nathalie-kalbach

Europe Workshop Tour- Part 4 – Sightseeing in Helsinki, Finland

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From Germany I made my way to Helsinki, Finland – arriving at around the same time as my friend Birgit Koopsen in the evening. Minna picked us up – yeahhh!

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I was sick when I arrived in Helsinki- hence Birgit covering her nose and I am looking like a bed sheet. Not fun to be sick while traveling, but you know what …I still had a great time :) We went out to a fabulous dinner with Minna and Elina eating ….Reindeer Tartar and other finish specialties . And please calm down- it wasn’t Rudolf – and yes …we Europeans eat raw meat …and we survive – – OK?

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Birgit and I had half a day on Friday morning to do some sightseeing and started off with some yummy breakfast. Always good to spend time with friends that are as appreciative of food as you :) Plus it was fun to catch up with my wonderful friend and we had just a relaxed and good time.

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We went to the harbor

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and to the old market at the harbor with cute wooden stalls selling …yep reindeer pate, bear sausages and other interesting stuff- which due to the lack of language skills was not identifiable …mhhh maybe it was better that way- hahahaha.

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We strolled around and did some shopping at an artist store and then sat a little bit on the stairs of the Helsinki Cathedral. It was actually the nicest day we had in Finland – it wasn’t really T-Shirt weather- besides for the hardy Fins – but it was nice to get some sun rays onto my sniffy nose.

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Then invisible strings pulled us to Fazer – a chocolate institution of Finland – to eat a rich and yummy and of course super healthy chocolate cake ;)

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And then we went back through the Unicorn Neighborhood – come one- that is so cool! – to the hotel and waited for Minna to start our journey to Turku where the workshops took place.

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Next up will be the Workshops in Finland :)

Nat

Comments (2)

  • Minna

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    It was really lot fun to see you here. I’m glad that the weather was nice for your day in Helsinki! Hugs :)

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    Gorgeous rainbow. That chocolate cake looks great and the stalls remind me of the ones in Boston at Fanieul Hall.

    Reply

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Europe Workshop Tour- Part 3 – Short Stop in Germany

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After Art Mesa in Madrid, Spain I flew to Hamburg, Germany for 3 days of Fun, Friends and Food. It was quite crazy with every two hours a different place and friend to visit. That was the good thing – the bad was, that the summer was basically missing. I don’t think I saw the sun in the time there -and I had to buy a warm rain jacket – and shoes (ohhhh to bad – LOL)

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Staying in my old hood always makes me happy. For some it is a nightmare for me it is “home”

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Fun sign – I liked it

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Best subway ride going up alongside the harbor

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The Elb Philharmony – also seen from the subway

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short fly by at city hall

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and my favorite office supply store Büromarkt Hansen – family owned – which also carries all those yummy Liquitex Spray Paints !

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Did I say food? Oh and of course a little beer – yep – we are in Germany after all.

 

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A walk at the harbor after dinner with a friend

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And good old Bismarck crowned with a capricorn. A nice art action to criticize the way some antiquated and right groups in Germany use Bismarck and his Monuments for a weird personality cult.

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Fun decoration piece at one of my friends house.

And that was it from Germany – next up is my trip to Finnland ;)

Nat

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Europe Workshop Tour- Part 2 – ArtMesa Workshops in Madrid

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What a fun time we had at our Art Mesa Mixed Media Workshops in Madrid. We had students coming from all over Spain – Madrid, Barcelona, Salamanca, Malaga, Valencia etc. We had a fantastic group of students and it was so good to see so many familiar faces again too! As always my sweet friend Cuchy rocked the organization, translated my workshop and held her own workshop – what a trooper and amazing friend she is !!!

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And …as a special surprise the girls started singing during the workshop – FUN

Hope you didn’t get too dizzy from the video – LOL -I could have warned you …but then…where is the fun ;) ?

Thank you Spain!!! It was awesome! Until the next Art Mesa ;)

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Next up will be a short trip to Germany :)

Nat

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Europe Workshop Tour- Part 1 – Sightseeing in Toledo, Spain

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I am back from my Europe workshop tour just to leave for another Workshop in Dallas in a couple hours :) But how about I finally share some photos from my four-country trip?

DISCLAIMER: This Blog Post contains a picture with a naked statue – some might think of it as totally inappropriate – but it is called ART . If you have a problem with art, you might be better off looking at something else . Don’t email me to complain, don’t visit my blog anymore because I might post things like this again and for sure shield your precious kids’ eyes !

I arrived in Spain, Madrid and was picked up by my wonderful friend Cuchy. I loved this statue by Fernando Botero in front of the Madrid Airport.

