My life in a box - or outside it!

Hello all!  The March Fodder School classes have been full of joy and moments of reflection.  The invitation from this month's teacher, Shay Kent, was to tell our life story on a decorative board, and so began a process of gathering, making, sifting and composition.  I found my way to an assemblage of visual poetry which makes me deeply happy.

This post is a long one, exploring some of the story of my creative life journey in words and pictures and objects, so you might want a cup of coffee or a glass of wine at hand.

(I obviously won't be sharing any of Shay's techniques or instructions here - you'll need to join Fodder School for all those details! - but I am going to include a bit about how I constructed my "board", since it's nothing like hers.)

You'll notice very quickly that a) it's not a board, but a box (or a crate, really); and b) it's not my whole life story.  It's an array of elements that hold meaning in my creative life journey, shaping who I am and how I live my life, full of stories about the things that matter to me, both in words and pictures.

Not so much my life in a box, as a life lived outside of many boxes...

Instagram doesn't really allow for long form descriptive writing, so I've decided to share some of the stories and meanings which are threaded through the elements in this wooden crate here on the blog, where War and Peace-length posts have always been traditional.

First, some practicalities... starting with the choice of the wooden crate - picked up for free in a supermarket fruit and vegetable section.  If you've followed me for a while, you'll know that much of my craft studio storage makes use of wooden crates (all picked up for free).

For years, they have transported both books and art supplies to and fro when I've been on the move for work.  (A long ago What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday post even shows how, having been used to pack and transport the supplies, the crates then became the shelves on which I kept things while working away from home.)

And now they help store stamps (and lots of other supplies) on the shelves in my studio, having had a coat of white paint to zhuzh them up, along with some kraft/wildflower wrapping paper coverings.  They work beautifully as storage both upright and on their sides...

Some (small) crates are used to display the many (many) tags I make, ready for flipping through for inspiration...

And some cope with much messier storage of fodder, or part-made or waiting-to-be-made projects.

So when I was initially collecting possible things for inclusion, it was automatic to me to gather them in one of the shallow crates I grab whenever I see one in the supermarket which is nearly empty of spring onions (or raspberries or whatever it happens to be).  

It wasn't long before I realised that actually I'd far rather have a wooden crate up on the wall than a pinboard.  It fits much better with the rest of the studio aesthetic, and it makes it easier to display lots of the heavier, dimensional objects which it was important to me to include.

But I also needed a surface I could pin things into, so I grabbed a couple of the (many) cheap canvases I have hanging around the craft room, and tried to work out a way to fit those in the crate.  (I've kept that label - "Czech Farm" - on the side... my move to the Czech Republic is definitely part of this creative story.)

To secure them, I used a bradawl to make holes where they were needed...

... and then screwed right through the crate into the wooden frames of the canvases.  

Not only does the layered arrangement give me the dimension and architecture I love to have in my artwork...

... but it creates a perfect "shelf" on which to stand the glass bottles (of which more later - they are significant!).

I knew my life wasn't going to fit in one box, so I wired some hooks to the bottom of the crate to allow for overflow.  My life has never fitted in conventional boxes...

Then it was a question of choosing and arranging my gathered memorabilia along with the lovely fodder made with Shay, so enough of the practicalities.  It's time to dig a little deeper and tell you something about what it all means to me.

Obviously, there's a reason I chose to be known in the online world as Words and Pictures.  Many of you will know that most of my working life has been spent in the theatre, working first of all as an actor (aeons ago) and then as a text & voice coach, specialising in Shakespeare. (Find out lots more about that side of my creative life on my main website, Words and Pictures - where you can also sign up for my newsletter.)  That included ten years working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, as well as with theatre companies around the world.

Words and wordplay have always been an obsession of mine, especially Shakespeare's language, so it is only right that his name and some of his words feature prominently in the crate.  And there is a direct through line to my Pictures side because those large pieces of text are actually from my recently released PaperArtsy Printed Tissue, glued to some fabric.  And PaperArtsy, of course, have played a major part in my creative story... more of that as we continue.

The bottles are important because they mark a really significant moment of realisation in my creative journey - definitely a lightbulb moment (though the lightbulb didn't make it into the final layout!).  I had no idea, none whatever, when I decided to leave my full-time position at the RSC and go freelance as a text & voice practitioner, that this visual creative journey would surge into being.  I had dabbled in miniature-making for much of my life to help out with my mother's dollshouse hobby, but painting, drawing, inking, stamping, paper, mixed media, watercolours... nope.  Never.

