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!

Competition time :-)

Morning everyone!  It’s tipping down in the UK and I’ve woken up to the sound of rain hammering on the roof, but I’m delighted to share with all you lovely people my latest doodle and competition giveaway. It’s time to celebrate!   Good luck everyone 🙂 xxx

https://www.facebook.com/squarebird

Butterlies and Dragonflies … For Spring :-)

Zentangle mandala

hi everyone! Had fun doing a Zentangle mandala.  Most of my doodles have been in black and white, so it was great to add a bit of colour and see this develop 🙂

Elephants Never …

Good morning everyone!  Have you ever had to do something in secret?  Have you ever had to go ‘undercover’?

Yesterday was Mother’s Day in the UK and sadly I didn’t get to see my own mother.  But it got me thinking this morning about the time i helped a neighbour secretly arrange a surprise birthday party for her.  In the week leading up to my mum’s birthday, I made my excuses and popped around to my neighbour, Sheila’s (who incidentally told me she’d always wanted a little girl, but couldn’t), to bake.  In previous posts, I’ve revealed that I dislike cooking, mainly because my mum was a qualified chef and a perfectionist.  Anything I did had to be perfect, so I didn’t like baking cakes with her …

in the space of a week, Sheila and I prepared trifles, traybakes (flapjack), a birthday cake and savouries so colourful that there was no need for a table cloth!  I faced the complaints by my mum as I kept asking to go over to Sheila’s.  We fell out over it, but I couldn’t tell her what we were really up to.  That’s a hard thing to do when you’re ten years old!

On the day itself, my mum had to eat her words (she’d said some spiteful things in that week) and I watched as her mouth fell open in amazement when she saw the spread of food.  It was a good celebration, but I still hate baking!

Hurtful words linger and dig deep; they create invisible scars.

One person posted a quote and image on Facebook (the social networking site is usually littered with them).  I’m not sure where it originated, but on a search, it informs me that it was written by ‘Anonymous’

“One day someone is going to hug you so tight that all your broken pieces will stick back together.”

I wish I could have hugged my mum yesterday, especially after the weekend I’ve just had.  I hope she’s enjoying her holiday.

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 😀

Little Darwin

I’ve been working on this doodle/Zentangle since our little guinea pig passed away on Wednesday. It’s been a difficult week for my youngest child as she’s had to deal with the loss of two pets close together. We miss Pom Pom the lop eared rabbit and little Darwin, so to help get over the sadness, I’ve captured Darwin forever in a doodle of dandelions and cradled on a bed of leaves so that our daughter, when she feels up to it, can colour to heart’s content over and over again and decorate him in glorious rainbow colours.

Printing with sweetcorn

OK, I’ve tried printing with apples, peppers, leaves, buttons, feathers and various garage paraphernalia such as nails, washers, wire mesh and even cutlery, so why not corn on the cob?

The great thing about printing with corn on the cob is that it acts and feels like a textured rolling pin! Rolling it over the paint in the gelliplate pushes the paint away from the plate and onto the cob, leaving a lighter coloured pattern against the darker background. I like this texture almost as much as bubblewrap impressions and it’s made me look at the grocery store in a whole new light!

This is the impressions made without any added embellishments, stencils or further textures.

This is the sort of effect you can achieve by adding simple spirals and different layers of colour.