Stroll Through The Hood

Stroll Through the Hood – May 2017

Time for a Stroll Through the Hood . Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and to get new ideas to create something. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks. BTW, I hope you have joined me so far in the Artful Adventures: Stroll Through the Hood Challenge and Free Class – it is so much fun! Come and celebrate my new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media with me!

I am sneaking in the photo above- this is from a Federal building in Newark ….kind of my hood ….you can see Jersey City and Manhattan – isn’t that a cool view?

Now …what have I been doing in this building?

well…along with 57 other people from 20 different countries I became an American :)

My friends and I also spent a day together in Branch Brook Park close to Newark which has apparently the largest collection of Cherry Trees in the United States …4300 …unfortunately not all on one spot- LOL – so we were quite on a hunt on this trip to find the best spots – but it was worth it and soooo beautiful.

I love cherry trees – too bad it is almost over with the blossoms.

This is part of a ship on the dry dock at Liberty State Park  – I love the colors and the texture- yummie!

Little picnic waving over to Manhattan

enjoying the flowers

thinking about this sign and taking it as a message to Earth …because seriously this looks like we do not love earth at all on this particular spot

and loving once more the many different man holes in Jersey City. Love the star with the pattern around it.

Now these photos are not part of the Stroll Through The Hood Challenge– but I told you – I do this regularly :) You can find all my former strolls here if you wanna see more about where I live.

 

Nat

Comments (12)

  • justbaa

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    Awesome, Nathalie!! Congratulations on your American Citizenship!!!

    Reply

  • ARHuelsenbeck

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    Congratulations on your citizenship, Nathalie!
    I used to live in New Jersey. Your photos made me nostalgic.

    Reply

  • Leap Year Baby

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    Just want to join all the others in congratulating you on becoming an American citizen.
    Love your strolls through the hood and the cherry blossoms are awesome!
    Can’t wait to get your book very happy for you!

    Reply

  • creativetrying

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    Congrats on becoming an American citizen. Enjoyed your stroll … especially the Cherry Blossoms.

    Reply

  • scrapinsue

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    The texture on that ship is awesome. I would love to have it be the background for patterned paper.
    Congratulations on becoming a citizen of the U.S. It’s a great country with some interesting politics going on at the moment (as I’m sure that you noticed).

    Reply

  • Gloria

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    CONGRATULATIONS on becoming an American Citizen.

    Reply

  • Susan

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    congratulations!!! becoming an american is a lot of hard work. thanks for sharing your stroll, too. it is always fun to have a staycation … i really enjoy all that you post!

    Reply

  • CJ Henderson

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    Yay you!! Congrats and such a beautiful stroll through “the hood”?

    Reply

  • friedaquikter

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    The views in your hood are spectacular from both close-up and afar! Specially in that glorious weather. Love strolling with you.

    Reply

  • DK in AZ

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    CONGRATULATIONS on becoming an American citizen! And on your new book too!

    Reply

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Powerful Vision – Art Journal Spread

When I close my eyes my vision is even more powerful.

In this art journal spread I played with different collage elements from photos I printed out, images I found in magazines, advertising and paintings by other artists.

I layered stamps and stencils and I love how everything came together.

Here is a little list of some of the supplies I used- some are affiliate links:


Have a wonderful day <3

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Tina Walker

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    I really love this Nat! The colors, the composition, the design! ♥

    Reply

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Whatevers Part Three – Distracted Dude

A couple years ago my friends Vic Chrisman, Cat Scanlon and I founded The Whatevers, a Creative Storytelling Project. In a nutshell we decided to give old discarded photos we found a new life by telling the story of those shown. The three of us wrote an article for the recent Cloth Paper Scissors Issue – and we decided to revive the Whatevers every Wednesday this May on our blogs :)

Here is my project for this weeks’ photo

“Uncle Alfred always was a bit different and they couldn’t believe it that he ruined that he ruined the very pricy family photo by distractedly looking into the other direction. Little did they know that Uncle Alfred just saw the world in a different way and that right at that moment a miracle had happened.”