But that's what happened.  This blog, started in 2012, charts those early days of discovery, exploration and obsessive experimentation, and quite a lot of the rest of the journey too.  Don't get me wrong... the learning curve continues.  I still discover, explore and experiment... that is the essence of creative play and it's at the heart of my Words work too. 

The glass bottles mark a moment when it dawned on me that there had been a real shift in my brain patterning.  I was suddenly filled with a compulsion to possess (touch, use, play with, make art with) vintage glass bottles, and I sourced boxes and boxes of them (mostly on Ebay).  It was the moment I surrendered to the discovery that I was now just as obsessed with visual, tactile, artistic objects as I was with words.  I'm not any less obsessed with words - it's both Words AND Pictures now.

I think my deep and abiding love of nature is pretty clear in the crate.  The little wooden leaf clusters are left over from the wedding invitations I designed and made for one of my oldest and closest friends - you'll notice they've all got leaves missing!

And my colour journey is also very evident - the blues, greens, browns, purples, turquoises and greys - as well as my love of texture and different materials... wood, glass, metal, rust.

I love anything which captures light - the glass bottles again, but also the acetate and/or embossing powders in the various tags and artwork I've included.

Let's detour into those artworks... Long time blog followers may remember that I used the name "butterfly" in the early days (I'm still "butterfly crafter" on Pinterest).

I didn't realise as I was selecting them, but it turned out the main tags I chose to feature all have butterflies.

There are two main pairs of tags (and another pair plus one).  Making things in pairs and sets and series has become very much part of my creative mode.  Even though the tag pairs are slightly separated here (one of each pair in the crate, the other dangling beneath), they still call to one another.

They are Tim Holtz Idea-ology butterflies... he's a massive influence in my creative journey.  In fact, it was discovering his Distress Inks that started my whole visual art journey.  These tags are made with Distress Inks, my very first crafting love (soon to be followed by Tim Holtz designs in Idea-ology, Sizzix and all the rest of the Distress mediums!).

The other huge influence has been my creative partnership with PaperArtsy.  Very early in my journey, Leandra Franich got in touch to invite me to be on their Design Team, and many happy years of doing that then led to me to designing stamps for PaperArtsy.  That started with words... quote collections, with each set geared around a theme - Trees & Flowers, Music & Silence, Friends & Friendship, Night & Day and so on.  Words gathered from across the centuries and around the world, many of which I had been collecting in notebooks for years, which could now be available to me (and others) as rubber stamps to be added to art and craft creations of all kinds.  

In the meantime, I had started to explore watercolours, both loose, free-flowing watercolours (like the one included here in the crate), and also much more precise and detailed botanicals.

That botanical watercolour journey intersected with my PaperArtsy partnership to create the botanical sketch stamps you can see in action on a couple of the butterfly tags. (Violets from the Violet Edition and rosemary from the Rosemary Edition.)

 

Those botanical stamp sets include theatrical, historical and personal memorabilia too, so it all comes full circle back to theatre and words!  And there are personal memorabilia here in the crate too, which brings me to the other main stories running throughout the display.

Why did I move to the Czech Republic?  It's a question I'm often asked... the simplest answer is that it's my family heritage.  My maternal grandparents were both from here.  That cinefilm reel not only references my theatre/film connections, but came from my grandfather's big collection of films.

The postcard comes from a huge collection gathered by his cousin, Martha Pollack, on her worldwide travels with her sister Edith.  My stamp designs include some of her school reports from Vienna in 1903 as ephemera - I really wanted to include one of those in the crate, but decided it was too fragile to be up on the wall, so the postcard is a substitute!  Her side of the family fled to the US (where Martha became a renowned concert pianist), but my grandparents decided on the UK, so that is where I was born and brought up... luckily, since that's the home of Shakespeare!

But when I decided I had had enough of being constantly on the move (the whole of my working life has been peripatetic - even those apparently stable ten years with the RSC) and wanted to put down roots, both literal and metaphorical, the Czech countryside is where I chose to do that.  (My mother had been spending half of each year over here for 20 years, so I was used to visiting, and there was a network of friends and support already in place, plus I am entitled to Czech citizenship because of my heritage, so I've got the passport!)

