Author: Clare at CatsEatDogs

100 days of free form mandalas 71-90

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One of my mandalas fell by the wayside in England, but here are the rest of 71-90. I have to confess that I am pretty much out of enthusiasm for the project at this point, even though they don’t take long, I am feeling like I would rather be doing something else. Having said that, I am not stopping now and I do enjoy seeing them all together.  I can’t wait to lay out all 100 and see them all together. Have you almost finished your 100 day project?  How has it been? Happy Monday x   SaveSave

Books and vintage ephemera from my UK trip.

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While on a recent trip home to Lincoln in the UK, I marked the calendar to visit an antique market in Castle Square and I wasn’t disappointed.  It was a small but interesting gathering of stalls from local vendors and antique dealers.  Among the wares on sale I spotted a vintage gladstone bag which my teenage goth self would have given her right arm for, I wanted one of those things so badly!  Thirty years on, I left it for someone else. This typewriter was pretty sweet and I thought a bargain at twenty pounds but it would not have fit in my carry on, so even though it worked, it also was left for another owner. As cruised the stalls in search of photos and ephemera which would fit into my bag, I found these cigarette cards wrapped in a crabby old elastic band at the bottom of a box of treasures. These old travel souvenir photo sets were in the same box and I soon had a pile forming!The 1972 London street map …

100 days of freeform mandalas 61-70

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We are in the final straight of the 100 day project and to be honest I keep forgetting which day we are on and if I am keeping up or not. I am pretty much keeping up and I still am not sure what number I am at! Of this 10, I like the trio of collaged mandalas on the vintage math cards best and I also like working on the small watercolour cards, they are just the right size.  I used the watercolour cards while I was in the UK and they worked really well.  There is one missing and that is the mandala I drew on a coffee cup on the train! The 100 day project is almost complete and I am enjoying it still and I am very pleased with my pile of freeform mandalas so far. Happy Monday x SaveSave

Faces of Lincoln Cathedral

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Being back in Lincoln for a visit is such a joy. The weather has been amazing with warm temperatures and blue skies full of fluffy clouds. I walked up to the cathedral early one morning and explored as many nooks and crannies as I could see. Looking up and down there are faces everywhere. Gargoyles, figures, statues and animals, all to spot wherever you turn. These were some of my favourites. It just shows that if you look carefully you will be rewarded. Happy Thursday x

100 days of freeform mandalas 51-60

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We are well into the 100 day project now and if you are still going, good for you and see going!  We have quite a collection of items created by now which is always encouraging. I like this gathering of mandalas which are painted, stamped, sprayed, collaged and drawn. I am looking forward to see what the next ten will look like. If you want to follow along with my project on Instagram, it is at #100daysoffreeformmandalas. Happy Monday x

Daily Moleskine 2018 May pages

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May was a very floral month!  I sketched, painted and collaged all the botanicals along with the Botanicals in Art Journaling class at Get Messy Art Journaling.  I didn’t realize just how flower mad I had gone!  No complaints here. Some of my favourite pages are the flowers for heads collage pages which crack me up and the pages where I was planning and making stamps.  I am super proud of those stamps. Nearly half way through the year, I can’t believe it! Happy Thursday x SaveSave

Handmade art journal and Get Messy Season of Story

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Whenever I visit an antique shop or estate sale I am always on the lookout for old photos, books and ledgers as well as any interesting papers from days gone by which I can use in art journals as collage or inspiration. Sometimes there will be a box of photos to sift through but in my eyes, the real finds are the albums still full of ancient black and white images often with written descriptions on the back or front of the photos and on the album pages. I love to see the names, the date and often a little description of the image. Just look at the poses and the joy in the page of photos from 1916 shown above! I consequently have a lot of old pictures and I use them in my journals some, but I want to use more. One per page at least to and fill my journal with photos and the imagined stories that accompany these people and their clothes and cars and locations. A happy coincidence that the …

Get Messy season of play week 8.

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The final two pages in my little altered book – a vintage Maytag washing machine manual- and it timed out perfectly for the last week of the season of play over at the Get Messy Art Journal community. This has turned out to be a season of few pages for me, but I did fill my book which I am pleased about.  I have also been very inspired by the new class also from Get Messy called Botanicals in Art Journaling . I just can’t stop adding leaves and flowers to my pages! I am always on the lookout for flowers to photograph on my phone so that I can use them as sketching inspiration in my journals and sketchbooks.  The top irises are from a sea of flowers I snapped near the gym I go to. Happy Thursday x

The day I made a hand carved stamp set.

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I have been wanting to make stamps for ages now and I have had a couple of goes with some success but nothing amazing. Boosted by the fact that I said that one of my goals for May was to make a stamp set, yes, not just one lonesome stamp, a lovely friendly set of them, I got to work. I am not a get the equipment and dive in kinda girl, I have to look at at least one book on the subject if possible.  I checked out ‘Carve, Stamp, Play‘ by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and ‘Making an Impression‘ by Geninne Zlatkis from the library and got studying stamp making. Of course I don’t get far into any books about making stuff without wanting to jump in and have a go.  I grabbed my carving equipment and some stamp blocks and decided what I wanted to make a stamp of. I love to use sumi ink with a sumi brush so I wondered if I painted a basic design on each of my three …