I'm travelling into a new way of working, a new country, a new language, and a new hobby which I'm passionate about. Come with me for some of the journey...
I'm so thrilled to show you in detail the results of a very special collaboration between Fodder School, PaperArtsy and Words & Pictures. If you take another look at the Fodder School 3 project I will be teaching, you may be able to guess at some of what's coming up!
I am absolutely delighted to have had the chance to design a brand new, original stamp set especially for my Fodder School 3 project - the Fodder Berry Edition. The plate has beautiful berry variations with complementary quotes and small ephemera for background detailing.
Plus I've curated three sets of their fabulous Fresco Finish Chalk Acrylic paints, combining colours specifically geared around this project, for the backgrounds and for painting botanical imagery, but of course they will be great for that whether you're making this project or not! The sets are: Botanical Basics, Berrylicious Brights, and Background Blues.
Botanical Basics - Three primaries (chosen to create my signature "cool" palette),
a dark (my much-loved French Roast) and a light (Snowflake - well, of course!).
This set is designed to create a palette for botanical painting...
... and you also get a glaze - for extra-shiny berries!
Berrylicious Brights - a fabulous berry bright palette, perfect for mixing berry or floral colours.
It will also take you through the berry seasons from summer into autumn.
A great way to augment the Botanical Basics.
Background Blues - steely cool blues along with a cool grey and a warm grey,
designed to create subtle layered backgrounds to let bright botanicals pop over the top.
It's absolutely not required to buy any of them in order to do my class - Fodder School actively encourages you to use what you have already in your stash. Not all of the berries you see on the houses are stamped... one element of the classes I'll be teaching is about sketching them for yourselves! Obviously, the stamps make life so much easier, so they are there for those who would like to add them to their stamp collection! You can find more details here on the PaperArtsy website and your local independent PaperArtsy stockists (worldwide) should be able to help you out if you'd like to get your hands on them.
And of course you don't have to be signed up to Fodder School to play with these new designs, but you might want to think about coming on what I have no doubt will be an incredible year-long creative journey. If you've seen any of the Fodder Challenge inspiration on offer, you already know what an amazing opportunity this is going to be.
The Early Bird Pricing offer is $207.00 USD plus tax for the year. As a lump sum, it feels a lot, but that’s an entirely new mixed media art course each month for $17.25 USD + tax per month - that's just over €15, or around £13.50 at current exchange rates. (This deal will last for five days only from 21st - 25th July so grab it while you can.)
There are loads more details about all that in my previous post, so I won't repeat it all here. I really just wanted to share my excitement about having these new PaperArtsy toys to play with. You can see more of the houses on the move in my own little personal Fodder School 3 video (the full trailer was in the previous post)... see below or simply click here.
I'm really excited about the whole Fodder School adventure, and about these lovely new PaperArtsy/Fodder products, and so grateful for the collaboration that has brought them to life. I hope you will be too.
Happy Sunday, all!
Better than any argument is to rise at dawn and pick dew-wet red berries in a cup. Wendell Berry (!)
On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels... Charles Dickens
Hello all! I'm dropping in to share the news that booking for Fodder School 3 opens today with a very special limited-time Early Bird offer EDITED - Early Bird is over now, I'm afraid, but you can of course still sign up for the course at the regular price which - cards on table - is still an incredible bargain for what's on offer.
All the details for registration are coming up later in this post, as well as the trailer for Fodder School 3. I couldn't be more excited about being a teacher on this year-long online mixed media art course. There are so many adventures ahead.
And here's another little peek at what I'll be sharing during my month of classes...
Not only that, but there's a very special bonus... a brand new, original stamp set designed especially around this Fodder School 3 project, in collaboration with PaperArtsy, as well as sets of PaperArtsy Fresco Finish Chalk Paints that I've curated for painting botanical imagery... but more of those on Sunday!
The Fodder Challenge has been a massive success with more than 17,500 participants. What an incredible 12 days of creativity, inspiration, and connection. It has been amazing seeing all the photos of fodder and being shared on Instagram #fodderchallenge and everywhere else.
If you need extra time to catch up, the Fodder Challenge lessons will be available until August 4, 2022. If you still haven’t registered for this free event, you still can by simply clicking this link! Yes, there's still time to find out how to create Floating Quotes of your very own...
But now is the chance to follow through with those 12 teachers and spend a year diving deep into mixed media creativity. Fodder School 3 will be a year which will feed your creative spirit, add to your skill sets, and take you on journeys you haven't even imagined.
