Snippet rolls and faux postage stamps

I'm making more slow progress with my handmade book inspired by lessons from Wendy in our fodder school lessons in August. I did my base pages and some fabric dying which I'll share here in case you haven't seen them

I want to add more bright colours to my book and have recently had fun with a couple of ideas. First I got inspired to make some snippet rolls. If you're not familiar with them, there's a whole instagram tag devoted to them #snippetroll. Here's the link to Nik the Booksmith's tutorial on YouTube which many refer to as their first inspiration for snippet roll making. 

I decided to make mine on a fabric base since I already had some 2" wide strips of fabric leftover from a quilt binding - a lovely mix of paper and fabric, and they're very soft and flexible. 

But what do you do with them? You can add more decoration to them before use - this could include hand stitching, found words, beads and other small embellishments.

You could enjoy it as a long roll like my book attached to a cotton reel base. 

Or if you make books or decorate journals you can cut them down and use pieces as tabs, as tuck points, and as a strap for a journal closure. Wendy Solganik has a great Instagram post with lots of ideas.

Here's my most recent Journal 52 word prompt where I used some on a tag : 

This month's fodder school lessons are with Kelly Anderson. I was inspired by her faux postage stamps and am very happy with how my first attempts turned out. 

I'll hopefully be able to share more of my book soon. I'm getting excited by how all these bits are going to come together. It's going to be so much fun to have a book that showcases many of the techniques I've learned in Fodder School 1. 

We start Fodder School 2 in a couple of weeks and you can join that and even still join Fodder School 1 HERE. I was lucky with my timing and got good deals for my memberships, but based on the past 12 months I'm sure if you take the leap you won't be disappointed.  

September fun

I finished my September journal cover and I'm so loving it I had to share in case you missed that I added it to my August journal post. The fabrics were dyed by me inspired by a recent fodder school lesson - it's Spring in New Zealand 💜

I get overwhelmed by the sheer number of gorgeous online art courses that are available, but I do love sharing all the free things with you. 

Kristi Nazzaro and Kristin Peterson have done another collaboration (see their first one HERE) - this time it's called Trading Papers and you can check it out HERE.

I shared some videos of Kirstin and Kristi sharing some trading papers HERE which I expect sparked this sharing of the latest collaboration. Just looking at what they sent each other sparks ideas, and if you watch the project directly after you can see how you might incorporate papers into a similar project of your own. 

Also there's another 2 weeks of free Taster lessons to launch Tam's collaborative Life Book 2023. Sign up HERE. 

The Life Book Taster Sessions will begin on 26th of September and will run until 9th October 2022. 

And this is something new to me, A Year in Colour. You can have access to a free sampler from September 23-30, 2022

Check out all the details and sign up HERE.

Do you know Kirsten Varga's work? She appears regularly on the Stencil Girl blog, often creating gorgeous handmade books. I am so inspired by what she does - check her out on Instagram and YouTube. Her video instructions are clear and colourful. This is the first book on my must try list : Buttonhole Stitch Book 

Wishing you a Joy-filled week.

August monthly journal review

Time to share my completed August monthly journal. My colour for August was Brown, although you'll see I quickly found my favourite turquoise featuring on most pages. The first spread started with asemic writing in black and white, before adding some white stenciling which also finished off my cover nicely. A few stickers and I thought this was a pretty start.

On my desk was my pile of papers from printing for fodder school. I tore this piece of paper down to my journal size and punched out circles for the journal blocks. 

I was able to use some of the punched out circles for flowers for Week 30 prompt below, and you'll see the others used for journaling my last few days of this month facing my Week 34 Prompt.

If in doubt, use paint and favourite stencils...and start some extra collage papers at the same time 💙

My art in this journal is mostly created in response to Effy Wild's Journal 52 cards for 2022. My rules : each 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. 

Week 30 : Pleasure. Turquoise, texture, stitch and shine.

Week 31 : Longing. Was in my studio with the heater on and an extra cold snap happening in New Zealand, I am longing for extended hours of summer sunshine and swimming at the beach

Week 32 : Sacred. Children and nature - worthy of care and notice as precious. 

Week 33 :  Surprise. Playing with things you can do with master sheets - a surprise when you add gesso - a surprise when you cut a shape from the back 

This is how the adjoining journal spread looks

And because there were only 3 days left in August and the prompt came out at the beginning of that week, I also included Week 34 : Tenderness

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 my monthly journal project HERE and Journal 52 HERE. See more regular postings from me on my FB artist page and Instagram. 

I know we're already into September, but I'm a little behind in creating my new journal. It will be all sorted by the end of the week, I'm sure. A Pink base this month and a photo of my gorgeous magnolia in flower will feature on the cover. My pile of completed monthly journals so far this year makes me very happy. 

Enjoy your Spring or Autumn, depending on where you are. A day later my cover is finished so I thought I'd add it to the end of the post. Fabrics dyed in a fodder school lesson - so excited to work in this one