All posts filed under: CatsEatDogs

Marvelous Monday

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What is marvelous this Monday?  These things are! The Joy of Watercolor by Emma Block is a beautiful book from cover to cover, I even love the size and shape of it.  I love a square chunky book! She shares lots of specific watercolor projects but they are not just step by steps, they are full of ideas and information which you can use in your own work. The most gorgeous jewelry from British designer Layla Amber.  Delicate woodcut necklaces, pendants, rings and earrings galore for all seasons. I am reading the new Joanna Cannon book ‘Three Things about Elsie’ and really enjoying it, I am only about 50 pages in and already it is full of intrigue and characters. Tinkersketch  August challenge is one I came late to, but I still jumped in even though I started about two weeks into the month!  Rachelle of Tinkerlab (the host of Tinkersketch) suggested on her Instagram to combine prompts and used ‘building’ as an example.  This got me thinking I could do the whole prompt list …

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 3

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  Week three of Get Messy Art Journal’s Season of Seasons is already here, we are almost half way through!  I feel like I have just started which I am interpreting as a good thing! These are my art journal pages from this week and I have included repeat patterns from Alicia’s tutorial and of course I had to do more gelli prints using leaves and stalks from my garden. I picked some Magnolia leaves which I printed with and drew and cut out for collage pieces.  I also snipped a couple of tomato plant stalks which gave me some very effective prints using the gelli plate and some Sennelier acrylic paint.   Prints from the garden into pages in my art journal.  I am enjoying using this old book for my journal and the addition of library cards in glassine envelopes.  I am considering these tomato plant prints on the old library cards a success! Happy creating and Happy Thursday x SaveSave

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 2

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A few pages and cards from week 2 of the Season of Seasons over at Get Messy Art Journal.  In this found book as journal, I am covering some pages completely and some I am embracing the original page.  Thankfully the paper is not too thin so it is pretty nice to work in and the spiral binding is not getting on my nerves like I thought it would. So hurrah! I have been making marks and using these pages as collage as well as using some flowers I have been playing with as a pattern on top of collage, paint and gesso (the page with the flowers was a hot mess and needed a layer of gesso very badly!). As well as the book I am working in, I have a pile of old library catalogue cards which I am painting and doodling on.  I got hold of some glassine bags which fit the cards in perfectly so I am pleased with that. The season of seasons is rolling on and I am enjoying …

Daily Moleskine 2018 July pages

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Seven months into my daily Moleskine practice and I love how my little planner is getting fat and full! In July’s pages I have been continuing my stamp making and playing, practiced some faces (not sure what everyone is looking at on the last pages!), adding some simple collage elements and messing about generally. This is one of my favourite things about this practice, I get to just play, the paper in this book is thin and the pages end up crinkly and with the image before or after showing through, and because of this there is no pressure.  If I want to paint  face with strange hair and wild eyebrows, I will and I will pretend that is the image I was going for. Ha!  This is where I will try new supplies and ideas, I will test a new stamp or stick in a fresh gelli print or print right onto the page.  It is a wonderful and precious record of where I am at and what I am doing with my art. …

Get Messy Season of Seasons week 1.

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The season of seasons is upon us over at the Get Messy Art Journaling community. I have to admit that it took me far too long to decide on a journal to use for this season!  Eventually I decided on the Airfoil instruction book and a pile of vintage library catalogue cards. I thought that this way I can work in the book and on individual cards which I have recently been enjoying.  I have some glassine envelopes on the way so that I can include the cards in the book and ensure a cohesive journal. Well, I can’t promise cohesive but at least it will be all in one place. Once I had decided on the journal (s), I wanted to make a little ‘kit’ to see me through the season without having to decide which supplies to use for each page, of course my little kit got bigger and bigger and I am pretty certain that my vintage typewriter will have a major part to play too. I am still sure that this …

Taking Stock August 2018

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Time for another Stock Take as the last one was in May this year.  I credit Pip at Meet me at Mikes blog for the original idea, I like to do it a few times each year to see what is going on. I always have the goal to whiz through the ‘prompt’ words and write down quickly whatever comes to me, but usually this post takes most of the day as I leave it to do laundry or make dinner then come back to finish it! If you fancy a stock take, I have a blank list at the end of mine. Making : Plans for my next art journal which I think will consist of vintage flash cards! Cooking : Burgers for dinner, a combination of beef, mushroom and veggie for our family! Drinking : Fizzy grapefruit flavored water. Reading: The Captives by Debra Jo Immergut, I have only just started it but it is good so far. Wanting: The weather to cool down, yes we are in the midst of the mid-west …

Using a ‘found’ book as an art journal.

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Firstly I ask myself is a ‘found’ book the same as an altered book?  An altered book is one which you transform with your art into a new experience which could start with an old book from the antique mall, a kids board book from the thrift shop or a clothing catalogue which you use as a base to sketch and paint in. A book is a book is a book and all are ‘found’ by whoever owns them.  So for the new season of Get Messy Art Journaling which is the ‘season of seasons’ we are going to use a found book, which sends my head spinning (in a very good way). Why? Because I just can’t decide! Then, someone mentioned cards to use for the season and my head went off on it’s axis again, what a good idea, old playing cards, vintage flash cards, postcards, postcard books. Oh boy this could take a while! So far I have narrowed my search (and pile) down to the following -a 1976 diary from “St Louis Photo” …

Get Messy season of story week 8

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I can’t believe another season at Get Messy Art Journal is almost over!  Almost two months of the season of story and it has flown by.  I took a while to get going on this one but I have really settled on a coherent ‘theme’ in my journal and I love to include the vintage photos and clipping out random words and arranging them into poems of a sort is sheer joy!  I am really loving it! Making art in my handmade books is so exhilarating, I like to work through and fill them up with art journal spreads as well as sketches and practice pages like the portrait over a spray painted background.  It is a place to try things and keep them all, good and bad, a place to learn and improve. I have been trying to add more sketches to my pages to make them ‘mine’,  but it all takes practice and that is what I intend to do. Happy Thursday x

Get Messy Season of Story Week 5

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For the Season of Story over at the Get Messy Art Journaling community, I made a journal which I love and I am super proud of and then I left it at home when I went on holiday to England for two weeks.  I left it because I didn’t want it to get squashed or damaged or worse, ignored.  All of these things would  most likely have happened to it, so I am pleased I didn’t take it. However, what also happened was that I didn’t do much of anything in the way of art journaling in my new journal for another couple of weeks afterwards.  It is a chunky little number and it needs to be filled! This week I saw a bird egg which I decided to paint in order to capture the colour of it, then I searched my old photos for suitable candidates for the season of story.  At the same time I pulled out some old National Geographic magazines which I had recently bought at an estate sale and I …

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