The rusted key emerged out of the attic as it was being converted into my new bedroom.  No idea what it opens or winds - a clock, maybe?  What is now my craft studio was originally a cow shed, so I'm not sure why there would have been a clock in the attic above it.

I wanted to live a life here in the Czech Republic that was kinder both to the planet and to me.  A bit less time spent jumping on jet planes and a bit more time spent walking in nature.  (If you've seen my other Instagram account Bohemian Home,  you'll know I've got plenty of that!)

I knew I would love exploring the Bohemian countryside, but I didn't expect to become quite so busy in the garden.  Just as the art journey was unexpected, so was gardening... but it's the other big story in my life and in the crate.

I always wanted to grow some of my own food, but it never occurred to me that I would be buying hundreds of flower seeds and bulbs each year too!  The dried flower stems signify that new world of gardening opening up.

There are always plenty of them drying on the windowsill, waiting to be included in art works of all kinds...

And the eggs are there for the hundreds of birds I encourage to join me in the garden.  They're eating me out of house and home, but I love having their company and their singing to brighten each day.

The dried flowers also appear on the tags in the crate.  It wasn't conscious at the time, but it turned out to not to be accidental which tags I chose.  As I was photographing, I realised the tags I picked out not only have the dried flower stems from the garden on them, and the butterflies, and my own botanical stamps, but many also have words from my PaperArtsy quote collections (these two are snippets from quotes on the Nature Edition)... 

... and this quote from Gardens & Growth happens to reference the garden story.  (And it also taps in to one of my most recent creative adventures, teaching in Fodder School - the floating quote technique is the one I taught for the Fodder Challenge!)

Even the ones which have Tim Holtz Idea-ology stickers or metal quotes have unbelievably apt words for this project... 

I promise I didn't choose them for those "story" references - they were simply the tags I grabbed in the early stages, and it's only later that I found how completely perfect they were, even though they were made years ago.  I love it when your unconscious mind is in charge!

Everything in the crate seems to fit with everything else somehow.  Of course, that's to do with the colour story, the limited palette - but it's the palette I return to again and again, and it's the palette of nature - that's why it's so prevalent.  (My palette also shifts with the seasons as nature's does.)  But it's also about how interconnected the strands of my life are, the Words and the Pictures (and the theatre, the nature, the garden, the poetry).  Each aspect feeds, inspires and influences the others.

Reading this back, it all sounds very intentional as a creative journey, but I promise each step of my life has been far more accidental than planned.  But I will admit that there is a level of poetic manifestation or dreaming at work.

The poetry fragments on the fabric in the crate reflect that.  They come from my very latest designs for PaperArtsy.  One is by William Shakespeare - Prospero's words from the end of The Tempest.  (Not a favourite play of mine, but a favourite speech... I love that the thought about dreams is hovering in mid-air so weightlessly.) 

But the other two are from The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats (see, I've even paired my Williams).  It's a poem full of yearning to "come into the peace of wild things", as Wendell Berry puts it.  Yes, I'm coming full circle back to words again as a moving force in my creative life.

Instead of the usual quotes, I've added the whole Yeats poem at the end of the post, along with Swineherd by Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin (a definite partner piece to the Yeats, at least in my mind).  

I think you'll find in both of them the poetic inspiration behind both my move from the frenetic people-based work of the theatre to a more solitary existence in the art studio, and my geographical move to the middle of nowhere in the Czech countryside.

They are words which have quietly, from somewhere deep within, been shaping the journey of my life.  (The text & voice coach in me wants to add that they are both best spoken out loud.)

Thank you for joining me for this journey through my journey.  As I said, it sounds a lot more calm and controlled than it actually is.  The lived experience is much more of a creative chaos... I'm really making it up as I go along.

It's only on reflection that I can see the threads which connect across the years... much as the initial creative chaos of any project becomes more orderly and reflective in the final version. 

I ended up revealing far more of myself in my project than I originally intended (another accident), so thank you Shay and Fodder School, for encouraging me to take these moments of reflection and discovery with this month's amazing offering.  And thank you to all of you for being there along the way.

Happy crafting, all!

