52 Tags : Week 43

Time for my take on Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. Week 43 : Fringe. I adored my layered tag last week and knew that this one wouldn't be able to compete. So I took all expectations away and just chose a sample upholstery fabric in a design and colours that make me happy and then added my stitching and a few beads. 

This link will take you to all of my posts about this challenge. You can view Anne's weekly demo on Youtube #52tagshannemade.

A Fodder Keeper for my collage fodder

The lesson for the second half of this month in Fodder School with Tiffany Sharpe is making a Fodder Keeper - it's a book structure to keep the collage fodder in. This is mine :

These are the pages before they were put in. I love the subtle patterning 

Back and front cover below. I used my papers that I shared HERE from the original fodder challenge

The plastic pockets mean I can store fodder by colour

or shape

I've made the pockets of various sizes

It's a wonderful way to organise all that I've done so far

and is pretty to look at like this until the pieces are needed for future projects

Tiffany and Wendy Solganik of Willa Wanders are the co-creaters of Fodder School. 

Wendy has created a video which explains what Collage Fodder is and a bit about Fodder School. Go HERE to see the explanations and be inspired by her gorgeous work.

We are only 1 month in and I am thrilled with what I've created so far. Class runs for 12 months with 12 different teachers. It's not too late to join us. Can't wait to see what we're going to get in November with DeeDee Catron - find her on Instagram and see her floral fodder on YouTube and check out her Website. DeeDee has also kept a record of where we can find any lessons that have been shared from the original #fodderchallenge in June 2021. All the artists featured there are going to be teachers in Fodder School.

52 Tags : Week 42

Time for my take on Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. Week 42 : Tag on a tag (on a tag). I had a lovely piece of selvedge fabric that led to my gatherings of green and soft yellow. I wanted my layers to be pretty and spring-like. I added lace and a heart from my recent collage fodder play with the word WONDER. This was a joy to make and I'm delighted with the pieces individually and layered up.

Only 10 to go!!

This link will take you to all of my posts about this challenge. You can view Anne's weekly demo on Youtube #52tagshannemade.

Wonky Bits

It's been school holidays for me this past couple of weeks and as well as having a blast with Fodder School, I finally had time to play with lessons from Wendy Solganik's Wonky Bits Class. 

This is my first batch and I'm sure there'll be more. This class has inspired me in all sorts of ways and is still available if you want to enrol.

It looks like Fodder School ‘21-’22 sign ups are reopened! Not sure how long this will last so run over there straight away if you want in!

This weekend is also the beginning of Laly's FREE Abstract Colour Challenge class - open October 15-22 as an enticer for her latest class, Soulful Abstracts. 

While I won't join the full class (my plate is already over-filled!), I do love Laly's teaching and hope to enjoy some fun with this over the weekend before I head back to work on Monday and the crazy that is Term 4 at school.

I hope you have a lovely weekend with time to do what makes you happy.

52 Tags : Week 41

Time for my take on Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. Week 41 : Bullion Knots. This one evolved in combination with my recent collage fodder makings and a comment by a viewer that got me thinking....I used gloss gel medium to glue my thin paper flower to my fabric. It didn't all stick down, but enough for me to stitch through. I did a few bullions and then added some pistil stitches and fly stitch. 

Still not loving the bullions but the fly stitch is quite a favourite of mine now

This link will take you to all of my posts about this challenge. You can view Anne's weekly demo on Youtube #52tagshannemade.

Collage Fodder

It's school holidays for me and I'm having a blast with Fodder School play. The first lessons this month are from Tiffany Sharpe - she's on Instagram. We started by learning how to create florals and leaves in watercolour, with pen work and fussy cutting.

These were on watercolour paper. 

I then wanted to try using salt effects and different kinds of paper. I wasn't sure how well the printed papers would take the watercolour, so prepared some pieces with Absorbent Ground. 

You can see it's white but not totally obscuring the marks beneath. Below is the music page with salt applied in some areas of wet watercolour. 

I found that on the Ground the watercolour blended too much for me to get the effect that I could get on the watercolour paper for the flowers, but I was very happy with the hearts and leaves and could still use a wet-in-wet technique.

It also depends a bit on the paper. I don't like the flower on the Absorbant Ground in the bottom sample pictured above (although this will totally work once I add the pen work) but the samples above were on thicker paper without any Ground added and I love how they look. These are the experiments on various book papers and sheet music

I also had a second go on watercolour paper having fun with salt effects and dropping in extra colour while still wet.

I haven't used my watercolours in this way before and am delighted with the effects I achieved with colour blending

and salt

I also love hearts so made a few of those using different papers - you can see the salt effect quite well on the watercolour hearts

I will be adding stitch and probably words to these hearts when they are used later. 

There was also a bonus lesson on doodling shapes on painted papers. I had some suitable card stock already in my stash - made so long ago that I can't remember when! This first was stenciled

I discovered that by randomly drawing the outline of my leaves, I could then follow the lines of the print below for really cool random marks

These were my doodles before fussy cutting

They look so awesome once cut apart

EDIT : It looks like Fodder School ‘21-’22 sign ups are reopened! Not sure how long this will last so run over there straight away if you want in!

If you're interested in finding out a little more about Collage fodder, I posted HERE about the free Fodder Challenge now finished.

DeeDee Catron is keeping a record of where content from the original challenge can now be accessed. She said she'll update as teachers share in different places. Find that HERE.

52 Tags : Week 40

Time for my take on Anne Brooke's weekly Tag challenge. Week 40 : Something Yummy. Anne kept it really simple this week and couched some yummy yarns onto hand-dyed felt. For me, Silk is Yummy - the feel of it, the colours, the different products that can be used. I looked through my silk stash and found a serviette trapped in silk coccoon strippings with sprinkles of Angelina fibre, sari silk yarn of various weights and colours, and a piece of hand-dyed Dupion silk. Not pictured is my stash of sari ribbons which you will have seen appear often in my work, including this Tag project. All of these feel delicious to me and make me happy.

This is my Yummy Tag - hearts and beads are also yummy and these are some of my favourite yummy colours

This link will take you to all of my posts about this challenge. You can view Anne's weekly demo on Youtube #52tagshannemade.

Handmade cards

A while ago I shared some cards (including the pair above) made from this batch of bases

I made some in August for birthdays but then we went into lockdown and I was unable to deliver or therefore show you. I kept creating for other events through September and thought I'd share them all now. 

The Aroha Love word (above) is vellum which I stitched on by machine, whilst the guitar (below) is a serviette 

These last two were going to be cards but I turned them into mini art journals. Check them out HERE.