Fodder School : stamps

In Fodder School we have a new instructor every month. On the 1st we learn how to create fodder, and then mid-month we get to use that fodder in a project. This month our instructor is DeeDee Catron. You can find her on Instagram and see her floral fodder on YouTube and check out her Website. Our first lesson with her was carving stamps. I'm no stranger to stamp carving although I haven't really done much since 2018 when I made this collection

I don't really need to have more and have limited time at present, but I am interested in creating more sea-themed stamps and re-discovered this which had been gifted to me

It was very quick to create a sand dollar and kina (New Zealand sea urchin) shell shapes 

I then stamped on different papers using both paint and ink to create variously themed collage fodder for future use. This circle stamp is 2-sided and one of my favourites. Using paint to stamp on different tissue weights complements my sea theme

Next are various stamps on underpaper - haven't cut them apart because I'm not yet sure how they'll be most useful. The bottom branching stamp is newly carved and I'm thinking I could use it for seaweed too....can you also see sea ripples at the top right?

And lastly, a fun border stamp and I'm very partial to that leafy one. The heart in heart was stamped by spritzing the stamp with water and then using watercolour marker and crayon for a more ethereal effect.

The bottom right heart shows how stamping can ignite more creativity. I had only created the right stamp, and when I stamped it out with the turquoise, I realised I could make a mirror image stamp and create hearts too - so I did.

See all my posts about Fodder School HERE. It's not too late to join us. 

A few more cheaper and FREE online offerings

It's that time of year where some teachers gift the world their creative lessons with Black Friday specials. If you have a favourite online teacher, it's worth checking their teaching network to see if they've got special deals over this weekend. Wanted to highlight a few for you : 

Creative bug : get the deal HERE. Some great instructors and you can search classes by instructor or type (eg Mixed media)

I recommend Tam's classes (Willowing), especially if you want to focus on faces. Her instructions (video and detailed PDFs) are fantastic. Discounts below from now to 1st Dec 2019 (remember we'll get an extra day here in NZ cos of time difference with UK) 
Codes to Use while Shopping: (All discount codes can be combined!)
50% off Self Study Courses: ARTJOY2019
20% off Original Tam Art: TAMYAY2019
20% off Physical Art Products: TAMYAY2019
15% off Tam's Signed Books: TAMBOOKS15
20% off Life Book 2020: LOVEBOMB2020
20% off Whimsy Wonderland: YAYWHIMSY2019 

Also always recommend Alisa Burke. She has lots of Black Friday specials HERE.

Ivy Newport : I am always tempted to purchase this class above since I adore Klimt and have been referencing/inspired by his work especially this year. Her classes are currently 40% off for Black Friday specials. Her FREE classes and tutorials always available HERE.

Kasia's FREE Advent calendar journaling event : 24 days of art journaling with prompts, exploring mindfulness, self-care and gifts of the season begins 1st December. Sign up HERE until 5th December. I'm excited to do this. 
I don't know how she does it, but Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is once more doing a (daily) stamp carving challenge in December. 

Check out her Pinterest board for stamp carving inspiration HERE and you might enjoy seeing my challenge of #52 stamps which I did at the beginning of last year HERE. Spoiler alert - I only made 21! Still a great challenge while it lasted and I do use them in my journal. 

Some tips to get you started HERE.
This last is some lovely inspiration from Laly Mille. She's been sharing her journal process on her blog as a series - I am always very inspired by her work and it's really worth clicking into the posts to see how her pages develop. See all her journal posts HERE. 

She DOES have some Black Friday discounts on her classes until Dec 2 HERE. I am tempted by this one...I know I have so many online classes already but I adore her work and Summer holidays are coming for me....

And if you get time, her FREE Workshop about Art supplies is still available and worth looking at - even if you're not an absolute beginner. 

Be inspired and try and fit some creative love into your weekend ♥ It doesn't always have to be spendy. Back soon with some art to share.

