40% off Wanderlust 2026 (and other Everything Art courses)

Hello all, I just had to stop by to let you know about the amazing 40% off sale at Everything Art for the next fortnight.  From now until 8th December, there is 40% off all classes and bundles at Everything Art including - and especially! - Wanderlust 2026.  Use the code HAPPY40 at checkout.

That's obviously the one I'm excited about, since I'm one of the 35 teachers on the one-year mixed media adventure that is Wanderlust.  It all kicks off in January, so this is a great chance to grab a year of creative inspiration at a fabulous reduction.

Use my affiliate link to give my earnings a little boost, without costing yourself anything extra...

Sign up for Wanderlust 2026

And of course, check out all the other amazing courses on offer... you'll find lots of tempting possibilities!

I'm so looking forward to sharing my class with the Wanderlust adventurers who have already signed up.  I hope I might see you in the classroom too.

Don't forget... signing up via my affiliate link here makes a big difference to me!  For now, have a great week, and I'll be back soon.

(Sale prices last only until 1pm UK on the 8th December.)

Dare yourself to live the life you’ve always wanted.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

Helen Keller

Wanderlust 2026 Booking Opens!

Booking is opening for Wanderlust 2026, hosted by Everything Art, but you'll have to be quick if you want to grab one of the bargain Early Bird spots.

There are just 2,000 Early Bird spots available at $99 USD (approx €85 / £75 / $145AUD / $137 CAD). They usually sell out within the first 24 hours, so if you’ve been thinking about joining — now’s the moment.  The regular price is $199 - which still an extraordinary bargain for what you get, I think!

As of 4pm Central European time, you can hop over and book using my affiliate link: 

Book for Wanderlust 2026

(That's Friday 3pm UK, 10am Eastern, 7am Pacific and midnight Fri/Sat for AEST!)

If you want a great introduction to the course, you can join Kasia live on the Everything Art YouTube channel at 3.30pm (European) and be there as she opens the doors at 4pm.  But remember to come back and use my link to sign up if you decide to.

Painting. Collage. Journalling. Printmaking. Even stitching and simple sculpting... 

Wanderlust 2026 is all about exploring the full spectrum of mixed-media. Each week, a brand-new project from one of 35 teachers will keep your creativity flowing.  I can’t wait to share my lesson with you — and to see what you create in the year ahead. 

Wanderlust isn’t just an art course — it’s a way to keep showing up for your creativity week after week. In 2026, you’ll get 48 lessons, collected in four creative seasons, and a supportive community where you can grow, experiment, and make art that feels like you. 

I’m so proud to be one of the Wanderlust Teachers for 2026, and I'm really excited about the project I'm going to be sharing. I’d love for you to join me on this adventure. 

Enrol now by clicking on this link: Book now for Wanderlust 2026 and good luck grabbing one of those Early Bird spots.

This is my own personal affiliate link, which gets me a little boost to my earnings if you use it - at no extra cost to you!  I hope to see you in the classroom...

I do not want to get to the end of my life and find that I just lived the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.

Diane Ackerman

I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.

Rosalía De Castro

Tags from Christmas Past - part 1

Hello, all - hope your festive preparations are going well.  I've been unpacking my storage crate of Christmas and winter creations so that I can decide what gets to go on display this year... and it's not easy to whittle it down! 

(You can watch the unboxing over on my YouTube channel and see all of these as they emerge from storage - and hear a bit more about the products used.)

I've got a seasonal corkboard which can display 21 tags at a time, chosen to reflect the time of year.  Halloween/Autumn had been up for far too long, so it was time to make a change.  But I'm only halfway down the crate, and already I've got far too many to choose from... I sorted them into groups so that I could try to make more sense of them all.

There are the reds... 

There are the blues and greens and neutrals...

And there are the jumbo tags created from the 12 Tags of Christmas inspiration provided by Linda Coughlin, the Funkie Junkie, when she used to share a Christmas inspiration challenge in the weeks leading up to the festival... 

It's a little bit overwhelming seeing them all together... and as you'll see if you watch the video linked above, we're not done yet!  

There are some non-tags in the crate too, and they'll be coming up next, and then there's an Advent set of 25 numbered tags for the final countdown.  

I'll aim to share those with you over the next week or so in the run-up to Christmas.

But in the meantime, which 21 would you put on your corkboards, if you had to choose?!  See you again soon for the next bit of unboxing.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy crafting, all!

Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.
Edna Ferber

It’s coming on Christmas, they’re cutting down trees. They’re putting up reindeer and singing songs of joy and peace.
Joni Mitchell

It's all about Nature (and my stamps!) over at PaperArtsy...

Hello all!  The theme over at PaperArtsy this month is Nature, with a focus on my very own Eclectica Alison Bomber stamp designs.  There have been some truly beautiful contributions from the PaperArtsy bloggers, and now I'm there myself with a super-speedy make celebrating the turning of the seasons.

