My JIYA Journal

I bought Megan Quinlan's class Journal into Your Art in October last year and it re-inspired my monthly journal practice in November and December. 

See her video on Youtube about this class here. I had decided not to continue with a monthly journal practice in 2023, but I've been missing documenting and writing to support good self-care. My experiences in those last 2 monthly journals last year were trying out ideas on file folder bases. This time I've made a proper JIYA journal sticking more closely to the lesson plan. 

I am so excited to have started working in this journal. 

Megan provides some formulas so that you can create pages with enjoyment and freedom instead of wondering how to start. 

It's also a really freeing experience because she gives us permission to jump around in the journal instead of going from first page to last and I can just do the next thing I want to do and not have to finish a page until I feel moved to. I love this punched circle giving a glimpse into the page beyond.

I'm including focal images cut from old calendars and magazines 

and want to include more faces and female forms in my work so I've been thinking about how I've done that previously and I'm linking here to the relevant blog posts for my future reference : using magazine collage, silhouettes of figures and faces, 

magazine makeovers inspired by Alisa Burke, using image transfers, making paper dolls, 

and using stencils. With gifted Christmas money I treated myself to these stencils by Leaca Young. 

I figured since I had to pay international postage I might as well make it worth my while. Not sure how long they will take to arrive from Alaska but I'm very excited for when they do! She has a cool technique where she uses her face stencils on the gelli plate and that also got me thinking about using the gelli plate to transfer magazine images. I'm sure this will be one of those journals where more ideas come as I work into it so I'll share more progress in my monthly reviews. 

Book in a box

I've completed my final project for 2022. It's a book of gelli prints from a combination of the first two months of lessons in Fodder School 2. We started in October with lessons from Rebecca Sower on Colour mixing, Gelli printing and Collage composition - so much in there to refer back to again and again. These are from my first gelli printing session.

I didn't manage to make any finished collages, but I knew our next lessons were with Drew Steinbrecher, another gelli print artist, and perhaps his project might work in combination with what I'd already done. I had already made these prints with inspiration from his free sessions in July

His project was to collage a board book. He re-used a children's book, but I already had this board book in a box that's been in my cupboard for a number of years (sorry no idea where it came from!) 

I combined gelli prints from both sessions with what I had learned from Rebecca about composition, and it seems no project is complete for me without words (these are Tim Holtz Idea-ology : Big Chat). 

It was challenging to work in this narrow format to begin with (20cm w x 8.5cm h) but then I enjoyed the stretch and got into a rhythm.

I thought that I would want to add more marks and embellishments to the pages, but once it was all glued down and I paged through, I decided I enjoy being able to focus on the simplicity of these colours and patterns. Click on the photos to see the words larger. 

Happily there were some perfect spaces on the back of the box for me to stamp and date my project.

I learned so much from these lessons. I was limited to not include as many layers and texture as I normally would so the book would still fit inside the box and am happier with the outcome than I ever thought I'd be. 

It's New Year's Eve morning in New Zealand so I'll wish you a 2023 of discovery, love, laughter and creative joy  💜

New cards and fodder school with Laura Dame

I watched a gelli printing technique with alcohol ink markers with Kate Crane and it gave such lovely ethereal print results I thought they would be perfect for my next lot of card bases. Unfortunately I couldn't get it to work! Then I used isopropyl alcohol to do some cleaning up on the stencils and the plates and this is my pile that 'didn't work'. There really aren't any failures using a gelli plate!

Our instructor for Fodder school in May was Laura Dame. Lots more fun with stencils and gelli printing - I learn something new from every teacher we have. It was especially great to be reminded to get out my spray paint cans again and have fun creating patterning with stencils over papers that weren't finished or didn't feel right for whatever reason. I worked over some of the papers above and a few others.

These are some of my favourites

That last one was on some uninspiring scrapbook paper. Everything is fair game.

Dig into Laura's YouTube channel for free instruction and a taste of her teaching style including using coffee and paynes grey on book pages and using coffee, stencils and watercolours to make collage papers. I have yet to try these but don't Laura's look delicious? 

I needed to make some more cards and decided that some of the lovely sprayed backgrounds above would be just perfect. 

All with some fodder school focals added and I have a few spares that can have words added as the occasion arises. A pink background was also perfect for my Journal 52 Week 22 prompt.

I am really enjoying my new Pink monthly journal for June. I shared the cover here. 

Free Online Class Inspirations for May

Happy Saturday and I'm going to be making the most of my weekend before I'm back to work on Monday after school holidays. I'm hoping I'll be able to keep creating regularly this term. I have lots of ideas and these Free online options might help you to create too. 

FIrst up, Messy May - a totally free, daily-ish journaling challenge for imperfect creatives hosted by Caylee Grey. Every day, you'll receive a new theme and prompt, plus the host for the day will share their take on it.    

Sign up and you'll also get a free download of Caylee's best books for Art Journalers. Plus check out the Get Messy Blog with a ton of free inspiration.

You can also register HERE for Kellee Wynne Studio's Virtual Art Summit.

You'll get notified on May 2nd to either use pay-what-you-can or buy the course at the forever price of $95. Interesting to investigate a mix of artists I already know and love plus some new to me.

Additionally - Birgit Koopsen is an inspiring artist who uses gelli plates with gorgeous colour and unexpected mark making tools. This May she's doing a gel printing challenge on her Insta account and the theme is "tools". Check out the #birgitkoopsengelprintingchallenge for this and previous years' challenges.

And she has a heap of inspiring tutorials and demos on her Insta Linktree. 

Tagged, Sewn, Connected workshop

I am not going to enrol in more classes this year UNLESS they are by teachers I adore, are attractively priced and I can see they will feed my creative soul. Enter Tagged, Sewn, Connected with Kristi Nazzaro (Soul Positive) and Kristin Peterson (Altered States Studio).

I love found words, tags, mixing fabric and paper with stitch...this workshop ticks all my boxes and it's so nice to support artists I love. I purchased this course as soon as it was available and watched all the videos, but it's taken until now to have time to make my own version. 

I am trying to use what I have without spending money if I can help it. I could have purchased a packet of shipping tags at the recommended size for around $11, but instead I went to our $1-$2-$3 shop and purchased an A5 Board pad for $4.50. It has 25 sheets of white card (tag weight). I printed onto some of them with Kristen's technique using alcohol inks and then tried this technique from Tiffany Goff Smith using isopropyl alcohol to get the ink off and get more prints. 

Make sure you are working in a very well-ventilated space but I'm loving that all of this is from one pass of adding alcohol to stencils on an A4 size gelli plate. I cut them into large and small tags and felt excited by how cool they look. 

I cut a few more from leftovers in my stash so I can create a book just using this colour theme and then I started playing with what I'd use for the pockets and dug through my stash of sari ribbon and I'm in love with how I can get beautiful variety

These are the large tags with their pockets

Small tags for inside the pockets. I'm sure you can spot some of my collage fodder making an appearance. Especially happy with how my handwriting on clear tape appears here.

And then it was time to join them together to make an accordian book.

I'm sure you'll enjoy this class. It's so reasonably priced at US$22 - you can get it here.