March review

March is the start of the Autumn months here although I am in complete denial as I post this that Summer is on its way out. So far we have been blessed by gorgeous sunny days and cooler nights for sleeping and I've only had to put on an extra layer in the evening a couple of times so far. Often we have lovely weather through April school holidays, so cross everything for me...

I decided I'd create another batch of cards to see me through the next few months. I had some leftover background card which I was able to trim to size and then I made a variety of watercolour florals. 

I ended up with 2 sets of 6 cards and some leftover stems to keep for future inspiration. 

JIYA Journal - still making slow progress in here.

Love how pages evolve and I don't know how they will turn out when I set them up...

This patterned plastic flap turned out to be a fun way to 'disguise' some of my writing about stuff I wanted to note but not dwell on. 

This journal will probably see me through the end of Autumn but not sure if I will create another after that or move to something else. 

I decided to Create a Book a Month this year. I didn't quite get my February book completed for my last review so if you haven't already seen it on my FB or Insta here it is :

I also did a flip through on Youtube : 

Sadly I haven't made a book in March. As well as the late finish of my February book, my mother-in-law went into care this month and I've been doing a secret stitchy project that has an April deadline.

Pleased to say this project is complete - I just can't share til after it is gifted.

I also had to prepare for a couple of Be Brave art sessions at school (2 hour sessions with 20 students learning something different out of their comfort zone). I will teach them how to collage master sheets and then use these to create a zine from a single piece of paper, and make tags, bookmarks and cards. These were my gatherings for our meet and greet session last week. I will share the results of the class next month.

Brooke Henry hosted her Free BB Bash for the second half of this month and I had thought I would use her lessons for a book but I was just too busy. Instead I've decided to join her offering of BB Bash Beyond which is US$29 and gives lifetime access to all the prompts plus fun bonus content. Brooke is so generous in her sharing of creative lessons, this also makes me feel good that I am supporting her as a working artist. 

For April, I'm hopeful I'll get to play with Brooke's lessons, and there are quite a few other options for free play and inspiration.

Francesca Nunes has a free week of exploring creative ways to print on paper and fabric : March 31-April 4. Sign up here. 

Jack Ravi and Jane Chipp have an #artfulmemorieschallenge. Click on that hashtag for responses to previous challenges, and go here for the list for April 2025 prompts.  

The invitation is to respond to these prompts (each is a tiny, poetic biography… the start of a story waiting to be told) using found photographs. You can use your own photographs, or download free images on their website. 

I also found this free class this month : Tina Walker shared her #5waysjournal finished HERE on Insta.The base for each page was created through the 20 techniques she shares in her free online workshop. 

The workshop features how to use her and your favorite mixed media supplies to create wonderful bases and backgrounds for your art journals and junk journals and how to bind all of your pages together in a flexible and fun way. You can sign up here. 

So much goodness available. You can't do everything but aren't we lucky to have so much on offer? You can see me posting during the month as projects happen on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.

February Review

My blog is called "All of Me" so while I want these reviews to celebrate my creativity, I also want to be real about life. February has been both very tough and also full of joy. On the joyful front, both our sons have found their loves and we have celebrated an engagement and a baby shower. The tough stuff is stressful and exhausting but we can do hard things if we celebrate the good, support each other, and give ourselves grace to accept help and take breaks when we need to without feeling guilty. I am grateful that in February I read some great books, had some lovely catch ups with friends, enjoyed swims and sunshine and long daylight hours. I'm back at work for Term 1 at school which is busy and exhausting but also very rewarding. And I managed to create art this month. I made a 50th birthday card for a friend : 

My JIYA Journal isn't anywhere near a daily journaling practice yet, but I have made progress. These are some favourite spreads from the month.

I'm still enjoying the yellow base (see how it started here) and it will serve me well as we approach Autumn.

I've embarked on a monthly challenge this year : Creating a Book a Month. January was an Accordian Junk Journal. My February book was inspired by Autumn Moon's Circle Journal (sorry you can no longer sign up for this class). I managed to have several fun sessions making papers 

and I've cut them into the circle shapes 

and started to put them together 

but I'll have to share the finished book in my next review...Hopefully there'll also be a March book to share then. 

Brooke Henry is once more hosting her BB Bash later this month : a FREE 14-day interactive experience filled with live calls, prompts, and hands-on art-making. Sign up HERE. March 16-29, 2025. Loved this last year. She says it's for mixed media artists, beginners, and creatives who want to let go of perfection, embrace play, and explore new techniques.

If you are interested in participating in the 100 Day project see my January review post and check out more from Roben-Marie Smith about getting ready.  I'm loving her posts on Instagram about #100daysofembellishbits

I will continue to post as art happens on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page. I hope that March treats us all kindly and that we can find joy in our days. 

