July Review

In the middle of July I reached the milestone of blogging for 14 years! I started in 2010 and although I blog a lot less now, and most artists do their sharing on Instagram, I have no desire to stop any time soon. I love having a record of my projects and writing about what I've been doing. I also process a lot of my thinking and keep note of inspiration. You will see that this post has turned out to be long because I am thinking about Fodder School 4 alongside other inspirations.

I always start my monthly review with progress on my #52cards2024 : to create a card that reflects the past week (ending Sunday). I must include stitch, the colour turquoise and a word. These are my July cards : 

I post details about the inspiration for these on my Facebook Artist's page.

My Uncle had an important birthday in July and I had to make him a unique card. So great to have lovely handmade papers ready for this.

Last month's teacher for Fodder School 3 was Kecia Deveney. While I didn't have time to attempt her amazing book project, I had a lot of fun making shrink plastic charms and some layered tags

These will definitely fit in well with future projects. 

This month's teacher is Alison Bomber. She creates beautiful projects and has a fabulous YouTube channel HERE where she shares heaps of free lessons and inspiration. I love her voice and her beautiful soft techniques often inspired by Nature.

Fodder School 4 is coming and there are a few changes. 

The teachers are currently being revealed through August on Instagram and the Fodder Challenge will take place in October, but it is no longer free. You can buy just the challenge lessons, but they are only available until mid-November UNLESS you sign up for the whole course and get the Fodder Challenge and the other 11 months of teachers. Read all the information and sign up with the early bird price HERE. I have LOVED my time with Fodder School - been in it for the full 3 years. But I am currently considering whether I want to keep going with this since I have so many projects uncompleted and other challenges I want to do. Will keep you posted and I'm sure you won't ever regret signing up. I always find that each year there are several projects that would be worth the price of admission by themselves. And I have learned something from every single teacher.  

If you've never done Fodder School before, you could go to Willa Workshops and check out her taster options 

Lots of food for thought there....

July contained 2 weeks of school holidays and I was really excited to spend some of that time with inspiration from Francisca Nunes in her collaborative Flowers Magic Art Fest 2024. 

I made the journal above in 2022. Go HERE for my post of making it and you can see more "before" photos. I now have a few completed pages and lots more inspiration to keep going following the flower theme. I have forever access to the lessons and will keep sharing as time goes on. These are the pages I completed in July. This waxed page I added as a flip out to enjoy both translucent sides.

I loved the flower lesson from Lisa Goddard which I incorporated into my weekly card and will soon appear as a page or more in my journal

And there are a few lessons I've watched but not yet been motivated to action. It has still been very cold here. Looking towards September and the promise of Spring...

These are a couple of other FREE inspirations which I may incorporate as I go along : 

Roxy's Journal of Stitchery current play list for their Volume 6 Field Notes prompts via YouTube are HERE. They release inspiration and guidance every fortnight and the idea is to create a stitched accordian journal by the end. 

And while I didn't participate in Junk Journal July - those lessons remain up on YouTube HERE. 

Other free inspirations this month :  Helen Colebrook has free printables on her site HERE. Includes goal and habit tracking, envelopes and doodles. This is my fav  - so cute

And I adore these book inspiration from Giogio Craft : Seahorses, Shaped altered books, and Klimt. She says she has some tutorials on her YouTube channel. This is a blog post about her Everything Circles Book

a Klimt cover 

and a Klimt House Booklet.

She also does amazing slow stitching and I keep thinking about her E-book available on Etsy. 

I hope you don't mind going down that rabbit hole with me! It's good to be saved for my future reference - I adore Klimt, want to do more slow stitching, and her colours sing to me! Also an example of how you can get completely distracted from actually creating by looking at others' work! And a good example of why I am wondering if I need to drop Fodder School in favour of some new opportunities.

August is a very busy month ahead for me - 2 birthdays (husband and eldest son), trip to Welly to watch the All Blacks play Argentina, and at school we are celebrating the NZ children's book awards and our own library Book Week with a lit quiz (designed by me) and dress up day. I've also been invited by a local quilt guild to give a talk about my mixed media work. Hopefully there'll be time for some creativity too. I will try and post more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.

Flower projects and Free inspirations for July

I've been wanting to share my June review, but the Winter dark is making it hard to get the photos I want so thought I'd share this post and I'll be back in a day or so with the review.

First some FREE inspiration : Junk Journal July is back. 

You may remember I did this last year. 

Find out all about it HERE and get a workbook and ephemera pack. All FREE.

Follow along with the playlist on Youtube HERE for inspiration from a range of teachers. I'm really tempted because I loved that project, but I have to be realistic about how much time I have and I'm excited about this next offering...

Francisca Nunes has her collaborative Flowers Magic Art Fest 2024 coming up. I have been in this class since I made this fabulous journal in 2022 and it still needs to be filled. I think this is the year since class starts later this month when I will be on school holidays! 

