Creative Tuesdays - September

September is the prompt for the latest Creative Tuesdays' challenge.  To me this month means that summer is nearly at an end and autumn is not far away.  Also this is the month for nervous new starters going to school for the first time. So with this in mind do you remember my emu twins back in April?  Well they are now ready for their first attendance at school, although they do look like they may be a little troublesome.

Pop over to Mr T's blog to see what September means to others.

Creative Tuesdays - Birds of a feather

The latest challenge for Creative Tuesdays is Birds of a feather.  This is my whimisical take on the subject.

Pop over to Mr T's blog to see other interpretations.

I have added a new page to my blog called "Regular challenges and groups" to give links to all the challenges I take part in, so that they can all be seen together. The tab to this page is at the top next to the home tab.

Handmade art book of whimsical birds finished

My little art book of whimsical birds is now finished.  I found this so much fun to do and now have a little display of my art as well. These are all of the 10 birds.  As they started as quick drawings I can now develop them further in other projects.

And displayed.

Amongst other things, I have 10 cats drawn and ready to be painted in the same style.

Happy weekend everyone.

Handmade art booklet and journal

I came across my stash of unused card blanks from the days when I taught and published card making ideas and in the back of my mind was that I should sell them off to acquire some extra space.

Having this phobia about not gettting rid of anything, as I know I will always need it when it is gone, I pulled a few out and tested them to see how they took medium e.g. makers pens, watercolour etc and they seemed to hold up pretty good. So I folded some new blanks and glued them together, back to back as pages of a book.

I now have a neat little art book that I can carry anywhere, as the double glued pages make them quite sturdy, and I can add more pages as I wish.  This little book also fans out and stands up to make a dispay.

I have decided that this one will be for any whimsical birds that land on the pages. Here are two of the birds that have come to roost.

Another project that I have been working on for a while, is making a completely recycled journal/art book, as inspired by the lovely Jennibellie's blog. I know I have mentioned her before, but she is so generous with her time and instructions so her blog is well worth going to have a visit.  She is also doing a video on how to recycle those Christmas cards into a journal.

The cover of my art journal is a herbal tea packet covered in a paper bag. The pages are all made from cereal packaging and because I draw more than I paint I kept the pages neutral by covering them all in enevelope paper. The cutting, folding and covering of the pages took a long time. I then sewed the pages into the spine.  I have purposely kept it all neutral as I don't know yet what I have going to put in it, as I usually like to have a theme going.

Am linking this with Artists in Blogland show and tell week.

Have a fabulous weekend folks, I'm off to glue more cards together!

Show and tell Saturday - whimsical bluebird

Well another week has gone by, my how time flys.  For this week's show and tell for Artists in Blogland I have been busy painting this whimsical bird in mixed media.   I have cropped the pic for this blog but am intending to use is as a basis for a card.

I am also doing the fabulous Jane Davenport's great Supplies Me class and this is my first coloured pencil face, trying to get some shading as Jane is teaching us.  Looking at this I feel that the whole face is not strong enough in colour, but I think that will come with confidence and practice.

The next challenge for Mr Toast's Creative Tuesday is all done and I will put that on my blog probably tomorrow.

It's Marcia's birthday today, she is the lovely lady who runs Artists in Blogland, go and send her best wishes.

Well that's what I have been doing this week.  Happy weekend everyone!