Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

Weekly Photos 2017. 15/52

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1. I got a fallen apart book from the library and removed the covers to make a new sketchbook using coptic stitch.  This is the first time I have tried coptic stitch and it took ages! 2. The High school band had a concert this week and they were very good. 3. For Easter morning I made cinnamon buns, this was the night before.  I let them rise in the fridge over night and cooked then in the morning. 4. The finished cinnamon buns. 5. Easter egg hunt (yes, even teens like to hunt for chocolate and they gather them in a planter!) on a wet easter morning. Happy Monday x

Intuitive Painting – what a process!

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Today I tried a new thing in my giant Moleskine art journal which is A3 size and perfect for something like intuitive painting which I haven’t really done before.  I don’t often know where a page is heading when I start and I rarely make layers and layers of paint and techniques. I am a single layer painting kinda girl, I might draw or collage on top of that layer, but that is more than likely going to be it. The end. Finished page. So of course I was keen to try some intuitive painting as featured in this week’s Get Messy tutorial. The main aim is to use lots of colour and supplies and equipment and make layers, all of the layers. Random is not my top skill, I always end up making things balance or matching the colours or following a pattern even when I think I am not going to. Part way through the layers for my ‘intuitive’ art journal painting, I thought that maybe I could do a layer of images …

Get Messy Art Journaling. Season of Contrast Week 1.

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For this first week of Season of Contrast at Get Messy I have taken contrast to the extreme and used only black and white! I have enjoyed working with black ink, black gesso and white gesso so far, with a little addition of Posca pen to make the dots on the ombre spread and the details on the next spread.  I tried some ink blots and then couldn’t stop making them!! I find the ink blots mesmerizing to make and to stare at.  All kinds of things pop out of the page.  I always see lots of faces.   For sketchbooks, I  used my giant Moleskine which opens A2 size, medium Moleskine which is A3 when open and my mini Moleskine which is A5 open.  All the sizes! I really like the small gelli prints of fern leaves in my mini book. Prints were made on vintage dictionary paper and dry wax paper as well as directly into my sketchbooks. I think I will leave some of these prints and blots alone and some I …

Daily Creating March 2017.

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I am keeping up with the daily creating challenge I set for myself at the beginning of the year to create something every day in my Moleskine daily planner.  Some pages I like, some not so much, but I carried on anyway and here we are in April. There is no theme to the planner, just anything I want to make art with that day. In my other daily creating sketchbook I have been mainly painting, sometimes with pen work included. I am still enjoying my sumi brush and ink, so lots of the pages are made with these.  A new thing this month for me was painting figures from old photos which I collect and love to look through. Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017. 13/52

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1. Hot cross buns are a family favorite and these turned out great! 2. Book spine poems. What Happened, Miss Simone? Below Stairs, Bird Cloud, The Art of Fear. 3. It took a couple of tries to make the caramel for the Millionaire’s shortbread, but I mastered it and it is delicious! 4. The first mushrooms I have seen this spring on the way to clean up the local woods and creek this weekend. 5. I found an old marble in the creek! 6. Helping clean up the creek. Happy Monday x

‘I Like’ Friday.

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Some things I am liking this fine Friday, last day of March. Posca pens are something new in my art supply arsenal and I love them!  I have tried and failed with paint pens before, they seem to either explode all over the page or they don’t work at all. Posca pens work like a dream and no explosions yet! Making your own books is also a new thing in my world and I love it! So far I have only used the basic bookmaking skills and I intend to venture out further into the bookbinding forest with the help of these classes – Get Messy Art Journal Bookbinding and CreativeBug book making. ‘Grand Designs’ is our nightly viewing at the minute but we are nearly at the end of the Netflix supply, so will have to find another watch.  Any recommendations? Hot cross buns are always a winner at Easter and I like to make them aplenty before Easter!  I have a batch in the oven right now in fact.  I use the recipe …

Vintage Papers and where to find them

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Estate sales are really the very best place to find vintage papers.  I don’t mean just old books or postcards which are often at thrift stores, Goodwill and yard sales and are a wonderful find in themselves. What I am really looking for are unusual papers, forms and hand written books and ledgers.  An estate sale where they are trying to sell everything and literally anything is where I have good luck finding papers to art journal with and include in sketchbooks. Of course there is eBay and Etsy and I must admit that I found this fantastic ‘Tourist Ledger’ on Etsy and an album full of photos from the 20’s and 30’s at Goodwill online. Having said that, I don’t find a paper treasure trove at every sale I visit.  I go to about two sales a month, I use the ‘Find Estate Sales’ app on my phone and there are always photos of each sale so you can assess whether there may be a good chance that there is stuff you will want …

Weekly Photos 2017. 12/52.

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1. I have been enjoying painting with ink and a sumi brush, using vintage photos as inspiration in my daily painting sketchbook. 2. The archery club hut on Forest Park. 3. A member of the mounted police department. 4. The back of the hut.  I love the colour! 5. Don’t be afraid of the T-Rex, but don’t climb on him or feed him. 6. An abandoned painting station. 7. The planetarium at the St Louis Science Centre is the same colour as the sky. Happy Monday x  

The 100 Day Project 2017. 100 Days of Creative Ideas.

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The 100 Day Project is almost upon us for 2017 and I am looking forward to participating again this year. To achieve a hundred days of anything in a straight line is a marvelous thing and it is a proud moment when you are done and you have the body of work finished. In previous years I have made 100 mandalas and 100 altered cards and thoroughly enjoyed them both. This year I am going to write and sketch 100 creative ideas and I will be logging them onto Instagram under the hashtag #100daysofcreativeideas. I had to deliberate over how to present the ideas (when I come up with them!).  Options were – a sketchbook with 100 pages to work on, a handmade book which I could make with 100 pages or individual cards of some description. In the end I decided to use 100 vintage book order cards I found at an estate sale in an old school here in St Louis.  I counted to make sure there were 100 cards and they are now …