Blog: Art Journal

Australia ! Mixed Media Circus is coming to town

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Step right up for the World’s Grandest Largest Best Amusement Art Workshop coming to Artified in Victoria, Australia on 8-10th April 2016:

Mixed Media Circus: Art Journal Adventure!

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My friend Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and I will be co-teaching a Three-Day-Art-Journaling Workshop.

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Here is a little video about the workshop …our philosophy …and the circus you can expect ;)

Or download this pdf which tells you some details and the timetable about our class at Artified .

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We are super excited to come to Artified and teach the workshop -come and join us and sign up now!

 

Comments (7)

  • Julie

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    Are there any plans for you to come to South Australia?

    Reply

  • Jackie P Neal

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    I am so excited for the two of Nat!!
    Ever since you two did that collaboration together I wondered what would be next! I love that you two are both so individual but share so much in common and are both honest in your friendship- such a rare find! Congrats to you and Julie- wish I could be there “( ,but I will in spirit and look forward to reviews of your time there!! xo

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Jackie! Yes that collaboration clearly lead to this idea :) Thank you for your support!!! <3 have a wonderful day, nat

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    I wish that this was my circus and I would love to spend time with you two creative monkeys!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      hahaha- Sue, we would love to spend time with you too – yours creative monkeys ;)

      Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Hehehhehe – love that circus poster – you both look like such great athletic performers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BEST of all – the picture of the two of you together – it’s sooooo sweet. But hey…. lets not forget the FABULOUS video… dear me…. it totally makes me want to hop a plane and come!! What a GREAT GREAT INSPIRING video. So happy, so free, so fun, so encouraging – LOVE it. In fact… going to watch it again – SMILING Big. I know it will be a WONDERFUL time for all that come. Hugs to you both. j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      LOL- thanks Joi! We are very excited about this and cannot wait!

      Reply

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I don’t ask for much but …or … in My Art Journal Today

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“I don’t ask for much but enough room to spread my wings” – I love this – and isn’t that the truth as an artist and as a person – all you need is room to spread your wings.

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While thinking of the quote, I painted the background loosely with soft body paints:  paynes grey, brilliant blue and yellow azo and then stenciled with green permanent using the What’s the point and Ornamental stencil.

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Stamping in white was done with a pigment ink pad -loved how it popped off the page. I should have heat set the stamped images though as it took forever to dry on the acrylic paint and I smeared it accidentally when adding the images. Markers were used on the images. The wings are chipboard wings which I found in one of my drawers …I have to use up some of my chipboard- I hoarded a lot of chipboard shapes thinking one day I will have the best opportunity to use it – hey but the best opportunity is now ;)

Here is a list of what I used

nSupplies



Comments (4)

  • Joi@RR

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    Definitely a unique one! The background is super – so YOU – Nat. Your sentiment made me “think”!!! I like it. It never took much room for me to spread my wings… but I know folks that take lots of room! Somehow I put you in that category Nat. You are so talented and have so much to give in so many different ways… I’m hoping you have an abundance of room to “fly high” when you need it! j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe – thank you Joi! I think we all need space to fly – gladly enough I am surrounded by wonderful people in my live- including my blog readers- that give me loads of space to fly- thank you:) Nat

      Reply

  • JackieP Neal

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    way cool Nat! I always dig your palettes!! hugs “)

    Reply

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Criticized Anyway or …In My Art Journal Today

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Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway! – Eleanor Roosevelt

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This resonates with me right now a lot. Very quick spread – I brayered the colors on then stamped and stenciled using my Batik Stencil and Wired Stamp Set.

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I cut out some shapes out of deli paper that I had used to print off access paint on the Printing Plate. I love deli paper as it makes for wonderful collage elements.

Now that I am back for a while and cut back on traveling for the second half of 2015, I cannot wait to dive into creating more – I missed my studio :)

What are you working on right now?

nSupplies



Comments (4)

  • Joi@RR

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    YEAH – it will be fun to see you create more Nat. I’m excited. But… I did love traveling “with” you too. Love this page – and the fact that you did it fast is encouraging! Great quote and so true. Glad you are safely back home. Hugs j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Joi :) No worries- LOL- the next travels are being cooked up…but for now I am happy at home. What a beautiful summer this is!

      Reply

  • Kathy P

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    A truer quote never spoken! Great page! And I agree, while it is great fun to travel, the sweetness of it comes when returning home! Enjoy the rest of your summer, Nat!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Kathy! Hope you are enjoying your summer too!!!