Head over to the PaperArtsy blog to see how easily these textural collages came together, and while you're there, do take a look at the other projects from this month's Nature theme, all using my stamps too.

And I do hope you caught the Q&A with me which started off this month's Designer Focus over on the PaperArtsy blog... it's quite the in-depth interview!!  Thanks so much for stopping by and for hopping onwards, and happy crafting, all.

Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have the eyes to see them.
John Ruskin

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu

I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order.
John Burroughs

(All these nature quotes, and more, are available on my PaperArtsy stamp set EAB21 Nature Edition.)

Mood Board Inspiration - Guest Designing for Simon Says Stamp

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be back in the Designer Spotlight for the second of my October guest posts for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  I was so inspired by the fabulous Mood Board which forms this week's challenge theme prompt... and I love where that inspiration took me!  There will be a YouTube Few Minutes of Fun video later this week with the full process for these altered candle lanterns but, for today, I hope you'll enjoy taking a look at the finished results here.

This week we're inspired by a gorgeous autumnal moodboard - and we hope you will be too.  Do check out all the incredible projects over on the main challenge blog - as always, the team have created some glorious makes to get your creative juices flowing!

My project is a three dimensional one, inspired by the candles, the autumn leaves and fir branches, the black-framed umbrella with those wonderful raindrops... well, almost everything really.

Here's that mood board so that you can see for yourselves what I'm talking about from here on in!  As soon as I saw the candlelight and those vintage spectacles, my brain went straight to candle lanterns.  I've altered a lot of old jars to create candle holders over the years... but you can never have too many candles, right?!

As I mentioned, there'll be a video where you can follow along the whole process coming out this Saturday (I'll add links to that here once it's live), but for now, here's a quick outline of what I did.  First I made sure my jar was nice and clean.  And then I glued on some of the gorgeous Tim Holtz Idea-ology Halloween Collage Paper using some matte medium.

I have to say, I don't find this paper particularly spooky - it's simply beautiful with its mixture of text, music, organic natural elements and decorative ironwork.

I love the ornate iron gates.  And the imagery includes some greenery which works well to echo the shadowy fir branches in the left-hand picture in the mood board.

I wanted some shimmering autumnal leaves too, of course.  Those glowing leaves on the left of the mood board were the second thing to catch my eye after the candlelight...

I always have a big batch of them cut at this time of year, so I had some ready to go.  (You can watch a YouTube video for those too, right here.)  As well as the Bigz Layered Leaf die, these are a mixture of the Tim Holtz Sizzix Thinlits sets Fall Foliage and Leaf Fragments layered up together.

There's Distress Mica Stain - Jack O'Lantern and Flickering Candle - in amongst the Distress Spray Stains - Vintage Photo, Crackling Campfire and Rusty Hinge, as well as many more.  With all the shimmer on the leaves, with either the sunlight or the candlelight catching them, they even have that glow that you see on the mood board.  (This is the large Layered Leaf Bigz die, which comes with its own embossing folder to create the texture.)

I added some Idea-ology Design Tape from the Elementary collection around the tops of the jars.  

Not only did that give me a nice neat finish around the screw top part of the jar, but it also echoes the gold frames of the spectacles... especially when seen from above!

The black metal spokes of the umbrella inspired me to create some wire handles out of simple garden wire, and I thought I'd like some raindrops too, like the ones shimmering on the clear plastic of that umbrella.

So I dug some round droplets (flat-backed) out of my stash and used Glossy Accents to stick them onto the jars, in fairly random places.

I love the additional texture they add but even more than that I love the way they catch the light as the jars move, and as the candles flicker.

Because, of course, that's the magic moment with these jars. They look good in bright sunlight when they seem most solid...

They look good when the light is behind them and you can really appreciate the translucence of the collage paper...

But maybe they look best of all when those tealights are lit and flickering away inside!

I'll be sharing a Reel of the daylight and nighttime looks over on Instagram, but you can also see the candles lit in the YouTube video from Saturday onwards.

I hope you'll be able to take advantage of at least one of those options to see these candle lanterns in action, moving from day to night...

I hope that's given you a kick start of inspiration for the beautiful challenge Mood Board this week at the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge.  As always, the incredible team regulars have offered up a wealth of wonderful projects, so do make sure you hop over to check those out. 

 

As ever, they'll be spotlighting some of your creations at the end of the week, and of course there's the usual Simon Says Stamp voucher to be won in a random draw, so that you can treat yourself to a little shopping spree!

I can't wait to hear what you think of these lanterns - I think they're some of my favourite candle jars that I've made - and I hope you'll join us this week in creating something inspired by this beautiful autumnal Mood Board. 

And just to tempt you even further to visit the YouTube Few Minutes of Fun episode on Saturday... you'll see more than just these two lit up at the end!!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and happy crafting, all!

If we are to have any hope for the future, those who have lanterns must pass them on to others.

