Creative Experiment - January Roundup and February Targets. Also Last weeks quotes.

So January is over and I wanted to summarise my CE achievements for the month

JANUARY
My points total for Jan is 7 (out of a possible 11). I missed out on the mail art which I just never got around to, and the inspiration journal which I did not plan to do.

I keep my inspirational material on pinterest which for me is perfect. 95% of my inspirational browsing is online so I would actually have to print everything out to put it into a book which would be time consuming and expensive. I do not get any magazines at the present (for financial and storage reasons) and I still have sizeable stacks of craft (Cross Stitch/Dolls House Miniatures) magazines from previous years which I can't seem to make myself toss out.

After that I determined not to buy magazines any more and rely on looking at all the lovely blogs for free, and when pinterest came along and gave me a place to make board where the pins reference back to their owners I was in heaven. The only exception was letting mum bring me a magazine when in hospital since I wasn't online and was bored. Reading the two she brought me on one occasion reinforced my decision as I didn't feel there was all that much in a nearly £5 magazine and I could get more inspiration visitng blogs for free or half an hour on flickr.

FEBRUARY
With the Feb challenges out we are encouraged to set a target for the month and I am setting my target at 19 points (of 21 available). CE#8 (the real life pinboard) is out for the reasons above, I would have to go searching for stuff to put on it and it wouldn't feel genuine to me.

For me February will mean carving stamps, blog hunting (like I don't already have 50 art blogs in my rss reader) and doing the monochromatic pages.

Quotes
Last weeks quotes brought to you by Emily Dickinson, next week....Mahatma Ghandi.

Creative Experiment #2

I know it is now february but I am just sharing the last fruits of January's challenges.

For CE#2 we were to try a technique that was new to us. For christmas I had received a woodburning tool (thanks Dad) and it the rest, as they say, is history.

Using some 50mm (2x2ish) blocks I had left over from a past project I warmed up the tool and started playing with the different ends to see what kinds of marks they made. Using these blocks with acrylics I made sure to burn reasonably deep. Here are blocks before, during and after burning.



And then of course they had to be tested to see how they worked. I found that applying the acrylic paint with a cosmetic sponge the most effective and I was able to get some lovely crisp prints from my blocks. I would advise printing with a 2mm foam sheet (or similar) under the paper as it give some push back into the details which the table did not.



All in all a very sucessful experiment. Just one more to type up (mail art) which will come tomorrow.

Total burns during experiment, just the one. All pictures taken with my new DSLR and closeups with a 10X macro filter which worked out very well.

NEW TOY!!!.....Kitties and last weeks quotes.

Do you remember when I said I enjoyed playing with my sisters camera the other weekend......?

Well now I can enjoy playing with my own!  I picked up my own Nikon D3100 DSLR on friday and have been taking some time playing with it over the weekend. I already have lots of pictures of my cats (of course) though the weather isn't conducive to outdoor photography just yet. We are having a grey, damp january here in Yorkshire. Accessories (case/filters/memory card/guide books) are awaiting delivery soon.

Lacking anything particularly interesting to photograph I resorted to my usual test subjects, the kitties.

Shown in age (and adoption) order. 



Freaya is the matriarch of the house and rules over all kitties (and some humans).
Prefers the other cats to keep their distance and will inforce this rule with the paw 'o' doom.
Likes head scratches but hates tummy rubs. Enforces this rule with teeth and claws.
Loves to sit on laps but has a tendency to cut off blood supply due to her mass.
Eats dry food. With the exception of when she helps herself to the other kitties wet food just to prove that she can.



Loki is my MIL's black tomcat (though she is now in a residential facilty) and he is a bit dumb.
Loves all other cats though. Best Friends with Astrilde.
Can be loving when he wants (sometimes when he is hungry) and has attached to me since his favourite human died last year.
Likes head scratches and just above the tail.
Squeeky voice (not very manly).
Loves white fish and will swipe food from your plate given the chance.



Astrilde (Tilly) is as I have said before, is my little baby. Love those eyes. I have already introduced her to you in a previous post. The camera just loves her.

Daily Quote Journal
I am keeping up nicely with my daily quotes, uploading daily to instagram and I will add them to my blog weekly now. Here is last weeks arranged into a collage.

Until next time (and two more creative challenges before January ends)
Kim

And now for something completely different....or at least a little furrier

When I named my blog Cats and Creativity it was inspired by two of my favourite things in life and I think it is time I shared the other one with you.



Meet Astrilde, she is the youngest of our cats and is my little baby, my grandfather says I spoil her but such a thing is impossible. Of our three cats she is the only one we got as a kitten and she was just just the cutest thing ever. She has a genetic mutation which gives her two different coloured eyes (heterochromia) which catches everyone by surprise. There is not a mean bone in her body (which is actually filled with love) and she gets on very well with our black cat. Exept when he escaped for a few hours last week and she growled at him and wouldn't be his friend for two days.



