Doodles and what to do with them.

This is a page out of a sketch pad that sits in my back pack in the car. I tore it out and folded it in half to make a quick little card to go with a gift.

Drawing these crossing leaves/fronds is a beautifully mindless relaxing doodle to create. It might be obvious how this develops, but in case it isn’t – here it is, step-by-step.

I start with a line – not much thought goes into it

adding more lines whilst thinking of branches

and then joining them together – as you can see I don’t feel the need to be exact – little mistakes don’t matter

The bit I like most is drawing these wiggly fronds to go under ones already drawn.

I can drift off into a reverie whilst drawing these, so absorbing.

And then the colouring in …

and adding a few spirals and dotty flowers to the background, ready to tear out and

make another little card.

Not great art, but very enjoyable to do in odd moments.

Sammy the Seal, Weymouth

A friend has been staying near the beach in Weymouth this week and we have been been meeting for walks and al fresco lunches.

A favourite place on mine is the The Lookout where it can be a bit breezy but the view is worth it, out to sea and looking over Lodmoor.

Before retirement, I used to work in Weymouth and often,  if I had an appointment with a colleague, rather than meet in a stuffy office somewhere, I would suggest The Lookout. Very few people are there during the week outside school holiday times, so confidential meetings could be had whilst looking out to sea.

Seeing Lodmoor from here made me realise that having lived here all my life, I had never walked around the Nature Reserve, so yesterday I put that right

There seems to be only one path that just goes straight across and you don’t really get to see much for the reeds, although I do get fascinated by the lines and patterns they make

and the reflections in the water

They turn up in my doodles

The path leads to a crossing over the road, then up the steps, over the wall and onto the beach

where every day a digger pulls back the pebbles from the sea. The following photo was taken in October.

Then, back along the beach to have fish and chips at Cafe Oasis.

and later as the sun was beginning to set, a siting of Sammy the Seal.

He has become a local celebrity this year. He appears on Facebook pages, on the News and in the papers. Friends have seen him and even been swimming with him but up until yesterday I had not seen him.

He was not lying in the most photogenic position, and one can’t get too close as there are Marshalls standing near to protect him and people and their dogs.

If you Google ‘Sammy the Seal Weymouth’ you can see loads of You tube clips and all the links to his appearance in the newspapers. In this clip, you also get to see the huge dormant cruise ships that have also been a Lockdown feature of 2020

I chatted to the Marshall and she told me that Sammy has been checked by the Marine Biologists who say he is 2 years old and comes from the colony that lives on Portland (the island you see in the background). He goes back to visit but seems to prefer contact with humans, coming up onto the beach in the early morning and at dusk. Apparently he won’t mate until he is 4 or 5 years old, so I wonder if he will be on or near the beach for the next couple of years.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Calm

 

meditate

doodle and relax

sunday calm

~

 

Find Green

Find green

Put it in your heart

Wrap it all about you

Roll in it

Live it

Become it

 

Bathe in green

Bask in green

Receive the peace and love of green

 

When you truly have a sense of green

Its hues

Its colours, textures, shades and depths

 

Add layers of golden light without and within

The strong, yellow, glisten

And shining warmth of gold

 

Sprinkle silver stars above your head

Around your feet

And wear a cloak of raindrops

Casting rainbows as you move

And slowly, surely

 

Find your dance again

 

