April monthly journal review

Time to share my completed April monthly journal. I chose Yellow for April - Easter, school holidays and Autumn colour. I was very excited to try a new way of stitching my pages together so the art appears in different places than in my previous monthly journals, and they'll be in a different place again for next month. 

I use the weekend to set up my journaling spreads for the week ahead. 

I shared this first spread when I started this journal. I'ts amazing how just a few additions change the pages and make them feel finished. 

Simple stickers for spread 2 - I like that I've used the circles where I used the outer parts last journal.

That first weekend after preparing those above pages I was a bit worried about where I'd go next with the yellow background, so I decided to gather autumn colour papers and fodder from my stash.

It helped me feel like I'd be okay with this journal. I did this kind of gathering for my February journal, but forgot for March. Need to remember this in the future. 

I respond to weekly Journal 52 prompts in my journal. My rules : each small piece will include stitch, a found word, and be inspired by the project I've been working on that week or what's lying leftover on my work table. 

Here's how that first full week looks with the art flap open

and closed. 

This photo shows my weekly spread and the Prompt that was created as a result of that inspiration

Here's my back cover

I need to choose a colour each month from the file folders that I purchased for this project. 

I've chosen a Brown file folder for May since I have to use it somewhere! It's the last month of Autumn and though I'm not that inspired by Brown as a rule I thought it will be lovely to include gold and bronze metallics. I'm very happy with how my cover turned out

See all my posts about this project HERE. I'm really looking forward to what May will bring creatively. As well as the challenge of working with more neutrals for me, check out the free online art lessons I shared this morning for other inspiration. 

Free Online Class Inspirations for May

Happy Saturday and I'm going to be making the most of my weekend before I'm back to work on Monday after school holidays. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep creating regularly this term. I have lots of ideas and these Free online options might help you to create too. 

FIrst up, Messy May - a totally free, daily-ish journaling challenge for imperfect creatives hosted by Caylee Grey. Every day, you'll receive a new theme and prompt, plus the host for the day will share their take on it.    

Sign up and you'll also get a free download of Caylee's best books for Art Journalers. Plus check out the Get Messy Blog with a ton of free inspiration.

You can also register HERE for Kellee Wynne Studio's Virtual Art Summit.

You'll get notified on May 2nd to either use pay-what-you-can or buy the course at the forever price of $95. Interesting to investigate a mix of artists I already know and love plus some new to me.

Additionally - Birgit Koopsen is an inspiring artist who uses gelli plates with gorgeous colour and unexpected mark making tools. This May she's doing a gel printing challenge on her Insta account and the theme is "tools". Check out the #birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge for this and previous years' challenges.

And she has a heap of inspiring tutorials and demos on her Insta Linktree. 

Journal 52 in April

I'm responding to Effy Wild's Journal 52 cards for 2022 on various small cards or tags that can become part of my monthly journal project. My rules : each small piece will include stitch, a found word, and be inspired by the project I've been working on that week or what's lying leftover on my work table. Each monthly journal is colour themed and April has been Yellow.

Week 14 : Presence. Began by sketching my figure on paper created with my own writing

Sitting with what is - light and shadow, Autumn is coming in New Zealand.

Week 15 : Anticipation

Week 16 : Emerge

Week 17 : Listen. I've been working on fodder school lessons with Sarah Gardner this week and decided I would play with the fodder I've been creating and her formula for making ATCs. This is, of course, sized to fit my journal page (4.5"x 7"), not an ATC (2.5"x 3.5").

I share these Journal 52 responses weekly on my Instagram.You can get access to the prompts by joining Effy's Wilderhood group on FB or subscribe to her newsletter. See all my posts about this project here. I'll be posting soon about how they appear in my April monthly journal. 