For this spread I stamped with the Versailles Negative and Positive and the Buenos Aires Border Foam Stamp using acrylic paint. After the paint dried, I brushed yellow acrylic ink over parts of the spread. Love the effect. I printed out the photo on printer paper and cut the family out and painted over them with acrylic paint. I also added my star tag stamp in different colored ink, rotating it and adding some strings with a signo pen. (thank you Marsha for that inspiration!)

Now let’s check out what Vicki and Cat did with the photo and in case you want to play along with us -here is the original photo for you. Share with us what you came up with on the Whatevers Facebook Page or leave a link in the comment section :)

Here are the supplies I used for my page – some links are affiliate links:


P.S: Don’t forget that the Artful Adventures: Stroll Through the Hood Challenge and Free Class starts today!

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Vicki

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    Your color use is always amazing! Love!!!

    Reply

  • Cat

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    I love the bright colors and how you created those lovely layers! You’re foam stamps are so amazing! I wonder what the miracle for Alfred will be, are you going to reveal it next week? I love this so much Nat.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Awe- thank you Cat! Ha…I think no-one will ever know what the miracle for Alfred is but it is sure colorful ;)

      Reply

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Artful Adventures – Interview with Birgit Koopsen

Birgit Koopsen is part of my book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media and I thought it would be interesting to hear more about her and some of her thoughts. Grab a seat and a cuppa and listen to this interesting conversation which I think you will enjoy. We are talking about things like

  • Artful Adventures in Brooklyn
  • Challenge Surprises
  • How Inspiration Strikes
  • Treasures of Nature
  • Exploring a Theme in Depth
  • and some bloopers ;)

Artful Adventures in Mixed Media Interview with Birgit Koopsen from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

I hope you enjoyed the interview- let us know what you think about some of the topics.

You can Pre-Order Artful Adventures in Mixed Media now

Nat

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DIY: Flower Pot Madness

My friend Kim and I decided a while ago that we would stamp and stencil some flower pots and even create some as an upcoming Mother’s Day gift. I also think that Kim can’t bare seeing my really badly neglected plants on the terrace ;) (I do have a brown thumb for sure!)

We left some pots in their natural color and painted others with golden gesso and black gesso.

On some pots we used my ArtFoamies Foam stamps. We used a brayer to apply acrylic paint to the foam stamps and then used them on the pots. Especially the border stamps worked well since they can easily and carefully wrapped around the pots.

We both really loved how the colors popped off the black and golden gesso-ed pots.

For some pots we used Stencils – we secured the stencils with masking tape and it was so fun and quick.

On one pot I got a bit wild and layered all kinds of stencil designs.

While Kim took a more “less is more” approach and used one stencil with variations of color – I like that very much :)

We loved being outside and it was such an easy and colorful project – I could do this all day long- no kidding.

And then we added some herbs and dirt and voila

Don’t you think this rosemary should be happy in this new home? Well…I promised to also water it ;)

Mother’s Day can come now and …summer – Cannot wait to sit outside and enjoy my new funky colorful pots on the terrace!

Here are some of the supplies we used – some links are affiliate links:


Hope you have a wonderful day and enjoyed this little project!!!

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Sherri Scott

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    Nat, they’re beautiful! I might try to brighten my flower pots

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Sherri, so glad you like them and yeahhhh – brighten yours too :)

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Looks like you and Kim had fun and what a nice collection of pots you ended up with as well.
    Will you put any kind of protection over the paint to help the design last longer Nat?

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      thank you Sue :) You can seal those with Matt Medium of course.

      Reply

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Join the Artful Adventure! Challenge & Free Class

I invite you to an Artful Adventure Challenge with a Free Class !

Play along with me on this 30 Day Challenge, beginning on May 10th, 2017 and culminating in the release of my new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media: Techniques Inspired by Observation and Experience on June 8, 2017!

Go on an Artful Adventure with me and join into a Free Classroom with some fun tutorials!