Plato

I am out with lanterns, looking for myself.

Emily Dickinson

If you light a lantern for another, it will also brighten your own way.

Nichiren

My Fodder School Year - with YouTube Hop

Hello all, just dropping in to let you know that I am sharing some reflections on my year in Fodder School as part of the Fodder School 3 YouTube Hop.  You'll hear me musing about the joys and the lightbulb moments as well as some of the creative struggles I encountered along the way.  And naturally I'm sharing a quick look at the projects I made - 10 out of the 12 months, so not too shabby!  And one of these days I'll catch up with the two I missed...

Start with my video here and then, of course, as with any good Hop, you can move on and explore Fodder journeys that have been taken by some of the participants as well as a few of the other teachers.  This hop contains a wealth of inspiration all by itself, whether you took part in Fodder School or not.

The links you need for the Hop are in the description below the video once you get there.  I hope that you'll enjoy seeing the variety of mixed media and collage art projects that we tackled in one year of Fodder School, and that you are inspired by the variety you will find in how each of the hoppers executes the same lessons. Enjoy the show!

The amazing instructors for this year of Fodder School - some of whom I mention only by their first names in the video - were Di Venter in October, Tiffany Sharpe in November, Barb Smucker in December, Megan Quinlan in January, Jennifer Penick in February, Shay Kent in March, Chris Karpiak in April, Susanne Randers in May, Sarah Gardner in June, Kecia Deveney in July, me (Alison Bomber) in August, and Yetunde Rodriguez rounding things off in September.

I'll be back on Monday with the first of an exciting series of posts for October - so I hope to see you then.  In the meantime, have a great weekend, everybody!

Every day, every year, every new season is a reset from the last, and you are still hungry for success, to do things better and better.
Fernando Alonso

Collage Quartet

Oh dear, I'm so behind here!  It's the 1st of June, and I'm still catching up with sharing what we got up to in April in Fodder School... but I promise it's worth the wait.  It was an absolute creative treat.  The lovely Christine Karpiak offered up so many different techniques and ideas, and the final project was definitely right up my street!

The classes took us through a process of gathering and making fodder in many different ways, and then using that fodder to create a series of dimensional collages.  

My finished collages have a subtle, natural look to them that makes me so happy, but it's easy to overlook just how many different elements went into the fodder gathering and making.

There's clay-work, eco-dyeing, rusting techniques, stamp-carving, several methods of creating fodder papers, nature-foraging... and it was all so much fun.

I did my eco-dyeing with red cabbage... it's a staple ingredient here in the Czech Republic, so I thought I might as well go with the local produce!  

I was astonished at how playing with the acid/alkali balance of the dye created a gorgeous range of colours, so subtle and all beautiful in their own way.

I'm no stranger to rusting - there's usually a bit of metal or two decaying (deliberately) somewhere in my art studio...

... and I really enjoyed incorporating the rusting side-effects into some of the paper fodder making.

Those papers weren't the only ones we made... we also played with other methods of creating delicious collage papers.  As usual, I was working with my happy colours.

And my colour palette was also strongly influenced by my clay pieces, which were actually one of the first things I tackled.  I added a bonus session to the Fodder School classroom on these, as I used a different method from Chris for painting mine.

(If you join Fodder School, you get access to all the monthly bonuses too, of course.)

Just the fodder by itself made me extraordinarily happy, so I knew the collaging was going to be a breeze!  Working in a series is one of my favourite things to do.  And using old book covers as a substrate is another of my favourite things...

I put on some music and just allowed myself to become immersed in composition.  So meditative as a process. 

That word composition is so apt... arranging the elements on the book board substrates is all about harmony and rhythm, balance and counterpoint, just as it would be in music composition.

My quartet didn't feel quite balanced until I had added a significant word to each panel. Tim Holtz Quote Chips to the rescue...

They're positioned for harmony, counterpoint and rhythm, of course, but also for meaning.

Since the collages are mounted on book boards, and book pages play such a significant role...

... somehow I needed words in my final layers too.

Really and truly a beautiful month of creative exploration and joy.  So many of my favourite things, and a few new ones too.

I found myself in that sought-after state of creative flow so often this month, and I think it shows in the final quartet.  They make me deeply happy.

If all this is getting your creative juices flowing then this is a great time to sign up for Fodder School 3.  We're just starting the June classes - which include a mailart swap around the world!  It's only for Fodder School 3 participants, of course, so find all the details for registering here, and you get access to all the classes already available, as well as to those yet to come... including mine in August!

Happy June to you all... I hope you're enjoying a creative or restful or excitingly busy time (whatever you prefer) and I'll see you again soon.  After all, I need to share May with you before June catches up with me too far!  Happy crafting, all.

A word after a word after a word is power.
Margaret Atwood

Books and doors are the same thing. You open them, and you go through into another world.
Jeanette Winterson