Clare Davis Etheridge

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‘I like’ Friday. The book making edition.

I have been making my own books for a relatively short time, but now I have started I consider a book I can make for any occasion be it a journal or a watercolor project.

I have sewn books on the sewing machine and I have hand sewn pamphlet books as well as adapting vintage book covers to make a new journal or sketchbook. I love to add all kinds of paper from heavy watercolor paper to atlas paper pulled from old books. I have even used brown paper bags from the grocery store to make a book which I love! See that one here .

Here are some of the ways I have learnt and continue to learn about making books.

Book making books I like are:

How to Make Books by Esther K Smith

Journal Your Way, Designing and Using Handmade Books by Gwen Diehn

Make your own idea book by Arne and Carlos

I mentioned that I like to make books using old book covers and I find those old books at the library – on their sale cart or in the free box. Thrift shops often have great coffee table books with cool covers, estate sales are a great place to find old books and of course the good old book fair. Book fairs have everything to kids books to old dictionaries and atlases which also provide wonderfully interesting interior pages.

Even though there are some great books on making books, I don’t think I would have even started one without a class. The Get Messy class is all photos and no video, but there are photos of every step and I mean every step, no stone is left unturned and that is what I need. Ask anyone who has tried to teach me anything, I need all of the information!!!

Get Messy bookbinding class

Creative Bug September daily challenge

Creative Bug Book binding classes

So this is what I am liking this Friday, what have you been up to this week, what have you been liking?

Happy Friday x

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My Collections. Used postage stamps.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I specify the used part because I am not bothered about brand new sets of stamps (although I did buy the eclipse stamps just to keep!). I like stamps which have traveled a little, seen the world and got some frank marks.

I leave them on the corner of the envelops which I will tear off so I keep some of the frank marks and envelope intact.

Some of my favorites are when more than one of the same stamp had to be used to ensure delivery.

You see stamps less and less so I grab them when they land in the mailbox.

I seem to have picked most of the stamps from the Millennium collection which were issued in 2000 in the UK, I still lived in England and I am pleased I kept them.

One of my favorites is the stamp with the Queen and Prince Philip from 1961 and the set of owls too.

I do have lots of stamps from sales and thrift shops too, but I like these because they were on mail which I received.

Do you collect stamps? Did you as a child? I had a stamp album when I was a kid, but these are all kept in a zip-loc bag!

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017. 34/52

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

1. The shadows during the eclipse were amazing! Lots of little crescents as the sun was taken over by the moon’s shadow.

2. A dry hydrangea head.

3. Mushrooms in the woods.

4. Under a mushroom.

5. Fresh hydrangeas!

6. Lion’s mane mushroom which is edible and apparently tastes like seafood when cooked. Yum.

Happy Monday x

Get Messy Art Journal Season of Fairytales. Week Three.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

Week three of the season of fairytales and I am still enjoying filling my little handmade journal. What I have learnt is that I like to work bigger, this journal was dictated by the size of the book covers I chose, but every time I open it, I wish it was bigger. We live and lean don’t we?!

I did buy a big fat old book this weekend from the local YMCA book fair, which I want to make into a sketchbook full of watercolor paper, but that is another story which I will share when I make it.

At the same book fair I also bought a couple of fairytale books which I am using for collage material. I seem to have landed on The Frog Prince as my fairytale of choice so I am keeping all my book pages from that story.

I have been following the daily prompts on Creative Bug this month and today’s was to make a poem from found words. So I pulled a couple of pages from The Frog Prince and chose some words and phrases to cut out.

Then I arranged them into two strange little poems which I incorporated into the above page alongside faces painted onto old library cards.

Another new thing I learnt this week from the Transference class I am taking was how to make image transfers using gel medium. I had a couple of not amazing practice runs, but I am very happy with the landscape I transferred onto these pages for my journal.

I tore the magazine image in two and transferred half per page with the vellum page in-between on which I stuck a tree cut from a book page (yes, from The Frog Prince).

I don’t have any tale in mind for any of these pages, just the influence and inspiration in my mind as I make them. This last page used the cut out trees as a mask and a collage over a stenciling of crowns. All inspired by a Get Messy tutorial at the beginning of the season on making stencils and masks.

I even made a little eclipsed sun at the top of this page to mark the solar eclipse we experienced this week.

Another fun week in the art journaling community of Get Messy, if you want to see more information, click here and see what Get Messy is all about.

Happy Thursday x

Art Marks 30 Day Summer Challenge.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I finished this challenge a week ago and I really liked filling up my little paperback sketchbook which I made from a vintage paper back book cover and added different papers to the inside.

This is the full mini sketchbook I used solely for this project. The 30 Days of mark making challenge was hosted by Rae Missigman.

