Birthday Boys

I've had the photos for these layouts sitting on my desk since the day after the boys' birthdays at the beginning of this month. Finally, I cleared my desk off enough to actually see my cutting board. I think it gave me some space in my head too.

I am a fan of Nic Howard's scrapbooking and when I saw a little workshop on how to do Cluster Embellishing at Big Picture Classes I thought I would have a go.

Have I go I did and these are the results so far - layouts about the boys and their birthdays.

Oh! And you might notice that each layout has red typewritten journalling. That's cos I broke open the typewriter I acquired from freecycle and got hooked on typing. The black isn't as dark but the red works well and it fitted in with my colour scheme just fine.

A Rude Awakening

I am not sure whether I was woken by DH moving around the room or by the droning of what I thought was an alarm.
"What's that?" I muttered not fully waking.
DH said he didn't know. As far as I was concerned it was coming from the clock/radio and I was wondering why on earth DH wasn't dealing with it.
I must have dozed back off because, when Douglas announced that I should call the Fire Brigade "There's a car on fire", I thought he was dreaming. Nevertheless, I sprang out of bed, simultaneously trying to make sense of the sleep-befuddled information assaulting my brain and heading to find a phone in the dark. (I'm not sure why I didn't just use my mobile next to my bed!). In the dark I dialled what I thought was triple 0 and was told by the voice on the phone that she was sorry but that number could not be connected. I tried that twice before I gave up the home phone and grabbed my mobile, called 000, and saw what DH was talking about - a vehicle fully on fire, horn blaring, obviously triggered by the blaze, on the street two doors down from our house.

Oh my goodness!!! I have never seen anything like it. I watched warily from the corner of our house fearing that the car might explode. DH was more daring and went up close to take photos.

Evil-smelling palls of black smoke poured into the street-lit sky. We could hear the fire engine coming and  I thought the boys (huge fans of our emergency services) would like to witness this event so DH went and woke them. Hudson was so excited that he went back inside and woke Malachi as well. The Fire Brigade arrived pronto and doused the fire within minutes.

DH got ready to go to work. I went back to bed hoping to catch a few more zzzzz's before my alarm went off. Engines rumbling, reversing beeps piercing the quiet, hammering, banging all ensued as the charred remains of what was once a Mazda van were removed. Finally there was some quiet before the first bus of the day drove past and my alarm went off but there was no more sleep for me. :(

So there you go. And it's only 7am!!!

More Watercolour Paintings

I took some time out on the weekend to experiment with painting different flowers.
Some were a goer.

Edited to add: I decided I was going to paint a/an hydrangea on Friday. On Friday evening I had a fabulously fun spontaneous night out with a friend at the Finders Keepers markets and saw a watercolour of a/an hydrangea (of all the business cards I collected, I do not know which one it is!) that was very beautiful. Then, would you believe it, I visited elvie studio and she has painted a/an hydrangea!!!

Some were not!

Playing With Watercolour

Many Many years ago I puddled around with watercolour paint for a while. It has been a long time since those tentative brush strokes - years - but I'm back. The re-inspiration started with Martha Lever's Color Drop Flowers.

I acquired, let's just say, a cute portable set of water colour paints and got stuck right into painting.

I felt a strong need to paint chooks. Not actually paint chooks but make a painted rendition of a chook or two. Or three!!! That strong need was provoked by another watercolour artist that I admire, David Lobenberg, and his Chinese-style rooster.

As an aside, Milind Mulick's watercolour paintings are fabulous. I particularly like this one. His wet/shiny surface renditions are outstanding!
Hennyway. Back to the chooks.

I still haven't decided whether or not to put pen lines around the chooks. It's a hard one.
So, then after the chooks I just wanted to paint but I didn't know what so I just doodled - a different type of doodling.

It's actually a very small painting - maybe 3 inches high.
When I was doodling I painted a pear as well but I can't find it. Maybe it is buried in my art room somewhere. Or maybe I actually gave it to someone. Here's a picture of Martha Lever's pear instead.

And then I did Martha Lever's Color Drop Flower class. Of course, I had already tried to do it myself but having the little technical hints and seeing it done sure does help.

Here are my first, but definitely not my last, colour drop flowers after doing Martha's class.

Just in case that is not enough inspiration for you....
Lori Vliegen (who I know not - not that I know any of the bloggers I link to) has obviously been doing Martha's class as well and she has taken it all one step further and made it her own. She also played with a stamp and gave it a watercolour effect - I want to try that too.

That's all for now.
Note: I know I have used 'color' and 'colour' in the same post.
:D

Feeling Inspired

Feeling Inspired. That's the name of Valentina Ramos' blog and I tell you what! I'm inspired. This girl can doodle - big time. I love her cute little piggy.

So I've been having a go myself. The nice thing about doodling is that you don't have to think too much - it has a soothing effect. To me, anyway! :) I do think - my mind ponders many things - but I don't have to think about what I am drawing. There are no proportions or perspecives to take into account. There's no measuring and approximating. And, if I am sitting on a train, I don't have to worry if the person opposite me is watching.

Double-sided Mixed Media Thing

Just a little bit of fun on a little bit of foam stuff.
:D