Now as an adult her favourite things include eating things she shouldn't and snuggling with my by the fire which I enjoy even more than she does. I could listen to that purr all day. This is us yesterday.Apparently my tummy makes a lovely bed. Things she doesn't like include sneezes (she will complain if you sneeze and can spot a fake) and people she doesn't know. If someone knocks at the door she is off to another room, I think my mum has petted her once in the six years we have had her.

She can be very opinionated, this is my usual morning visit. Sitting on the toilet (!) she sits opposite me.



"Why yes I have knocked your toiletry bag onto the floor, you should have put it away after abandoning me for the weekend"

"Hey, stop paying attention to phone, you don't need hands for pooping, hands should be petting me!" *poke poke*

CE #3 Gelli Printing Bonanza and a family weekend.

Another week begins and I wanted to share the fruits of my creative play at the end of last week.

I decided after seeing some other peoples gelli prints on the daisy yellow group on FB that I had to gather up my paints and take them into the other room and have some fun.  I spent about 2 hours one evening brayering and layering and had some lovely results. You have to love the gelli plate, it gives such unpredictable results and most of the time they are awesome. These papers are for my CE#3 and before I cut into them, I have scanned them so I can use them forever in web graphics and such.



This weekend was spent over with my family. It is only an hour away but when I go I make a weekend of it. Friday afternoon was spent with Grandparents, Saturday shopping for a dress for a wedding next month (with a trip to the craft shop as a reward for sucess). Finally, sunday was a family meal to celebrate the birthday of my Mum and Uncle (twins). Between playing sous chef for mother and guests arriving my sister let me play with her new DSLR camera (a Nikon D3100) in the house, I didn't push my luck and ask to go into the garden, plus the weather wasn't awesome. The night before I had been reading from the book she got to go with and had a little fun.


I have got to get me one of these cameras! When I get some pennies, about 27000 of them actually. Then I can set up a little photo corner in my crafting space for snapping better blog pics than with my phone, HD video and a million other things. AWESOME.  AND I am going to get the same model as my sis so that we can learn to use them together and share accessories as we get them.

Creative Experiment #6

Having completed #6 I now how something with photos to show you.

CE #6: {1 point} Make coffee, tea or espresso stained papers.

First I had a cup of coffee to give me energy and inspiration. This could be considered the most important step.

Then I grabbed a couple of glass ramekins from the cupboard and spooned instant expresso into one and a tea bag into the other, poured some boiling water on top and left to cool.

Gathering up a selection of papers to stain (chart paper, book pages and white cardstock) I set to work. These are my results.

I have tea/coffee dyed paper before and only ever ended up with plain brown pages and I have to say I am more of a colour kind of girl so I tried the espresso rings which I found to be one of my favourites.

My other fave was a peice of card with a bubble wrap print on it. Taking a piece of bubble wrap and painting on some diluted generic white glue, then laying the card on top and gently smoothing. Peel off and allow to dry. Then paint coffee all over it.

I have to say I expected the glue areas to RESIST the coffee stains but instead I got more of the reverse, perhaps if I try again with a clear acrylic medium (which was in another room so I was lazy) then I may have gotten a resist effect. I had bubblewrap/glue printed a few extra sheets so more in keeping with my style I attacked those with my spray ink collection (homemade).

Creative Experiment #5

Moving on we have CE#5 (which can be done in any order) which I quote from Daisy Yellow.

CE #5: {1 points} Make a list of creative books that you plan to read in 2014.

This one is both super easy and a little bit tricky, I love books and could happily read ALL day, our house is overflowing with books both read and to read. It's just that I tend not to prioritise reading and end up doing something else instead (internet black hole I am looking at you). Meaning that if I sum up the books I have read in 2013 I look like an illiterate fool.

Whilst I may not get through as many fiction books as I would like, I actually read quite a lot of creative books. Usually dipping in and out getting inspiration. The problem with making a  list I want to read is sometimes I go to the library and of course I don't know what I am going to get until I get there, making a book list a little trickier.

SO.....doing my best to make a list of what I would LIKE to read this year. Mostly drawn from my mountainous to-read pile (for fiction) and my amazon wishlist (for craft books).

Fiction 

The Hunger Games Trilogy
By Suzanne Collins


People seem to either love it or hate it, I want to read it before I see the films.

Pride and Predjudice and Zombies
By Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Love the original, zombies are cool, this could be interesting.

Heat Wave (Nikki Heat)
By Richard Castle


Love the show, I'm  told that the books are official fan fiction.

Non crafty 

Under the paw: Confessions of a cat man
By Tom Cox


(received for christmas and already nearly finished).
Also his two further books on the subject of being owned by cats if I aquire them at some point.

Maphead: Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks 

By Ken Jennings

Recommended by someone on youtube, not too sure what to expect.

Crafty

	Journal It!: Perspectives in Creative Journaling by Jenny Doh

 

Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression

by Diana Trout 







 

	Making an Impression: Designing & Cr​eating Artful Stamps by Geninne D. Zlatkis

Have carved a few eraser stamps in my time but welcome guidance on taking them to a higher level.
Also love this artists blog, I always have her calendar designs on my desktop

Craft-a-doodle 

by Jenny Doh

Who doesn't love to doodle