Swineherd

When all this is over, said the swineherd,
I mean to retire, where
Nobody will have heard about my special skills
And conversation is mainly about the weather.

I intend to learn how to make coffee, as least as well
As the Portuguese lay-sister in the kitchen
And polish the brass fenders every day.
I want to lie awake at night
Listening to cream crawling to the top of the jug
And the water lying soft in the cistern.

I want to see an orchard where the trees grow in straight lines
And the yellow fox finds shelter between the navy-blue trunks,
Where it gets dark early in summer
And the apple-blossom is allowed to wither on the bough.

Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

William Butler Yeats

Textures Tag Book at PaperArtsy

Hello all!  I'm delighted to be over at PaperArtsy today with a textural tag book that makes me so happy... 

We're exploring the fabulous Mattints for this month's theme on the PaperArtsy blog, and I've been experimenting with creating background textures in various ways.  Given my new stamp sets are based around botanical textures, it seemed like a perfect mix and match situation.

I hope you'll have time to hop over and take a look at how my Textures Tag Book all came together - there are plenty of process photos and oodles of eye-candy shots of the finished book.

Happy crafting, all!

If a texture looks inviting, we take this as a "haptic invitation" (an appeal to our sense of touch to have a positive tactile experience).
From Design a Healthy Home by Oliver Heath

I regard texture similar to the function of taste buds in our mouths. But in a visual form. Texture does create a specific flavour which affects our senses.
Adamo Macri

New YouTube Episodes at Words and Pictures

Hello all, I'm just popping in to let you know that there are new episodes of A Few Minutes of Fun to enjoy over on my YouTube channel, Words and Pictures.

Hop over to take a look, and if you enjoy what you find, do subscribe for more fun in the future!  Click the link below the picture to watch whichever one you fancy... 

A Few (More) Minutes of Fun - Collaging Tags

A Few Minutes of Fun - with PaperArtsy Printed Tissue and watercolours

A Few Minutes of Fun - with Distress Inks - Spritz and Flick

I hope you'll come and join me at the craft table for just a few minutes of fun (or a few MORE minutes of fun in the case of the extended collaged tags edition!), and happy crafting all!

Creativity is intelligence having fun.
Albert Einstein

If you're not having fun, you're doing something wrong.
Groucho Marx

Do anything, but let it produce joy.
Walt Whitman

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.
Katharine Hepburn

Brand New Stamps at PaperArtsy - with a whole new look!

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be revealing my brand new stamp sets with PaperArtsy, as well as some Designer Tissue Paper of my very own.  It's so exciting!  The new stamps are heading in a new direction - they are Botanical Textures, with a sketchier style and a focus on texture, which work both for clean and simple style stamping and also in a more mixed media style.  

You can see the sets in full, and the tissue paper too, as well as lots of samples over at the PaperArtsy blog.  And of course you can also watch the Live Launch on catch up here.

I do hope you'll enjoy all the many possibilities with these new stamp designs, and that you'll have as much fun with them and the tissue paper as I've been having.  As always, do let me know if you are creating anything with my designs - I love seeing what people get up to with them.  Happy crafting, all!

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.
Helen Keller

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust

Come and join me on camera...

I seem to be spending a lot of time in front of the camera at the moment.  This post is to let you know about three separate sessions where you can come and join me at the craft desk... and there's another (very exciting) one still to come on Tuesday 27th.  February really is going out with a bang  - the photographic sort... "flash, bang, wallop, what a picture!" - moving pictures, in my case!  (I'd completely forgotten there's a Shakespearean verse in Tommy Steele's ditty!)

First up, you can join me for some Friday Fun, which was originally live on the PaperArtsy People Facebook Group on (guess when!) Friday.  It was a really special Friday Fun - some sneak peek playtime with a product which is not even launched yet... but I couldn't wait to share some of the fun I've been having with it.  (You may think you recognise this blossom branch, but it's not what you think it is!)

Then there's the second episode of my new weekly YouTube series, A Few Minutes of Fun.  This will come out on Fridays or Saturdays, and this week it obviously had to be Saturday so as not to clash with the Friday Fun.  (It's not live, but there's only so many videos I can cope with publishing at one time!) And I think I might stick to Saturdays from now on in any case.  After last week's gypsophila gel printing, this time I'm having a few minutes of fun flipping stencils, using some Distress Spray Stains.  Nothing complicated, just genuinely a few minutes of fun...

