Dragon with Sheep

Altered photo. 

The sheep were seen at the Rising Sun Country Park, Newcastle.

I saw the dragon holding a sign in Lucerne, Switzerland and borrowed it to keep the sheep company..

Baa

Android tablet art

Sheep and Squirrels

Drawing practice inspired by the book '20 ways to draw a cat' by Julia Kuo

Doodle and Ditsy Sheep

A doodle in my sketchbook, I started colouring in with pens but I got bored so I finished it with brusho inks another time. I think it looks slightly better in the sketchbook but not a lot.

The contest at Spoonflower this week is ditsy sheep and this is the design I've entered. You can vote in their competition by going to the connect page.

Spring Time

It was a nice sunny day today so here are some Spring time doodles.

York

I went to visit family in South Yorkshire at the weekend and on the way back home we did a detour to York. These are a few of the photos I took there. We were lucky with the weather, it was cold but dry. Dry is an unusual word to use for weather in this country at the moment!

Wandering Sheep

One from my sketchbook, brusho inks, pen, collage

Doodles and Collage

pen, watercolour, found image [sheep's head]

brush pens [I like this one the most from this bunch]

pens and watercolours

water soluble crayon, pen, found sheep image

More Art Buttons

I had a session of making more art buttons, and used some of the clear buttons I received from Sherry which I mentioned yesterday. I have an article in the present issue of Cloth Paper Scissors on how to make/alter buttons like these. They are offering free trial issues if you have never seen the magazine before. 

For the buttons above I used a clear button and a laser print, some old designs I had on the computer.

The pink and green ones below are artwork [prints with scored foam and ink pad], also clear buttons.

These were an ink jet print, a square labyrinth I also had on the computer and I used clear buttons.

The spotted one was a cardboard domino [from a cracker maybe?], the other a laser print, both with clear buttons.

The sheep are an inkjet print on clear buttons - part of a design for fabric

These below were made a little differently to the above. They are also made with a laser print but the white paper is removed just leaving the black toner ink. These were not covered in the article so I will explain here. Use buttons that are pale or clear as the ink will not show up on dark buttons. Glue the right side of the art work and the flat side of the button and press together firmly. Let it dry completely. To remove the paper, place the button on a cutting mat and score around the button with a bradawl. I find it works best if the bradawl is dipped in water first, just to dampen it, but not soaking. Tear off the excess paper. Lightly dampen the paper all over the button with your finger and gently rub off with a thumb. The paper should come off but leave the toner ink on the button. If you rub too hard the ink will come off too, so be gentle. Let the button dry and repeat the process if it looks like the paper as reappeared. Use an emery board to smooth any loose bits of paper around the edge. Use the bradawl on a cutting mat to poke through the stitching holes, both sides. You could apply a top coat or two of acrylic wax to the surface if the ink is on the top of the button but I have not done this on the clear ones below as the ink is on the underside of the button. 

I used coloured buttons for the ones below and the inside of recycled envelopes [these particular ones were from a blogging friend Doreen in Australia] There is a slight fault on the green one - this is because I didn't put the glue on properly.

Swans, Cygnets, Sketchbook Pages, Button Gift

Before my daughter and husband got the train back to London we went to Herrington Park and we saw lots of swans, a pair of them had baby cygnets. But it was really cold.......

When I got back home I opened a lovely packet of buttons which had come from a blogging friend - Sherry. Check out her blog, she is always creating lovely things.

More pages from my big sketchbook - number 12

watercolour background and found images

 and all the rest are watercolour and wax candle background and found images

Animal Collages and Rolling Stamps 76-82

Three collages above - watercolour backgrounds and wax crayon, found images, some altered.

It has been a while since I posted any rolling stamp ideas, but now Cloth, Paper Scissors have released a free eBook download

called "The Workshop: Roll Out the Backgrounds" and you get four articles about art stamps and stamp carving which includes my article on the rolling stamps.

Some ideas for you to try

wallpaper

wallpaper

sheet of textured rubber

wallpaper

wallpaper

wallpaper

this one is made up of scraps of discarded fun foam from other cutouts

Screenprinted Sheep & Chicken

Some older stuff today - screenprinted fabrics, cut up, applique, hand & machine embroidery, the sheep has dangly legs

Sheep with shoes

Screen printed fabrics, applique, machine & hand embroidery, dangly legs & shoes, beads

Farm Doodle

A page in my doodle book