copyright Sandra Dorey

~~~~~

A poem for Spring

Part of a series I wrote over 20 years ago, it came to mind as I was doodling the mandala.

Every Day Art

I just saw this on my #seriescd Instagram page and it excited me so much I just had to share it with you

Since starting the doodles in my 6″ x 6″ sketch book, to travel with ,I have become immersed in continuing with a Series using a CD as a starting point. I have to do one as I wake up and can’t settle to sleep at night without doing another.

And today I got some Posca Pens in the post!

Eeek!!!!!

they show up so well on the black card – they sort of glow!

Not cheap at £14.99 for 8 pens but so worth it.

I am on my second sketch book – they each have 40 pages in them ….

Must go – I have doodles to doodle doodle doo!

Egypt: Getting There

The picture above is a screen shot from Google Maps.

Red marker marks my destination: Hurghada.

In 1995 I had one of the best holidays of my life when I went on a Nile Cruise with the mother of a school friend of my daughter. We did not know each other very well but we were both single and we agreed that if we did not get on, neither of us would have lost a friend, but if we did get on, then we would both have made a friend. We got on really well and had a wonderful time. We did the tourist tours of temples and tombs and drifted down the Nile each night, watching the life of the river banks slip slowly by whilst sipping cocktails til dusk – it was bliss.

I hope you won’t be disappointed to hear that there will be no tourist tour pictures from this trip. No pyramids or temple paintings. I stayed with friends who run a business in Hurghada, and I was happy to fit in with their daily life and chillax.

Even so there were preparations to be made:

Top priority, crochet (in this post) and sketch books in this post.

Then toe nails – ha! I don’t usually bother with nail varnish but I had visions of lying on a sunbed on the beach gazing past my smooth legs and pedicured feet to a serene turquoise sea – turquoise is a great colour to show off a tan – so I treated myself

at Pure, in Dorchester.

How wonderful it is to be pampered sometimes – sitting there waiting for the varnish to dry, dreaming of sun-drenched beaches and making a mandala, was one kind of heaven for me.

And now for some new sandals to go on those newly spruced-up feet. Of course I had to make them mine

 

and add a bit of colour (with Sharpie pens)

 

I might add more later, but for now, they were just right

Our plane from Gatwick was delayed for about an hour, which gave me some crochet and ‘people-watching’ time

I took this picture as a ‘before’ to see how much mindless crochet I would do in a week. Just rows of US dcs (UK tr): I can do this whilst chatting, watching TV and even walking along. I’m using a 5.5mm hook and scraps of yarn of all thicknesses tied together with a reef knot. I will leave the knots and ends on show as a design feature. The crochet hook passed through security no problem – both ways.

As we flew over icy mountains

I was happy listening to Pick of the Week, and a Play on my iPad and doodling

until we were coming into land over the desert

and then a short drive to the villa where my friends live when they are in Hurghada

As you can see, not quite the clear blue skies we were all expecting

There would be no lounging about on a sunbed here!

Or swimming in that icy pool

But the villa was lovely and there was a peaceful view from the sheltered veranda

Where one could watch the many feline residents/visitors come and go

but more of them another time ……

What to Do on an Aeroplane

When planning a trip, I put more thought into what I will do on the plane, train, whilst waiting in airports, stations and in quiet moments on holiday, than almost any other aspect of the trip. I have to get that planned well in advance, only then can I think about clothes and what the place will have to offer.

I will be taking my Scrap Happy blanket to crochet – yes you can take crochet hooks on board a plane. I have done so many times. (Just in case I meet with a problem, I take a cheap old plastic hook that I wouldn’t mind losing, keeping a better one tucked away in my case).

There needs to be an alternative to crochet as well. At first I thought I would take this 11″ x 11″ sketchbook in which I have painted some backgrounds,

but it is rather big and heavy, so I bought two 6 x 6 inch sketch books, one with black paper, one with white, and some gel pens intending to draw some small mandalas.

I’m not sure if the airline will be happy with a compass, hence an old CD to draw round. I drew some circles in preparation

and could not resist having a quick doodle.

and another

I remembered the ‘false writing’ Julie Balzer had shown us on the Whimsical Collage Workshop

It is such fun to do

These mandalas were not turning out at all as I had originally planned. I thought I would re-visit Alisa Burke’s superb online Mandala Magic Course, that I first took back in July 2015. She has so many wonderful online classes. I can highly recommend them – Alisa is very generous with all of her tips, techniques and ideas. Once you have bought a class you have unlimited access to it forever.