Since I also have all of the past inspiration of 2022 and 2023 at my fingertips (thank you life-time access!) I will hopefully at last turn this journal into something wonderful. Have to say this Art Fest improves every year. This is the fabulous teacher line up for 2024. I love that I see teachers I already know and connect with and some new to discover. 

Find out everything about this event HERE. Currently early bird registration is US$67. This goes up to US$97 during fest (July 12th to 31st) and then US$137 after Fest ends. It's lifetime access so don't worry if you can't do it all live. You can sign up for previous years HERE, as well as a free class to make these journals below.

I am excited and inspired!

Also #Roxysjournalofstichery are starting their Volume 6 project in July. Watch the project reveal with Sarah HERE and then pop to her sister Rachel's details of the project HERE. You may remember that I made this stitched roll project with them last year. 

They release videos on YouTube every fortnight (Wednesday or Thursday depending on your timezone) and the next is going to be a Field Notes accordian book very much inspired by Edith Holden. Follow along with Roxy Creations by Sarah HERE and her sister Rachel HERE. I am thinking I will keep an eye on this project and may be able to incorporate some of it within my Flowers Magic Journal. Might see you there.

Must also let you know about Make Create Express 24 : Creative retreat weekend : 13-14 July. From past experience, this one can feel more pressured because you only have 24 hours to watch the content, but you mustn't feel like you have to see it all. Best strategy is to choose a few favourite teachers and enjoy them as free inspiration and time for you. The weekend is a taster/tempter for a year-long collaborative. Get all the info HERE. 

And just in case you were expecting the Fodder Challenge in July to launch Fodder School 4, this isn't happening until October in 2024.

January Monthly Review

January is always project heavy because I'm on holidays from my school job and I can work late into the night with long daylight hours. I am now back at school and it's been a particularly fabulous summer holiday break. I completed so many projects, you can catch up on my part one review post about cards HERE! 

We started the new year with a week away in Akaroa and Christchurch. So blessed to live in this gorgeous country and so hard to pick highlights so I will just share the artistic ones. The Giant's House in Akaroa - a garden of international significance. Created by artist Josie Martin, it's a sculpture mosaic garden. It's colourful, beautiful, quirky, inspiring - we spent a couple of hours here and this is a tiny taste. 

Christchurch had a massive earthquake in 2011, and the city has been remaking itself since that event. We went to the Earthquake museum and I was reminded of the initiative of Hearts for Christchurch. People from all over NZ and then the world created stuffed hearts and sent them to Christchurch. First they were used to create an amazing exhibition and then distributed to people affected by the quake. 

These were mine : March 2011. I even received a photo of a wee girl receiving one of the hearts when they were distributed 💜

And now to my creative joys this month. I had to stop all my other creativity from Christmas til mid-January so I could make this quilt for my sister-in-law's 60th birthday. 

See more detail about it HERE.

I spent most of January on my "Advice from the Sea" deck and starting my new weekly card project. Sorry I have to share another photo - I just adore these projects so much!

Erin Bishop of E B Mixed Media has released a class called Fabulous Florals. Free for a limited time HERE (no idea when the limited time ends but current as I do this post). 

On the last weekend of my holiday, I finally got a chance to explore her lessons and now have this beautiful floral fodder to play with. 

Such fun techniques. And even when you think they're not going to turn out, somehow the line work followed by fussy cutting makes magic. Highly recommended. You might also like to check her demos out on Youtube and I am always inspired by her Instagram account.

Looking towards February and beyond, I know I won't have as much to show you because I am back at work, but I am hoping that I might finish my journal which I started as December Daily-ish and get back to working in my JIYA Journal. There are a few reasons I am hopeful for this. I made good use of birthday money last year and now have a lovely supply of Megan Quinlan's Art Foamies - I have so many ways I need to explore these. Check out her YouTube for free ideas. 

And I was very excited to get my stencils from Leaca Young at the end of the year. I ordered them Wed 29/11 and they arrived on Thurs 21/12 in time to be a Christmas gift. Very impressive for postage from Alaska to New Zealand.  

As well as those things, Wendy Solganik is running a cohort for all those who have previously enrolled in "Love your (Imperfect) Letters". I signed up when she had a special on this class in March last year and while I did the drills and found my alphabet, I never finished all the lessons to experiment with gorgeous lettering. I managed to do some drills while on holiday 

And am hoping that I can share more work from this class soon.

Fav free inspiration this month - Roben-Marie offered a tutorial making these gorgeous neutral papers

I can't pick a favourite read this month - everything I've read in January has been great. 

And since this blog is about all of me, I'm finishing with an introduction to our 3 new family members living at our house. Meet Oscar (tabby), Obi (ginger) and Arthur (golden retriever puppy). We haven't had pets for a while and although a lot of work, they bring great joy and help us to slow down and be present 💜

You can see why I decided to split my January review in two! You won't hear from me as often now that term has started,  but I will continue to try and post here monthly and more regularly on my Instagram and Facebook Artist's page.