And then there's the third episode of my monthly YouTube series, Sunday Swatching.  This time I'm sort of swatching, but mostly colour mixing in a small grid of three paints, and then having a little watercolour playtime with doodles and a sketch.  If you enjoy it, it would be lovely if you subscribed to the channel, and comments and likes all help me to build a following there.

So take your pick... or join me for all three.  You don't have to listen to me talk, of course - turn the volume down and put on some of your favourite music instead, and just enjoy the meditative processes of combining pigment, paper and water.

I hope you'll enjoy joining me at the craft desk for a bit of playtime.  Hopefully, you'll be inspired to go and play yourselves.  And watch out for Tuesday's big news... Thanks so much for stopping by, and happy crafting all!

For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.
Henri Cartier-Bresson

A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet.
Orson Welles

A Few Minutes of Fun

Hello all - hope you're all doing well.  I'm here with a quick heads-up to let you know there's a new series starting today on my YouTube channel called A Few Minutes of Fun.  Something to add to the monthly Sunday Swatching videos.  (Yes, my New Year's resolution to build the channel is still on course and we're nearly at the end of February!)

My aim for this series is to share a few minutes of art and crafting fun once a week, either on a Friday or a Saturday - usually somewhere between five and fifteen minutes, depending on what we're playing with.  Look at what I've been up to in the craft room today...

For this first episode, I've been playing with some Gypsophila stems on the gel plate, using some of my favourite colours of PaperArtsy Chalk Acrylic paint.  Why not start the weekend by joining me at the craft table for a little bit of printing inspiration?  It's great fun seeing these prints come to life.  

And while you're there, I hope you'll choose to subscribe to the channel.  Likes and comments also help me with the YouTube algorithm, so if you feel the urge...  But mostly, I just hope you enjoy the fun, and take away some inspiration.

Have a great weekend, all!

Do anything, but let it produce joy.
Walt Whitman

It is a happy talent to know how to play.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

January Joy in Fodder School

January in Fodder School has been glorious... and that's not an adjective I often apply to January!  The wonderful Megan Quinlan shared some classes which were definitely up my street, and I had a fabulous time shopping my stash for stencils and stamps which had been neglected for far too long, as well as current favourites.  Here's the inspirational deck that emerged on my craft table...

Amongst other things, Megan encouraged us to create a deck whose theme would have personal meaning for us.  

You won't be surprised to learn that I dived straight into nature.

These cards will be a reminder to me of how important it is to keep sacred the moments of stillness, solitude, and heart-opening beauty which nature offers. 

Time spent in nature is what allows my creativity to breathe and flow, despite the troubled times we are living through.

These were the backgrounds, created in the Make Fodder sessions, before adding the Use Fodder detailing which came later.

There are 32 cards in total in my deck, so here they are broken down into groups of eight so that you can see them more clearly...

You'll spot plenty of my own PaperArtsy quotes in action, as well as some of my botanical stamps, mostly from the Fodder Berry and Rosemary Editions.

There are other PaperArtsy stamp sets, as well as some by Seth Apter for Impression Obsession, and lots of Donna Downey stencils, as well as some of her stamp designs for Unity Stamp Co.  

The paints used are almost all PaperArtsy too - mostly from my Background Blues collection - with some added Daniel Smith Moonglow providing those haunting purple tones. 

If you want to see individual close-ups, I'm afraid you are going to have to visit me on Instagram for that.  It would be a massively photo-heavy blogpost!

It really has been an extraordinary month in terms of creativity - with phenomenal inspiration decks appearing from my fellow Fodder School teachers as well as the participants... so much beauty on Instagram and in the Fodder School FB group, which is a really supportive and informative environment (hate to say nice things about FB - but this is down to the people in there!).  I offered up a little bonus session to add to Megan's classes, as did several other teachers.

If all this tempts you to join in the fun (there's still so much more to come, including my own teaching month!!), then just follow this link to find out everything you need to know about joining up for Fodder School.

I hope January has brought you some joy too.  I know it can be a hard month, but I have found real solace in creating my deck, and I know it will continue to bring me a sense of calm and beauty throughout the years.  Thanks so much for stopping by, and I'll see you again soon.

