FREE online art inspirations

Hi everyone - half way through September already. I just wanted to let you know that I have 2 weeks of school term left and then 2 weeks of holidays with a trip away for me so I will be combining September and October reviews at the end of October. In the meantime, there is always a flurry at this time of year of free events promoting year-long workshops.

A warning that these free events can be overwhelming with a heap of wonderful artists presenting offerings over a very short time. Just take a breath and pick a couple of artists that inspire you to learn from them. It is a good way to try out some options in case you are looking for a year-long experience but they will cost of course.

No free options for these ones but to put in the mix if you are considering something for next year : Wanderlust 2025 (begins January 2025) and Fodder School 4 (begins October 1 2024). I have participated in both in previous years - leave a comment if you want further thoughts or use my labels or search box to explore. Please note there is still a Fodder School Challenge event but it is no longer free, and it runs for a limited time. It is included with the Fodder School 4 purchase so don't sign up for both! 

Tam of Willowing is no longer doing Life Book. Instead she is doing A Year of Light and the free taster event is 16-24 September - sign up HERE.

Introducing GPS Kickoff! A free workshop for beginner gel plate users. Also a taster and starts 16 September. All the info HERE. Find out more about the main event at Drew Steinbrecher's Instagram. 

There's also Sketchbook Revival 2024 - sign up for the free event HERE. This workshop runs from September 23rd - October 7th, and remains available free until 19th October. You can also pay to join the main event.

And just because it's been recently uploaded, I wanted to share this cool technique on Youtube combining paper and stitch from Francisca Nunes - Paper netting. 

Hope something there to spark inspiration for you.

August Review

August was a very busy month for me personally with seven birthdays, a trip to Wellington to watch the All Blacks and catch up with extended family, and at work our school library celebrated the NZ Children's Book Awards and our own library Book Week which included competitions, a school lit quiz and dress up day (I am the pirate)

I also gave a talk to a local quilt guild about my mixed media work which was a fun remembering of projects.  

As a result of all of that, there's not much to share, but I have managed to create cards and get some new supplies. I am very happy that I am still going with my weekly challenge, even though I had to catch up on doing 3 cards in a week this month! #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 August cards. 

Note that the first three were made within a week (over half way through the month!) cos I was so busy. As a result the first 2 are very simple - Week 31 : Choose was a mounting of a tag I had already made and Week 32 : Exhale features a paper cutout from Ellen Giggenbach (a Wellington artist I love). Week 33 : Inspire was in turn inspired by the birthday card I made for my friend below, and my beautiful magnolia tree in full flower. Week 34 was actually created in the correct week and features one of my new art foamies that arrived. And Week 35 (last week) included Daffodil day - today is following through with the promise of Spring weather. I share these cards as they are created on my Facebook Artist's page and Instagram.

Last month's tutor in Fodder School 3 was Alison Bomber and while I didn't want to create houses this month, I did enjoy her lesson on backgrounds : 

These master sheet backgrounds will be very useful for another set of all occasion cards. I have managed this one so far for my friend's birthday - and you can probably see its influence on my Inspire card above

And this pair were for my niece and her daughter using some leftover backgrounds and previously created fodder.

I did a bit of thinking over August and have decided to not continue with Fodder School 4. One of the reasons is that while working full time it is a big commitment every month and when other things come up, like Junk Journal July for example, I just don't feel like I can do that as well. 

You can do anything...but you can't do everything!

One idea I'm excited about is that if I have nothing else on in a month I could go and do a previous lesson from Fodder School 1,2 or 3. Life-time access is wonderful. 

I did get some new supplies this month. When we were in Wellington, I had to go to Petone and buy some beautiful paper cut outs and washi tape from Ellen Giggenbach's shop (see one in Week 32 card above). I need more of her washi but this was the only design left in store that week

I was gifted money for both my birthday and my mixed media talk so I purchased stencils and art foamies stamps from America - designs from Megan Quinlan. Unfortunately the exchange rate and postage are both terrible so I think this will be my last such purchase for a while.

Plenty here to keep me entertained and excited to get back into art journaling. I was also gifted this amazing large stamp from a friend - hardly used as you can see. I am going to have such fun using it. 

Fav free inspiration this month is Angela Kennedy - a friend alerted me to her free online tutorial about paper dolls - worth a look for a different way to do faces

and she also has a curated free Facebook page called Ephemera for Artists - lots of wonderful imagery for your art journaling. 

I'm sure you've heard that Tam from Willowing has retired her collaborative year-long Life Book offering, but in its place is A Year of Light. She has a free taster event in September so here's the link for that in case you missed it. Runs 16-24 September. Might see you there...

September is our Spring month so I'm looking forward to extended daylight hours and more of a chance to get into my studio, as well as a couple of weekend breaks away with girlfriends to Raumati and Otaki - both to include lots of laughter, stories, walks on the beach and creativity. I've just realised this post has been quite full of creativity after feeling like I didn't have much to share. That's why I love to do these review posts 💜 Chat soon friends.

July Review

In the middle of July I reached the milestone of blogging for 14 years! I started in 2010 and although I blog a lot less now, and most artists do their sharing on Instagram, I have no desire to stop any time soon. I love having a record of my projects and writing about what I've been doing. I also process a lot of my thinking and keep note of inspiration. You will see that this post has turned out to be long because I am thinking about Fodder School 4 alongside other inspirations.

