Who Needs Paper ?

I was drooling over some moleskin journals today,

and thinking how it might inspire me to draw more if I owned one,

then I came across this blog

If you've ever tried to draw with an etch a sketch,

then you'll realise how awesome this is.

But it does make me wonder if this

guy has rather too much time on his hands.

Something Old

I've been working on my writing today.

So I've posted something old for you to see.

This was to illustrate "September" for an online kids

magazine. OK, so it's October now.

Yeh....I'll go back to my writing

Early Snow

I don't remember the last time it snowed this early.

This is what it looks like out the bedroom window.

We are blessed to have a whole birch forest at the

back of the house. The trees haven't even shed

all their leaves yet, but I think

the snow will speed the process.

I think I'm going to work on some writing today.

New butterfly brooch

I've just made this brooch/pin.

I'm quite pleased with the way it turned out.

I used a piece of vintage linen and drew

the butterfly with permanent pen.

Then I fused it to white felt using Wonder Under,

then I fused a further two layers of brown felt

and stitched around the whole thing.

I then added some copper wire.

If you are wondering how I did the

ends of the antennae, I'll let you know

my secret. I dipped the ends of the wire

into Diamond Glaze, let it dry and then repeated twice.

( I made sure the antennae were hanging

downward while the glaze dried.)

It's flying to my Etsy store soon.

Shells again

This is an old one from about 2000,

when I was just getting into watercolour.

Think Shrink

I've just made these cute little horse pins

for my twin nieces. We share a love

of Russian artist Ivan Bilibin,

and so these are done in the style of his work.

I made them from shrink plastic, with permanent pen

and Karisma coloured pencils, (I believe the US

equivalent to those are prismacolor.)

New stuff

I've been having some fun with shrink plastic.

I might put a couple of these bird pins for sale.

Their dangly legs look so cute!

It's nice to wear something that makes people smile.

Here are two little elephant pendants

about to go into my Etsy shop.

Ernesto and Eduardo.

Using my images

This is just to show you how I have used

some of my illustrations.

It's always handy to have a stock of cards,

ready for those last minute greetings.

Butterflies and more butterflies

Here is my ink drawing of butterflies,

in a similar obsessive style to the shells.

Shells and more shells

It's been kind of busy this week as my parents

are staying, so I thought I'd post a past work.

This is done with artist permanent pen

and a wash of watercolour.

It was a rather addictive creation.

I love doing this kind of illustration.

It's almost like doing a jigsaw,

but much more fun.

Lighthouse fabric panels

Inspired by Elsita's latest post on drawing on fabric,

I hunted out these lighthouse illustrations I did several years ago

on unbleached cotton canvas.
I had intended to make them into some

smart cushions, but I never got around to it.

I thought I'd let you see them.
Maybe I will get around to it sometime.

My latest efforts...

This is painted with acrylics on a wooden disc.

I then sealed it with acrylic varnish.

Actual size is only about 1 1/2 inches.

It is a belated (oops) birthday present for a dear friend.
This is a birthday present for my niece who
loves sunflowers. I painted the image
with watercolours before setting it behind glass
and encasing it with polymer clay.
The focal bead is vintage glass.
Actual size of sunflower part is about
3/4 inch by 1 inch.


And this is one for my Etsy shop.
I made the beads using a selection
of herbs and spices and some
Highland lichens, encased in polymer clay.
It was time consuming, but I am really happy
with the way it turned out.
I love the textures and colours.

Thank you to my lovely husband for sprawling on the
driveway and taking the pictures for me.