July monthly journal review

Time to share my completed July monthly journal. I chose Blue since it's a Winter month in New Zealand and chilly. Funny that I also chose Blue for January for the opposite reason! I already shared my first 2 spreads HERE.

Sometimes I wonder if I should prepare my journal spreads for the whole month, but it's special being able to respond to what is happening for that week. The below spread was created the day after we heard about the sudden passing of my sister-in-law Sue. In shock and not knowing what do with myself, I was still able to create this simple spread for her 

I wanted to create a piece of art to honour her on that flip out page and she loved elephants. After a bit of looking I found Tamara Laporte's elephant portrait which is now available on Youtube. That link also includes a traceable which I reduced in size to fit into my journal. 

My version is Week 28 below - appropriately the word for that week was Blessing.

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. I don't usually overthink these and just go with what feels good in the moment. 

Week 26 : Reflect. Inspired by the materials I used for the Peace catcher I made with Lucie Duclos that week. I love the colours and reflected on how lucky I am to have a creative practice to help me process what's happening in my world.

Week 27 : Certain. I really enjoy doing tags so there are fabric bits that peek out of my journals. I started with an old end of printed watercolour paper and created my own tag shape

Certain that colour, stitch, and time spent making mixed media pieces will always make me happy

Week 28 : Blessing. Watercolour for the initial colouring of the elephant, also incorporating some leftover collage papers from my abstract landscapes that week.

Week 29 :  Resilient

You can get access to the prompts by joining Effy's Wilderhood group on FB or subscribe to her newsletter. 

Farewell to July and a sneak peek towards August - this next cover needs more work but I love the monarch butterfly. 

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. 

Flowers Magic FREE class

Grateful for school holidays which are now at an end for me. I've had a good mix of jobs and play, and one of my joys recently has been participating in another free class called Flowers Magic hosted by Francesca Nunes : July 22-August 10. This is a very photo-heavy post so I can capture my discoveries for you and for me to look back on.

You can still sign up HERE.

I gathered some papers

and made my raw journal

Then I added my floral ingredients - it's Winter here in New Zealand so while I managed to find some Camellias and a couple of old rose blooms as I deadheaded them, I also included red cabbage, onion skins, and leafy fruit teas. One learning is that I decided to use some frozen berries. Unfortunately I didn't defrost them! Luckily they were placed at the back of my book but made it very wet and meant that a few of the end pages and back cover tore away. 

I undid the stitching and this is my collection of pages

All is not lost. Once dry, I mended my torn pages by stitching sari ribbon to repair the outer spine 

and glued some organza ribbon to reinforce the inside

I repaired the last pages by gluing extra handmade papers to make the hinge fold (the green handmade paper showing below) and then re-stitched my book. 

Bonus of re-stitching was that I was also able to include some of the fabric in which I'd wrapped the bundle. The wool didn't transfer any colour, but you can see the fabric only had some cleaned off paint to start, and bottom right you can see how it changed. I had sprinkled some rose petals in at the end.

It's most fun to see the before and after photos for the pages - these are my favourites but I must admit I love them all.

The fabric I used in the centre of my book had water-reactive dye on it so some of that transferred to my binding thread and to other pages and is another addition which I love. 

I think if I ever do this again, I will just do loose papers and bind them together at the end. What a joy this is to me. 

Red cabbage on Tracing paper - so delightfully crinkly ♥

You can see what other people are doing HERE on Insta. And you still have time to join HERE and find out how to do this, even if you don't attempt the other art journal lessons.

I can't wait to start working on the pages and adding my own spin to this book with lots of lovely elements, including some of these bits from my dyeing play in Fodder School with Aimee Bishop.

Hope you have a joyful and creative weekend. 

Even more free online classes!

I've been on school holidays and was excited to have the opportunity to create some abstract landscapes in a free class with Laly Mille (sorry now closed).

I love how they turned out and very happy that I managed to leave some white space. I still need to frame them, but here they are individually

Check out student work from that class HERE.

Another free class just started is Flowers Magic hosted by Francesca Nunes : July 22-August 10. 

You can still sign up HERE. Includes eco printing with flowers, nature ink powders, and mixed media techniques. I gathered some papers

and I've made my raw journal

You can see what other people are doing HERE on Insta.