I always start my monthly review with progress on my #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 July cards : 

I post details about the inspiration for these on my Facebook Artist's page.

My Uncle had an important birthday in July and I had to make him a unique card. So great to have lovely handmade papers ready for this.

Last month's teacher for Fodder School 3 was Kecia Deveney. While I didn't have time to attempt her amazing book project, I had a lot of fun making shrink plastic charms and some layered tags

These will definitely fit in well with future projects. 

This month's teacher is Alison Bomber. She creates beautiful projects and has a fabulous YouTube channel HERE where she shares heaps of free lessons and inspiration. I love her voice and her beautiful soft techniques often inspired by Nature.

Fodder School 4 is coming and there are a few changes. 

The teachers are currently being revealed through August on Instagram and the Fodder Challenge will take place in October, but it is no longer free. You can buy just the challenge lessons, but they are only available until mid-November UNLESS you sign up for the whole course and get the Fodder Challenge and the other 11 months of teachers. Read all the information and sign up with the early bird price HERE. I have LOVED my time with Fodder School - been in it for the full 3 years. But I am currently considering whether I want to keep going with this since I have so many projects uncompleted and other challenges I want to do. Will keep you posted and I'm sure you won't ever regret signing up. I always find that each year there are several projects that would be worth the price of admission by themselves. And I have learned something from every single teacher.  

If you've never done Fodder School before, you could go to Willa Workshops and check out her taster options 

Lots of food for thought there....

July contained 2 weeks of school holidays and I was really excited to spend some of that time with inspiration from Francisca Nunes in her collaborative Flowers Magic Art Fest 2024. 

I made the journal above in 2022. Go HERE for my post of making it and you can see more "before" photos. I now have a few completed pages and lots more inspiration to keep going following the flower theme. I have forever access to the lessons and will keep sharing as time goes on. These are the pages I completed in July. This waxed page I added as a flip out to enjoy both translucent sides.

I loved the flower lesson from Lisa Goddard which I incorporated into my weekly card and will soon appear as a page or more in my journal

And there are a few lessons I've watched but not yet been motivated to action. It has still been very cold here. Looking towards September and the promise of Spring...

These are a couple of other FREE inspirations which I may incorporate as I go along : 

Roxy's Journal of Stitchery current play list for their Volume 6 Field Notes prompts via YouTube are HERE. They release inspiration and guidance every fortnight and the idea is to create a stitched accordian journal by the end. 

And while I didn't participate in Junk Journal July - those lessons remain up on YouTube HERE. 

Other free inspirations this month :  Helen Colebrook has free printables on her site HERE. Includes goal and habit tracking, envelopes and doodles. This is my fav  - so cute

And I adore these book inspiration from Giogio Craft : Seahorses, Shaped altered books, and Klimt. She says she has some tutorials on her YouTube channel. This is a blog post about her Everything Circles Book

a Klimt cover 

and a Klimt House Booklet.

She also does amazing slow stitching and I keep thinking about her E-book available on Etsy. 

I hope you don't mind going down that rabbit hole with me! It's good to be saved for my future reference - I adore Klimt, want to do more slow stitching, and her colours sing to me! Also an example of how you can get completely distracted from actually creating by looking at others' work! And a good example of why I am wondering if I need to drop Fodder School in favour of some new opportunities.

August is a very busy month ahead for me - 2 birthdays (husband and eldest son), trip to Welly to watch the All Blacks play Argentina, and at school we are celebrating the NZ children's book awards and our own library Book Week with a lit quiz (designed by me) and dress up day. I've also been invited by a local quilt guild to give a talk about my mixed media work. Hopefully there'll be time for some creativity too. I will try and post more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.

June Review

I've been waiting to share this review until I could get some decent photos of my recent work. It's a challenge in the middle of Winter. I'm still continuing 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 June cards : 

And we are now half way through the year!

I post details about the inspiration for these on my Facebook Artist's page. It's motivating to see all 26 of them together.

I work full-time as a librarian at a local intermediate (Year 7-8) school. One Friday last month I was so lucky to put on my creative hat and teach Arty Junk Journals as part of our Be Brave sessions. These were an opportunity for students to learn something new out of their comfort zones. 

Awesome group of 18 kids. They created these beautiful books out of recycled materials in just 2 hours.

In my May review I shared progress on my Fodder School project with Susanne Randers. I wanted to complete my portfolio and fill it up, and I very happily achieved that before the end of June 

Empty above and full below 

June was also my birthday month. I am looking forward to making use of these lovely gifted stamps

and I used some birthday money for this : 

Find out everything about this event HERE and my thoughts about it HERE. Currently early bird registration is US$67. This goes up to US$97 during fest (July 12th to 31st) and then US$137 after Fest ends.

I finish our current school term tomorrow and then 2 weeks of school holidays ahead for me. I am looking forward to what I'll be able to do with my free time. I'm going to focus on the Flowers Magic class but check out other FREE class inspiration in my previous post. Also excited to see our new project for Fodder School 3 with Kecia Deveney. 

Hopefully lots to share at the end of July.