#52stamps : Week 1

"Stamp carving is one of those things I always love to do but don't always prioritise time for." I wrote that to start this blog post and immediately a little voice in my head said "Would it really be that hard to create one new stamp a week?"....I thought about whether this was unrealistic and I decided I will give it a go. It would be so cool to have 52 more stamps to use by the end of the year. When will I do it? It's very portable - as long as the design has been transferred to the stamp (easily done at night) I can carve in the car while waiting for boys + I have a quilt group that meets weekly during term time on a Monday night and I'm always looking at things to do there so that's two easy options. I'll share weekly - hopefully you'll see at least one new one every week. It doesn't have to be expensive once you have the tools : this is mine

and I bought erasers from The Warehouse very cheaply : the pack of 6 small cost $1.50 and the 2-pack was $1 each. Keep an eye out in Dollar stores too to pick up larger erasers

See the end of this post for useful tutorials and inspiration.
As you do with a new project, I started off enthusiastically this week by carving more than one stamp. Because I'm taking Moonshine with Effy Wild I thought it would be really fun to carve some Moon Phase Stamps - inspired by this tutorial. 

Not perfect but cute right?....from the top : new moon, quarter moon, full moon, another quarter moon (I was trying to improve so tried design again - didn't need to!), one that totally didn't work so carved over it to create a pattern ♥, and a loose star. 6 stamps out of 3 blocks because you can carve both sides. Am inspired by some class mates so hopeful that next week you'll see the words SHINE and Magic.
I'm no expert, but if I keep carving #52stamps I might be better by the end of the year!
My favourite inspirations for stamp carving are Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Geninne D Zlatkis. Julie's just finished posts about her Carved December challenge and you can see all her stamp carving posts HERE. She's published a book and has online classes on this subject but I can't comment on their content. Geninne published this fab book (see my review HERE) 

and has a really useful section on her blog with stamp carving tutorials HERE. Please share in the comments if you have other artists that inspire your carving.
You can follow me on Instagram HERE and join in too. Let me know if you're doing that - would be great to inspire each other ♥ See my other posts about stamp carving HERE and my first ever post where I share some other inspiration HERE.

Projects for December!

By this time next week, December will be here! Have you got time for some creative projects now? If you can squeeze something into the end of the year, I highly recommend some kind of December Daily project. I've done a couple in the past : see my posts about my Stitched Paper Journal HERE

my December Daily from 2013 HERE

and from 2009 HERE

Susannah Conway has just released her FREE December reflections prompts. They would be fun to use for a December Daily. 

Find the daily prompts (a list of things to photograph and ponder) HERE. She is currently working on her annual FREE offerings by email : "Unravel Your Year workbook" and "Find your Word" - sign up to her email list to get these as soon as they're released HERE. 
If you decide on a word for 2018, Ali Edwards releases her One Little Word course sign-ups in December.
I'll be making Bookmarks for my librarians again this year - see how I made them last year HERE

and every year I make Christmas cards : 2016 are HERE

Online at Balzer Designs : #CARVEDDECEMBER2017 is coming. 

See all Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's  stamp carving posts HERE. 
I had decided I don't need to sign up for any more new classes BUT.....Tam has just released this : 

It's gorgeous faces, it's flowers, it's luscious inks and sprays, it starts Dec 1st and a class is released every week through to mid-January = my Summer holidays when I always have a huge burst of time and creativity = I already have the supplies, it's 7 full lessons + 3 bonus time-lapse and I know the quality of Tam's teaching - videos - PDFs means this will be great value for the money, it's on early bird pricing until Dec 1st....can you tell I am about to push the registration button HERE?! It's not technically registering for a new class in 2018 ♥
And from previous years, still available and FREE : 
Alisa Burke's Holiday Play HERE.

and Five Golden Letterings with Joanne Sharp HERE.

If you need other inspiration, scroll through ALL of my blog posts about Christmas HERE. 