January Review

Had lovely long school holidays but I'm back at school now and the challenge is to continue with a mostly-daily creative practice...I started January with the Artsy Marathon Meetup which I shared here and then made a couple of envelopes later which were inspired by Leaca Young

and then I moved straight into Junk Journal January 2025. The YouTube collaboration playlist for that challenge remains up here - you could use it for any month of the year. My accordian book started by looking like this.

When I completed the first side of the accordian half-way through the month I posted here. 

Here's the other side.

These are some of my favourite pages from the second half of the month, because I was able to play and learn some new techniques. 

Prompt 16 : Unfold. YouTube instructions here (see also how I made the faux aged yellow tape below)

Prompt 26: Movement - a waterfall card effect. YouTube instructions here.

Prompt 28 : Sealed - made a vellum envelope and then my own seal from embossing powder and a heat gun - lucky me already had a stamp that looked like a seal. YouTube instructions here.

And now the completed journal looks like this. 

And here's a flip through on YouTube: 

I loved Megan Quinlan's JIYA journal class and shared my first finished one here. While I love it, by the end I'd pretty much moved away from her concept which is to create journal spreads ready for writing so I decided I should try again. I thought it would be a bit more junk style, but when I was thinking about colour schemes I thought I'd like to go lemon yellow and apricot and do it the same as the original lessons so I have space to write. 

I find yellow quite a hard colour to work with but when I took the photos, the background paper looked lavender so when I made the cover I added purple as well and now I have a colour scheme I'm very excited about. I chose Yellow because it seemed great for a journal started in Summer and I was actively seeking something to get me away from my usual Paua/Turquoise scheme.

It is a little smaller than my first journal and the spreads measure 26.5 x 19cm (10.5 x 7.5 inches). I was surprised to read in the instructions that Megan’s are only 10 x 6.5 inches. I did some gatherings of collage imagery and stencils in those colours, and then realised that the point is to have a colour story as the base and then explore combinations of colours to see what looks great with them.

Here are some pages prepped ready for me to write on 

And here are some so you can see them after writing - nothing fancy - just a record of my life for me to look back on.

This is now my written daily-ish journal which will hopefully last/be used up by Autumn when I would like to make another.

I was very lucky that my Aunty gifted me this bracelet recently because she said every time she wore it she thought of me - these words often appear in my work. I hope I can use these in a special project this year.

Fav free online inspiration this month :  I found a YouTube explaining how to make my own aged vintage tape with transparent tape and alcohol inks. How did I not think of this myself?! I loved this video because she keeps the process very simple and uses Adirondack Butterscotch on wide tape. I had that colour and a couple of others to try which may be a bit bright, but you never know til you have a go. 

and I added it in my junk journal. This is the butterscotch colour and it looks great with these vintage papers

Looking ahead to February : You may have read about my idea for Creating a Book a Month with the Mini Marks '23 and '24 courses here. I numbered the projects and then used a Random number generator and I'm excited to say that my February book is going to be inspired by Autumn Moon's Circle Journal (sorry you can no longer sign up for this class)

I wanted you know that The 100 Day Project is starting again this year on February 23rd. Roben-Marie Smith has participated in this project since 2017 - check out her projects here. She is so enthusiastic about getting others involved (she's not affiliated with The 100 Day Project, just loves doing it and want to encourage others to as well) that she has created a workbook and tracker to help you stay organized, motivated, and inspired every step of the way. 

Read all about it here - you can order a free online digital version. Let me know if you're going to have a go. I think I have enough on my plate but many get involved in this as a way to help them to stay motivated to create daily-ish. It doesn't have to be more than committing to 5 or 10  minutes a day. 

I was reminded recently to share my method to create a little and often with micro-movements which I share here. This is the summary : you use every 5-15 minutes you have to do just one step towards a creative project - gather your materials, arrange your work space, thread your machine, add a layer of paint, add a layer of collage, find the mask/stencil, add another layer of paint, cut out found words....The effect of the micro-movements idea is 2-fold. Firstly, 5 minutes here and there can quickly build to 1/2-1 hour in a day, which is 7 hours in a week....Secondly, if I feel in a bit of a creative slump, I can trick myself by saying "I'll only do this for 5 minutes" - often after that 5 minutes, I'm sucked in :-) Once you light the flame, it's going. 

It you want to see what creating and calling it done in 5 minutes looks like, The Ugly Art Club host a 5 minute challenge a couple of times a year. Read about their most recent one here and you can be motivated by their demonstrations by using this playlist on YouTube.

Have a fabulous February. I post more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.