Wanderlust 2026 - First seven weeks - roots and wings

The art journal course I have been doing for several years is well underway and the theme was 'roots and wings'.  It has moved to intermediate skills and slightly away form always being pages in a journal.  However, I am keeping my work in a journal because I don't have space for 'things' to be on display.  It will be a challenge for some weeks, transferring 3D to 2D, but that will be fun in itself.  As last year, I won't show every week, just the weeks I particularly enjoyed.  Above was week one, where we were encouraged to use a big sheet of paper and be free, then cut it down.  I enjoyed making all the swooping brush marks.

This week was about someone who inspired us, so I made a tribute to my Granny. There are scanned watercolour paintings from when she was at school as well as a watercolour from when she was in Australia.  I have inherited a love of art and nature from her as well as enjoying sewing.  

Creating natural dyes was the focus of this week. I used walnut ink, tea and the bright yellow is turmeric. 

I so enjoy making books and journals too, so this week was really right up my street.  My little book has a pocket to live in.  We were encouraged to think about our dreams and what we hope for ourselves in the future.

This is the front with a handmade bird stamp, texture paste and a little fabric collage. The binding thread is decorated with beads.

Inside the book are pages including stamps, material, cut outs, tracing paper pages and quotes.

Found poetry on the left and a material flap on the right...

...which shows the word dream through a cut out page.

More stamps.

A final quote.  More to come in another post...

Some cards from this year...so far

Here are some of the cards I have been making this year, so far.  Above was one for my brother-in-law, using some layering stencils. 

This collaged one was for my colleague at work, celebrating her love of entomology.  I was really pleased with how the collaged beetles turned out.  I had made the papers previously so this really is all my own work.

I added an extra beetle on the back and stamped the gift envelope.

A pretty butterfly...with some white on white flower die cuts behind it which look really effective and add some texture.

A card for my sister-in-law using some slow drawing patterns on the front, the envelope...

...and the inside.

A card for a fox loving friend.  

Collage, stamping and die cuts were used for this one.  She has used the fox tag as a bookmark, I believe.

A card inspired by Alison Bomber (Words and Pictures) who is my latest 'must see' creator on Youtube. I have recently bought several of her beautiful stamp sets and although this flower isn't one of hers, the background is inspired by one of her videos. 

There will no doubt be more cards made in the next six months!
 

Junk Journal January 2024

Last month I took part in Junk Journal January for the first time.  This is organised by Meg from megjournals on Youtube and there is a list of prompts and daily videos from different people showing what they have made. I decided that it would be a good thing to start using some of the paper, digikits, and ephemera I have been collecting and this seemed do-able. Below are some of my favourite pages.

This is 'throwback' so I went for a vintage feeling, making a pretend slide with insects on it.  I made my colleague a birthday card similar to this last year so used some of the digital images I had left over, together with stamps, a postage stamp and some digi labels. 

There was 'eclectic' which was a mix of gel prints, a digikit photo, a die cut flower which I watercoloured, a leaf and a flower I made from last year's art journal, and a label I had inked and stamped.  An eclectic mix indeed, but I like it!!

'Fabric' was a sort of patchwork of scraps with an inked and dried baby wipe used as the focal heart.  

'Ombre' was easy with a watercolour background but I didn't know what I wanted to put on top until I thought about slow drawing so I added these ginkgo leaves, which are so relaxing to draw as they are lots of repeated lines.

'Translucent' was inspired by a piece of gel printed paper. I echoed the brushstroke pattern on a piece of tracing paper to become the translucent element.

Here's what's underneath - music paper, book page, the gel print paper, labels and a digikit camellia.

Finally, here is 'reflect' which I took to be reflecting on the whole Junk Journal January experience.  This page has a piece of paper pad, labels, book pages, ivy from a napkin, a piece of packaging from some bulbs and a digikit photo.  

I made this little journal for the challenge and I really enjoyed filling the small pages. Junk Journal July is also a challenge, so I may join in with that too.

Some cards through the year - part 2

Here are some more cards which were made over the year.  More birthday cards...

...some using dies as well as stamps.

Anniversary cards made using stencils...

...a thank you card using a stamp which I watercoloured.  I really like this Kandinsky-esque pattern.

A special birthday card for my best friend who lives in Canada but who visited this summer.  The little rhyme reads: "Cherish friendship in your breast, New is good but old is best; Make new friends but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold".  I included a Canada stamp, relevant numbers, a picture of a forget-me-not and a photo of her when she was little.  I really enjoy creating these collage backgrounds.

This was her pearl anniversary card - both of us were married in 1993 and I was at her wedding in Canada as a Matron of Honour.

More birthday cards...

...anniversary cards...

...and these are the most recent, for my brother-in-law

...and my nephew.

The next cards to make are for my sister, sister-in-law and then Chris, not forgetting that Christmas (whisper it!) is not all that far away!  I had better get making!

Artful August Challenge - in January! Week Four to end

Here is the final week (and a bit) from the daily challenge I did in January.  'Person' was a gel plate printed background, then masked shapes and Payne's Grey acrylic paint with white dots. This is a technique I have done before, but it's a good one.

For 'Shape', I knew I wanted to cut a shape into the page, so with a bit of advice from Chris, I did this.   I die cut shapes from painty papers and  made this colourful page.  You can glimpse a future page through the rectangle window.

'Type' was made using some interesting font stamps from my stash and a typewriter stamp from Visible image.  

I used some of my own stamped 'Tissue' paper as the background and added shapes in translucent paint.

'Botanical' was inspired by a page from a flower book which I made into the pocket.  

Inside the pocket I added a card.

I used stamps and embossing powder to demonstrate 'Resist'.  

I went with a vintage feel for 'Travel', just using stamps and ink. 

I enjoy creating 'Drip' and it's something that I use in my art journaling too.  This one used sparkle watercolour inks.

Two of my favourite books made up the background for 'Book' - 'Persuasion' and 'The Secret Garden'.

'Vintage' meant I could look through my many digikits and find some suitable images.  I added an embossed frame and a snippet of material with a button.

The back of the journal was covered with an alcohol ink gel print.

The front was stamped and had a die cut title added.

Finally, the inside cover was stamped and the prompts list was added.

This was such an enjoyable project to do during January and I may well look out for it again this August, for January 2024!