      Reply

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Photos of the Art Journaling Live 2015 Event

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Exactly 48 hours after I landed in Newark after my trip to Europe, I was back at the airport to head out to Arlington, Texas for the Create Art Journaling Live 2015 Event. After a mayor delay  and a pretty insane flight – which I add to my “gotta great travel story to tell ” repertoire I arrived late in Dallas. As I had a dinner date with my sweet friend Julie and Margaret and Jackie, I went by taxi right to the restaurant from the airport. Only…due to a major miscommunication, I went to the wrong restaurant in Plano and not in Dallas. Which left me alone and pretty much throwing a pitty party for myself and exhausted on a parking lot in the middle of nowhere in Texas. But good friends don’t let you hanging and so Julie, Margaret and Jackie drove to get me. In the end my very first huge pile of Smoked Texan BBQ Ribs and a good drink as well as lots of laughter made me feel as if the world was still awesome ;) Thank you girls <3

The next morning the event took place – and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Dina Wakely, Mary Beth Shaw and I taught some fun Art Journaling Techniques.

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We had 75 students and it was so much fun to see so many familiar faces in the round. Thank you for coming – that was awesome!

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The classes and the students were video graphed during the day and in a couple months you can actually purchase the whole event as a class DVD. I will keep you posted.

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As you can see we were sitting a bit on a high podest (here is Dina in action) – which was a bit awkward since we couldn’t walk around or move much- and if you know me I am usually bouncing around like a rubber ball  in my classes. But it was the way it needed to be for the filming. The students could see everything on a big screen and followed along and it was fun to see what they are doing too.

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We other teachers sat in the back of the room playing around in our journals.

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Here are Jackie and Margaret and Katie all named Margaret on their tags- which made me laugh big time! So wonderful to meet them!

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As I said it was awesome to see many familiar faces too – makes me always super happy!

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Here I am on my “throne” – I was really nervous before the whole thing, I have never taught such a big class and on top being on camera too – but then I forgot the cameras and kept on going …and melting…as you can see the huge light.

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And below is the reason why I never do manicure. I believe those hands looked good about 2 minutes on camera

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And here are the four of us after the event!

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That was fun! Thank you to all of our students,  Cloth Paper Scissors for having us and the fun video team. Thank you also to Liquitex for sponsoring the huge amount of acrylic media in the class kits and to Stampendous for sponsoring one of my stamp sets for the students!  I will keep you posted on the release of the DVD/Download :)

Have a gorgeous day

Comments (6)

  • Susan Schultheis

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    WOW! 4 of my fave artists. Maybe one day you will have your Art Journaling Live a little closer to Maryland?? I sure it was a fantastic everything.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      That would be cool Susan. I would love to come to Maryland. Who knows :)

      Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Welcome Home Nat! Dear me… you are off and running again fast! This was fun to see – although I hate to think of you alone in Texas at the wrong restaurant – ugh. Glad you were rescued :) You look GREAT on your throne!!!! Love the last picture of the four of you together – great smiles!! Looks like it was a great success. REST…. if you can! j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      LOL- thank you Joi- yep I am glad I got “rescued” ;) I did rest a bit after the event – and I am fully energized but a bit lazy now ;)

      Reply

  • Denise Spillane

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    I can confirm that this was a fun and fabulous event! I would do it again in a minute! The only thing better would be two days so we could have more time withe each of you!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Denise, thank you so much for coming! It was so good to see you and I agree- a two day event would be fab!

      Reply

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Blogging in Color Hop with Stampendous & Faber-Castell – Part I

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Stampendous and Faber-Castell® Design Memory Craft have teamed up for a Blog Hop and the Faber-Castell® Design Memory Craft Design Team and some are playing with my Stampendous stamps and some yummie Faber-Castell Products – Wait until you see the colorful inspiration they have for you this week! We are all Blogging in Color!

I got to play with some Gelatos – and for today’s post I created an Art Journal Page.

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Using the Kaffee Klatsch Stamp Set and the Fiesta Stamp Set Stencil and Soft Body Acrylic Paints I stamped and stenciled several images onto the blank page.

After the images dried I went over with several colors out of the Gelatos Brights Color Kit.

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Using a wet brush I blended the colors together – dissolving the Gelatos. Where every I had used acrylic paint before- the paint resisted the Gelatos. I really love the bright creamy colors.

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I used the Fiesta Stamp Set Stencil again this time with the Gelatos and used my fingers get crisp details. I finished the page by stamping one of the Fiesta Set Images several times in white on top and then writing a quote with a marker on top. As long as the Gelatos are not too thickly on the background it is still easy to apply acrylic on top – but you want to be careful. I used a mixture of white ink and soft body paint in a fine liner to add the white writing on top.

