March review

Happy Easter ♥ I've had another productive month and am happy to share this review for your inspiration and mine. I really love having this monthly record to look back upon.  I am still going strong with my weekly project #52cards2024 : to create a card that reflects the past week (ending Sunday). I must include stitch, the colour turquoise and a word.These are my March cards : there were 5 Sundays this month.

This month's tutor in Fodder School 3 was Shay Michelle. I managed to experiment again with modeling paste through a stencil which I haven't done for a while - love the look of these but that was all that I was inspired enough to try this month.

Grateful this class is lifetime access so I can come back to this when the mood takes me, and it did provide me with a focus for one of my weekly cards.

Monthly journaling in my JIYA Journal created from Megan Quinlan's class supported by Wendy's lettering class. Only a couple of spreads this month, but better than nothing! 

I've decided it's too much when I'm working full time to try and work in more than one journal, so this month I concentrated on my Summer Journal. While I didn't quite make my hoped-for deadline of the Autumn Equinox on 20th March, I did manage to finish it by the end of the month! 

There is more evidence of my lettering practice here. See spreads I completed in December here,  February here, and these are March :

See everything in the flip-through video

I love the satisfaction of holding a completed journal 💙

New Supplies : Gloss sprays by Ranger (ordered from Ribbon Rose) I've been wanting these for ages so got myself some favourite colours to try out. 

And first play with a couple of colours : 

They seemed to work better on the old book page and soaked in with less effects on the cheap watercolour paper. Megan Quinlan has an excellent video here on YouTube with tips and tricks for using them including cleaning up and making sure your nozzles don't clog up! More experimentation needed.

Fav free inspiration this month - the exhibitions of Paul Dibble and Boro embroidery at our local art gallery (if you are local this is on for a while). 

Paul Dibble is a renowned New Zealand sculptor of Bronze. He passed away at the end of last year, and since he was local, our city has many of his wonderful works. These are huia birds (now extinct) and a kowhai flower - cast bronze and gold leaf.

Favourite reads this month : 

And a pet update - the kittens and puppy are growing and becoming friends. Definitely still a lot of hard work, but we have lots of joyful moments too.

April contains 2 weeks of school holidays so I look forward to sharing more art, especially in the second half of the month. I post more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.

February review

February review time. I'm happy to say I've continued to make time to be creative and I think my weekly card project is definitely helping that. #52cards2024 : to create a card that reflects the past week (ending Sunday). I must include stitch, the colour turquoise and a word. These are my February cards : 

More detail about the meanings posted on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.

This month's tutor in Fodder School 3 was Jennifer Wilkin Penick. I managed to make fodder in the first half of this month which I really enjoyed

Her project was an accordian book of collage. I just wasn't feeling like it's my style, but then I saw some photos from a class that Anne Brooke recently taught, and I am inspired to think about combining paper and stitch...let you know if this happens in March.

In my January review I was hoping that I might finish my journal which I started as December Daily-ish and get back to working in my JIYA Journal. I have been supported in both of these by the 30 day challenge part of "Love your (Imperfect) Letters" with Wendy Solganik who has been running a cohort for all those who have previously enrolled in this class.When I tried to do it on my own (purchased the class on special last year), I only got to day 4. I have completed day 9 so although "behind" I am still calling it a win since I am still going, and further on than last attempts. These are the spreads completed in each journal for February and I am loving what is happening. In my JIYA journal :  

 

I have now turned my December Daily-ish into my Summer journal, and as well as the lettering, I have learned from Wendy that it's okay to jump around in a journal to find the perfect page that inspires you in the moment. Hoping to get this one finished before the Autumn Equinox on 20th March.

I love Sarah Gardner's art - she's been a teacher in Fodder School 1 and we're going to see her again in Fodder School 3 in June. Clicking here will get you to the places on my blog where I've shared art inspired by her. She's also produced a fabulous book

She is currently advertising a new art journaling class through Willa Workshops called Love Your {Imperfect} Art Journal 

To launch it she's giving access to a FREE inspiration class : Accumulate, Curate and Store Magazine Images for your Art. It's available now until March 18 (or in the workshop if you join). I've already had a look at it and it is inspiring ♥ 

I also enjoy Brooke Henry's art - it's colourful and includes stitching. She is hosting a Free Week of Inspiration, Connection, and Creative Freedom. She calls it the BB Bash and you can find out all about it and register HERE. Videos go up 25-31 March and will be available to watch through April 6. 

