Patterned Paper - Guest Designing for Simon Says Stamp

I'm thrilled to be back in the Designer Spotlight for the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge this month. It's always an honour to be invited, and to create alongside the amazing design team.  I had a wonderful time creating this collage quartet with Patterned Paper.

Yes, for this week's challenge, my first in the spotlight, the theme is Patterned Paper, with a focus on Stamperia products.  As always, the designers in the regular team have created wonders, so do check out their work.

I had a glorious time creating this quartet of panels with Stamperia rice papers in the background and lots of Tim Holtz goodies layered over the top.

The colours in the rice papers - which come from Stamperia's Around the World A6 Rice Paper Pack - really dictated everything that came afterwards, but since blues and browns are probably my favourite place to play that was fine by me!  I love the vintage style and distressed detailing on the rice papers. 

I glued them onto a piece of A4 card (all four papers fitted on one sheet), cut them into their individual panels and added a bit more distressing around the edges with the blade of my scissors.

I can never resist Tim Holtz's Idea-ology Paper Dolls when I'm collaging - they have such character and so many stories to tell.  And combined with the maps imagery in the rice papers, the gentlemen who started to gather on my desk turned out to be a determined and adventurous lot.

Each of the chaps has a photographic frame to perch or lean on - they're from the Idea-ology Photo Studio collection of frames and panels - and some Paper Strips provide additional structure or architecture for the rest of the collage elements. I love how they spill over the edges of the panels, creating a dynamic energy of expansion and exploration.

I've always loved the Gauge Dials - whether you put them in the metal frames designed for them or keep them just as they are, as I've done here.  There are compasses and speedometers and altimeters... all perfect to measure distance, direction, speed, height, and fuel reserves throughout the journeys these adventurers are going to be undertaking.

And of course the Postmarked postage stamps reflect the letters and telegrams they will be sending back to their nearest and dearest to assure them they are still alive and well, and enjoying their travels.

The other ephemera include some of my much loved Snippets Number Strips (always on my desk along with the Curator labels, as I have to have them near at hand!).

There are additional elements from the Memoir Ephemera Pack on a couple of the panels.  And where would I be without the wonderful Small Talk word stickers to let my Paper Dolls speak for themselves?!

Do hop over to the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge post to see the fabulous Patterned Paper offerings from the team, and for all the details about how to enter your own Patterned Paper projects.

Remember, as always, there's a randomly drawn $25 voucher to be won so that you can go shopping at Simon Says Stamp, as well as the honour of potentially being spotlit by one of the design team, with the special badge to go along with that spotlight moment.

I hope my adventurous gentlemen will inspire you to have a play.  We can't wait to see what you create... have a fabulous papery patterned week, everyone!

I look forward to seeing you next Monday for some more Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge fun. Thanks so much for stopping by today and happy crafting, all!

I haven't been everywhere, but it's on my list.
Susan Sontag

A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves, in finding themselves.
André Gide

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

My Fodder School Month

Hello all!  Yes, I know, I know... I vanished completely!  I hope you're all doing well, and apologies for the long silence (though silence can, of course, be a good thing... see the quotes at the end!).

August was my Fodder School teaching month and it was all a bit overwhelming.  As well as creating bonus lessons to expand on the original berry houses... 

... I was fielding questions and commenting on participants' projects across four different social media platforms!

And people were making so many amazing things inspired by the classes... from taking the leap into their own sketching and painting, to incredibly inventive tiny houses of all shapes and sizes.  Here are just a few of the extraordinary projects I visited on my virtual travels:

Here are a few more close-ups of my bonus Fodder houses...

And here, of course, is where all the inspiration started - with the original Very Berry Houses.

Although registration for Fodder School 4 is now well under way, you can still buy Fodder School 3 at any time, and enjoy the full twelve months of mixed media inspiration with lifelong access (including access to the Fodder Challenge classes from July 2023).  Just head to Willa Wanders for all the details... 

So I'm sort of back up and running now, but running is really the word.  I've got a work trip to the UK coming up, including running in person workshops at Country View Crafts and there are many things going on behind the scenes with PaperArtsy stamps-wise... so I can't promise to be a regular here again just yet, but I'm going to try to do much better!

Silence is a source of great strength.

Lao Tzu

Learn to be silent.  Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.

Pythagoras

Pressed Botanicals - brand new Eclectica Alison Bomber stamps at PaperArtsy

Hello all!  I'm thrilled to be introducing three brand new stamp sets over on the PaperArtsy blog this evening as well as in the PaperArtsy People FB Group.  These are a continuation and also a development of the botanical textures released in February...  I hope you're going to love the Pressed Botanical Textures!!

I've been having a glorious time playing with the new stamps.  I've tried to make sure they work for all kinds of styles - I've been working with clean and simple stamping as well as exploring some really exciting mixed media effects and techniques.

There are lots of samples to enjoy over at PaperArtsy, and also lots of insight into the thinking behind these new designs.  And of course I'll be talking about all that in the Live launch video too, as well as showing the samples.

Hop over to PaperArtsy now to see the blogpost, and watch the Live Launch here to hear all about it in person, and see the samples shimmering in the lights!

I hope you'll love these stamps as much as I do... I can't wait to see what you'll create with them.

Those who have never been moved to rapture by the tender curve of a blade of grass, the wonderful sternness of the thistle, the rough youth of sprouting leaf-buds; and those who have never been touched to the depths of their soul by the massive appearance of a tree root, the imperturbable strength of riven bark, the slender pliancy of the birch, the enormous tranquility of a canopy leaves - know nothing of the beauty of form.

August Endell, 1909

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