I was on a roll and enjoying this more minimalist form, keeping to the CD as the basis of the patterns – it feels like it might turn into a little series – I’m fantasizing about how I will frame them as a group …….

But Stop! This is supposed to be for when I’m travelling.

Luckily there are 40 pages in each book.

Reluctantly I have put them away for now.

What do you take with you to do when you are travelling?

 

More Notan inspired designs

Put three different coloured sheets one on top of the other and cut through all three layers together. Then have fun arranging the pieces you’ve created.

Add a few doodle decorations if you like.

Use camera settings, photo-editing or Photoshop to play around with different effects.

Have fun!

And then there are the offcuts to play with….

Great for greetings cards.  And I’m wondering about printing some out on canvas. They remind me of 1960’s designs. I think they would look good in a child’s bedroom or playroom, do you?

Click on any picture to see it larger

There are quite a lot of You Tube tutorials about creating Notan designs – This one is a simple one to get you started.

Notan Butterflies

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Letter

My entry in our One-a-Week Photo Challenge. 

The Letter A

I came across the Japanese Art of Paper Cutting called Notan, which uses positive and negative space. Go to Pinterest to see the most amazing examples.

The photo was taken using the ‘Sketch’ setting on my Nikon D5200.

Step – by – step:

A piece of A5 coloured paper and an A4 background

It needs to go on a coloured background

Couldn’t resist a bit of doodling, and then it needed to go on a black background. Now some of the doodling looks like cut-outs.

This is such a good activity to do with children aged 4 onwards.

The designs would make great greetings cards.

Please leave your link in the comments – Cathy and I always look forward to seeing each interpretation of the prompt – she has a corker this week!

Playful Butterfly

 

When I took Little Miss M and Little Bro to the park, after school yesterday, there was a Red Admiral butterfly that seemed to want to play with them. It kept fluttering back to them, around their heads, landing near to them: on posts, the grass and the climbing net – this went on for at least 10 minutes – it even landed on Little Bro’s arm at one point.

A school friend joined in and all three were first chasing, then leaping and dancing around with delight, then creeping up slowly and at one point the butterfly was on a post and all three were putting a finger on the post edging closer to the butterfly to see if it would hop on, totally focussed on that moment when time seemed to stand still.

 

Magical, utterly magical.

But – did I have my camera with me – no!

A beautiful memory to hold in my mind’s eye.

As I was writing this I remembered that over 25 years ago, when I was doing a City and Guilds Embroidery course, there was a competition

to create a greetings card with butterflies as the theme.

(apologies for the quality of the photos, something has gone wrong with my ‘Photos’ programme and I am unable to do any editing – so far long phone calls to Apple, whilst they have tried to sort it out – with more to come)

We had to show our folder of workings as well (click on any photo to see it bigger)

and after much experimentation, this was the card I submitted into the competition, it has lost a few star sequins

these were some of my experiments made on thick watercolour paper

Well – I won!

It is the only competition I have ever won, so I’ve kept that folder dear to me and never used the cards – I’m wondering if I should send them now and let go ………..

……………   No, I can’t just yet.

Have you ever won a competition? Or danced with a butterfly in the park?

Painted leaves

The beautifully painted leaves on The Green Dragonfly today prompted me to find the photos of the leaf doodling I did on Nevis.

I never did discover the name of the plant this leaf came from, it grew near the sea.

Each morning I would create little arrangements on the table on the veranda

I can’t stop arranging things – even the loose tiles in the swimming pool could not escape

…….. a coral collection

……..shells

some of which I doodled on wondering if they would combine with a seahorse to make little hanging decorations

What do you think?

 

 

Hearts and free downloads

Valentine’s Day is on its way. I’ve been having fun making cards for my 8 grandchildren aged 4 – 9.

Photos of Love Rocks and sketch book pages were printed onto 160gm A4 white card.

I measured the card into 2″x 4″ sections

and cut with a craft knife

giving me enough pieces to make 5 cards.

Using double-sided sellotape in each corner

I fixed the two layers together.

Then added some heart stickers and made 5 cards

They still need a little more decorating to personalise them.

On the next batch I used a doodle page

Would you like to have a go?

Here is the link to the You Tube clip  I learnt from,

and some PDFs for you to download, just click on the title.

pinks

tendrils

love-rocks

If you download them I’d love to see what you make.

 

Wrap

sweet kisses

tender nuzzling

taste of wine

~

There’s a Happy Christmas right there!

~

Photo Challenge: WRAP

Haiku Challenge: KISS and TASTE

‘Phaiku’: combining the two challenges