We have just finished supporting our eldest son through his big exams for the year. Next up are our school break-ups and various night celebrations. I am so lucky that my work year finishes 15th December and I am looking forward to long hot Summer hols. Almost time to make Merry ♥

Daily Journaling Week 11

I'm following the prompts of the original Documented Life 2014. Week 11 : Draw, photograph or collage a bird onto your page
And from the blog for Life Documented 2017 HERE :
Theme is Bloom
Prompt is use stamps, cutting one from an eraser
I love to carve my own stamps - just don't get make enough time to do it regularly - but you can see all my posts where I share stamps I've carved HERE. So I started with a background of green gold and some of my hand-carved stamps - one of my favourite borders and one that I thought fit the "Bloom" prompt quite well

then added some more of my flora themed stamps and a bit more colour

Here you can see my "collage a bird" - I used a serviette, and I couldn't resist adding a small fantail stamp (not hand carved, but I love fantails)

While there are quite a few elements here, there's not enough for me...I added some tape around some edges and then out came my lovely Fantastix applicator again (first used HERE), used this time with a lovely airbrush colour to add both depth and brightness.

The applicators rinse out easily in water for continued use - here's the same applicator ready for the blue. The airbrush colours have been updated and can now be purchased as High Flow acrylics - they are awesome for pen work because they have the same consistency of an ink

Here's a detail of the blue hue added - doodles and dots with the fantastix applicator. 

I only dipped it once into the paint and it did all the colour you seen on the completed spread. 

That's Week 11 all complete except for the daily journaling. You can see all my posts about this project HERE and my Flickr album HERE

LB2016 : Reframing your story

Another lesson from Life Book 2016. This time from Effy - a photo of her original piece appears in this blog post. The lesson was 2 pages - the first included the bones of a story that feels formative to us (for imagery she used a skull and skeletal rib cage), overwritten with our learning and the second an expressive portrait representing the wisdom we bring from that - combined into one piece to show that our current reality includes all the difficult bits of our past. I love art that honours your story and celebrates who you've become.
I feel so blessed that I have always felt loved and supported in my life. Of course life is not always pure bliss, and everyone has experiences that make you grow and learn, but you don't need to have suffered traumatic experiences to create meaningful art. One of my recurring symbols is a butterfly, and I decided I would use that for my imagery. 

First page - I believe that what you need is inside, you just need to find and embrace it. I used 2 layers of gel pens to write stream-of-conscious thoughts about my past and my present - the lessons I've learned and what I have come to believe. I loved how the gold and silver writing overlapped and how they complemented the colours of the caterpillar I chose to collage. And then I decided that what I really wanted was more green, so I added another layer with a green metallic pen with affirmations such as "you are worthy" "you can do what you believe" "you are creative" "you can inspire others" you get the idea ;-) and now I love that page even more!

I'm continuing to work directly in my journal, so I was able to turn the page rather than work on a separate piece for my expressive portrait. Here's my first sketch of her with the page cut away.

I knew she would have butterfly wings and I chose some to collage for this and made small cuts on her shoulders for later application. I found this wonderful book about butterflies in a book sale once. I use it so often 

I cut the butterflies directly out of it. It has matte paper and so many coloured illustrations in varying sizes of so many species I don't think I'll run out of butterflies in my lifetime :-)
I always love using found words, so decided that my heart would be from a dictionary page - I added some extra heart words over the less relevant bits, edged it with staz-on ink, and when I went to glue it down, the words "the entrance" on the page were too perfect to obscure 

Effy often adds gel pen details to her work, and I really enjoy that too, so I went a bit crazy on my background swirls and love them all the more for it. I used my sakura gelly roll metallics - just need to make sure there is contrast with the background for this effect, so used the pink on the purple background.

The girl is supposed to be a reflection of ourselves, so I started her hair with a "brown" layer of burnt sienna which I always forget is quite bronzey - loved that though and went with it adding strands with other paints and metallic pens. My girl's eyes are shut because I think it makes her look completely happy with where she is - thinking of her core and her heart and loving what is at her centre.

When I finished my lovely butterfly girl, I went back to consider what to do on the back of the page. I thought just putting paper on the back was a missed opportunity and after a bit of thought I painted it black like the background of the caterpillar, and then used the same green metallic paint I'd used for the girl's dress to stamp butterflies with a stamp I'd carved myself. I really love the effect, especially when looked at as an open spread

I am very happy with this piece, and am glad my art continues to manifest my word for 2016 : Transform. I wish you could see it in real life - the metallic gel pens make it glow. 

Click on the photo to see it larger, or go HERE to see my Flickr album of all my Life Book 2016 projects. You can see all my posts about Life Book this year HERE.