Just us chickens...

Following on from my doodlebirds made with a paper cut-out and a doodled outline, and the doodle flowers with the stamped watercolour effect, I tried to combine the two. On the left, taped to a wooden block, is an approximation of a chicken shape cut out of funky foam. I coloured areas with felt tip, sprayed lightly with water, then stamped onto the scraps of card left over from the daisies. I then used permanent pen to scribble more detail. I discovered that I need more practice drawing chicken legs, and that sitting them on a nest is the easy option.If you look closely, you will see that not only can I not draw chicken legs, but I can't draw chickens either. A little research in Google images gave me a better insight into the proportions of the head to the body, and how the red bits fit together, and as you can see below, I improved on the sketching, and now have a less comical hen shape to work with. The first impression from the yellow funky foam can be seen on the green post-it note. Notice also how carefully I have hidden the legs...

Next on the list might be a big gobby rooster; think of the fun I could have with the colours!

Colouring In

A fabric postcard made to swap on the ArtWeMail Group. I used the same bird outline that I have used in the past for paper piecing, only this time I cut a stencil, outlined the shape with permanent marker onto the cotton (salvaged from the sides of a worn out bed sheet) and then used a stencil brush and oil pastels to colour. I was happy with how the blending worked out. It is much easier to control than using watercolour pencils, and there is no chance of bleeding because the pastel is dry. The legs and the little flower in the beak were drawn free-hand. The flowers and ferns were made using the same stencilling method. I used punches to make the stencils in card and then added details with the permanent pen after colouring. The background was coloured with pastel over torn paper stencils, and the lines added to finish it of. As the card has flown away, I can't tell you if the wiggly line in the top left corner is a stray hair that found its way into the scanner, or a stray thread that found its way between the cotton and the backing. All I can say is that I didn't see it at the time, but then the scanner has better eyesight than I do.

A Bigger Peek...

...or should that be beak? The Spudgies have landed at last on the runway of their new home; The World Renowned Spalding Craft Studio on Lincolnshire's High Sierrras. I hope they will be very happy there and raise many a brood of little Spudgies. They were already canoodling in the sausage tree just before they left...
I found the pattern here.

Two little Dicky Birds..

....not sitting on a wall.
One named Peter and one named Paul.
Cheer up Peter! Pass the salt to Paul;
He might save you a little bit if he can't eat it all!

A couple of ATCs to show this morning. The first is Peter the little bird I drew yesterday on a scrap of note paper while listening to The Best of Natural History Podcast from the BBC; he turned out rather sad with his droopy bottom beak. The second, Paul, is a test run for the postcard swap coming up on ArtWeMail that involves drawing on fabric and using crayons to colour in the outline. The background here is a pale grey cotton. The outline is OK for this scale, but I think for a larger image to fit a postcard, I may need to use a thicker pen. I found that dry watercolour pencils worked better than my rather hard crayon pencils. On a larger scale I may try Crayola type crayons on the larger areas.

More Doodle Do

Progressing from the Happy Birday doodle birds I did in April, (last one for a while, I promise) I made some Best Fishes. I'm sure you get the idea, so I'll only show one.
It doesn't show very well here, but I found a little goldfish bowl in a dingbat font and used it on the ribbon. I quite liked the doodle cards with punched out paper flowers that I made a while ago, so I decided to try something on a larger scale. I used a paper template that Mel posted on her blog to cut an acetate stencil, used it to draw around on pages taken from a magazine (this was a yummy looking lobster dish) and then used the same stencil to add a ghost outline once the flowers were glued to the card. The background doodle was based on one from Mel as well.

I used the same doodle in white on the green card. the flower is courtesy of Fred,
or should I say Tracey? Thank you to all these excellent Bloggers for their generosity in giving me a springboard.

Paper birds

Hopping around Blogland this last couple of weeks, I kept coming across birds. It seems they are theme of the month in some circles. I like to visit Emilia's blog, and she uses a lot of Just Joanna stamps, many of them birds, and a greeting stamp that says Happy Birday. I remember making a birthday card for Lizzie a couple of years ago that had the same greeting and two hand drawn birds with multi-coloured floss tails, so thought I might revisit the idea. I find paper piecing a simple and effective way of quickly producing a card, so I drew out a simple outline, and had a test run using some paisley patterned paper that was lying on my desk. I used a Sharpie to draw the outline, and it bled out a little, so I cut along the centre of the line to reduce it. My handwriting is nothing to write home about, so in an attempt to make this a little less obvious, I staggered the letters...to no avail...it still looks pretty awful.

I was quite happy with my shapes, so I cut myself an acetate stencil, and used it to draw more bird pieces, this time using a Staedtler Lumocolor; much finer and no bleeding. For the greeting I resorted to the computer; Girls are Weird font and a whistling bird found in an Easter picture font. I filled a whole page with the script and used a coloured pencil to draw a couple of lines before cutting off a strip. The paper for the birds is a Japanese print off the Canon site, printed when the printer had run out of yellow ink, but still had plenty of cyan and magenta in the three colour cartridge.

The last example is a little more masculine in flavour. The paper is gift wrap, the branch is handrawn with little reference to botanical accuracy, and the greeting strip has had a little embellishment that harks back to the trial run. I have made a dozen copies of the pattern, run off a dozen pages of text, and I am hopeful that the Craft Club Ladies will enjoy putting their own twist on the idea on Monday. They will use their own choice of paper and card, and they are going to have to draw in their own versions of legs and eyes, so I am hoping for plenty of variety.

Revised owlet

As you saw from yesterday's entry, we managed a photo-call of a parliamentary meeting. The Rumanian barman in the restaurant we use as a club room was quite taken with them, and asked if they were for sale. I've made him this one on the left, trying out a new eye treatment after studying a picture of a real owl. I have decided that my starting price shall be one hot chocolate Lamumba. If he wants to haggle, and offers the hot chocolate minus the lamumba ingredient, I shall settle, but only if he adds a dollop of whipped cream.

Group photo...

...taken at Craft Club this afternoon. Jill has said she intends to try making a penguin with an adapted pattern. I think it might work if they are slimmed down a little.

Owlets

"What can I find for the Craft Club to do?" is a weekly problem. Some ladies seem to be only interested in making cards, but a few are prepared to give other crafts a try. I had seen versions of these little owls in various places around Blogland, and the little chap on the left was my first attempt. He is rather dumpy and has no feet, just a circle of yellow felt to hide his sphincter. His eyes are felt circles behind shirt buttons with the centre blacked up using a CD pen, and he has a felt beak. Then I came across Moonstitches Tutowlrial which gave me a better idea of the proportions between the front insert and the body. I used her method of embroidering a beak, but didn't use her covered circle base. Instead I added feet to a felt circle. For eyes I layered buttons. I liked the way the stripe through the blue shirt buttons added a little life to the eyes.

I forgot to take my camera to the club yesterday, but I shall email a round robin and ask that they bring their little owls in next week for a photo call. As each person brought in their own fabric and buttons, and stuffed in their own particular way, there was a lot of variation in our little parliament.

Edit: Please ignore the wood ash on the mantelpiece. I'm not known for my housewifely competence. Anyway, if Bossman decides to clean out the woodburner, I think he should clean up after himself as well..