Here is the second half of my 30 day journey, find the first half here.

Day 12. Blotted.

I don’t even know what prompt this was for, but I like it!!

Day 13 Stippled.

Day 14 Fluid.

Day 15 Varied.

Day 16 and 17 Mirrored and Dripped.

Day 18 and 19 Many and Scattered.

Day 20-21 Scratched and collaged.

Day 22 Torn.

Day 23 Lettered.

Day 24 Remnants.

Day 25 Found.

Day 26, 27, 28 Tattered, collected and metallic (can you tell the end of the book was near!)

Day 29 and 30 Stitched and closed, I stitched a ribbon around the whole book to close it.

Are you participating in any challenges? Monthly? Yearly? Weekly? Do tell.

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017. 33/52

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

1. Eclipse Party planning with a vintage library sign!

2. My porch table in the summer is covered in cacti and succulents.

3. The tomatoes in my garden have been no great shakes this year but the ones I have picked have been delicious.

4. I like to see under mushrooms.

5. YMCA book fair, lots of bargains to be had!

6. Cabbages at the international market.

7. My haul from the book fair. Some will stay as they are and some will become sketchbooks. I like the small but fat language books and flash cards are always a winner for me.

I hope you had a fabulous week.

Happy Tuesday x

Get Messy Art Journal Season of Fairy Tales. Week 2.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I really got stuck into the season of fairy tales this week, and I have made a good start in my hand made journal as well as some off-shoot ideas in my giant Moleskine.

Rather than follow any fairy tale in particular, I am making my pages with the general theme in mind and as a guide rather than a director. I have lots of golden circles reflecting the golden ball from The Frog Prince and this week I have painted castles and trees which I see more of in this journal as they were lovely to paint and sparked many more ideas as I created them.

I made a falling triangle stencil and painted it in a bright opera pink on a vellum page in my journal. I like this simple but striking page over the watery trees and inky castle.

I may draw in some details to my castle but for now, I like it as it is.

Castles and forests and golden balls. My week in fairy tale art journaling.

Happy Thursday x

Happy New (school) Year!

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

The beginning of the school year feels to me more like a new year than January 1st. Without the resolutions and goal setting and navel gazing which is tradition in my January world! My August new year is more about getting on with stuff, more starting, less thinking.

Even though I am now working part time at the library which is new from last year, I still make my plans. So far they have included – read my magazine stack, paint the gladioli I just bought from Trader Joes (especially to paint and draw!), go to the Art Museum to gather inspiration, watch classes at Creative Bug and Skillshare as well as all of the art journaling.

So far I can report that the boys have been back at school for two days and my magazines are still in a stack and the gladioli are beautiful and full of flowers but unpainted, I have been nowhere and watched nothing!

However I have had a very nice couple of days getting back into the routine and wishing the weather would cool down just a little bit.

Do you plan all the things for back to school time? Or do you prefer the traditional new year goal setting? Whichever it is, I hope you are getting stuff done!!

Happy Wednesday x

Weekly Photos 2017. 32/52

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

1. My little garden is struggling this year, I am not sure whether it is a lack of rain or a lack of gardening skills, but this is one of the little sunflowers that made it.

2&3. One of the huge trees at the park keeled over this week, it wasn’t in a storm or anything but it was on the ground when I walked the dog on Monday.

4&5. Once the tree had been cut down, the trunk circles were a work of art. I think one looks like a sad raccoon face!

6. This drink machine doesn’t work, I wonder how long these drinks have been in it? I suppose pop doesn’t go off!

Happy Monday x

My Collections. Found Marbles.

Published by Clare at CatsEatDogs

I don’t always consciously ‘collect’ things, but when I watched Courtney Cerruti on Creative Bug talking about collections and how we are drawn to things over and over, I quickly realized that I have amassed a collection or three over the years.

When I am at the thrift shop or an estate sale or antique shop, I do have things I look for. Like old buttons, ledgers – the more handwriting the better, postcards – again, the more writing the better, photographs, books, flash cards and old haberdashery.

The thing I do conciously collect is marbles, but not just any marbles, I don’t look for marbles at any of the above locations and I am not interested in new marbles.

MarblesAug2017

All of my precious marbles are from the local creek and the woods and all of which I have found with my 12 year old son.

We find them on the creek bed and in the mud and we love to dig them out! Some are in half, some are chipped and some are sand pitted with age and longevity in the creek.

MarblesAug20173

MarblesAug20174

Big marbles and small, we wash them and clean them and keep them in a ‘Pevely’ milk bottle also found in the woods.

We have over fifty of them and are still on the lookout for more!

MarblesAug20172

Do you collect anything? Lots of different collections? I will share some more of my collections over the next few weeks and let’s see what we have in common!

Happy Wednesday and happy collecting x