Beth Wilson - Cats, Art and Photography – Home of Doodlecats

Here are my happy little garden gnomes which I decided to paint.

As you can see, they were tired and faded after a summer in the sun so they needed new outfits.

I used acrylic paints and I’m going to varnish them before they go outside to make sure they’re extra protected. I want my hard work to last a while.

Being ill has really drained my creativity and sometimes I need to do silly little projects like this to get myself back in the mood for making things. It was a lot of fun. I’m going to be on the look out for gnomes at carboot sales this summer :D

Finally the weather is warm enough so I don’t have to wear a gazillion layers to go outside! Wooo!

This t-shirt is ridiculous, some people love it, some hate it. I think it’s awesome! The tights are supposed to be cats but the ears are a little pointy. They’re still cool though.

Tights from Pamela Mann

T-shirt from eBay

Anke posted some great photos of Easter chicks protesting about spring on her blog yesterday and I just had to help those protests spread to Bristol!

If there is one thing I love nearly as much as cats, it’s books. My idea of a lovely quiet afternoon involves curling up with a good book, a cup of tea and a few cats.

When I saw this fabric I just had to have it. I love all the titles of the books.
The skirt did use a fancy sewing pattern, just a simple elastic waist (because I was being lazy!)

It’s World Book Day today so I thought I’d share some cat themed books.

For the adults:

A Cat Called Norton: The True Story of an Extraordinary Cat and his Imperfect Human
The story of Norton is just adorable. I’ve not been able to read the last book though as the inevitable ending is too much to cope with, I don’t want to cry!

Cat Daddy: What the World’s Most Incorrigible Cat Taught Me about Life, Love, and Coming Clean
I’m a huge fan of Jackson and his book. You’ll need tissues though, be warned!

A Street Cat Named Bob
When I asked about favourite cat books on Facebook, James’ book was a clear winner.

For the kids:

Into the Wild (Warrior Cats, Book 1)
Ok, so this is a kids book series but I’ve read them all. It’s not all fluffy and cute, there are battles, hunting, drama and adventure. Great for kids who want an exciting story and love cats.

A HOME FOR MR TIPPS
I love the illustration style of Mr Tipps and the story is lovely. It reminds me a little of Oscar.

Meg and Mog
Meg and Mog books really remind me of my childhood. When I look at one I’m transported back in time. They are still great nearly 30 years since I first read them.

When I don’t feel well, I find it difficult to be creative. I still feel the need to draw though and often get frustrated. I solved the problem by following a tutorial in Digital Artist Collection so that I didn’t have to think about what I was doing and could just play around.

The perfectionist in my is freaking about all the randomness and messy bits but I still had fun and it’s totally different to my usual style. I think it’s good to break out of comfort zones sometimes.

One of my lovely friends started a group on Facebook called Love Rocks to spread a little bit of love around this month. Lots of people are taking part all over the world.

Just paint hearts on rocks and leave them around for people to find to brighten up their day. If you don’t want to paint rocks you can do all sorts of other things like crochet hearts, origami etc. I chose to paint some of the sea glass I have a giant collection of.

Here are a few of mine, you can see more on Facebook

I got these super cool cats from Porkchopshow on Etsy. They are cute paper images adhered to wood and laser cut. I love them, some of them are so adorable!

I’ve made some of them into brooches, I’m not sure what I’ll do with the rest but I’m sure I’ll find a use for them.

A hot glue gun and some brooch backs and they’re easily made into brooches.

What would you make from them?

I bought a new jumper on Friday and it wasn’t till after I bought it I realised it had elbow patches (I saw chunky purple jumper and just had to have it!)

Well you guys know me, I can’t help but add cats to things so I sewed a cat onto one of the elbows. It’s the first time I’ve embroidered anything and it’s a little messy but still cute. I used a special pen to draw the cat on, it disappears after a while leaving just the stitching showing.

I might do something different on the other elbow.

I thought I’d do some sewing today :) I made a cat hood out of really soft leopard print fabric.
I won’t be making this to sell – my sewing machine did not cope with sewing this fabric very well at all!

The scarf part has pockets in the ends to put my hands when they’re cold.

If you want to have a go at making one yourself, I’ve made a pdf how-to :)
Cat Hood PDF