Frosted Sunflowers

Do you remember the sunflowers I grew in the summer?
http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/sunflowers-in-all-their-glory.html

Well this was their fate when the winter frosts came.

A different kind of beauty.

Favourite Pictorial Websters so far

This is a very unprepossessing start... a tie

But it became such a cute little picture that I felt it had come out of someone else's pen, not mine.

Mind you, its now a close call between that one and the evil Jerboa! More to come...

Growing a Cress Garden

I don't claim any credit for this. I came across an image on the internet and, as I had to do a craft activity with a group of kids ages 4-12, this is what I chose.

Get an empty matchbox (I bought packs of ten for speed as I had a large group to work with). Bought ones for craft are plain but if you are using one that has contained matches then just wrap paper round to cover the print.

Measure how far up the tray part comes against the outside and draw a line, everything you draw above the line will show when the two parts are put together at the end. Draw a house (some of the younger kids drew an animal face so the tray in front would be a feeding bowl!).

Line the tray with an offcut of plastic bag to try and keep it waterproof (didn't work well for me so stand it in a saucer when finished so it doesn't damage polished surfaces).

Half fill the tray with folded tissues or cotton wool.

Scatter cress seeds in the tray and place it in front of the house. Water liberally to start with and then about a teaspoon of water a day to continue. Place it on a windowsill (in the saucer to protect from any leaks or careless watering) and watch your garden grow.

An advantage of this kind of lawn is that you only have to cut the grass once!

Owls and Christmas Baubles

Someone I know likes owls. So when it came to Christmas, I bought this lovely Christmas bauble

Then I used a permanent marker to draw a variety of different owls on the light spaces.

I enjoyed the drawing and am tempted to make a similar one with Tardis stuff on (of course she is... she's obsessed!!).

More Pictorial Websters

Here's another couple of ideas following on from yesterday's blog: taking the initial picture from the original book of Webster's Pictorial...

and letting someone draw from it to complete the page

Or write a little vignette

From coat to odd fragment of story...

It's a lovely little discipline of the imagination and one I shall return to from time to time.

Pictorial Webster's

Have you seen this book?

It gives you a beautiful, formal little picture that would have been in the original information book on an otherwise completely empty page. The aim of the book is that you add to the page with drawing or writing.

Here is one of mine... more to follow

The illustrations are in brown on a light cream page.

So I used a brown fine-liner to stay in keeping...

and so the result, although not seamless, is still in keeping and makes it flow as a whole picture.

Snacks with Eyes!

One of my cutest little presents for Christmas was a set of these icing eyes from my daughter.

So I used them to persuade my son to eat a healthy snack over the Christmas holidays rather than all the sweets he had been given...

Who can resist a snack that is looking at you, asking to be eaten?