Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

‘I Like’ Friday. The snail mail postcard edition.

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Postcards.  I like to send postcards just as a little ‘hi there’ in the mail, they don’t take any writing, add the address and a few sentences and ready to go and brighten someone’s day. Of course I wanted to make my own cards to send out. These were all created with the ‘Phonto’ app and the ‘Little Moments by Fat Mum Slim’ app.  I chose these two because they allow you to use postcard dimensions rather than just a square. I used backgrounds from the apps except the one photo on ‘Life is Good’ which I took at the Saint Louis Zoo of the flamingos. They were printed onto card stock and I drew on the ‘postcard’ back to write the address and place the stamp. Ta da, all ready to be written and mailed. Happy Friday and have a fab weekend x  

Get Messy Art Journaling – Happy!

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Last year I joined the fabulous group ‘Get Messy Art Journaling‘ purely on inspiration.  The thing is I had never ever done any art journaling and I had no clue about it or how to create one of these pages. What I did know was that I liked the work I was seeing made by the talented folk of Get Messy, and deep down I thought I might be able to give it a go. So, I did.  I got a sketchbook or two and started to make backgrounds and stuck a few bits and bobs down and did some drawing and doodling and I began to repeat this process in no particular order.  Some pages I liked and some I really didn’t, in fact I ‘finished’ a page this morning and didn’t like it one bit, so I started again and came up with the above page and I am super happy with it. To start with I didn’t really follow the prompts provided by the group because I was getting bogged down in …

#WIP Crochet Blanket and Drawing

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I am joining Catherine at Saint Cardigan for this post all about some of my work(s) in progress.  I narrowed it down to a couple of projects although I have a week’s worth!  Once you have had a little look at what I am up to, you can pop over to Saint Cardigan and look at what everyone else has been doing. This crochet blanket is my second ever and the one I have already completed is pretty much the same, just in lots of colours.  As you can see, I am no crochet genius, I can do granny square stitch (I am sure it isn’t even called that when it is not an actual granny square) and that is that. For this blanket I decided to start with a dark dark grey and as I crochet out, I will use lighter and lighter shades, ending with white or a super pale grey.  I am currently at shade two and I am liking where I am heading.  The pattern is from Pip Lincolne’s book Craft …

Weekly Photos 4/52.

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I am happy to see February, not that January was bad, it was a perfectly good month, but for some reason February feels like my new year.  January was a kind of warm up and a successful one, now we are second month in, I feel like I am more on course.  Better plans and more importantly, ideas to complete said plans.  Hurrah for February. This past week has been a fun one, we have had some sunshine and warm days. I decided to have a go at making some postcards to send out to people.  To make some cards I used photos I have taken, like this one of the flamingos at the zoo with some text popped on.  Some I just used a plain background with text.  All done in apps like Phonto and Little Moments. I like these apps because you are not restricted to working in a square.  Fun! At the salon! This glamorous shot was taken in the Hipstamatic app. I picked up a box of vintage math cards and …

Taking Stock January 2016

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Today is chilly but sunny and full of blue sky.  I have been busy painting and drawing and printing some postcards which I am excited to write and send out!  The picture above is one of them. I am going to put the kettle on for a cup of tea while I take stock for the first time this year.  Let’s see how it is going so far.  Fancy a stock take?  I have a blank list at the bottom of the post, so you can fill it in with your own stock taking. Making : Chips (fries) and egg for lunch with sriracha sauce all over. Cooking : Banana bread for breakfast. Drinking : Yorkshire Gold tea. Reading: ‘Drawing Blood’ by Molly Crabapple. Wanting: To organize my time more efficiently. Looking: At the birds bickering over the feeders! Playing: Radio 2 over the interweb. Deciding: How to get my hair cut tomorrow, just a little trim I think. Wishing: For snow. Enjoying: All the art I am making. Waiting: For the kids to come …

Weekly Photos 3/52

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Red!  Last week I found lots of red things to take snaps of as I joined Xanthe Berkeley and Hula Seventy in the yearly color/colour lovers challenge. So here are some Target carts all in a line.  My 11 year old may or may not have been standing next to me cringing as his Mum photo’ed shopping trolleys! It snowed mid week and we had a snow day on Wednesday, these sweet gumballs got little snow hats. My gooseberry bush is leaveless, but looking good against the snow and showing off it’s thorns.  I think I need to prune it in the spring and hopefully we will get a nice goosegog crop this year. Over half way through the Creative Bug Draw a Day challenge hosted by Lisa Congdon.  I liked my cactus drawing this week! The fabulous Craftwhack started a ten day sketch along this week and the first day was ‘Blind contour drawing’. No looking, not even a peek.  The top three were all done with no looking, fun but a bit creepy. …

‘I Like’ Friday. The natural grey edition.

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I decided to grow out my grey a couple of years ago, inspired by a good friend of mine who has the most gorgeous grey hair.  I was pushed to bite the bullet when some online friends decided they were going to embark on the same ship.  We pushed off and ditched the dye. I wrote a post when I started my journey here and I updated as I sailed along and I landed on grey hair island happy as a clam. Even though growing out hideous roots is an aesthetically painful process, best bet is to avoid mirrors and heaven forbid, no photos!  There is one photo of me at a friend’s party and my hair looks just awful, but I was almost half way by that time, so I  looked away and carried on. As my hair grew, the red dye (what was I thinking) faded too, so the contrast became less.  I still wasn’t prepared for the final colour though.  What I wasn’t prepared for was how much I loved it.  My fabulous …

Snow Day!

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We got woken at 5.35am by a phone call from the school district to say that all of the district schools were closed today.  Snow Day!  We really didn’t get that much snow, so I am not sure why we had the day off, but I heard no complaints in my house. First job was to clear the drive and sidewalk, then off to explore! I took my camera into the garden to see what I could see. A shallow layer of snow was on everything from seed pods to the old Radio Flyer wagon.  

Weekly Photos 2/52

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I got a Gelli plate for Christmas and I got it out to play with this week. I tried cutting out triangles and masking off trees or mountains (depending what you see!). I used card stock, printer paper and wax deli paper and they all worked well but gave slightly different results in many good ways. I planted some seeds this week and snapped some polaroids. We went to the Ice Carnival in the Delmar Loop this weekend and spotted these magnificent lions as we walked down to the Carnival.  They are guarding City Hall and doing a fine job. Spotted at the Scientology Church on Delmar.  What if you don’t pass?  No personality?  Yikes. How was your week?  I hope it was lovely. Happy Monday!  

‘I like’ Friday, the secondhand edition

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I love me an estate sale, a yard sale or a trip to Goodwill or a charity shop.  Hunting down the bargains then maybe a spot of research on my latest find when I get home. Last weekend I went to a local estate sale in the snow!  Yes, I am that keen to go and explore and maybe find a treasure or two.  I didn’t find a huge amount, mainly, between you and me, because it was a bit expensive. I thought I would share what I did get. This was the first thing I picked up, I love the graphics on the box and I needed a brayer to use with my new gelli plate. It is clean and has no chips or dings. When I picked these up, I thought they would be great to use as an art journal base, maybe even alter each card to make a new set of art journaled cards.  I am not sure I can bring myself to paint on them though. These two books are …