Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

‘I Like’ Friday

Published by

Welcome to September! Blimey didn’t August fly by. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are upon us and Halloween supplies are appearing in the shops. I though I would share a few things I have been liking lately – Creative Bug draw-a-day challenge was a success for me in August, I made at least part of an art journal page every day following prompts supplied by Dawn De Vries Sokol in a daily video on Creative Bug. Follow my progress at CatsEatDogsMakes on Instagram. September is a little different in that they have a competition running for a new instructor. So I am going to have a go and use prompts by Jennifer Orkin Lewis who is August Wren on Instagram and well worth following if you like gorgeous paintings. Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is such a good read. If you are looking for a good book, I would recommend this highly. Very character driven and a great story so far (I am about three quarters through). I have had Art Inc by Lisa Congdon from the library for a couple of …

Topping up Creativity.

Published by

I am pleased to say that my creativity levels are usually brimming and this week was no different. Just to keep everything bubbling and brewing in my imagination I decided to get myself onto the Metrolink, jump off at Skinker and scamper across Forest Park to the Art Museum. In fact I scampered to the Missouri History Museum first catching a couple of Pokemon on the way (for my son, I know, I am a good/crazy Mum!).  It was a lovely day, not quite cool, but certainly better than it has been in the humidity department. The Little Black Dress exhibit at the  History Museum is about to close, so the pressure was on to see it.  I wandered the dresses for a few minutes, sketched one or two and snapped a couple of pictures. Honestly I was underwhelmed, I mean it did what it said on the can, there were black dresses, but it was nothing amazing. No matter, the St Louis Art Museum had been calling to me all morning, so even though …

Weekly Photos 34/52

Published by

1. I have been painting faces with my sumi brush and india ink lots lately, I like this lady. 2. This gaggle of daisies has followed the one from last week. 3-4. My gelli plate has seen lots of action this week too, I liked making these rainbows in non rainbow colours! 5. I spotted these sappy pinecones on the trail. 6. More gelli plate printing, this time I have transferred my painting faces obsession onto the gelli plate. 7. Discarded air fresheners. I don’t like the smell of a new car and certainly would not want a blue tree which smelled like one.  Not sure about Black Ice either to be honest. I hope you had a good week. Happy Monday x

Get Messy Art Journal. 10 songs, 10 minutes, 10 pages.

Published by

Let me just clarify that I didn’t make 10 pages in 10 minutes although that sounds like a future challenge! What I did though is I loved this challenge. It was to listen to one minute each of ten songs which you have chosen (or  you could listen to random songs) and note down ideas and lyrics for a future art journal page. I used index cards for each song. As a non journaling art journaler, I don’t usually include quotes or lyrics in my pages, so I decided to embrace this challenge and listen for some lyrics to use from each song.  This is surprisingly difficult when you only have one minute of a song to draw from. So I have to admit that I cheated on a couple and had to go back and make sure I had got the lyrics correct, I mean if I am going to quote someone, I had better get the words in the right order! Some of the songs I could barely make out some of the …

Art Journaling Supplies I Can’t do Without.

Published by

Art supplies might very well be my favorite thing to shop for.  They are always colorful, always useful, no worries that they won’t fit (they always fit somewhere!), always make me happy.  I literally (not really, that would be weird) skip home from the art shop.  Maybe I am skipping in my head though as I think about my new supplies and how I can introduce them to my existing supplies. Some of my essential supplies don’t even come from the art or craft store, they come from estate sales or thrift shops.  I am talking about the paper and even some of the sketchbooks I use. Oftentimes I will print on paper from an old book or music script, or I will use the whole book as a sketchbook. Another paper I adore is dry deli paper which is not from the art store either (I get mine from Amazon).  It is the paper which you pick out your pastries at the supermarket with or that your sandwich might be wrapped in.  I am …

Weekly Photos 33/52

Published by

1. This lovely pink flower took a few days to unfurl and it is a beauty. 2. Orange flower upside down. 3. I hope no-one needs to catch a bus from this stop. 4.& 5.  I thought these fungi looked like a gaggle of butterflies on this old tree stump. 6.  Our local YMCA has emptied the pool to give it a clean following a summer of camp activity.  Here it is empty and ready to receive new swimming water. 7. This weekend I helped at a birthday party where the girls were making bracelets.  They were a lovely group and all went home with a lovely bracelet. Happy Monday x  

‘I Like’ Friday.

Published by

Fridays I often write about things I have liked that week, so here is what I have been liking this week. Back to school on Monday was eventful or uneventful depending on your point of view. The boys went back to school for a grand total of three hours because the power was out. However as soon as they were all leaving, the lights came on!  I think the whole school sprinted out of the doors just in case the principal changed his mind!! I like that today is Friday and I don’t have to drag them out of bed or make packed lunches for a couple of days. I very much like the fact that the weather has cooled just a little bit.  When the summer is as hot as we get it, a little temperature drop counts for a lot! Cooler mornings and evenings are the best thing. Some other things I am liking this fine Friday are – Nib pen and ink drawing. I picked up my nib pen and ink today …

Get Messy Got Messy. Art Journal Pages.

Published by

There are strange forces at work in my world today, everything is just a little bit off.  Everything. It all started off alright, coffee was fine, walking the dog was uneventful, but the podcast I had chosen was tedious and I switched off halfway through.  I didn’t say the world had ended, just a little off. Then I moved onto the things I really wanted to do, I watched today’s Creative Bug daily art journal prompt which was nice and vague so I could do almost anything. I formed  an evil plan for what I was going to do for that. I need to write a Get Messy Art Journal post, which means I have to make some pages and I really should make the pages relevant to the current season of music. I have been enjoying the art prompts this season, but I don’t often add words to my pages, quotes and lyrics don’t do it for me. I know I am weird, but they really don’t.  Sometimes a line in a book or …

Weekly Photos 32/52

Published by

  1. The tomatoes are coming along nicely, I am still picking a handful of ripe ones every day.  It has rained heavily over the past few days so the plants have tilted slightly, but the tomatoes are all growing and ripening. 2. We got a Sno Cone lunch this week.  I had a coconut cream sno cone and a ‘Chicago’ hot dog. Not the healthiest of lunches, but it was good! 3. The trees are starting to drop a few leaves. We have had a cooler few days and it has been so lovely. 4. The dining table during the summer, G.I. Joes and paints in harmony! I paint and sketch in my journal while my 11 year old sorts out his G.I. Joe accessories. 5. The caterpillars are making kale lace in the garden. 6. I spotted the most beautiful colour palette in these berries.  They are growing on a vine which is all along the fence in my back garden.  So I had to pick a few off and paint them and …

Get Messy Art Journal. Season of Music. Week 2.

Published by

I just realized how different these two pages are!  Both from the season of music and both influenced by a close time period.  However that time was the eighties and when I was a teen and my taste moved from trend to trend by the minute. Which I suppose is how it should be as a teenager, lots of different experiences in music, fashion, make up and all the things. The first page features lyrics (ha, I use the term loosely!) from the first single I bought for myself – Mickey by Toni Basil.  I loved that record and played it and played it while bouncing around the living room!!! I wrote the words on tracing paper which is between some pages in my handmade book.  I added crazy colour on top of some gesso on the original music pages. The second page I started last week when I glued the gelli plate print to the pages of my book and painted in some neon pops.  This week I painted the names of some of …