Watercolour Playtime in my Fodder Journal

Hello all!  Given it's already November, it's about time I filled you in on the second part of October's Fodder School 3 classes... 

Having shared with us how to make the Coptic-bound watercolour journal in the Make Fodder classes of the month, Di Venter shared some ideas for watercolour spreads to go inside as her Use Fodder section.

I'm no stranger to painting the odd watercolour page or two, so I used her inspiration to nudge me into action in a few new directions, and I pushed the boat out colour-wise a bit!

I was inspired by some of Di's fruity pages, by the repetition she often uses in her spreads, by some of her colour playtime, and by her colour block page with doodles inside - though I went my own way with what I doodled!

Take a look and see what I got up to:

And here are just a few close-up details so you can see the gorgeous texture of the handmade Khadi papers I used in my journal.  They took a little bit of getting used to as they are really very rough, but I soon found how that texture could actually help with the watercolour effects (the plum page was the first break-through for that).

I'm already fully immersed in November's classes with Tiffany Sharpe, so I'll try to be back before December to share some of that creativity with you.  

Don't forget, you can of course still sign up at any time for Fodder School 3... all the details and registration are here.

I hope you're all doing well - I've been very busy getting the garden ready for winter... just as well as our first hard frost hit last night.  Off to get the gardening gloves on again now to cut back the roses for over-wintering!  Have a great weekend once it gets here... we've got some snow forecast (but not much).  A good excuse to stay in the craft room!! 

Because watercolour actually moves on the paper, it is the most active of all mediums, almost a performance art.

Nita Engle

Water colours are wet colours in water.

David Hockney

Insect Instructions

Hello all!  We're starting a new challenge over at A Vintage Journey, and the lovely Annie is asking us all to spread our Inky Wings.

You can find all the details and instructions for the theme over at A Vintage Journey along with the usual incredible inspiration from my fellow Creative Guides.

Basically, as long as you have some ink and some wings involved, you'll be flying!  Before you hop over there to take a look, let me share my quartet of insect ATCs.

They're slightly bossy insects (embossed and bossy, how's that for word play?!), full of instructions for how to live your best life.

And after the unexpected fun I had with my excursion into the coral pink zone (do check out my Blushing Coral Butterflies if you missed them) we are back in my happy colour palette of blues and browns.

It all started very simply with a few spritzes of Distress Spray and Distress Oxide Spray onto an A4 piece of cheap watercolour paper.















Out of that I cut six ATCs, trying to choose areas which had some variety of colour as well as some white space.  Four of those made the final cut for this quartet, and I have two left for another day.












I was pretty sure from the moment I heard Annie's theme title that I would be getting out Tim Holtz's Entomology stamp set.















After this quartet, I think there are only two left that I haven't used at some point.  (I can't quite bear to ink up the mosquito-type one, such is my long-standing enmity with the species!)

They are, as you can see, embossed with Vanilla White Wow embossing powder, for that lovely light-catching dimension.













As always, when embossing an intricate stamp, I used Archival rather than sticky embossing ink - I think you get a more detailed result that way.














I chose some buttons from my hoarded stash and hand-stitched them to the ATCs, layered over some scraps of handmade paper (not handmade by me, I should say).














Long time followers will know that sewing is one of my least favourite things to do.  Sewing machines break when I sit down at them, and I used to put my skirt hem up with double-sided sellotape at school!













But I was prepared to make an exception in this case, and had great fun looping some extra wild thread around the buttons to add movement.














I did mention that these embossed insects are a little bit bossy.  You've already been told to Be brave with your life, and here are some more instructions.














I chose Small Talk stickers that all have suggestions (commands?) for us on how to live a good life.














They're edged with Pumice Stone ink and layered over torn strips of Design Tape.
















You may have spotted in the background that there are some glistening cobwebs...















... subtly hovering there to capture the winged insects if they fly in the wrong direction!

I doodled some frames around the edges, using grey ink and white with my dip pen.















And some ivory sequins capture extra flashes of light as you move the ATCs around.














There was a bit of text stamping early on in the process, but it's mostly disappeared.  However, there's lots of splatter to keep things lively.

So that's my set of Inky Wings ATCs for you.  They make me very happy.  I hope you like them too, however you feel about insects in real life!

If you're after some more inspiration, do hop over to A Vintage Journey and take a look at what the other Creative Guides have been making.  We hope you'll be inspired to spread your own Inky Wings and join us on the journey this month.

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope to be round to repay some more visits over the next few days.  Have a great weekend, everyone!

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain.
Henry David Thoreau

Your dreams are what define your individuality. They have the power to give you wings and make you fly high.
P.V. Sindhu

I've just got time to squeeze this in to the Alles Geht (Anything Goes) theme over at ATCs mit Herz (ATCs with Heart)
At Crafty Cardmakers they're inviting us to Add a Critter... mine have six legs and wings into the bargain
Try It On Tuesday are looking for some Animal Magic - well, if insects are animals, then these should fit in well
More Mixed Media Challenge are playing Anything Goes with an Optional Twist of Brown - done!
At the Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge it's another month of Anything Mixed Media Goes