 

I will be back on Friday with another Blog Hop Post – but until then – here are the supplies I used on this page

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Don’t forget to check out all the different projects from the Stampendous and Faber-Castell® Design Memory Craft Design Team this week – I heard there might be prizes involved ;)

Comments (32)

  • Dot

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    Hi Nat, I really like how you use the acrylic paints as a resist with the gelatos…I am just starting to play around with paints so this is wonderful inspiration! And I just looove the colours.
    Dot (Aus) x

    Reply

  • KathyP

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    Love this look…beautiful colors, great blending and layering!

    Reply

  • Linda Chidster

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    G O R G E O U S !!!
    LOVE this!!!
    TFS!!!

    Reply

  • Brenda Shreves

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    Nice ideas.Thanks.

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  • TracyM #6773

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    MAGICAL page Nathalie!!!
    LOVE the colours & design of your background, LOVE your sentiment too!!!

    Reply

  • Katie B.

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    I love all of your Stampendous Nstudio stamps! And your pages today are wonderful!! Thanks for sharing.

    Katie B. (USA)

    Reply

  • Regina Furman

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    Gorgeous project! I love the colors you chose, and all of the stamping and stenciling are beautiful highlights!

    Reply

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Finally Be You or … In My Art Journal Today

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What if every day is the perfect day to finally be exactly who you were always meant to be?

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I love playing in my art journal before starting to paint on a canvas- it loosens me up and get’s me in the groove.

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Played with Soft Body Paints and Inks as well as my Batik Stencil and the orange marks are actually from a baster :) I love using weird tools for mark making.

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For the journaling and sketching marks I mixed soft Liquitex Soft Body Paint and some Acrylic Ink into a Fine Line Bottle.

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that was fun :)

Before I get to the supplies – please check also out my guest blog post on the Cloth Paper Scissors blog showing a sneak peak tutorial for my upcoming Art Journaling Live Workshop together with Dina Wakley , Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Mary Beth Shaw. :)

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Thank you for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

nSupplies



Comments (1)

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Art Journaling Live 2015 – Workshop in Arlington, Texas -June18

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So stoked to teach along my friends Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, Dina Wakley and MaryBeth Shaw an Art Journaling LIVE class on June 18 in Arlington, Texas.

My part of the workshop is called “Tooling Around

Let’s tool around and make the most of your supplies! Use brayers, brushes, palette knives, stamps, and stencils and other inexpensive tools along with acrylic paints and media in different ways. Learn how to create unique and layered backgrounds in your art journal. Create dimension and texture by painting, scraping, stamping, stenciling and glazing. All techniques in this class can be used outside your art journal too—think mixed-media projects, canvases, and even paper crafting projects. The sky is the limit.

Learn how to:
• Get more use out of familiar and unfamiliar tools.
• Work with paints and mediums to create compelling pages.
• Use stamps in new ways to make layered backgrounds.

You can read all details about the workshop the four of us are teaching together and sign up here.

Special Note: when you purchase a ticket to Art Journaling LIVE you will also receive an ALL ACCESS PASS to the Great American Scrapbook Convention happening on-site throughout the weekend at the Arlington Convention Center.

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I hope you will join us- cannot wait to see you!

 

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123 Hidden Journaling – or … In My Art Journal Today

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A new art journal start …and boy did I not have a good day …LOL. I was so grumpy on that day I made the spread…I had to write a lot off my chest…and then I hid it

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under layers of paint and gesso …and wrote some more …and hid it again…

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just to write some more in a pretty unreadable way …and there you have it … a grungy grumpy page … I ‘m feeling better – and laugh again and nobody has to read my grumpy thoughts.

Thank you art journal for turning the day around ;)

What is your favorite way to hide your journaling?

nSupplies



Comments (3)

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What is an Art Journal? or … When the Why is clear the How is easy!

Art Journal …What is this thing? Let me try to explain in this video in my thick dscherman accent ;)

I art journal for different reasons:

  • to try out now techniques or art supplies
  • to get me creatively into swing before I paint
  • to get emotions and thoughts visually out
  • to try something that I will later apply in one form or the other on a canvas

So an art journal for me is a safe creative playground ;)

Now that you know

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or in other words, now that you know You are the Boss of your Art Journal …wouldn’t you wanna try it out? Come and join me for my new Art Journaling Online Class starting tomorrow – May 1st, 2015 – Art Journaling Demystified 

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This class is for everyone who wants to start art journaling and wants to learn the basics on how to do this. Find more information and the sign up here!

And I would love to hear, if you do art journaling – what is the art journal is for you?

Have a gorgeous day

Nat

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