June Review

June means the proper onset of frosts and winter weather, with Winter Solstice and the shortest day falling on Matariki this year. It's a time of reflection, remembrance of those who have passed, celebrating the present and planning for the future. It's been birthday month for me and my youngest son so every weekend we've been seeing family and friends for various outings and celebration gatherings. At school I am busy training our team and fundraising for our Lit Quiz World final; I trained another team for a Book Battle regional quiz last week (they tied for first place!); and I've been looking ahead to the New Zealand Children's book awards cataloguing books and making preparations at the beginning of next term for Book Week with a school quiz and dress-up day before we go away to Johannesburg!

Considering all we've had happening this month, I'm grateful to have completed a couple of special projects. I finished knitting a blanket for my grandson - it's a square so multi-use for pram, carseat, and general snuggles. 

For my son's 21st I used Optimal Print to create a photo book. You upload all your photos digitally and then move them around to create a book of memories. That sounds quick, but it qualifies as a significant creative project. Thrilled with the quality of the printing and they were efficient with delivery.

I managed to make progress on more base pages in my JIYA Journal this last few days. I love it when I do it, but I feel like I want to get this one completed and move onto another project now. 

As we finish June, I am starting 2 weeks of school holidays. Hoping for some decent creative time and hopefully I can share a flip-through of this journal finished.

The Make Create Express free weekend is on again next month : 12th and 13th July. 

All the info about what's included and how to sign up is HERE. It can be overwhelming to have so much on offer, and I think my cup of inspiration is full at the moment!

A short post this month and I wish I had more creativity to share, but when I look at the state of the world and news headlines, I am so very grateful for the life I have. 

May Review

May was a big month of loveliness for me. The weather continues to be mainly settled so not too cold yet. We are enjoying cuddles with our new grandson and seeing our son and his lovely partner being wonderful parents. I have decided to go back to Aquarobics which is such fun. And...I took my school Kids' Lit Quiz team to the National competition in Wellington and we won it! This means we qualify for the World competition to be held in Johannesburg in August. Lots to organise and still seems a surreal achievement but our flights are booked. Eeeek!

With working full time and those extra things taking my energy and focus outside work, I am so proud of what I have still managed to achieve creatively this month. 
JIYA Journal - still pages left in this journal to create some shine in Winter.

One of my ideas this year was Creating a Book a Month. This was January

February

March (not a book!)

And life happens, so I gave myself some grace and created the makings for a book in April

I have finally managed to complete my book 

I had done up to prompt 4 of Messy May on loose pages before the book was together

I'm just going to keep going using those delicious messy papers and fabric bits into June - whatever works right?!

I've also been knitting a blanket for my grandson's pram/carseat - I've got 1/3 to go. 

Red Cross do a book sale every Kings' Birthday weekend. This was my treasure this year - all will attain new life in my artwork. $4 each - a bargain adds to the joy.

Last month I shared Wendy Solganik's free Mixed Media 101 series. 

I'm sharing it again because although you can watch the main videos on YouTube (see the playlist here), I have since discovered that if you enrol (still FREE) on Willa Workshops you get an extended version ie. more content! As I type this, on YouTube there are 8 videos on the playlist, whilst in the workshop there are those videos plus extra tips about organisation and storage, aging fluid recipes and thoughts about finding your style. Useful things even for the more experienced artist, and definitely would be amazing if you're a beginner. 

Tammy of Daisy Yellow is doing ICAD again - read all about it HERE.

Create art on an index card from 1st June - 31st July. I have friends doing the 100 Day project and they create a series of 7 cards once a week, so you could try that. Have fun!

I post as art happens on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page. Altho there's lots I don't love about those platforms, at least I can scroll through easily and see my art 💜 

April Review

Daylight Savings has ended and I have to admit we are in Autumn now (leaves falling, lower temperatures at night, dark by 6pm) but we had stunning weather for our school holidays, including Easter and ANZAC weekends, and I'm only just thinking about swapping out my summer clothes for boots and warmer layers. 

In my work life, I started April with a couple of "Be Brave" art sessions at school (2 hour sessions with 20 students learning something different out of their comfort zone). I taught them how to collage master sheets and then use these to create a zine from a single piece of paper or make bookmarks. This is their work.

In case you are keen to make zines yourself, Camila Garcia has created a YouTube called Mastering the Art of Zine Folding and shares 5 different ways of folding a book from one piece of paper. Very clear instructions and useful to have a variety of techniques in one place. 

See her other beautiful zines here. 

I am also very proud to say that my Intermediate School Kids' Lit Quiz A team competed against 45 other teams and won their Regional heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz on the last Monday of term. The team of 4 answered 100 questions : 10 questions across 10 different categories (unknown ahead of the day). They will compete in the National final later this month.

In my last review I shared that I was making a secret stitchy project that had an April deadline. Here's the quilt for my gorgeous first grandchild.

I stitched these words around the borders : twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are, up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky. 

This was the song I used to sing my boys when they needed soothing and is a strong memory that will hopefully now get passed to our next beautiful generation. 

Still working in my yellow JIYA Journal - a place for written journaling. These are some of the spreads from April : 

I am half way through now and it is just what I need it to be right now.

I joined Brooke Henry's offering of BB Bash Beyond which I shared last month (no longer available) which gave me lifetime access to all her prompts from the offering plus fun bonus content. During April I managed to play with the prompts of Messy

Repetition

and Scraps - snippet rolls and a master sheet on a recycled coffee sachet box which is going to be a book cover!

She has also inspired me to rearrange my supplies : I have always organised paper and fabrics by colour so why not paints and markers?! Seems obvious when I always gather by colour story for projects! She made me realise that this way you can concentrate on using the whole variety of supplies you have, making substitutions and using everything because you can see it. I had such fun laying out the colour stories.

Seeing them this way I am even enthused to use colours that aren't my favourites - all look full of possibility to me ♥ I now have dedicated containers that I will pull out as I do my projects with limited colour palettes.

A few free classes around at the moment - I guess Spring in the Northern Hemisphere is a time for new ideas. I was thinking I'd do Messy May (you can sign up HERE to get prompts delivered by email or just follow along on Instagram or Youtube) but I might just give myself some grace and hopefully create a journal with the lessons I have from Brooke. I have the prompts if I change my mind as I get into this month. 

Tam is hosting a new venture in May with 35+ art sessions.

As is often the case with such a large offering there is a 2 week free showcase (1-14th May) and then you can sign up for lifetime access for a price. Find out about the artists and sign up here.

Wendy Solganik is also offering a free Mixed Media 101 series. 

As I write this she has a playlist on YouTube that so far includes Under paper, Paper stash, Know your glue and Limited colour palettes. If you are a beginning artist, what I've seen so far is highly recommended. You can also get these videos as a free class which you sign up to from her site. This would be the way to go if you are interested in joining her email list and getting information about other classes and special deals. It's also a useful place to read more about what videos and why she is producing in this series.  

Hope May treats you well. You can see me posting during the month as projects happen on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.