Hare print from a Big Mistakes Eraser

I bought a ‘Big Mistakes’ eraser a while back and have been wondering for ages what to draw on it so that I could do some carving.  

I guess I’m going through a bit of a ‘hare and rabbit obsession’ lately, what with buying a baby dwarf rabbit and watching her binkie around the living room; watching her ears twitch and turn as she listens out for unfamiliar noises.  They sure are fascinating creatures.  

Yesterday, the family went to a wooded estate where deer were enjoying the sunshine and shade.  I could have decided on a deer for my print – maybe next time!

So out came the pencil and I sketched a hare, then taking the smallest cutting took from my lino cutters,  I carved away the layers of rubber to reveal my hare.  I have a rainbow ink pad and used this to take some first impression prints.  This was the third impression:

   
     

Doodling bunnies

Today, I glanced out of the window at work to a field that usually has three horses nibbling the grass.  By mid-afternoon, the horses had vanished and ten wild rabbits ‘binkied’, hopped and sniffed around.  Every one of them was a character that I could bring into a story.  However, having just got a baby bunny rabbit two weeks ago, I can’t stop drawing her!  She hops up and down from the sofa, scoots around my rainbow rug and loves having the run of the lounge!  

She is going to be a character in my children’s story I’m writing, so I guess, the more I sketch her, the better!  Can’t wait to do the proper illustrations, but first I’m jotting down the bones of the story.  Maybe I should start a new blog dedicated to the adventures of Willow.

   
     

Black and white

Copyrighted images.  Please do not copy or share without my express written permission.  Thanks 🙂

Trees have always fascinated me.  My DH and I had a discussion about what makes a perfect tree.  Does it have to have evenly spread branches, be covered in snow or blossom, or should it be standing solo, tall and magestic?

Some of the most magical trees I’ve seen have been deep in forests covered in moss.  I love also how in the saddest places such as abandoned cemeteries, among crumbling tombstones, life returns in the form of meandering branches, tree trunks and wild plants.

I took several black and white images the other day and loved the eeriness of them; so what do you think?

   
           

Concertina books … Have fun with squares, rectangles, circles!

Ever wondered what to do with oddments of wrapping paper, patterned envelopes, prints and paper?
How about having a go at making one of these? They’re easier than they look.

The mini one requires 8 squares measured at about 8cm across; the spiral book requires three A3 sheets cut in half lengthwise.

If anyone is interested in a pictorial tutorial, please comment below and I’ll put one together :–). Simples!

The last image, showing the spiral book closed, is part of a pack of happy mail going off to Spain.

Win a copy of my book and enjoy a spot of colouring at the same time!

Hi everyone :-). I’m running a little competition over on my facebook page https://www.facebook.com/doodle2ink and thought you guys might be interested in having a go too. Kids might even like to join in (you’re welcome to enter on their behalf)!

instructions can be found via the above link, but basically it’s a free giveaway.  I did a quick doodle of a kingfisher,o which I’m giving people permission to print off and colour :-).

It would be fab to see lots of colour combinations and perhaps added doodles, so I’ve asked if people could share their colored pieces.  This has no reflection on who will win as I will enter people and use a random name generator to pick the winner.  Just thought how lovely it would be for colour to be splashed across facebook and WordPress :). If you’d like to take part via WordPress and be in with a chance of winning a copy of my limited edition paperback pocketbook of doodles and Zentangles, please link back to this page and comment that you’re joining in.

You have until Sunday April 19th to enter and I’ll announce the winner the following week 🙂

Have a super time colouring.  Can’t wait to see your pictures

Jacques xx

3D paper flowers made in under 30 minutes – mother and daughter challenge :-)

Good evening from my sunny Somerset town 🙂  Hope everyone is well and enjoying the spring flowers, like I am!

Tonight, I’m going to pass over this blog to my 13-year-old, because she taught me how to make this 3D flower.

So in a photo diary style, here is a step by step on how to make one.  Anyone got any remnants of wrapping paper they want to use up?  Maybe you’re a Gelliprint enthusiast and have loads of prints that you could use?  Perhaps, you even like collecting patterned envelopes for iris folding or enjoy making teabag origami cards.  Whatever your passion for papers and prints, here’s how.

step 1

Cut out three squares.  The flower I made at the top of this blog post was from using 15x15cm squares, but my daughter uses much smaller squares you can see that you can use even card offcuts.

step 2

fold each square diagonally corner to corner to form three triangles

step 3, step 4 and 5
Fold each triangle in half again and in half again so you end up with three small folded triangles.

Snip off a small piece where the centre of all the folds are (the centre of your original square sheets). The hole will be where you insert the stem of your flower 🙂

step 6

Two ways of doing this: open out each folded sheet (back to original square).  There will be a small hole at the centre.  Use the creases as a guide and draw 8 petals to create a flower – each crease being the centre of a petal.  Or if you’re brave, you can draw one petal on the folded triangles and cut out.  Try both methods and find one that you feel comfortable with.

Step 7

when you’ve cut one flower out, you can draw around this for the other two flowers (makes it quicker to do and the flowers will be the same size).

step 8

hopefully this won’t sound two complicated! I did mention to my daughter afterwards that it would be less fiddly to start with four squares … but this is her blog post!

