All posts filed under: DIY and crafts

Mono Printing on a Homemade Gelatin Plate.

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Today I made a slab of gelatin (actually I made that yesterday) in a cookie pan and used it to make mono prints of bamboo leaves and crochet doilies! I was reading Courtney Cerruti’s book ‘Playing with Surface Design’ and she was talking about how a handmade gelatin plate behaves slightly differently to a commercial gelli plate.  I have been using and loving my gelli plate for a few years now, so I was keen to try! Making the ‘plate’ was super easy, I used 4 envelopes of unflavored gelatin according to the instructions on the packet (they suggested apple juice but I went for water!) and I left it in the fridge over night to set.  I forgot to remove any surface bubbles so I had immediate access to some extra texture (oops!). There are lots of videos and recipes for gelatin plates on the inter webs but I was happy with this one as it lasted for an afternoon of printing and I can make another one when I need it. This picture was …

‘I like’ Friday

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Here are some things I am liking this fine Friday – I have been using smoked paprika a lot in recipes lately and I love to put it on fries, especially with an egg. Yums! Zines and handmade books  are the subject of a new Creative Bug class which has totally made me want to make a zine or two.  I have been making sketchbooks lately and the zine format is very appealing. The book I am now reading is Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan and I am enjoying it so far.  I started a couple of books which I gave up on, but I think this one is a winner. Neocolor II crayons are my art supply of the moment.  I used water soluble crayons in art collage about a hundred years ago but I have not revisited them until very recently.  I have a handful of colours and I love to use them with a little water or gesso to spread them around. Handmade jewels used to be something I made all …

Hand-Made small and mini journals.

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Are you easily influenced? I am and I have been spotting mini art journals all over the interwebs, mainly Instagram and I wanted to make my very own teeny tiny journal. So I did! I have lots of paper ephemera ranging from maps to paper bags via old National Geographic magazines and sports order forms, so I thought I would drag it all out and make a book or five!  You know how it is, once you start, you can’t stop. I started with a couple of small but not mini books, they are about five and a half inches by four inches and some of the pages fold out to make a wider spread. To stitch them together at the spine, I used wax linen and pamphlet stitch. I found a good book at the library with lots of clear instructions called How to make Books by Esther K. Smith which is full of great ideas including the single signature pamphlet or leaflet style book. I cut out three different size mini journals, the …

Hand Made Journal. Season of Gifts. Get Messy Art Journal.

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Do you make things but deep down think ‘this is not going to work’ ‘I won’t make it the way they do’ ‘this is going to fall apart’? I sometimes do and I did when I embarked on this book.  I was feeling the pressure from the lovely paper I had chosen which I didn’t even want to chop up! I picked up the book called ‘Make your own Ideabook’  by Arne and Carlos from the library and they make bookmaking look so easy.  This is a book with many signatures (books within the book) all sewn together which is something I wanted to have a go at. I have made simple books before which I have hand sewn, but Arne and Carlos use a sewing machine to fasten the pages in each signature.  I was convinced that I would end up perforating the pages and they would pull apart like toilet paper once I had sewn them. Never fear, all went well with the sewing, in fact I also did some random stitching on some …

A Christmas Colouring Page.

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Happy December!  Do you have your tree up? Outside lights? Mincepies in the oven? Or is it still a little early for all of that? I must admit that we wait until the first or even second weekend of December before decorating.  My son’s birthday is at the beginning of the month so we let him have his birthday before Christmas takes over his celebration! I am itching to get some mince pies made though and I need to get the Christmas cake baked this weekend. So before or during all of the Christmas decorating and planning I thought you might like a colouring sheet to relax for a few minutes with. Click here or on the above image for the printable sheet. Have fun colouring in my festive friend.  Feel free to share your finished sheets on Instagram and tag me @catseatdogsmakes. Happy Thursday!

Watercolor and ink Christmas card.

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I like to send out Christmas cards which I have made and this year was no exception. Here’s how I made them.  Watercolor paint in ‘permanent rose’ and white ink (I got mine from our local art store where they mix their own inks – South City Art Supply) is all I used to paint the circles to form the baubles.   I painted very wet circles and dropped on a single drop of ink when they were still wet. Once they were dry, I used a Pigma Micron black pen size 05 to draw in the details. Then I scanned the whole thing and cropped and added text in Photoshop.  You could also photo your decorations and use an app to add text.  Of course if you have lovely hand lettering skills, you can hand write the lettering. There is a little video here on my Instagram feed – catseatdogsmakes. Don’t forget to share if you have a go! Happy Painting and Happy Wednesday x  

Art Supplies from Estate Sales.

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  Oftentimes I will get books from sales to draw in or print on the pages. I like to use old books or their pages in my journals or as a sketchbook. The giant,out of date ‘Britannica Atlas’ is going to be a big art journal. The map pages have such beautiful colours and even the print pages are great, full of columns of text. The blue book is a ’20th Century Typewriting Complete Course’ which I may use as a sketchbook or I might use the individual pages to print on or draw on and add to my art journal. The previous owner has added lots of their own notes to the pages, so that is pretty cool. I don’t often see specific supplies at yard or estate sales, so I was very pleased to spot the canvases and the masonite board at an estate sale less than a mile from my house.  I have to say that I have no clue what to do with masonite, but I heard Ali Cavanagh talk about …

‘I like’ Friday.

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The weather has cooled at last and it looks like Fall is centre stage! This week I have been liking: The bag in the photo I found at an estate sale and I love it so much.  It is a souvenir beach bag from Mexico, I think from the 1970’s.  It is housing my new knitting project…. This fantastic scarf at Creative Bug.  I have started it in red wool and I love it, the pattern looks complicated but it is so well explained on the videos, it is very doable.  I can’t wait to wear it. ‘The Girls’ by Emma Cline is a great book so far, I am fully engrossed and intrigued by the story and the characters. I love to read and I always have to have a book on the go, I am an impatient reader though, so if the book doesn’t grab me, I will cast it aside and move on. This one has grabbed me and is hanging onto my attention. Another book I am reading (I know, I …

Gelli Plate printing with seed pods.

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Sometimes I find printing with my gelli plate very confusing. There I said it.  Like trying to direct something while looking in the mirror, it is just a skill I do not have.  I still love to play with it though, even when I am not sure whether I am going to get a print with negative or positive colour! I really think this is sometimes when I get my best prints, when I am not sure what is going to happen. I have seen some great prints lately using seed pods so I decided to use some dried honesty plant to make some pages of print and colour. Firstly I decide on my colour palette and  in my mind I wanted these prints to be all blues and blue/greens which as you can see I strayed from a little.  This often happens when I get my paints out and start to put them together, some get taken out and some get added. I will sometimes paint a few sample splotches to see what looks …

Using an old book as a sketchbook.

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There once was a time when I would not have entertained the idea of using a book, old or new to draw in or cut up for pictures or words or just rip a page out of it to make a print on. Well, now I do all of those things quite happily!  I did a class at the beginning of this year by Lisa Congdon on Creative Bug which required some collage which is something I really hadn’t done before, so I didn’t have any papers to chop up. I decided to pop to the library and see if they had any books in the sale section (25 cents each thank you very much) which were colorful and interesting enough to use.  There were some books which would work,  and with some trepidation I cut the pieces I wanted to use out and stuck them down in a collage-y fashion. Then I joined the Get Messy community and I saw some work being done in old books, not cutting them up, using the actual …