With the challenge find inspiration by taking a “Stroll Through The Hood” and observing the details of the world around you. Anyone can join in on the fun by following our list of daily prompts. Each day you will have a new word to inspire you. Go for a stroll outside, snap a photo of something that you feel illustrates the word of the day, and build a collection of visual material to inspire your artwork, art journaling, and mixed media projects. Along the way you’ll discover things about your Hood that you may have never noticed before, and you’ll learn to find inspiration just outside your door. Use #ArtfulAdventures on social media and share your photos and the projects you were inspired to make.

Go even further and sign up to access the FREE classroom going along with the challenge. The classroom will offer several tutorials by me, my photos for the challenge with explanation what inspires me, some surprise guests with tutorials, a place for sharing, a community environment, and multiple chances to win a free copy of my new book Artful Adventures in Mixed Media..  Join me on my #ArtfulAdventures as I show you how I transform my prompt-inspired photos into artwork. Share your photos in the daily lesson prompts and see what others are observing in their “Hoods”. Comment and discuss with a whole bunch of people who are taking the challenge with you.

I hope you will join the fun! It’s free- so …come on :)

Nat

Comments (4)

  • Stephanie

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    Woot! I’m signed up too

    Reply

  • jamcam2022

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    Just signed up for class – don’t know how much I will be able to participate but am anxious to see what you share. Can’t wait to get your new book!!!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Yeah- so good to have you JoAnn! Have a wonderful weekend!

      Reply

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Artiscape 2017 in Ohio – Photos

Last week I went to Ohio to teach at Artiscape, a 3-Day Mixed Media Workshop Event. I taught three classes “Artvergnugen- Artjournaling” “Walk With Me – Altered Book” and “Master Art Express – Artjournaling” and the classes were filled with such delightful and talented students- I had so much fun!

Look at all the smiling faces and colorful backgrounds in the Artvergnugen class. (Artvergnugen – the pleasure in creating Art :))

In “Walk With Me” we gave old books a new live using their initial book soul – loved the different takes of students incorporating bits and pieces of the book to be part of the art like the title or drawings in the book.

Oh and Joe – I still owe you a quarter for saying John …maybe next time? ;)

In “Master Art Express” we took the Orient Express to stop at different stations and meet some Master Artists and got inspired for some out of the box approaches for art journaling.

We trully made the dull looking hotel conference rooms sparkle with color…and laughter :)

I truly loved every single moment of the classes and in between the classes there was a lot of great opportunities to stock up on art supplies for mixed media work at Joe Rotella’s store and also the vendor fair. Where else do you find a bucket full of “appendages” LOL

It was also great to catch up with some artist friends like Jen Crossley and MaryBeth Shaw and to meet some other wonderful teachers, like Glenda Miles, Cheryl Strait and Cindi Bison-Mc Gee.

And ohhh looksie some of my RubberMoon Stamps in the store – wohooo.

It was wonderful to meet Klara again who was also at my workshop at Color Crush two months ago – always the best to see students again !

It was a relaxed and great event and I hope I can come back some time.

Thank you to all students who come and made this such a wonderful experience and thank you to Lisa and Joe for having me and putting together such an amazing event. It was truly an Artiscape!

If you missed out on this event and would like to take a class with me – check out my In-Person-Class listing to see where I am at in the next couple weeks.

Have a gorgeous day!

Nat

Comments (6)

  • Jen Crossley

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    Hey Nat, It was so great to hang out with you so many laughs,til we meet again have fun Jen xx

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      It was so good to see you girl!!!! Glad to hear you came back well – cannot wait to see you again- on either side of the pond :)

      Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    What a bunch of beautiful faces having fun creating!
    Don’t you just love to hang with people who create?
    Thanks for sharing the pics and one day I will meet you in person Nat.
    Have a nice weekend.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      yeah it is the best, Sue and I would sooooooo love to meet you in person one day! ❤️

      Reply

  • Stephanie

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    Nat – I had SO. MUCH. FUN! In all 3 classes. I do hope you’ll come back. Stephanie

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Stephanie, it was so cool and fun to finally meet you!!!! Thank you so much for coming and I hope I see you soon again . Huge hugs!!! nat

      Reply

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