Creative ideas for 2025

I have finished my year-long #52cards2024 project and my JIYA journal and decided, after 3 years, to not continue with Fodder School 4. So what does 2025 look like for me?  One thing I really wanted was another year-long project. I like documenting my days and in recent times used cards in 2020, tags in 2021, a small monthly journal in 2022, really missed doing something weekly in 2023, and have just finished my #52cards2024 project. 

Before that I did daily journal projects in several different forms.

I loved Megan's JIYA journal (shared finished here) but by the end I'd pretty much moved away from her concept which is to create journal spreads ready for writing. I've decided I should try this again but more junk style - I haven't done Megan's other class, but she has shared plenty of inspiration (and check out her Instagram) and I have so many gorgeous documenting stencils that would be fun to use.Thinking I could post as the pages are prepped ready for me to write on, then I will have freedom to write as I wish - these are pages pre-writing from my previous JIYA journal. 

Will share my new journal in my end-of-month review.

I LOVE the sense of community that being in an online class and sharing work brings.

I'm starting January the right way - I joined the Artsy Meetup Marathon and Junk Journal January. I wanted to start the year as I mean to go on - trying to get into the studio and make some art every day. The Artsy Meetup was an online New Year's Eve 20 hour event that because of time differences fell on New Year's day here in NZ. It was awesome ♥ This is what I completed on the day

and we have time to work on all the lessons until the end of March. If nothing else, it reminded me that you don't need to have a lot of time to just start creating... My favourite projects are the 3 neutral tags inspired by DeeDee Catron and the little matchbox with words inspired by Kristin Peterson. Here a couple of close ups - so cute

Junk Journal January has begun - this is the collaboration playlist on YouTube of the artists responding to these prompts

I've been using a lot of pink lately so wanted to go in a different direction. Don’t forget to use your own art for inspiration. I looked back through my Instagram and found some more neutral colours that spoke to me and are going to guide this journal. 

Neutrals with blues and purples feels perfect for Summer. I will try and experiment with blues other than turquoise but if you know me at all you won't be surprised that I'm anticipating it will pop up somewhere! These were my gatherings of papers to make the journal, with the covers of an old diary to use as my end boards. They measure 16.5 cm high x 12.5 cm wide

I wanted to make an accordian book because it is such a fun structure and lends itself well to junk journaling. You get a nice flow and I enjoy how you can move across the edges onto the next page. I already added a tie to keep this one closed because they bloom with using both sides. My papers are a mix of vintage with blue touches. I am saving the purple I mentioned earlier for prompts on individual pages.

Prompt 1 is Cover 

You will be able to follow my progress on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page. I may do a half point progress reveal here. Very excited about this one. 

I did post more regularly on Insta and FB in 2024 but I sometimes didn't know whether to bother. I'm not trying to support a business, I just do art for fun and I share to encourage others. The blog is written as much for my own memories of my projects as it is for encouraging others to create and I've learned in the past that while I can have a break, I miss blogging if I try to stop completely. Monthly reviews of my projects seems to be working well for me, and Instagram is a great visual to see my art style coming through. I was surprised when I accessed my Top 9 on Instagram that the analysis that came with it shows that my likes/followers ratio is super high compared to accounts with similar follower numbers so I guess I'll keep doing that!

You can do ANYTHING, but you can't do EVERYTHING! 

I love that I have this blog to write my thoughts and as I type I have epiphanies about what direction I should go. I guess that's why this is "All of Me" - it's about my inner workings sometimes as much as my art. I have to also remind myself that at this time of year (on holiday, long sunny days) it's easy to think I'll be able to sustain a number of projects once I am back at work, and especially when the seasons change.  I need to make sure I keep things manageable - a weekly documenting project, themed handmade journals, night-time small stitched projects, some knitting perhaps (grandson due in April) and keeping space open for projects and online classes as they take my fancy. Looking forward to having you visit to see what happens next. Wishing you a happy and creative year ahead. 

Advice from the Sea

This month's tutor in Fodder School 3 was Megan Quinlan with a wonderful project of Affirmation decks. See a wee flip through on her Instagram.  My deck is called "Advice from the Sea". I first created backgrounds and collage papers

My cards measure 6.5 x 4" because I could cut 6 of this size from each of my base pages to fit in the box I altered. I began with deciding on my quotes and printing them out so they were there for inspiration as I created my cards

I altered a recycled box using some of my collage papers. It's very handy that it has a magnetised side closure.

Back view of the box face down

Used my typewriter to type the quotes onto one of my collage papers, then I cut out and inked the edges before gluing down.

 

Backed with oceans and seas from a map book

Stitching the edges and adding a little glitter in just a few places completed my cards. 

I really love them

Review of 2022 and plans for a creative 2023

I always like to do a creative review of my year. It's great to celebrate everything I've done and I loved gathering projects from around my studio to take this photo.

Check out my Instagram or FB artist page to see photos of all the projects and play I've had this year since I do give some of my creations away. What follows are my favourites in a bit more detail.