It's been really busy being back at work with library lessons, selecting teams for an area kids' lit competition, and training up keen student librarians. In my spare time, as well as my art journal fun, I've still been reading and this was my favourite in Feb 

I'm also trying not to purchase many new supplies but we had a trip to Wellington and I thought I would share a couple of great places if you are able to get there. In central Welly, managed to get this calligraphy paper - 3 packs for $10 at Daiso

And in Petone - these paper cut-outs from Ellen Giggenbach. Love her art and you can buy online as well. 

I enjoy her calendar every year. 

Looking forward to seeing what March will bring creatively. I post more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page. 

Fodder School with Autumn Moon

You may have noticed that I'm blogging less but that doesn't mean I'm being less productive. I share more often on my Instagram but I really like sharing here for bringing the parts of my projects together. Time to share what I've done so far with our January lessons with Autumn Moon. I've made painted papers 

and explored a heap of different ways to include my own handwriting on fodder for my art. 

I really love the marks and the writing out thoughts without people being able to read it but it's still obviously my hand writing. 

And if you can't think of what to write, song lyrics and poetry is also really fun - you can let go without having to think of what to write and concentrate on getting into the the mark making zone. 

We also had bonus lessons from other class teachers : with Megan Whisner-Quinlan

Creating our own personalised tape with Tiffany Sharpe 

Roxanne Padgett did a bonus using other kinds of papers. I had a try with my baking paper under-paper. You really can't create this kind of gorgeous background except by accident!

And I used some gold writing on this and thought about transparency which led me to play with black, white and gold pen on tracing paper and then white and gold on black paper. Loving these samples

Putting our collage fodder onto sticky labels with Rebecca was extra fun. I adore how these turned out

And finally, cutting and punching some shapes and cutting and tearing some of the written painted papers to get a feel for how it looks as actual fodder

All this fodder making is just the first lot of lessons for the month! The project to make with the fodder is a personalised junk journal...I hope to get onto that next. You can still join us. We are only 4 months in of 12 and you have "lifetime access," which means the lifetime of the course. They will be available in Willa Workshops on Teachable for many years. It's pretty obvious that I recommend this course wholeheartedly 💜 See all my posts about this class here. 

Journal Jam 6 with Lettering tutorials

Effy Wild is sharing a weekly Journal Jam live session (her Canadian Monday afternoon, my NZ Tuesday morning). She's shifted to the Vimeo platform to make it more easily accessible, and even though I had to miss the live last week, it's available to play HERE or on her YouTube channel HERE. #6 is a special edition of creating a deck for the journal jam prompts and a lesson in lettering fonts (starts at 23:37 on that replay). 

She also provided prompts for Journal Jam 6 so we could create a spread in our journal and then add some lettering. 
Square I don't usually start dark

Mix your own colour 

Use a stencil Began with lavender which was not a happy choice but I've been watching Flora Bowley's together apart sessions (free for 48 hours after the live) on occasion as well and she is a great reminder that you can always cover things so added some white. Not convinced I can turn this into something I like, but it is early days

Blue I used Phtahlo Blue : drop, spray, drip....still not liking this at all.

Swirl I left this for a couple of days because I am totally uninspired and find this ugly, but today I know I need to make a bold move - I want a focal and think I will add a face or silhouette with a swirl of hair. 

So much happier! Maybe some glaze?....

Write a phrase that is meaningful to you This spread was about taking control and being intentional. 

A good chance to share some lettering tips: Use different pens, Letter stamps with staz-on ink, and of course you can print on other paper and then glue it down if you're not confident to letter directly on your page. You can paint background paper or use gelli prints for this, use old calendars or scrapbook papers or stamp on tissue for a disappearing look. See all my posts that I've labelled Lettering HERE and workshops with Joanne Sharpe HERE. This is a screen shot of the fonts Effy demonstrates in this video : 

The one down the side is sharing overlapping writing which she learned from Dina Wakley

Scribble I have just recently watched a video from Dina about Asemic writing which takes that overlapping writing idea even further and I can't wait to practice it. Dina's video includes ideas of what to write and where to write it.

Asemic writing is marks that have the appearance of text but have no semantic value = it looks like words, but you can't interpret them. I like how it looks artistically and have always wanted to do this. It's also a way of hiding your feelings but getting them on the page. Dina's key tips are the exaggeration of ascenders and descenders and contracting all spaces. Practice. Go quickly. Below = Dina asemic writing out of heads. Cool eh?

See her Pinterest board - apparently it's a new trend in calligraphy. 
I'm happy with mine

Add a feather I didn't feel the need to add this last prompt. I cannot believe that at lunchtime today I was looking at this spread with disappointment at the colour choices and mess I'd made

and now she's done and I really love this spread and am grateful for the journey.

Maybe you'll join us for Journal Jam next week HERE? I will be having to watch it after since she has rescheduled for 12noon EST = 4am NZ Time. Oh well.