Black Cat Doodles

Yesterday's post about a minimalist Halloween vignette - featuring just an over-sized picture of a spooky black cat - reminded me of the sinuous path from doodles to a finished item. So look what I've found, after rummaging through tons of photos taken in my first year of blogging! Doodles of a very, very surprised black cat, scribbled by yours truly in the middle of my morning "black coffee and sudoku" routine.

I liked the black cat doodles a lot, so I decided to use it as a sketch for a greater piece of art. It took me less than 20 minutes to trace the design on black color block cardboard and to carve out the big black cat, with my scissors. I also made a small version of it - a decoupage cat for which I used (oh, the irony!) a hilarious scrapbook paper featuring... well... more cats.

And the inspiration from the black cat doodles didn't stop here, either! My talented friend Ana is both a bookbinding expert at Uituka and a wonderful artist. She took the doodle to another dimension with watercolor. Her drawing is of a Blue Russian cat - these cats are rumored to come from wild northern cats, agile swimmers who catch fish. Hence the swimming suit :)

So you see, doodles are the gateway to beautiful art work...

Printable June Calendar

Happy 1st of June - when we celebrate Children's Day in Romania! Merry merry day to all your children - and to your inner child! For the first summer month, I've prepared a printable June calendar featuring another sweet girl. Her dress is the rainbow and her kite is a giant ice cream :)) Don't ask me about the green hair and the Chinese straw hat - it just came out this way! Click here to download the printable June calendar in A4 format. This printable is provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Enjoy!  

And because I've been a bad, bad girl, please click here if you're wondering what happened to the May calendar girl. I guess she just got lost in my hectic schedule, poor soul! She is a must if you need the full collection. With her cloud skirt and daisy hair, it's a real shame she didn't get published at the right time... Need I say it again? This printable is provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Enjoy! 

For those of you who just have to have the whole gang, click on the small images below to download the printable calendars for the previous months.
 

A Beautiful Book

And because I'm in the process of designing wedding invitations for friends, as I mentioned in my previous post, I want to show you one of the most extraordinary illustration books in my home. This is the classical story of the Day-dawn Fairy written by Ioan Slavici after a Romanian folk tale. The uber-talented illustrator is Madalina Andronic, also Romanian - but you can see this for yourselves in the depiction of our traditional embroidery of the national costume. Madalina takes the Romanian design and transforms it into a smashing show of vivid color and fantastic imagery. And now I'll just let the images do the talk :)

The Best Present Ever

Perfect for Valentine. Perfect for every second of my amazing, cumbersome, day-dreaming, spinning journey through life. Last year's birthday present from my cool friend Ana from My Highness. Signed by the author herself, the uber-talented Romanian artist Madalina Andronic (whose blog I'm passionately stalking). And now I've got to frame it properly :)

Free Printable: January Calendar

This year is gonna be all about giving. So I will prepare a free printable calendar for each month of 2013. My first month - January is a little late, because of my holiday on top of the snowy mountains. But I promise that the other calendars will follow on the first day of each month, so stay tuned! Click here to download an A4 format. This printable is provided for personal, non-commercial use only. Enjoy!

Work In Progress

Free printable coming soon :) I've been playing a little with watercolor and crayons. My inspiration - the crazy colors of the Fall leaves right here in town. The Autumn Babes are shy and hide under a ruffled skirt made of seasonal leaves.