Even at full price it would be a bargain, but today Early Bird registration opens, and is available for the next five days, making it an even better deal.
All the details are further down this post...
But first let me share some more of what I've been creating inspired by the other teachers during the Fodder Challenge...
Day 7 - Gratitude Medals with Jennifer Wilkin Penick
You may recognise both the circles and the ribbons from the previous Fodder sessions... that's the joy of Fodder - you make it, and then you use it! But I did create new floating quotes for these, using some of Seth Apter's brilliant word stamps.
Day 8 - Tag Book with Megan Quinlan
Oh, I was in my happy place with this one... Megan offered up a brilliantly simple book structure, and shared her background technique, and then issued an invitation to play with theme, colour and imagery to suit ourselves. Well, it was only ever going to be nature for me, wasn't it?!
Day 9 - Collaging with Christine Karpiak
Another lovely bit of creative playtime. I started with paint-mixing tests I did before creating my Salty Rosemary project for the PaperArtsy blog recently, and they became the spines for the collaging in this series of five soothing panels (I was in need of some soothing by this stage of the game... the pace has been frenetic - in a lovely way, but frenetic nonetheless!)
One of the great joys for me of the whole thing has been taking the inspiration on offer and finding how it translates into my own palette of colours and styles. It's given me a brilliant kick in the mojo, and I'm certain that the creative stimulation, joy, and discoveries will continue over the full year of Fodder School 3.
So how does Fodder School work?
The idea behind Fodder School is incredibly simple, yet the result is extraordinary. On the first day of each month, a new instructor reveals a series of lessons and notes on handmade collage fodder creation. Then, two weeks later, lessons and notes on a big project using that collage fodder are available for you to watch.
You’ll also receive bonus lessons that arise spontaneously when this community of lifelong learners has something interesting to share, like a fresh take on the lessons of that month.
You’ll be part of a large community of makers sharing their Fodder School art on Instagram and in the optional private Facebook group. But of course you can choose simply to watch, learn and make without any pressure to interact at all, if that's the way you prefer it!
Fodder School lesson content is all pre-recorded, so you can work at your own pace, with “lifetime access.” You'll also get lifetime access to all the classes from this year's Fodder Challenge - rather than losing them on August 5th.
What will I be sharing during my month of teaching?
Here are a few more sneak peeks of the Fodder School project I'll be teaching. In my classes alone, we'll be looking deep into nature, and playing with sketching, stamping, painting, house-building, and so much more! I'm so looking forward to sharing my world of botanical sketching, 3D collaging, and of course my tiny houses.
Who else is teaching on Fodder School 3?
The twelve FS3 teachers are:
Alison Bomber @w0rdsandp1ctures
Barb Smucker @barbsmuckerstudio
Chris Karpiak @christinekarpiak
Di Venter @di.venter
Jennifer Wilkin Penick @jenniferwilkinpenick
Kecia Deveney @keciadeveney
Megan Quinlan @meganquinlanstudio
Sarah Gardner @juicy.s.art
Shay Kent @shaymichellestudios
Susanne Randers @mitkrearum
Tiffany Sharpe @tiffanysimplysharpe
Yetunde Rodriguez @yaytoonday
If you’d like more information, including biographies of all those creative artists, you can read all about it here.
What does it cost and when does it start?
The cost of Fodder School 3 is $237.00 USD + tax. That really is incredibly good value for what you're getting - it works out at about $19.75 USD + tax per month for an amazing new course each month - delivered in two sets of classes. That's about €17.90 or £15.40 at current exchange rates. Compare that to the individual cost of taking online mixed media art classes a la carte (estimated at $1,524.00 USD) and you'll see what incredible value Fodder School 3 offers.
And there's even more on offer than just the two sets of classes each month. There will be bonus sessions cropping up throughout the year, as well as lots of introductory material already available to enjoy.
Once registered, you’ll have immediate access to Fodder School Orientation and lifetime access to Fodder Challenge 2023 (access to FC2023 will be directly inside of the FS3 classroom).
Fodder School 3 lessons begin on October 1, 2023 and run until September 30, 2024. But as soon as you have access to the FS3 classroom, there are already fascinating Orientation videos available to watch, dealing with supplies and other helpful information, including one with me on paints and colour mixing - with its own little challenge included.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend, and I'll be back with some more creative inspiration soon.
