All posts filed under: Creativity

Things I am excited about Tuesday.

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I hope you like the natty title to this post!!! I was supposed to write it yesterday with the short and to the point ‘Marvellous Monday’ title but blow me down, yesterday came and went and no blog post in sight.  Much as I am tempted to keep the title, I decided to dream up another not so short but still to the point header for today! What is getting me excited today, well I am glad you asked, because these things are – Ice cream and sprinkles even though it has been raining for two days straight. Bitten by Witch Fever is a very inspiring book which I have been drawing (literally in my art journal) all kinds of ideas from.  It had to go back to the library today so sorry no picture, I recommend borrowing it from your library if you can, it is chock full of old wallpaper designs full of detail and colour ideas. My two art journals for this Get Messy season (affiliate link here,  which means I will …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 2.

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  I am enjoying this Get Messy season so far, and working in my little hand made journal is a good place to be. However, I seem to have started a trend last season when I made a small journal and then I made a big one to give myself more options and ended up filling them both (bear in mind that I don’t put hundreds of pages in my books!). Following this apparent new tradition, I made another journal this season too!  I really do like to work in different sizes and on different paper when the mood/idea strikes.  For my new book I removed the text block from a children’s cook book and replaced it with hot press watercolour paper and a couple of pages of brown paper from a grocery bag. The new sketchbook (on the right) is a book I found in a thrift shop and it is the American version of my first cook book when I was a kid in England. I remember making food from it and I …

Get Messy Season of Kindness Week 1.

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A new year and a new season for Get Messy!  The kick off season for 2018 is the Season of Kindness which is an ideal start to the year in my opinion. I made my journal using a vintage book cover and half ‘warm white’ paper and half ‘cream’ paper.  It has six signatures each with four pages and the book is pretty small at 4 inches x 8 inches. I decided to make the whole season about being kind to myself and my art journaling as I sometimes put pressure on myself to try all the techniques and then I wander off from what I actually want to do.  This journal is going to be full of stuff I want to do and I think it is going to be pretty simple.  I am not an ‘add all the things’ person, so I will be embracing the keep it simple method I like best! The first page has literally three components, a cut out window, a gelli print on vintage ledger paper and words …

My year of art journaling

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All of the journals I filled in 2017 including my daily Moleskine planner. Books I used solely for art journaling. Books I filled as daily challenges, travel journal (Cape Cod Folks), general Moleskine sketchbooks and my daily Moleskine.   I was looking back at my art journals from last year and I was surprised at what I found.  Even though the years seem to fly by, a year ago can seem so much in the past and some of the pages and even the sketchbooks seemed so distant to me. When I was pulling out journals, I concentrated on the handmade ones because that is what I thought I had used all year.  I didn’t realize that I had spent the first three or four months using random sketchbooks including a Moleskine and a  Dylusions book.  I like these sketchbooks a lot and what I made in them, but I really enjoy the handmade books I made for each Get Messy season and for some of the monthly challenges I played along with via Instagram …

Daily Moleskine 2017. December pages.

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I made it!  A whole year of making some kind of art (I use the term very loosely for some days) in my daily Moleskine planner.  Yes, some days turned out a bit rubbish, but at least I had a go at something. The days I like far outnumber the days which I feel didn’t work, so I would call my 2017 project a success!  My 2018 planner is underway which makes me happy! For these December pages I painted a watercolour cactus, collaged and painted, gelli printed an old doily, practiced my ink painting, made some bauble strings, more collage, printed flowers, doodled, sketched biscuits and sketched a face with my new inks. I wonder what I will be posting at this time next year? Another book full of art I hope! Happy Monday x  

Get Messy Art Journal. Season of Nature Week 5.

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I have been busy with my gelli plate this season, I just keep wanting to print flowers!  No bloom is safe when I get my paints out! Some of the pages were printed before I bound this book and some I have printed over collage elements, like the last page shown here where I stuck down the periodic table and butterfly and then printed some flowers on top. Nearly as popular as my gelli plate has been my sumi brush and black sumi ink which I have used to make patterns over pages. I love the depth of the deep black ink when applied with a nice thick sumi brush. I have been enjoying using the Jane Davenport Inkredible inks which smell as good as they look!  I used ‘Limeade’ on the page with the butterfly and gave it a little spray with my water bottle. I am ashamed to say that I have not followed any prompts this season, I have just been jollying along in my journal filling it up a little each …

My ‘Create Daily’ Project (the one that made it through the year) 2017.

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I started 2017 with lofty ambitions to do two 365 projects which you can read about here if you like.  This continued until about April when one fell off the wagon and wandered off by itself.  As I went through the year I did many monthly daily challenges which were made more possible once I decided to stick with the one 365 creation. The project which stayed on the wagon with me and I have nearly finished is creating daily in my Moleskine planner. This planner is not at all the ideal medium for an art project of any sort, it has terrible paper, lines on each page and is not very big. I am using the ‘large’ planner which is 8.5×5.5 inches.  Having said that I think it is the fact that it is not an ‘arty’ item to start with is one of the reasons I have continued with the daily arting in it.  There can be no pressure to create something amazing just the opportunity to create something, anything.  I have drawn, …

Get Messy Season of Nature Week 2.

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  It is the second week of the Season of Nature in the Get Messy community and I have got started in my hand made sketchbook.  I have been gelli plate printing seed pods and leaves and dipping pages in hand made ink from black walnuts and red cabbage. The page I enjoyed making the most is the sketches of the dried seed pods and I like it next to the printed same seed pods. So far, a lot of the pages are just started, a print or a colour added.  I like to do this just to be rid of the dreaded blank page, then I can come back and add to the page or spread later. If you want to see more Season of Nature art, go to #getmessyartjournal on Instagram and if you want to see what I have been making I use #catseatdogsgetmessy. Happy creating and happy Thursday x

My Daily Moleskine 2017. November Pages.

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Giant bubble wrap is a brilliant tool to use with the Gelli plate! I am putting far too many leaves into the planner!  The opposite page is a ‘ghost’ signature which is a word or name which is treated like an ink blot to make a shape or creature. I went on a creative field trip and used the train and museum tickets for this page with a gingko leaf added. Cut out from the newspaper and some colour added! Face painting with sumi brush and ink. Blind contour drawing and some brush script. Some birthday wrap and labels along with a rose petal. Gelli plate print of a fern leaf and gingko leaves. My colleagues at the library bought me a birthday treat! A ‘mini masterpiece’ inspired by the Fluid Art class along with some doodles. Can you believe we are almost at the end of the year?  I have loved filling up this planner and it is so satisfying to see it nearly full. Happy Thursday x

Handmade sketchbook for the Season of Nature

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I am beginning to get a bit obsessed with making books!  I love to make all the sketchbooks with different papers in different sizes with fold outs and accordions.  The more I make the more ideas I get for another one or two or three. We are about to start the new season over in the Get Messy Art Journal community and it is going to be The Season of Nature.  I found a book called ‘A Field Guide to Animal Tracks’ not long ago and thought it would be perfect to make into a sketchbook for The Season of Nature. Once the pages were out I was ready to go! I made two signatures and stitched one to each inside cover of the book so they open away fro each other.  I used pamphlet stitch to fasten them onto the edge of the cover. I have made a pretty backwards book which started by stitching the papers onto the opposite side than expected, but I like the way the two books are working together …