Take the first flower and cut away 1 petal

take the second flower and cut away 2 petals

and take the third flower and cut away 3 petals

step 9

Join the loose petals together with tape to form fourth flower OR cut a fourth flower out of another print, piece of paper or card

Step 10

Join the section of each flower to form whole ones again

step 11

insert one flower inside another then using either a pencil or even a crochet hook/ knitting needle, roll each petal clockwise direction to give it a curl

step 12

to make the stem, roll a printed sheet the length you want the stem to be in the same way you rolled the petals.  We used a crochet hook to get the desired thickness and height

Step 13
Insert the stem through the centre of each flower layer and pull through just enough (about 1-2cm) to make the middle section or stamen of your 3D flower. Attach the lower flower to the stem using tape or glue.

Step 14

Use a pair of scissors to ‘shred’ the 1-2cm piece for the stamen and separate slightly.

Step 15
Check out your flower, admire it, adjust it, doodle on it or present it to someone you love 🙂

Marbling fun is for adults too :-)

Happy Easter everyone .. Or just plain happy weekend :-).  Today, I finally got out the marbling kit and played around with gorgeous inks.  The cat, as usual got in the way because she wanted to be in on it too!

I’m taking part in an international ATC swap, so I set to work on ten ATC cards and then began to doodle on each card.  The shapes gave me inspiration and I was able to incorporate some of the ‘bubble’ patterns into the designs. The colour pallette is impressive.  Each droplet from the pipette left a clean colour and didn’t murk the marbling floater solution.

My DH is hoping to trial some wooden handles in the solution next week.  I tried clothes pegs with varying results.

reminder to self: next time, read the instructions!

Latest doodle

Good evening from the UK everyone 🙂 Ever drawn a Shar Pei? Ever wanted to draw a dog that has loads of folds and flaps? My friend’s favourite dog is the Shar Pei. She hasn’t got the space to own her own pup, so instead she asked me if I’d draw her one to frame on her wall. I sketched an outline first in pencil and then began the lengthy task of filling in the spaces, yet still trying to maintain that Shar Pei look.

There was a risk of over-doing the pattern and part of me thinks I should have left a few more white sections. I’ll look at it again tomorrow when I’ve rested. What do you think?

Now I’m off to,dream about my next project – I’ve been asked to draw a horse called Jimmy, plus I want to get a sewing gift finished. Night all xx

Ok, it’s been a while!

I’ve been away on holiday you see, soaking up some much needed sunshine in Cornwall. We had limited access to wi-fi and so I made the most of the break away from technology and drew, doodled

and watched my youngest paint a picture of a labrador puppy.
Then of course, like all holidays, they eventually come to an end :-(. I had to play catch-up at work and still slot in some me and family time. So what have all you lovely people been up to? Have you been glancing across the road for the first buds of spring? I spotted snowdrops this week and suddenly daffodils are shooting up on the verges. My favourite season: spring! Excited! Not only do I wait in anticipation of the appearance of flowers and blossoms, but some gorgeous leaves that I will be able to print from.
Anyway, for today’s WordPress post, I’m going to share with you some photographs of my little getaway trip to Cornwall to accompany one of my drawings from my time away – hope you like them.

This was a hidden underground pool found in a disused slate mine – isn’t it wonderful?

For literature fans – we visited Jamaica Inn, the setting for one of Daphne du Maunier’s novel of the same name. According to some people, there are parts of the inn which are haunted and when we toured the adjoining museum we were treated to memorabilia by the author and details of smuggling that took place over the centuries across Cornwall.
As well as taking a sip of a cool drink, we were able to watch a fifteen minute video about the history of the inn and surrounding areas.

One of many smugglers’ caves … This one was found at Polperro. When we weren’t exploring caves, we played around with our shadows. Even though it was February half term, the weather was glorious 🙂

Interesting then that we returned home to snow, sleet and rain making it feel all the more real that we’ve been away on holiday 🙂

Random Craft Swap

How much do you love receiving gifts in the mail? Do you clutch the unopened envelope for ages and try and guess what’s inside? What about receiving something handcrafted? The person sending has taken a lot of thought into creating something special and unique. They’ve considered what the other person might like. When I started on a craft to swap I went over to Gladeridercrafts blogger’s page – check it out as there’s some gorgeous stitching on there! We did a random craft swap this week and I was so excited when my craft packet arrived.

Isn’t it lovely? Thank you so much Gladeridercrafts 🙂

Also this week, I opened the post at work to find my OH had sent me a large padded envelope with the word fragile written on it! I would never have guessed what was inside…a box of Matchmakers – I love these chocolates!

It made me giggle just like a few years ago when I had a postie calling card to collect a packet from the depot. When I arrived with my ID, the postman looked at me apologetically as he handed over the mail.
‘Should it feel like that?’ He asked.
I admit it did feel as though the contents had smashed. Also, as I hadn’t ordered or been expecting anything, I had no idea what it was. The contents shifted and chinked beneath the padded envelope. I gulped.
Finally, As I sat in the car, I opened the packet to find 200 buttons of all different colours (nothing broken or smashed) inside. Lovely!

So, what have I posted out this week? Well two lucky people received handprinted fabric goodies: an ATC

and an expanding notebook

That was fun 😀