parts, so in the end we could mix them up!
( Ph15Ch15 - Frosty the Funny Snowman )

Aaaand that's a wrap for 2020; onwards to more artworks and graphics in the new year!

J.

Woohoo, Phase 14 of landofart is finished, points have been awarded and my team PopArt came in third! (Out of three teams, but *blows raspberries*;) There were a few challenges I didn't create art for: one was a nostalgic look back at old designs (Ch20), another was a quick draw doodle thing (Ch19), and I handed in Golden Tickets for two challenges that I didn't have time for (Ch11+17). But there are still plenty of graphic designs to share: I made filmposters and loads of tumblr graphics, icons and wallpapers! (Click for full size images:)

( Challenge 3 - Hide & Seek (FINAL ROUND) )

( Challenge 16 - Deciphering the Truth [QUIZ!] )

( Challenge 18 - I Really Wanted to Like You )

( Challenge 15 - Colors of the Rainbow )

( Challenge 13 - Gotta Catch'em All )

Love to hear what you think of these:)

J.

X-posted to My LiveJournal

I had an extralong weekend because May 5th is a national holiday and I had saved up loads of overtime training new people in the past few weeks, so I took Monday the 4th off as well. I had planned to do another Japan picspam, but then I spent all Sunday on the couch with a book and loved that so much that I did that again today.
Yesterday I caught up online, cleaned out my Gmail box and did another landofart Challenge. So once again I didn't get around to selecting photos from the final few days in Japan, but you can see a little travel sneak peek in my previous LoA post when I made photocollages of buildings, which also includes pics of London and Dallas, from when I did that roadtrip in the USA in 2015!

Below are my latest Land of Art designs for Round 2 of Hide & Seek, which is a long running challenge throughout Phase 14, where you make graphics based on given themes. You create art to vote for that theme to be included in the next round. The themes I voted for are: Looking Up / No Eyes / Shapes / Sharp & Blurry / Vintage / Yellow /
See if you can see which is which;)

Skam Sigtag, featuring Isak Valtersen (Tarjei Sandvik Moe)


( Five Tumblr Graphics )

Hide & Seek Round 1

J.

P.S. I reread Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, and followed up with The Testaments. Still don't feel the need to watch the TV series, no need to convince me. These are the kind of books I love for what they are:) <3 Last time I spent all day reading a book from beginning to end in a day was when the final Harry Potter book came out. I missed being able to do that:) Book recommendations are always welcome!

Ack, I discovered I still didn't update all my old Land of Art posts with sources and fonts; I've tagged those with 'pip' for 'post in progress', just in case you were wondering about that;)

In order to keep up with posting, I'm keeping the posts for the new challenges as simple as possible; I do want to share a bit of the Making Of process, but I don't want to spend more time on that than on the actual making of the graphics.

Don't hesitate to ask if you want to know more about how I put things together.

Now, without further ado, here are my creations for the first couple of challenges.

( The PreChallenge & Promotion )

Challenge 2: Sigtags & Icons
Sigtags (signature tags) are banners that we use in Land of Art to accompany new artwork. Last year I was in team SteamPunk, this year I moved to team PopArt, so I got to make all new designs:)




Do you recognize these actors? (Reveals below:)



( Sources & Fonts )

I'd love to hear what you think! Want to play in Land of Art too? Check out my promopost:) [DW]

Last week tanni came over from Belgium for an old fashioned fangirl weekend, we hadn't seen each other in ages! (We met each other in the Nick/Greg corner of the CSI fandom back in 2005 and I followed her into bandom, the Harry Potter Marauders fandom and other more obscure fandoms, heehee (Hornblower, anyone?). We're also book buddies;)

We met up on Friday; I cycled to the station straight from work at 12:30 just when T got off the train. Then she got on the bus to my house while I cycled home. After catching up during an extensive lunch (freshly baked croissants!), we went up to my attic to start one of many marathons on my big screen: the final season of Please Like Me. After dinner we also figured out where to continue with Orphan Black (S3Ep3) and watched a classic CSI episode (S8Ep11: Bull).

On Saturday we had a luxurious breakfast with crossbuns I brought from London, nom! We watched the last two episodes of Please Like Me, continued with S3 of Orphan Black and mixed that up with Galavant to lighten the mood:) An excellent mix of awesome.
In between we did a couple of food experiments: after lunch we made Extreme Triple Chocolate Nests (see Dan & Phil video below) and after dinner we played with my cotton candy machine. Such fun!



( And this is how we made them )

( We also played with my cotton candy machine! )

On Sunday we finished Orphan Black S3 and ended our get-together with Galavant up to the introduction of Tad Cooper. (I promised T. I'd send her the rest of the season;) It was a wonderful weekend <3

Now I'm gonna get ready to watch the J2 Panel at the SPN Seatle convention on Stage It. EXCITED!

J.

P.S. I'm experimenting with image-archives; for this post I used my old PhotoBucket. Djeez, I don't remember it having so many ads and pop-ups! But Flickr doesn't support posting multiple images, and I don't know other services. All suggestions are welcome!