Hurrah! Grab some pens or pencils and maybe some water and paint if that is your jam and print this mandala for your colouring delight! Print lots and share with friends over lunch, a coffee or just because you are a nice person and what to colour with some pals. Click here to get the mandala printable. Enjoy! Happy Monday x
I noticed these strands of seeds on the ground when I was walking home from my pilates class this week and picked a few up thinking hey, they would be good to draw. Yes, this is how my mind works! I carried them carefully home in my gloved hand in the rain and it turns out that they were a lovely addition to my season of kindness journals. This season I am making a concerted effort to let myself experiment and do whatever comes to mind in my journals. If I want to make another journal, I shall, if I want to use the same quote on two pages, no problem. I don’t often use quotes or words in my journal, but I have had this one from JM Barrie written down ever since I read ‘Wonder‘ to my boys a few years ago and I made a note of it in the diary for future use. I am very guilty of doing ‘what I think is the correct thing’ sometimes instead of what I …
I hope you like the natty title to this post!!! I was supposed to write it yesterday with the short and to the point ‘Marvellous Monday’ title but blow me down, yesterday came and went and no blog post in sight. Much as I am tempted to keep the title, I decided to dream up another not so short but still to the point header for today! What is getting me excited today, well I am glad you asked, because these things are – Ice cream and sprinkles even though it has been raining for two days straight. Bitten by Witch Fever is a very inspiring book which I have been drawing (literally in my art journal) all kinds of ideas from. It had to go back to the library today so sorry no picture, I recommend borrowing it from your library if you can, it is chock full of old wallpaper designs full of detail and colour ideas. My two art journals for this Get Messy season (affiliate link here, which means I will …
I am enjoying this Get Messy season so far, and working in my little hand made journal is a good place to be. However, I seem to have started a trend last season when I made a small journal and then I made a big one to give myself more options and ended up filling them both (bear in mind that I don’t put hundreds of pages in my books!). Following this apparent new tradition, I made another journal this season too! I really do like to work in different sizes and on different paper when the mood/idea strikes. For my new book I removed the text block from a children’s cook book and replaced it with hot press watercolour paper and a couple of pages of brown paper from a grocery bag. The new sketchbook (on the right) is a book I found in a thrift shop and it is the American version of my first cook book when I was a kid in England. I remember making food from it and I …
A new year and a new season for Get Messy! The kick off season for 2018 is the Season of Kindness which is an ideal start to the year in my opinion. I made my journal using a vintage book cover and half ‘warm white’ paper and half ‘cream’ paper. It has six signatures each with four pages and the book is pretty small at 4 inches x 8 inches. I decided to make the whole season about being kind to myself and my art journaling as I sometimes put pressure on myself to try all the techniques and then I wander off from what I actually want to do. This journal is going to be full of stuff I want to do and I think it is going to be pretty simple. I am not an ‘add all the things’ person, so I will be embracing the keep it simple method I like best! The first page has literally three components, a cut out window, a gelli print on vintage ledger paper and words …
I decided that this year I would paint a swatch of colour each day, inspired by an article in The Simple Things magazine and a project by Courtney Cerruti, I cut up some hot press watercolour paper and waited for inspiration to strike! Sometimes inspiration needs dragging onto the page, but I have not missed a day yet and I like that I already have over 30 colour and a little description to accompany each one. Already I look over them and smile at my titles, like when I was wrestling with iMovie and I almost got beaten good and proper, when I was walking through the woods in the golden hour and wondering at the light, and even when we had a burst pipe at the library and had to close for a day. It is all there in one colour swatch for that day. I wonder what the rest of the year will look like. Happy Thursday x SaveSave
This year I have my trusty Moleskine planner out again and I am creating a little something each day. January is done and we are almost a week into February so here is a selection of pages from January. In these pages, I sketched with ink, pen and paint, used my typewriter on an old photo, made some patterns and practiced drawing crystals. Are you doing a 365 project? How is it going? Happy Monday x
This vintage chocolate tin has accumulated stuff I have collected and once it was full, I left it full of treasure. When I was a kid I used to collect cool things in a wooden box and I loved to look through it. This reminds me of that as I don’t take anything out or add anything but I do like to look through the tin every so often. There is a pile of postcards ranging from 1912 to the 1970’s, some blank rectangles of cardstock, crystal glass necklaces, a selection of spelling flashcards, a beautiful pink decanter or bottle stop, a heap of old cotton reels, a ball of pink nylon and a pack of playing cards. These are the snapshots of Llangollen which is a town in Wales where I used to go on holiday with my family as a kid. I think these photos would be from the 1920’s or 30’s as they were taken on the No. 2 Brownie camera. I love old photos and these are some of the first …
First stock take of the year. Inspired by the lovely Pip at Meet me at Mikes blog, if you want to take your own stock, there is a blank list of starting words at the end of this post. These posts are a fun way to see what is going on and they are great to look back on and see what you were up to at the time. Here goes – Making : Mandalas in my sketchbook. Cooking : Chicken tikka masala for dinner. Drinking : Nothing, but now I want a cup of tea. Reading: Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin and Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich. Wanting: A cup of tea, hold on while I put the kettle on….. Looking: At my kids doing homework as I write this. Playing: With my new/old typewriter now it has a shiny new ribbon. Deciding: What to wear for work. Wishing: My clothes ironed themselves! Enjoying: My part time job at the local library. Waiting: For the dishwasher to finish. Liking: …
1. Use it as decoration. 2. Type some letters to some friends. 3. Type over a vintage photo, a poem or a letter to the people in the photo. 4. Type random words, cut them up and make a poem. 5. Take photos of it (they are so stylish even the beige ones are cool). 6. Learn to type properly or at least how your old typewriter works (this is on my list!). 7. Start that book, type that novel. 8. Write a love letter. 9. Type a joke. 10. Type on some fancy paper, find some vintage typing paper and type on that. Yes, I just got a lovely new/old typewriter and as I wait for a new ribbon for it, I am having all the ideas of things I can do and write with it! Happy Wednesday x SaveSave
Clare Davis Etheridge 