So i thought i’d show you my newest doodle/art. I’m trying to build up my doodles with the idea of maybe selling prints or cards from them….
So i’ve been too busy to post on here lately, with my usual logic i have started another blog http://girlwitharockhammer.blogspot.com/
mainly i’ve started this due to the lack of etsy people on here 
anyway, check it out and give my other blog some love!
Stress alert! Zen and the art of crafting
Posted: 10/15/2011 in UncategorizedTags: crafting, creativity, research, skeletons, stress, zen
So i have now entered the third (and supposedly last) year of my PhD…..often i think, ‘Why the hell am i doing this’? ‘am i mad or masochistic’??! It all gets more difficult as time goes on and i keep panicking about all the work i have to do in this last year. I seem to be getting increasingly grumpy and short-tempered, usually while at university, always the small things (un-called for paperwork, getting lab access, petty staff feuds, slightly negative comments) seem to cause these angry outbreaks! I think i have two main things getting me through; my good friends and also my creative streak. The creative streak has re-emerged during this last year after a long time being mostly dormant. Unfortunately this also means that when i get stressed i have a need to go to my zen place….the craft shop. Of course when in the zen place i almost always have to buy something to increase my calm!
The creative streak has led me to make cards and to experiment with other papercrafts, then a friend got me in to jewellery making (which i find less zen due to fiddly bits), i have also been trying out knitting and sewing. I have started an etsy shop (which i have recently gotten fed up of due to a lack of stats) and this blog. One of the things i’m really enjoying about the creative streak is the doodles and drawings i’ve been doing. A lot of the ideas for these have been around for a while in a note book. Since discovering alcohol inks and the refillable pen i’ve been using these to add colour to my doodles…love it
Anyway, while my waffle has not really answered why i’m doing a phd…it certainly answers why i craft!
Hmm, positive points about the PhD =
1. I get to go ‘backstage’ in museums
2. I get to analyse skeletons which i love doing (not morbid or anything)
3. I get to explore a specific research area that (supposedly) no-one else knows as much about
Anyway tomorrow i’m going to London for a week, to analyse skeletons at the Natural History Museum…should be cool!
Hope everyone out there is having a lovely weekend.
‘I only like people when they’re dead’
Posted: 10/11/2011 in academic life, vicious doodlesTags: academia, cartoon, dead people, doodle, humour, skeletons
I’ve been pretty busy lately with work and stuff, but have finally found the motivation to do this post, hope you like it!
Some time ago, a good friend of mine and I were being all academic at university, her supervisor suggested we start some seminars on the subject which the three of us have in common = archaeological burials and human remains. Dr BFG (so called for some anomnity) suggested we invite some other students, perhaps final year undergraduates. My response was ‘but you know i only like people when they’re dead’!! Happily enough my friend and Dr BFG thought i was amusing. The rest of the department probably think i’m a bit weird…..oh well
Heres a cartoon inspired by this scenario.
Making a new birthday card
Posted: 09/24/2011 in Crafting with SamTags: birthday cards, card making, crafts, distress ink, gorjuss girls, grandma
So i need to make a card for my Grandmother’s birthday at the end of this month. I thought i’d share. I started with a blank A5 cream card, which i then coloured with distress ink. I love distress ink, even though i only have 4 of the colours i still seem to use them for everything! I then used a piece of patterned card stock and a gorjuss girls topper to make the main decoration of the card.
I then felt the need to decorate the card with something else, i almost used some die cut paper flowers, but decided the colour match wasn’t good enough. I then had a poke through my ribbon collection and decided to colour in a white trim (Tim Holtz ideology) with the blue distress ink. I then needed a bit of darker blue on the flowers of the trim so i used a darker blue alcohol ink. I dabbed a little of that on with my sponge and i think it came out quite well. I then added a happy birthday message topper, which also got the ink treatment as it started off a lilac colour.
all it needs now is an insert and an envelope….now if only i could think what to get her for a present!
How smug married people see me?
Posted: 09/23/2011 in vicious doodlesTags: cartoon, humour, married, sarcasm, single
So, some time ago I made a doodle of how I thought some ‘smug’ married people saw me. As a perennially single PhD student, sometimes people’s assumptions can get me down a little. Creating this cartoon cheered me up and it will be the first in a series I think, as I have started doing one for anything that annoys or amuses me!! So this is why i have created the category ‘vicious doodles’, some of these are quite sarcastic
I thought i’d write a little about the process which leads to my doodles/drawings. The current latest doodle started off as a spiral, which then developed some more swirls around it…..this was entirely unplanned. I decided it sort of looked like a cute creature, the doodle continued with a smaller creature underneath, then lots of waves. The waves took some time and then i decided to add in another character which i already had…i tried to make him so hes hiding. Can you see him?? I’m thinking these creatures may develop into a story of some kind, or other images.
How many creatures can you see?
Hello, I have started this blog, partially to promote my etsy shop (please have a look) and also to express myself online through my doodles! So please have a nosey and follow me i will be posting about making crafty things and i will also post my doodles.
