Mina's Journal

Gorgeous wee tin villa by Dana Kubick. ...the wee cat looking out of the window... ...birdhouse... ...washing on the line... ...topiary... ...detailed interior... love her work. :)

Got busy with this elephant. I have an old version of Photoshop and draw with a mouse. I use photos for reference. Today rather exhausting... didn't get my pots. Very good day though - achieved a lot even though I couldn't get online until late. Forgot to take the camera of course. Five of the family came to visit. Rest of the week I need to get some study out - wanting to finish, so the rest of the year is freed up for stuff I want to do. (Yeah right!)

Got the castle finished: ...and got the pop up book finished: Nearly finished drawing the French ladies... :)

Going to make an effort to draw regularly for fun. I like lions. Here's today's effort: This month has been pretty busy. Made about 600 files and used 2 point something gigs of space. Trying to make better use of my time. Now the kids are doing their thing, I have the time, but still find myself doing the things I was doing when they were here. I buy the big bags of spuds and cook way too much. Tomorrow I have to go the city (yuck) and do yuck things like shop. Gave away my pots to the kids and only had two left. Then I burnt one good and proper and had to toss it out. One pot in the house is not a good look.

I thought the French Ladies in the preceding post would make a great set of posters, so I'm in the process of redrawing them so they'll print well... Making a Printable Halloween Pop Up Book ... Making a C ardboard Castle - inspired by the grandsons play at the moment. The guy who has just turned four no longer wants to wreck everything he gets his hands on - he knows when to play gentle... People have asked how I make a printable so I put down the basics. I'll go into more detail on this soon... I finished making a Halloween table setting, a set of stand up spooky houses... Halloween Table Setting  :)

Just had the most fun time with these ladies from an old French magazine. Thought they'd make great journal pages. Get yours . :) Methinks they'd make great posters too, and scrap tags.

Funky up your Halloween with wild coloured stationery, posters, flags and skeleton template for this seasons craft activities. Lined Skull and Floral Halloween Stationery Frontview Skull Posters Skull Flags Sideview Skull Posters Halloween Skeleton Template :)

Yes! More Halloween stuff! Had some fun making these houses for Halloween. Turned into a set of spooky houses. These things are easy to make. Have a go! Get the orange one : Full instructions are on this post. Read this baby and you'll have it down for the rest of the pop up house cards. Get the blue one Get the black one Get the green one :)

Printable paper piecing for Halloween - A4 pages. Easy, colourful project. Scissors and glue - that's you! Halloween Cat Paper Piecing Project Halloween Cat Paper Piecing Project Cut out bits and bobs to build your Halloween poster. Choose your kind of starry skies, chimneys and buildings. Bats for Halloween - Paper Piecing Project Bats for Halloween - Paper Piecing Project :)

Some pumpkin-ny printables for Halloween Halloween Pumpkin Discs Largish sticker type things for journals, envelope seals and the like. Halloween Pumpkin Printables Black pumpkins - colourful clipart Halloween Pumpkin Tags Go grab 'em. :)

Been busy getting printables ready for Halloween. I had a lot of fun with the zombie stuff. Click on the pics to go see or get 'em: Draw Halloween Zombies step by step Zombies to Colour and Cutouts   Ideas on how to colour the Zombies - you get a colouring page to try with, the coloured page as shown and some other coloured ones for posters or to cut out to use in your Halloween crafting. You could plaster them over books or walls. Halloween Coffins and Zombie Dollies It was fun working this out. Paper pattern provided and decorating suggestions. The perfect place for your Zombies to stay in. :)

Grab an old tee shirt and turn it into a tote - quick project, classy outcome Beach, shopping, library bag.....you get the idea! :)

Watched this today.... love it! If you get a chance sometime, watch it. :)

Really like Ed Emberlely's books. Great for all ages - makes drawing accessible to those who don't think they can draw. Step by step instructions.  I've been getting my books at BookDepository . It's based in Guernsey, United Kingdom. You can shop in NZ dollars, shipping is free and everything I've looked for so far is cheaper than buying from here in NZ. It takes a couple of weeks to arrive, but well worth the wait. :)

Here's a cat duo in red. Grab those cardboard tubes! You can go get 'em here . :)

I love paper, blank exercise books, diaries, journals... Here are some I've made... Handmade journals are quicker to make than you might think. They're just about my favourite gift to give to friends...   My first go at something like this was at primary school, where we marbled paper for the cover. It must have stuck in my mind because 40+ years later I remember it well and utilise the techniques often. These journals are cheap to make, I use stuff I have on hand. The only bought stuff is acid free A4 copy paper reams for journals I use as workbooks or idea books. Its pretty cheap at about $5 per 500 pages. An A5 journal of 240 pages takes 60 x A4 pages - a fat, substantial book for arty goodness for about 60 cents (plus time of course)... cheaper than a lolly and better for your teeth. :)

 Race car set from cardboard tubes... You get a printable for car grills and trunks, decals to write car numbers in etc, blank number plates to write your own into and car racing stripes. Get 'em here. :)

Gorgeous tin Tudor house details... illustrated by Dana Kubick ...the wee cat by the right hand tree... ...a bird flying off... ...cat asleep on the bench seat and the garden fork parked next to it... ...shrubbery growing around the side door... ...lots of great detail here...coat and hat hanging on the inside of the door...pram in the attic...teapot on the table...my kinda house. :)

Get these paper houses in blue, green and yellow, on a textured background. You can go grab them here . :)