Feeling a little blue in January is normal.
Marilu Henner

January is the month for dreaming.
Jean Hersey

January, the first month of the year. A perfect time to start all over again, changing energies and deserting old moods, new beginnings, new attitudes.
Charmaine J. Ford

Farewell 2023

Happy New Year, all!  I know I haven't got around to sharing any December Fodder School creativity yet... stamp releases and Christmas got in the way!  I'm already in the middle of January's classes, so I will catch you up with all of that soon.  But for now, here's a little look back at last year's journey.

I like to take the time each December to see where my creative journey has taken me over the course of the year, identifying new directions as well as continuing passions. 

Obviously Fodder School has loomed large, but I have also done three PaperArtsy stamp releases this year - Spring Botanicals, Summer Botanicals and the Festive Minis, six full size sets and eight minis in total.  Those PaperArtsy designs have been a real creative engine underlying my year, and you'll see how they play a huge part in my work now.  All in all, it has been quite an eventful year so I gathered together several "collections" of highlights rather than trying to whittle it down too far.

*********

So the first batch is Dimensionality and Watercolours... 3D projects, including plenty of recycling (Camembert cheese boxes for the win!), and some glimpses inside my watercolour journals.  Lots of my stamps in action here too.

Nature is the linking theme in all of it, as well as in my ongoing watercolour explorations. Texture, dimension, recycling, and organic inclusions all continue to be core elements, but I can see that the colour palette is expanding.

**********

The second collection is Tags (of course!). I don't think I'll ever stop creating tags, and looking over the year I can see more continuing passions than new directions as far as tags go.  I still love working in duos and trios, balancing the composition, and the colour palette is as you would expect. (There were other colours in my tags - even some yellow ones - but they didn't make the favourites list!)

Nature is the linking theme here too, along with texture, dimension and natural elements. And of course as well as my own PaperArtsy stamps, there are always heaps of Tim Holtz products - Idea-ology, Stampers Anonymous stamps and stencils and, above all, Ranger Ink Distress products.

*********

Next up, Botanical Panels - a whole new category for 2023!  I found great joy this year in combining my PaperArtsy botanical and ephemera stamps with the Tim Holtz 3D embossing folders... so much joy, in fact, that I found I had a whole grid of nine just with these projects!  The Tree Rings, Brickwork and Pine Branches folders by @sizzix make the perfect backdrop for my botanical sketches and ephemera labels.

In some of these panels the botanicals are layered over old book covers or real bark backgrounds, but in almost all cases they're all combined with plenty of Idea-ology ephemera and Sizzix diecuts, as well as natural elements - twigs, moss, pinecones and so on.  Nature is absolutely at the heart of these makes, of course, along with texture, dimension and the natural elements. And they make me happy, so I'm making no apologies for having a whole extra grid dedicated to them!

*********

The fourth collection (appropriately for number four) is Quartets and Sets.  This remains one of my favourite ways to create - in sets and collections and quartets. Some of my favourite works of the year are here - minimal collages on watercolour and mixed media backgrounds. Backgrounds are at the heart of my creative process, and sometimes I just don't want to cover them up much!

Lots of my PaperArtsy stamps are in action here, with Tim Holtz dies, stamps, stencils, and Idea-ology elements of all kinds, and as always texture and natural elements are a vital part of the creative process.

*********

And finally, here's grid number five, Journalling and Journals.  As you might expect from someone who calls herself "Words and Pictures", books continue to play a huge part in my creative journey, whether that's art journalling, altered books or handmade ones.

Most of the journalling here is done in an old hardback book - and where would my page spreads be without the Tim Holtz Paper Dolls and Photobooth snapshots?! The tag books are based on the fabulous class shared by Megan Quinlan in the Fodder Challenge back in July; and I had to include the Coptic bound, handpainted book with my PaperArtsy stamps, made in the first month of Fodder School thanks to the lovely October sessions with Di Venter. 

I think you've probably got the idea about the recurring themes and elements in my work by now - nature, texture, and I'm going to add storytelling to the list too... this grid really captures it all, I think.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  I hope 2024 will bring a little more peace and compassion into the world (though I'm not holding my breath), and that all of you will enjoy a creative year ahead, full of whatever gives you joy.  Happy crafting, all!

And suddenly you know: It's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.

Meister Eckhart

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Albert Einstein