Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

My Daily Moleskine 2017. November Pages.

Published by

Giant bubble wrap is a brilliant tool to use with the Gelli plate! I am putting far too many leaves into the planner!  The opposite page is a ‘ghost’ signature which is a word or name which is treated like an ink blot to make a shape or creature. I went on a creative field trip and used the train and museum tickets for this page with a gingko leaf added. Cut out from the newspaper and some colour added! Face painting with sumi brush and ink. Blind contour drawing and some brush script. Some birthday wrap and labels along with a rose petal. Gelli plate print of a fern leaf and gingko leaves. My colleagues at the library bought me a birthday treat! A ‘mini masterpiece’ inspired by the Fluid Art class along with some doodles. Can you believe we are almost at the end of the year?  I have loved filling up this planner and it is so satisfying to see it nearly full. Happy Thursday x

Handmade sketchbook for the Season of Nature

Published by

I am beginning to get a bit obsessed with making books!  I love to make all the sketchbooks with different papers in different sizes with fold outs and accordions.  The more I make the more ideas I get for another one or two or three. We are about to start the new season over in the Get Messy Art Journal community and it is going to be The Season of Nature.  I found a book called ‘A Field Guide to Animal Tracks’ not long ago and thought it would be perfect to make into a sketchbook for The Season of Nature. Once the pages were out I was ready to go! I made two signatures and stitched one to each inside cover of the book so they open away fro each other.  I used pamphlet stitch to fasten them onto the edge of the cover. I have made a pretty backwards book which started by stitching the papers onto the opposite side than expected, but I like the way the two books are working together …

Printing giant leaves.

Published by

I was walking home from a successful trip to Goodwill last week and I spotted some huge palm fronds in my neighbor’s garden trash.  After checking that was ok with her I came home to get my garden snips and walked back to harvest a couple of pieces. When I got home I left them in water for a couple of days until I had a clear time slot and a clear table.  I gathered some large sheets of paper and some smaller papers including rice paper, corrugated cardboard,  brown kraft paper, ledger paper, book paper from a vintage garden catalogue and of course dry wax paper. I used a combination of gelli plate and adding paint directly to the leaves to print them, both worked well but I wish there was a giant gelli plate!!! See!  Very big leaves!! Once everything had dried, I wanted to make a book or two using my newly printed papers. One book was made with a single sheet of printed paper folded into an accordion.  I glued the backs …

‘I like’ Friday, a Creative Day Out.

Published by

Last Friday the library where I work was closed so I took myself on a creative day out.  I jumped on the Metro Link and headed to my favorite magazine shop to start my day.  I picked out a couple of mags and went on my way.  Along with my magazines I also had the little sketchbook which I literally made right before I left along with a few pens and a water pen filled with ink (one of my favorite things to use).   Back to the train and off to Forest Park and the St Louis Art Museum not forgetting to stop off and get a rosemary brown sugar latte (so good!) to walk across the park with. The sun was shining and the trees were in their fall colours as I walked across the park to the art museum. Once at the museum I made sure I kept my eyes and ears open.  You never know what you might hear in the galleries!  I made notes in my book and little sketches …

My Daily Moleskine 2017, October Pages.

Published by

Some pages from my Moleskine daily planner which I am using to make some art in every day this year.  I am so pleased I have been completing it everyday and I now have a nice big fat book! In October I painted, gelli plated, stuck down old photos, stuck down crisp packets, spray painted and sketched things we found in the woods. I can’t wait to finish this book and get started on my new Alice in Wonderland Moleskine in 2018. Happy Thursday x

Weekly Photos 2017. 45/52.

Published by

I keep finding painted rocks in the park, here is one I spotted this week. Making penguin snowglobes and taking photos which would never happen, don’t worry about the penguin, they don’t share the same land as polar bears! The silver tree at the St Louis Art Museum is one of my favorites. Very red trees at Forest Park. The Grand Basin at Forest Park. Happy Monday x

Get Messy Art Journal. Season of Connections week six.

Published by

The last week of another fab season of Get Messy Art Journal rolls around and I have nearly filled my handmade journal, just a few pages to complete or finish. This week I used lots of collage elements which I don’t usually use so that was good to try, I also got inspired by a page of splatters and I changed the cover of my journal from a giant sunflower to plain brown paper.  Much as I love the sunflower (and it will house a new sketchbook), it just was not sitting with the sketchbook I am creating inside it. The beauty of making your own journal! This is some of the pile of collage materials I gathered together. As the page developed I organically began to incorporate the fold outs and the pages either side into the spread. In the end I had covered four pages with various flaps! Now I want to start this process at the beginning of a sketchbook with a variety of paper and page sizes and incorporate each page …

Estate sale finds.

Published by

A couple of weeks ago I went to an estate sale in St Louis and found some great stuff.  When I go to a sale I am usually looking for papers of all kinds to use in my art journaling, these can include old books, postcards, flash cards or recipe cards to name a few.  I also look for books I can use to make a sketchbook from, so a cool cover might catch my eye. This book definitely caught my eye at this sale, it is pretty ancient and delicate but not to the extent that I can’t use it.  What I love most about this book is that I can use it as it is and I don’t have to take any pages out or sew any new in. It used to house vinyl records and is basically a book of pockets made from fabulous brown paper with lots of character. There are only 12 ‘pages’ but so many options.  Each pocket page is intact and secure and the hole through the book …