You can be cautious or you can be creative, but there's no such thing as a cautious creative. George Lois
Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought. Albert Einstein
A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life. Elizabeth Gilbert
Hello all! What on earth do I mean, "salty rosemary"?! Well, I'm sharing a project over at the PaperArtsy blog today, where the topic this month is Tinged Blue. We're looking in depth at paint-mixing with Surf's Up Fresco Chalk Acrylic as the colour around which everything is revolving... so the surf is the salty part. And for my creation I've chosen to use one of my most recent botanical stamp sets EAB32 Rosemary Edition - so that's (obviously!) the rosemary part of it.
My original colour mix was Surf's Up with Antarctic, but I ended up with another palette using Surf's Up with Magic Moss. Do hop over to PaperArtsy to see the colour mixes, and hear the full story behind how this project developed. And for a really brilliant exploration of colour theory, and mixing up tints, shades and tinges, have a look at Dounia's amazing introduction post for the whole topic - it's full of helpful images and fascinating detail.
I hope you enjoy whatever you end up hopping to see, and I hope you're full of the joys of spring, whatever you're up to. Happy crafting all!
There are infinite shadings of light and shadows and colors... it's an extraordinarily subtle language. Figuring out how to speak that language is a lifetime job. Conrad Hall (cinematographer)
Hello all, and welcome. Thanks for stopping by today. After the retrospective, we're moving forwards again, if a little slowly. I'm in that weird January hibernation phase... sluggish mojo, general sleepiness, and procrastination over the tax return which needs doing. But I forced myself into the craft room today, which resulted in one complete failure and then there's this tag which I wasn't sure about, but seems to be growing on me. I was going to call the post "Be fearless" or "Adventure Awaits", but the photo folder is called simply "Ivy Girl", and I decided I liked the simplicity of that better to go with this simple tag.
The background is a piece of Tim Holtz paper which I softened with some white chalk paint. You can see the lovely stony effect this gave me compared to the original.
Ivy has always played a big part here at Words and Pictures - very often as the real, living background to my photos. Sadly, in the dull and damp weather of these winter months I haven't managed as many outdoor photos as I'd like, so I've had to put the ivy on the tag instead.
The Distress Stain-dyed card was left over from some of the pages in my Winter Journal (VIII and XII if you're curious). According to my notes in those posts, it's a combination of Peeled Paint, Iced Spruce and Evergreen Bough - lots of holiday greenery names, but it'll do for ivy too. You can still just see some of the background script through the layers.
The girl is from a new packet of Christmas Paper Dolls. I used up a lot of the wintry dolls in my Winter Journal, so I grabbed some fresh supplies in the sales, and this new selection has some I've not seen before. I love her!
The words are a continuation of the positivity from the journal - preparing me for the changes ahead in the coming year.
I borrowed some of the other journal ingredients too - the tangled thread and the dark washi tape for her to stand on.
In fact, I may stick her in to the journal on a page of her own... I'll see how that feels.
There's some Vintage Photo-dyed crinkle ribbon tied up with fine twine at the top...
... and a paint-altered Muse Token at the foot of the tag. And there are also some butterflies' wings - the butterfly being a symbol of transformation - stamped in Watering Can Archival. And that's pretty much your lot for now. I simply must knuckle down to the tax return next, so you won't see me for a couple of days. Wish me luck! Thanks so much for your visit, and I'll see you again soon.
The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
Eleanor Roosevelt
I'd like to join in at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where they'd like us to Use Something New - my Paper Doll is part of a new (to me) collection, and this is also the first inking up for any of the butterflies from Tim's Flutter stamp set At Try It On Tuesday they're looking for Something Old, Something New - so the new things are as above, the Paper Doll and the Flutter butterfly, and there's also plenty that's old - the ivy die, the crinkle ribbon and the design paper which, like all my paper, has been waiting to be used forever!
Hello all! I'm just popping in to share my leftovers with you today... no, not turkey sandwiches (we haven't eaten our main Christmas meal yet, and we don't have turkey in any case). These are leftovers from my Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas which I've whipped up into a little bonus tag. Those who thought the little boy with the Christmas tree might put in an appearance soon... you were right. I made the crackled background just for this, but everything else is left over from the 13-day intensive tag workshop that took place in my craft room pre-Christmas. It rivalled Father Christmas's elves for productivity!
This is DecoArt Chalky Finish paint and crackle - Everlasting applied over a combination of Serene and Relic.