The Japanese turn wrapping into an art form. They use a Furoshiki, or wrapping cloth. Here’s how to wrap two wine bottles in a way where they are protected from clanking together and include a carrying handle.

Use a piece of cloth 90cm square – a large scarf or small table cloth and place the bottles diagonally with their bases a fist width apart.

Then fold the bottom left corner over the bottles and roll to the opposite corner keeping as tight as possible. Making sure that the last corner is underneath the bottles

Then take hold of each bottle by the neck and fold upwards so that they are standingTie the top with one right over left move.

Leave a gap and tie a reef knot: right over left, left over right – tighten securely.

Et Voilà! or perhaps in Japanese: ここで (Koko de)

(The translation is according to Google Translate, so goodness knows if it is right!)

The fabric I have used is an African wax print

I’m a bit in love with the bold design and vibrant colours of African prints at the moment. These leaf designs are sure to turn up in some pages of doodles soon.

Happy Wrapping!

Next week’s Photo Prompt is

MUSIC

Looking forward to seeing your WRAP photo – please leave a link in the comments.

Monster

monsters creep
deep from our psyche
hearts racing

~

Ronovan’s prompts: Creep and Race

Photo Challenge Prompt: Monster

Pictures drawn on the ferry ride back from Brownsea Island last week. All drawn by Little Miss M, aged 4, apart from the one top left, by Master R aged 7.

To join in with the Photo Challenge or the Phaiku Challenge which combines the two challenges, please leave a link in the comments.

Next week’s Photo prompt

HUNT

Heat

cheering in the ninth

from hot and muggy Iowa

created by K

~

Just as I was putting together a post about iHanna’s Post Card Swap and simultaneously wondering what on earth I was going to photograph for our Photo Challenge prompt of HEAT – what should come skidding through my door puffing and panting but this postcard all the way from Iowa! Serendipity!

The ninth to arrive out of a possible 10 – and a very welcome addition to the collection with perfect timing. Here are the other 8:

This card was sent to me by Kirsten in California- I love a good quote. It was one of the first post cards I received in the swap which I wrote about back in May.

This one came from Emma in Rapid City, South Dakota. I have never been to South Dakota but my son went to a rodeo there when he was on his gap year back in 1998

It feels so good to be connecting with other creatives from all over the world and getting these gems through the post.

We are all given 10 addresses and so should receive 10 cards in return, if all goes well, but sometimes I guess life and other commitments get in the way and this year eight 9 little works of art have arrived.

Going clockwise from top left, these cards came from Valerie in California; Kirsten in California; Gertrude, Lake Ontario; ‘Fanciful Flutterbys” by Judith Pennsylvania; Emma in South Dakota; Julie in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Pam from Fargo, North Dakota and the hearts from Tina in Florida.

This one by Gertrude seems to be made in a similar way to my post cards. Such a perky little bird drawn on layers of collage, painting and stamping. I like its interesting background and the simple cheerful design. I also like the way Gertrude has gone all round the card’s cut edge with black pen, I’ll try to remember to do that on my cards for a good finish.

This one from Tina uses layers of stamped and printed designs for the background, creating a similar effect

and comes from sunny Florida where in May, Tina wrote, it was already ‘too hot‘, but she was enjoying seeing the ‘neat birds and gatars in the back lake’. A wonderful glimpse into her world.

Joining in with Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge, where he is celebrating his birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RON!

prompt words: CHEER and BIRTH

cheering in the ninth from hot and muggy Iowa

from hot and muggy Iowa created by K

I have used ‘created’ as a word connected with ‘BIRTH’.

and

our 52 Week Photo Challenge, created by Cathy, Jane, Melissa and me

Join in any time, next week’s prompt is

PLAY

~

Check

~

home schooling:

free rein on the quest

for knowledge

~

Last week Miss E and I went on the train to the Lymington Museum and Art Gallery where 22 Home Schooled children gathered to take part in the most wonderful workshop based on an exhibition of work by many different artists all creating pictures of trees.

The children were invited to leap into a painting and imagine themselves there – what could they hear, see, touch, smell. What would they need to take with them. how did they feel whilst they were there.

They then chose a painting to look at for 10 seconds then turn away and draw from memory, then a different painting to draw just the outlines for 5 minutes, then 5 minutes to use colour. After that we went to the craft room to create a printing block of their drawing in polystyrene, to print on coloured paper.

On the train I was allowing the movement of the train to create wiggly lines in my sketch book as a quirky diary/memory of our day.

Miss E noticed that the rain on the train windows made similar lines when travelling down the windows

which in turn were similar to the lines of the branches of the trees in one of the paintings

