One of the classes in the Fodder Challenge encouraged me to actually make a one-page booklet instead of just thinking about it. I like a lot of things about it but there has to be a better design out there.
Author: Crafty Rat
Crafting, watching, reading, thinking, writing, refining, caring.
Messy May “belonging”
This Messy May challenge gave further confirmation that I am much more inspired by technique prompts than word prompts. And I got to use some of my precious dried flowers and Japanese paper in the process.
Awaken #4 sign
The last quarter of the "scattered rings" alcohol ink piece gets enhanced with some asemic writing and a graffiti-inspired tag.
Steam duck
This is what happens when I ask for suggestions for a card design: I end up designing a digi stamp from scratch and having to work out how to colour distressed yellow metal, all to create "steam duck".
Messy May “flow”
This Messy May prompt to achieve a state of flow was asking a bit much, but I still enjoyed making this Klee-inspired block painting.
Awaken #3 trails
The third of my doodled alcohol ink quarters. After some trial and error, I ended up foiling these particle trails over the cloudy background.
Denim feathers
Fluffy feathers made out of denim — another of those things that has popped up regularly in my Pinterest feed over the years and now I've finally had a go at making them.
Messy May “kindness”
I wasn't particularly inspired by this Messy May prompt, but I did like the simple gelli plate technique the host used. I used that and my favourite butterflies to create this page.
Awaken #2 ring
The second of my alcohol ink quarters. In this piece I found a ring and highlighted it with more gold and black doodles.
Messy May “home”
There are some bits of this Messy May page that I like, but the main lesson has to be "don't try to make positive art about things that you're not currently feeling positive about".
Messy May “habit”
This Messy May prompt was an easy one to follow. I already have the habit of rescuing (too many) things that could be useful from the rubbish. And, on this page, I made a point of using some of them for mark-making.
Awaken #1 circles
I went back to a piece of alcohol ink experimentation and rather than let it linger in a pile somewhere, I turned it into four mini works with the addition of some doodling. This is the first of those.
Messy May “imperfection”
"Embrace imperfection" they said, so I got out my little gelli plate, paints, some leaves, and a piece of grip mat and made an imperfect but interesting page for this Messy May prompt.
Tom Servo
I really need to get out of the habit of coming up with ideas for cards only a few days before they're needed. Luckily I worked out how to create the cut file design, assembled the finished Tom Servo card, and beat the deadline this time.
Messy May “connection”
Another Messy May prompt and, while the finished page isn't one of my favourites, it did give me an excuse to both shop for art supplies and trawl through old photos, which was nice.
Crafty Rat 