Pocket Doodle Book pages 23-25 and bonus pages

I have finished this pocket doodle book and above are pages 23 and 24.  I emphasised the background rather than the pattern on page 23 and just added large dots of white and black for page 24.

Page 25 started with triangles, but then morphed into other shapes, some on stalks and some not.

These were extra pages (because I didn't count the pages as well as I thought, but they were decorated anyway (yes, more circles!)

The final bonus page was decorated with small gold circles and large gold flower outlines, which you can just about see.
I enjoyed this project a lot and will be continuing my creative projects next year (the monthly Artists' Trading Card project for a start).

Merry Christmas 2019

(Seasonal Tree decorations - some bought and some made)

Merry Christmas to all blog readers and commenters (who celebrate this festive season).

As has become my Christmas tradition, I quote from one of my favourite Christmas carols, "It came upon the midnight clear" written by Edmund Sears in 1849. 

"Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not 

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing." 

 (Pom pom wreath made earlier this year and various angels on our kitchen door)

 To end on a positive, I again quote from Desiderata (a 1927 prose poem by Max Ehrmann):
"...And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

I hope we all have a peaceful New Year.

Pocket Doodle Book 2019 pages 16 - 22 and new decorations

 I am nearing the end of this very enjoyable little challenge.  Page 16 was rounded rectangles.

Page 17 was lines in black and gold and page 18 was dots of white and gold.  I have tried to make the pages different from the previous ones so that has also been a challenge.

Page 19 was the most Christmassy image with floral and star decorations.  Page 20 was dictated by the eye patterns in the background print.

Page 21 was a mix of lines and circles (bit of a recurring theme, I think) and page 22 was more dots and lines following the spirals, in white and gold. 
In other creative news, I have been making some extra decorations for the Christmas tree, which are also a memorial to our previous and current much loved cats.

 I bought some mdf bauble shapes and painted them in suitably Christmassy colours, adding some gold stencils (oh look, circles again) and some glitter (well, it is nearly Christmas).  Their photos went on the front...

 ...and their names on the back.  Scruffy is our current cat and features on the blog now and again. They were all lovely cats and it will be a happy reminder every Christmas.

Pocket Doodle book 2019 pages 8 - 15 and a project for 2020

Here are the next set of pages in my pocket doodle book.  Page eight is decorated with colours and dots, whereas for page nine, I went a bit mad with big flowers.

Page 10 started as lines but ended up looking like skyscrapers, albeit at some odd angles.  Page 11 has delicate gold lines and dots which look a bit like constellations.

 I emphasised the swirly roses on page 12 and added some dots for background interest.  Page 13 is just lines which together with the background colour remind me of a 1950s or 1960s print.

 Page 14 had swirly roses in the background but I wanted to do something different so went for blocks and lines.

Page 15 started with blocks but then ended up with circles which are a Zentangle pattern and connecting circles.  It reminds me a bit of a beaded necklace. 
The book is a pleasure to work in and I am really enjoying filling in the pages.
I have got an idea for a project for next year which was inspired by watching a Youtube video by Nina Ribena who has been making Artists' Trading Cards for each month.  I am going to do the same and display them on my seasonal tree.  I have cut and gessoed some greyboard shapes (2.5 x 3.5 inches) and am going to get the first one ready for 1st January 2020.  I am really enjoying thinking about what I will put on each one.

Pocket doodle book pages 2-7

Here's the first set of pages from my Pocket Doodle Book.  Page two ended up being quite scribbly, using both white and black pens.  Page three was more decorative, using acrylic paint pens and Sharpie coloured markers to add some coloured dots to the oranges in the original print.

 Page four was using just black and white again, emphasising the swirls from the gel print.  For page five, I used just white gel pen and added more decoration to the leaves, eye shapes and diamonds that were already there.  I then filled in all the rest of the space with blocks, lines and circles.

On page six, I used the patterns already there and added some blocks.  I found page seven more of a challenge.  The original print was the dark red and lighter pink.  I outlined the blobby shapes in the pink and drew some lines through the red block, but then stopped.  I wasn't sure what to do next, but remembered my Zentangle book (which had been languishing on a shelf for some time), so added some patterns inside the blocks. 
I have quite a few plain unpatterned pages to come, so there will have more challenges.
However, I am really enjoying this activity and the challenge of just using pens and my own drawings - no stamps, stencils, collage or die cuts!

Pocket Doodle Book December 2019

I have been watching lots of crafters on Youtube recently and getting lots of ideas and inspiration.  I was particularly interested in one I saw from creationsceecee, who is a talented watercolourist.  She is making an Advent Pocket Doodle Book and has made a book (4.5 x 5 inches) and painted a background on each page.  She is going to add doodles on each page every day until Christmas Day.
Ooh, I thought, there's a great idea for making use of some of the huge number of gel plate prints I have amassed.

So I set to and created this little book, with a card front and back, ready to fill with all my doodling each day.

Here's the first doodle.
I won't post every day, but will offer a round up now and again in December so that you can see how I'm getting on.
I thought it was a great, achievable way of doing a little something creative every day (and using some stash too - win/win!).