At the end of last year I was admiring the small monthly Daily Creative Practice journals I was seeing around (especially Willa's collected from 2021 HERE) and decided to make my own version.I did manage to create a book a month for the whole year. By October I was flagging creatively with doing the same format every month so joined Megan Whisner Quinlan's class Journal into your Art- it was fun to take a different approach to my November and December journals and I'm so happy I completed the year.

I love that each journal is a reflection of my month last year - the techniques from classes I was doing, the amount of creative time I had, the seasons and important events. You can see all my posts about the individual journals by clicking here. 

I decided to cover a box to house them and happily I was gifted the perfect size for a secret santa gift. Just shows you shouldn't plan too far ahead. I just cut the top flaps off, ran masking tape over the 2 raw upper edges and then went looking through my papers. As soon as I saw a leftover strip from my snippet rolls I knew that would be perfect. I added a few more centimetres of stitching and love how that looks glued to the sides.

I put a scrap of underpaper on the bottom so I could keep the details of this project (including my personalised stamp)

The inside measurements of the box is 12.5cm (a whisker deeper than the width of journals) x 13 cm across the front. The finished journals stand 18cm high.

I've done other journal projects in the past that last a whole year but I'm going to take a rest from that in the 2023. I've been really interested in Wendy Solganik's blog series about Finding your Artistic style. There have been some things that have really resonated there, the most recent being Tamara Jones : When you are taking a class and you think, “Wow, I could make a 100 of those.”  Listen to that voice!  You just found YOUR style!  Something that is part of you!  When you take many classes and keep hearing that voice with multiple different types of art, they are ALL your style. 

I felt like this with many of the book projects I made this year - this one is truly an example of my style : 

And this

And this 

And this is just the base but I adored this class and want to spend time on filling it in my holidays.

One of the things about Instagram that I love is that if I look at my page, I can see my style on display with the common colours and things I love to return to making over and over - books, including stitch and found words, paua colours, fabric and paper together, stencils. 

In my last project for 2022 which I shared here I was limited to not include as many layers and texture, but it's still a book form and it's still my colours and words. 

As I start 2023 I am continuing with Fodder School 2 but not signing up for anything else at present so I am free to try anything that feels inspiring to me as the year unfolds. The only exception is that I keep thinking it would be great to have a small stitching project to take to my Monday night quilt group (since you may have noticed I didn't do any quilting last year!). I did start a stitched roll in 2020 but it was too much for me alongside everything else that happened to me that year. I have recently seen Roxy's Journal of Stitchery for 2023 which is a themed large snippet roll called "Down the garden path". I have the base photoraphed here next to a mixed media roll I completed in 2018.

The project begins on the first Wednesday of January and there will be a new video each Wednesday from Rachel and Sarah with new prompts being announced every 2 weeks until June.  

See the project intro and gathering supplies videos on YouTube here. I'll share if this becomes a project that I love. 

You may have come across the Word of the Year concept. You can find yours with Susannah Conway's guidance free here (password delight) or through Ali Edwards who has developed a year-long course. My word since 2017 has been SHINE and I change the focus slightly each year as I use it as an acronym. 

As I continue to Shine in 2023, I am supplementing my definitions for my words of Self-care, Home, Intentional, Notice and Ease with the word Sustainable. So far it's led me to ask : Will I be able to keep up this weekly or monthly challenge or do I want more freedom? Do I need to buy that thing or do I already have something already in my cupboard that I can use or alter? I want to continue to find value in what I already have.

I'll keep sharing my main projects on this blog, and probably an end-of-month review, but please check out my Instagram or FB artist page for more regular updates of my projects in progress. What are your creative plans for 2023? I wish you creative joy and discovery in the year ahead.

Book in a box

I've completed my final project for 2022. It's a book of gelli prints from a combination of the first two months of lessons in Fodder School 2. We started in October with lessons from Rebecca Sower on Colour mixing, Gelli printing and Collage composition - so much in there to refer back to again and again. These are from my first gelli printing session.

I didn't manage to make any finished collages, but I knew our next lessons were with Drew Steinbrecher, another gelli print artist, and perhaps his project might work in combination with what I'd already done. I had already made these prints with inspiration from his free sessions in July

His project was to collage a board book. He re-used a children's book, but I already had this board book in a box that's been in my cupboard for a number of years (sorry no idea where it came from!) 

I combined gelli prints from both sessions with what I had learned from Rebecca about composition, and it seems no project is complete for me without words (these are Tim Holtz Idea-ology : Big Chat). 

It was challenging to work in this narrow format to begin with (20cm w x 8.5cm h) but then I enjoyed the stretch and got into a rhythm.

I thought that I would want to add more marks and embellishments to the pages, but once it was all glued down and I paged through, I decided I enjoy being able to focus on the simplicity of these colours and patterns. Click on the photos to see the words larger. 

Happily there were some perfect spaces on the back of the box for me to stamp and date my project.

I learned so much from these lessons. I was limited to not include as many layers and texture as I normally would so the book would still fit inside the box and am happier with the outcome than I ever thought I'd be. 

It's New Year's Eve morning in New Zealand so I'll wish you a 2023 of discovery, love, laughter and creative joy  💜