Holiday Inspirations

I'm in the middle of 2 weeks of school holidays {kermit flail}. I'm not blogging as much as I used to, but I'm still creative and sharing at least weekly on my Facebook and Instagram, and I thought I'd like to do a mid-holiday check-in. Although we are heading into Autumn we have been blessed with blue skies (the photo above was taken today) and continuing warm temperatures. I am lucky that I've got extended family who live within an hour's drive and we spent much of Easter and ANZAC day with various lovely people. We've also had a couple of mini breaks away from home with a day in Wellington and an overnighter in Taupo. 

There has also been some time to make art. I'll share my finished April journal and this month's Journal 52 prompts soon

When I started this journal I did some gatherings

so I was especially interested to read Laly Mille's recent post about creating bundles of inspiration which reinforces my thoughts about why gatherings before a project are important and how they can seed more ideas. These are some of Laly's bundles : 

It's no secret that I adore Fodder School and this month's lessons are with Sarah Gardner. She is a fabulously inspiring teacher. Go and check out her tag book tutorial on Youtube or in her Stencil girl post. 

See her post about this month's fodder school lessons HERE. I've been paint swatching and creating micro-fodder.

I'll share more about my fodder project this month in another post soon. You can still join us.

All that swatching got me thinking about colour again and I've got Kellee Wynne Conrad's book out of the library. Lots of good stuff in there about how to mix vibrant variations from limited colours.

And in that lovely way this leads to that : Kellee and others are advertising this year's Virtual Art Summit from 2nd May.

You can register HERE and then you'll get notified on May 2nd to either use pay-what-you-can or buy the course at the forever price of $95. Interesting to investigate a mix of artists I already know and love plus some new to me. We'll see if I have time since this is after holidays....

I've never been very interested in podcasts, but the other day, while swatching, I listened to my first by Wendy Solganik - one of the creators of Fodder School - aka Willa Wanders

A very appropriate title for many of us in Fodder school, but what I was most excited to hear was that she said Fodder School won't end and they are already planning for the next session! I was additionally excited to get an email from her today announcing that there will be another Free Fodder Challenge for 2022 from July 5-13. 

I'll share more when I know more. You can sign up for Willa's newsletter HERE and get the Surrender Pocket instructions and her Mixed Media Tags online class as a free gift! She's so inspiring to me. 

And another Fodder School instructor who always inspires is Megan Whisner Quinlan. That link is to her instagram, but you might also enjoy her YouTube channel and her projects that appear regularly on the Ranger Ink blog.

Sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the inspiration that's available, but mostly I just feel so very lucky. Now get off the computer and go make something!

March monthly journal and welcome April

Time to share my completed March monthly journal.

 I so enjoyed creating in this one and being inspired by Fodder school lessons once more.

Our fodder school teacher for March has been Rebecca Chapman and I remembered the stickers which I made in August last year during the free fodder challenge. Rebecca's got that lesson on YouTube now for you to enjoy. 

So cool that I found a way to use those outside pieces. You never know where fodder will work!

Each weekend, I try and do the spread for the week ahead. Sometimes I'm stumped for inspiration.  If in doubt, stencil is always my answer! I had some lovely Gecko stickers from some books purchased at work that week and that led me to add some other stickers that have been languishing for years in a drawer. So happy to use what I have.

I include my Journal 52 art in these monthly journals. See my previous post for detail about these pieces. Below left is a flip out inside the front cover

View when open

And inside the back cover which flips open to reveal the journal blocks further above

I really love including my art in my journals, but was trying to think of how to break it up a bit...the obvious solution (that I can't believe I didn't think of sooner!) is that I don't need to stitch my pages together the same way each time. January to March have extra flip-out pages inside the covers because of the formula I saw in the original daily creative practice journals which inspired me, but April and May are going to be different - I am sooo excited by this 💜 This is one of the joys of working in a series - new discoveries.

I've chosen Yellow for April - Easter, school holidays, and Autumn colour. I decided to take a photo of some blooms still on my Graham Thomas rose to include on my cover. It still mostly feels like summer with gorgeous sunny days. 

And I've started the first spread inside - keeping it simple. I may add more later. Daylight Savings ended here last night, a sure sign that Autumn is on its way.

See all my posts about this project HERE.