All posts filed under: Creativity

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

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This week’s art journal pages are full of ink blots (I couldn’t stop!), colour, gelli plate prints, textured gesso and a little self reflection. I am getting along well with my altered book, I am finding it a good size and the pages hold up to lots of media without too much objection. Each of these pages pretty much made itself, in that I had no idea what I was going to do with them until I picked up my journal and got cracking. The bottom ‘owl’ page started as a bright inkblot I made over a week ago and didn’t know what to add at the time, so I left it.  Today I added the owl, black gesso ink blots and some gold paint to mute the whole page. The top page by contrast was never going to be an ink blot, I gessoed and added the lady, then a few days later made the black gesso ink blots.  After watching a tutorial from Carla Sonheim, I made the white gesso swirls, then I …

Do one thing a day which cheers you.

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I know I am going against the daily quote toting grain here, but every time I see the phrase ‘Do one thing a day which scares you’  I want to yell ‘No No No, Why on earth would you want to do that?’ Tackle the stuff you don’t want to do. Yes, do those things and do them first to get them all done and over with. Be brave when you have to. Of course, but be scared?  Erm, why? I can get very apprehensive about things which bother me and often about things which shouldn’t.  I worry about getting to appointments on time, or meeting someone new or going somewhere new.  I am not going to book a daily appointment or chat to a stranger every day. I don’t think that scary things should stop you getting on with your life but there are ways of going about it and I am not at all convinced that doing one thing every day which might scare you is the most positive way to go.  However, …

100 Days of Altered Cards by CatsEatDogs, Days 31-50.

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I have made it to over half way in The 100 Day Project!  Yay! I am really enjoying altering my little box of vintage playing cards, little artworks with no pressure. Well apart from the ‘one a day’ pressure of course! The first 30 cards in the project are here  and here. If you want to follow my project daily over at Instagram, my hashtag is #100daysofalteredcardsbycatseatdogs.  Happy Tuesday x        

Get Messy Art Journal and sketchbook pages.

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I brought my sketchbooks on holidays and am happy that I did because I have enjoyed doodling some patterns which I am sure I will use in the future. I often plan with all good intentions and end up doing nothing I thought I would. This time I have enjoyed having my sketchbook to stick old pages in and practice my buoy sketches.  For this season of Get Messy we are using a book as a sketchbook/art journal which is something I like to do anyway, so I am happy with that. I did have a false start though. The original book I was going to use had very thin pages and I knew I wouldn’t be sticking any together to work around this so I picked a new book.  This one is the ‘avocado’ book which I picked up from a yard sale here on the Cape. There is a picture of the front cover in my last post.  For the above page I used three different flower stamps and gave them a painted …

‘I Like’ Friday. The Coloring Book Edition.

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My name is in print!  My artwork is also in print! I am so proud to have my coloring page in the new edition of The Coloring Studio by Stampington magazines. This is the second issue of the magazine (more a book actually!) and it is full of coloring sheets as well as tips for coloring and information in techniques as well as insights from the various artists featured. It is a beautiful magazine and I am so pleased to be part of this edition.  I picked up the first issue  because I was impressed with the illustrations to color in as well as the tips ideas which are not usually featured in a coloring book or magazine. So if you enjoy some coloring in, this is a lovely book to have, color and keep to admire. I hope you have a lovely weekend planned, we are heading on vacation to Cape Cod tomorrow, so we are all packing and trying to cram all kinds of goodness into our bags! Happy Friday x

The 100 Day Project 2016 11-30.

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I am very proud of myself.  I have not skipped a day yet or had to play catch-up in this year’s 100 day project.  This is mainly due to the fact that I only have a playing card size piece of art to make.  Sometimes I will cover the card completely and sometimes I work with the image which is already there. As I work my way through the 100 days I am drawing on more and more of my art journaling experience and treating many of the cards as mini journal pages. I like to see the original cards with the altered version.  The only one which I couldn’t tell the original card was number 26 because I layered on so much gesso. I couldn’t see the original card at all, I even tried shining a flashlight through it! Only 70 cards to go!  If you want to follow along with my 100 day progress on Instagram my hashtag is #100daysofalteredcardsbycatseatdogs. Happy Thursday!  

‘I Like’ Friday. Get Messy Season of Lists Week 6.

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I thought I was avoiding the prompts this week and then I realized that I had inadvertently incorporated the ‘write the list outside’ prompt very vaguely in the top page.  The prints are made with leaves, gathered from outside. Ta-dah! The list prompts have made for a challenging Get Messy season for me to be honest.  I don’t often incorporate writing in my pages with much success, but I wanted to give it a go. This week I decided to use the prompts not as a list but as a single sentence or idea, is one item classed as a list?  A single item list?  I think not. I do enjoy writing using a Sumi brush (Home is..) but it often takes a few run ups to get it right.  The thing is when you are working over a prepared background and it goes wrong, it is a ‘start again’ situation.  My first go at this page saw me miscalculating the word ‘paintbrushes’ and I ended up squishing it all up by the time I …

Weekly Photos 18/52

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  1. Monday walk in the woods.  We came across this patch of green undergrowth virtually glowing in the light of the day.  Isn’t it funny how you can pass the same thing regularly, but just the right moment of sunlight can make it pop out at you. 2. My neighbor has these glorious columbine flowers growing in her garden. 3. Another walk and another light filled path in the woods. 4 & 5 This week among the regular jobs, I had to make a purple jacket for a 12″ figure as part of a High School art project.  Here GI Joe is modeling the final look. I hope it fits the actual figure it is meant for. This week I have a teen birthday to plan – jelly and ice cream anyone?! and a blog conference to prepare for.   The conference is here in St Louis and hosted by Go Blog Social. I am pretty rubbish at conferences, so I need to channel my best attendance preparation. What to wear, what to take, …

‘I like’ Friday, a colouring sheet for you.

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I recently drew and printed out some colouring in postcards to send to friends and family across the globe as a little happy mail with bonus colouring if they fancied it. What I hadn’t done, is colour one in myself.  I drew them and traced them and made sure all the lines were where they should be, but I never added any colour.  Until now that is. I decided that I would explore a few different ways to colour the same sheet. What do you like to colour with?  I know pencil crayons are a top choice, but I don’t like to colour with them as much as I like to draw with them. For the top two cards I used brush pens for the colour and I did some extra drawing and patterns on the yellow card with a Micron pen. Watercolour paints is maybe not the first choice for a coloring page, but these are post cards and printed on card-stock, so they put up with a layer of water colour just fine. …

Get Messy Art Journaling. Season of Lists, week 5.

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  I have not been very prolific in the art journaling department this week, my time has been sucked into a new crochet project.  My ongoing granny square blanket is coming along very nicely, but it has grown too big to travel with, so I decided in my wisdom that I needed to start new blanket which would be small enough (to start with) to take on holiday with me and crochet like a mad old lady on the plane and at the beach! I am no sitting on the beach girl, I have the attention span of a toddler, so I need something to do, like crochet. I found the perfect blanket recipe at Meet Me At Mikes and after three goes and one yarn change, I finally got going with it and my ‘cheery wave’ blanket will help entertain me on our two week trip to Cape Cod in a few weeks. Anyway back to the Get Messy Art Journaling!  I managed one official prompt which is the ‘I am made of’ page …