And I've given the edges a good inking with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso - I hope that gives it the look of an old wooden panel.
The blue snowflakes are the masks I used to create my splattery background for Tis the Season, to which this has become a sort of partner piece.
I cut them out of scraps of the music manuscript which put in an appearance on several tags, and once they'd been spritzed, they were too good to throw away.
The little boy was up for a possible starring role on the same Tis the Season tag but, as you know, he was pipped at the post by the girl who had also been gathering Christmas greenery, though not quite on this scale. He gets a tag all of his own here.
There were a couple of leftover bits of greenery, as well as a scrap of shimmering green card which hadn't been used, so I cut a couple more boughs.
And I added a couple of the sparkly berries which were hanging around on the desk.
With the greenery in place, I needed a little more colour around to echo it...
... so I added Peeled Paint and Forest Moss with a water brush in various places.
At some point during the 12 Tags, I seem to have cut one more Layered Snowflake than I needed. Oh yes, I was planning to layer white and kraft alternating on the snowflake for Snow Flurries, and then decided to go with pure kraft for that one, so I was left with a white one to play with.
I edged it with Vintage Photo and Ground Espresso and then used Frosted Crystal embossing powder to give it an icy shimmer.
I suppose the wooden stars aren't strictly leftovers. I did use some for my Bare Branches tag, but the rest were back in the jar... but it needed just a little something extra.
So not quite all leftovers, but what are a few tiny wooden stars between friends?!
Oh, and there are some words, of course...
So there you are - some leftovers for you to enjoy while I do my main Christmas Day today... I'll be round to spread some festive cheer over the next few days though, I hope. Stay warm and safe, everybody.
The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.
Calvin Trillin (I know I've used it before, but it's such a good one!)
Hello all! We're sharing a Tag Monday over at A Vintage Journey this week. I love Tag Monday... an excuse to play with a tag, Tim-style, no pressure, no theme - just me, some inks and some stamping! And given I'm in full-scale sample-creating mode at the moment it was lovely to take ten minutes out and just play. Hop over to see what my lovely team-mates have shared, but before you go, here's my contribution. This is not quite "a new leaf", though it sort of is. Although I've used most of the stamps in the Daydream plate from last year's releases, I'd never inked up this lovely skeleton leaf before, so it needed to happen.
I started by blending ink directly onto a manila tag, then started layering in some detail with stencils.... first the Bubble and then my favourite Latticework. I was using Broken China, Peeled Paint and Mowed Lawn... though in the end the greens rather took over from the turquoise (which is as it should be for leaves, I suppose).
I used DecoArt Chalk Paint to do my white stamping (a tip from Andy Skinner - if you haven't seen the things I made at his fabulous workshops, I'd love you to check them out). You can't go wrong with the Papillon script...
I have lots of book page pieces left from carving out my Bell, Book and Candle niche.
They're handy to grab, so that's what I ran through the Trellis Frameworks and added as an extra layer.
Both the quote and the leaf are stamped in Potting Soil Archival.
I needed them to hold their own against the busy layered background, so I did my usual trick of clear embossing them. It gives that lovely touch of gloss and dimension, as well as intensifying the colour because of the refraction of the light as it hits.
I used a blending tool to add some Rusty Hinge and Vintage Photo colour to the leaf very roughly. I love that you can still see the layers even through the browns.
I added some golden pen nibs, arranging them in strong vertical lines to echo the quote and the leaf. Well, what else are you going to use to write that gorgeous Papillon script?!
And the ribbons were actually dyed with Fresco paints for one of my samples (hmm... any guesses who the samples are being made for?! Watch this space), but I ended up not using them for that.
But with a touch of Vintage Photo the ribbons were perfect here, tied with a bit of rustic twine. I glued the whole tag onto some kraft card and trimmed it to size before attacking it with the distressing tool.
And we're all done. I love how it warms up as the rays of winter sunshine (between snow showers) hit it.
Do hop over to A Vintage Journey to see the taggy delights created by my wonderful team-mates. And you've still got time to play along with our current challenge to Use A Portrait on your Tim-style project. Check out all the details and our Travelling Instructions - we'd love you to join us on the journey. Thanks so much for stopping by and I'll see you again soon. Now the samples are all done and ready for posting I might even get to come visiting... Oops, no, tax return first!
I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copy-books; and I make so many beginnings there will never be an end.
Jo March in Louisa May Alcott's Little Women