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I used the first day to adjust to the time difference and mostly filled my belly with good food and hung out with good people :)

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The next day we took the train to Toledo – prepare yourself for a major picture overload as I really loved it there!

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A city with a history of more than 2000 years …yeah that is what we call old in Europe ;)

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Since the Festival of Corpus Christi was coming up , the streets and houses were already decorated.

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The first stop was the Cathedral of Toledo

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The Sacristy ceiling painted by Luca Giordano – he used both hands …and it took only four years – insane!

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Altar Piece painted by El Greco

 

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After a nice stroll through the city

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we went to the Synagogue of El Transito – beautiful stucco and details

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Next we stopped at the Monasterio de San Juan de los Reyes, Toledo

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And just before an epic thunderstorm started  we made it back to the train station …of course not without taking a “where is Nat pic” ;)

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That was a pretty good start of my trip – next up are some pictures of the awesome Art Mesa Workshop – we had so much fun :)

Nat

Comments (13)

  • Vickie Doswell aka okienurse

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    oh my goodness such awesome pictures and things to see. Spain is one of my favorite places to visit and have been there many times. Being from Oklahoma USA it is a far cry from the norm here. Speaking of norms nudity is a big deal in the religious south and I think you summed up my feelings exactly with your disclaimer. I am hoping that was tongue and cheek and that you haven’t actually been accosted by people offended by your posts. I love them. Thanks for sharing! Vickie

    Reply

  • Mel

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    Die Bilder sind großartig – aber Dein Disclaimer hat´s mir angetan… ;-)
    Hummel-Hummel!

    Reply

  • stephanie

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    Welcome back! Awesome pix

    Reply

  • Joi@RR

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    Love the skyline pictures like the Toledo picture and the Where is Nat picture because… I hope you will paint them. I love your skyline paintings so much. And of course, ALL of these were sooo wonderful. What fabulous inspirations for you to use in your artwork. I just can’t WAIT to see what comes out onto your canvas from these pictures Nat. What a great trip. Thank you so much for a glimpse of it thru your eyes. I love traveling with you!! j.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Joi! I cannot wait to get into my studio either to paint :) I am sure some inspiration will get into my future work :) Thanks for traveling with me

      Reply

  • Ami Pilon

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    Nathalie,

    Julie must be drooling with all of the patterns that you are seeing. I can just see the stamps that would be carved. Your photos are very special.

    Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Ami, heheh- I think Julie was drooling ;) Thank you for your sweet comment!

      Reply

  • Kelly Belton

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    Magnifico!

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  • Kathy P

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    Awesome pics, Nat! Looks like you had a great time! Thanks for reminding me that I have to get back to Europe again! Love it’s architecture, people, and diversity!

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      Thank you Kathy! Yes – I am of course biased – but Europe is a special place :)

      Reply

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

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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 am back to play with some Gelatos – and for today’s post I created a couple Graduation/Achievement Tags which I will use as Gift Hangers :)

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I stamped each tag with different stamps from my stamp sets and embossing ink and then used different Embossing powders on top and heat embossed them. The Gelatos rubbed over went wonderfully into the creases and not embossed areas, being resisted by the embossed areas themselves.

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For the “Right On” tag I used the Kaffee Klatsch Stamp Set,  Aged Aqua Enamel and Gelatos from the Pastel Kit.

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“Well Done” was created by using the Mark Maker Stamp Set, Deep Impression Chunky Enamel and Gelatos from the Bright Kit.

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And for the Yeah tag I created a funky background using the Fiesta Stamp Set, Aged Green Embossing Enamel and again some colors from the Pastel Kit.

The titles were written with a brush and Soft Body paint. That was fun :)

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 ;)

Nat

Comments (32)

  • Dot

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    Hi Nat. Wow, I love the rich backgrounds! The words really pop. The embossing with the gelato’s is a great combination.
    Dot (Aus) x

    Reply

  • Janine Rudnick

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    Such cute tags! This gives me a lot of ideas.

    Reply

  • Judy B

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    Great tags. Love the different looks on each of them. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

  • Beth Williams

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    this is a technique I know I can do and use. Thank you for sharing it with us.

    Reply

  • Jade Passmore

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    Love these tags! So perfect for a graduation gift.

    Reply

  • Kathy P

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    I really like the look of the embossing with the gelatos on top. Definitely going to give this technique a try! TFS!

    Reply

  • 1aquagirl

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    Love these!

    Reply

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

GELATOS_hop_banner_960x480

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 ;)

Nat

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.

    Reply

  • 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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