I just LOVE the way her creative mind flows.

Joining in with our 52 Week Photo Challenge, this week’s prompt CHECK

and

Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge, prompt words: REIN and QUEST.

I’m a little late this week as I have been away for a few days visiting my son and his three girls and then to Chelsea Flower Show with my sister! We had the BEST time – more of that soon. A highlight of the day was meeting up with fellow blogger Dorris – Wow! That was really special!

Fern

ideas like lightning

strike me by surprise, and when

it rains it pours

~

Joining in with our weekly Photo Challenge: FERN

One of my granddaughters has Fern as her second name and I have been trying to crochet some fern fronds to decorate a birthday card for her. I’m also wondering about using them for appliqué on a knitted jacket.

Here are my trial runs:

Not quite there yet. I used Lucy’s pattern as a starting point, but wanted to include a curl at the top. Rainbow Jane has a lovely picture of this on her FERN photo challenge entry.

I’m thinking they would be even better made in fine crochet cotton, I hope I can find the right colour – the right shade of green can be tricky to find.

Ferns seem to be growing in with my orchids, spores must be in the orchid compost. I used one of the leaves to see what effect it would have on my dyed paper – subtle, but I like it.

More ferns in a doodled mandala I drew when I was learning from Alisa Burke’s Online Mandala Workshop. With my granddaughter’s second name in mind I drew this mandala for her, with fern fronds at the centre.

This frothy fern sits on a stand in my bedroom window

I have no idea of its name but I love its delicate cascade.

Do you have any photos of ferns you would like to enter in our Photo Challenge this week? Just leave a link in the comments.

Also joining in with Ronovan’s Haiku Challenge with his prompt words of

LIGHTNING and RAIN

~

Next Week’s Photo Prompt

FRIVOLOUS

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*

16 for 2016: March

16 walks, more than one hour long

THREE (13 to go)

At last I have had the time, energy and the weather all coming together at the same time, to go for 3 long walks. There is a good walk from my house that takes just under 2 hours and I have done it twice.

And then just after Easter, a walk round the parkland of Montacute House (picture above) near Yeovil, Somerset – a lovely walk with a friend on her birthday.

15 handmade greetings cards

SIX (2 more done in March, 9 to go)

The total was brought up to 5 as I made another never-ending card for a friend

a good way to use some of my doodles

Doodling makes a nice change from knitting for a while

I just love the way these cards give you 3 or four cards in one, this side was a nod to her love of sailing

And another friend’s birthday card made from decorated paper, as shown in this post.

14 items in my Etsy Shop

THREE (11 to go)

I added two more items this month

– a bit of an experiment to see if PDFs of my painted paper pages will sell as collage material.

13 swims

FIVE

Not one in March, oops, slipping!

12 Garden Posts

THREE

11 Bags made

NONE

10 Different types of bead

NONE

9 Pieces of Textile Art

ONE is well on it’s way

My aim was to make a textile book for each of my 8 grandchildren and one for me. Having been on Frances Pickering’s course, I realise these will probably take a few years to finish, so I am revising my task to starting 9.

8 Mornings of sorting and storing

ONE

I attempted another 4 hour stretch at sorting Stuff. I started at 8.45am on Thursday morning, every time there was an interruption: phone calls, my son dropping in at lunchtime, a neighbour needing help etc etc I stopped the clock and started it again. By 3.30pm I had only done 3 hours of actual sorting and tidying and gave up! Living on my own you would think it an easy task to find a 4 hour stretch of uninterrupted time, but I seem to find it nearly impossible!

7 Paintings

I might change this from paintings to pictures, or pieces of art – could be collage, could be drawing, could be painting.

I am enjoying working on the Blood Orange prints, which is still a work in progress – I’m not sure yet whether this will be a piece that will stand up as something I want on my wall, but it is turning into a bit more than a doodle.

6 Bus Rides

ONE

5 New Forms of Exercise

FOUR

4 new patterns for my Etsy Shop

NONE

3 Massages

ONE

I am so lucky! My daughter gave me a voucher for Mother’s Day for a massage. How wonderful is that! I think I will go for a Hot Stone Massage this time. That will be my second massage.

2 ways to help refugees

NONE

I had to abandon thoughts of going to Calais as I have been ill with one virus after another. Feeling brilliantly healthy now thank goodness, so once I have caught up with myself, I will put my mind to it again. I’m not sure what is happening in Calais at the moment as far as volunteers are concerned so more research is needed.

1 novel read

NONE

Another false start with ‘A Tiny Bit Marvellous’ by Dawn French.

0 beads bought

NONE

~

This magnificent 600 year old sweet chestnut tree stands in the park at Montacute House, I could spend a year drawing this tree.

Cathy inspired me to do the 16 for 2016, here is her March post.