“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” – Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
I used some of our foam stamped masks from our Votive Candle Playdate and attached them layered to the art journal page. Here are Row Houses, Brownstone, and Lady Liberty.
I liked the raised look of the Grafix Wet Medium sheet with the acrylic paint and didn’t want to add anything to the background besides the journaling.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
“Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
And I am using a bit of profanity in here too because I am annoyed with all these “but my freedom” people.
I used two collage papers from my stash for this one including the suminagashi paper above. There is also my Lady Liberty foam stamp and the zero is a block print from my wooden letter press numbers printed on deli paper using Speedball Fabric Ink and a Speedball press.
The other collage paper is my Signals stencil which I though worked nicely with the suminagashi print.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
Thank you so much Sue!
Did you catch the last episode of ArtCollab with Sarah and I? We were chatting with Rachel Juanita Bellamy about Pass the Brush and it was our first one with a guest! You can watch the recording below and then read on about our next one coming up on September 7th. Registration link is down below.
Here is what we covered:
Episode 6: Pass the Brush – In this episode Sarah and Nat are joined by special guest Rachel Juanita Bellamy! Rachel is the organizer behind 2020’s Pass the Brush event as well as a talented artist and online educator and in this webinar she shares her background, current projects, and the story behind Pass the Brush.
Rachel talks about her time in the US military and her ongoing passion for service. She describes her beginnings as an artist and how it has balanced her interests and skills since childhood. She shares how she shifted her focus to mixed media in response to personal trauma and the desire to create more freely, and how that has evolved into a love for the process of creating, working on multiple pieces at one time, painting on a larger scale, and realizing the dream of creating online classes.
Rachel explains the Pass the Brush event and its origins in Black Lives Matter, George Floyd’s murder, and her own Unmuted program on social media. Unmuted created some of the connections within the mixed media community which helped Pass the Brush – the artist version of “pass the mic” – become a reality.
Rachel talks about her strategy for the event and what some of her goals were. She describes the well-planned preparations leading up to it and those angels behind the scenes who helped make it happen. Finally she talks about the benefits and the steps forward in the industry since Pass the Brush, but stresses the need for a continuing push.
There is another Pass the Brush event planned, so stay tuned!
Upcoming Episode:
Join us for Episode 7: Back to School – Tuesday, September 7th at 12noon EDT (NYC time)
In this episode of ArtCollab, Sarah and Nat are going Back to School. As teachers, they usually find themselves at the front of the class but sometimes stepping back and taking on the role of student can be incredibly beneficial and inspiring. In fact, artists can always learn something new from other artists and engaging in these role reversals is a great way to try a different medium, sharpen skills, approach ideas from a new angle, and maybe even get the inside scoop on tips and tricks from other practicing artists. Taking classes and attending educational events such as artist retreats are also perfect opportunities to forge new friendships and partnerships in creativity. In addition to this discussion, Sarah and Nat will also teach each other a mini lesson in this episode and attendees can enjoy watching and engaging with them as they play both teacher and student.
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a journal spread from Jordan Hill who creates a moody night scene using my Powerhouse and Row Houses foam stamps and our theme: Good Morning Good Evening – Are you a Morning Person or a Night Owl? Or maybe neither? Create a project inspired by your preferred time of day – when you are in good spirits, doing what you love, and enjoying life.
Hello, everyone! I’m very excited to be back with a new project! When I first started to consider August’s theme of ‘Good Morning Good Evening’, I’ll admit I was a little stumped. I do not consider myself either a morning person or a night person; I’m more of a middle of the day kind of person. With that being said, I ended up creating my project based on the idea of night; I quite like the nighttime aesthetics, and I’ve been known to incorporate a good night skyline into my artwork. With all that being said, let’s get into it!
The first thing I did was select a spread in my journal to work on. As soon as I decided to work with the idea of night, I knew these were the pages I wanted to use. Months ago I glued this moon collage piece onto a magazine background, and it’s been sitting around waiting for me to create something with it ever since! You can also see that the left hand page already has the beginnings of a face ready for me to draw on top of!
Next, I cut out a piece of paper approximately the size of the moon to use as a mask. I placed this circle on top of the moon collage piece. Then, using a combination of Nathalie’s Powerhouse Foam Stamp and Row Houses Foam Stamp, along with some white acrylic paint, I started to layer up some buildings to create a skyline! I mainly used the Powerhouse Foam Stamp near the bottom of my page, while the Row Houses Foam Stamp helped to create some of the buildings up the sides! The stamps made creating a skyline very easy, where it would usually take a while to draw something like this!
After the paint had dried, I wanted to add a little more definition to the buildings, so I used a yellow Posca Pen to color in some of the windows! This was an extremely relaxing process; I simply followed some of the lines in the stamped images to emphasize them.
The next step was to add the figure. In order to do this, I simply started sketching over top of the pre-existing shape of a face with my trusty Indigo Prismacolor Premier colored pencil. I also added some long flowing hair. When I was drawing the hair, I purposefully made sure that it continued onto the right side in order to tie these two pages together a bit more.
Now we’re getting into the finishing touches of the spread! I finished up my figure by giving them a shirt made out of a piece of collage paper, adding some shading to the face, and outlining the entire thing with white pen. I then added a handful of silver star stickers across both pages, and repeated the same process of stamping with Nathalie’s Row Houses Foam Stamp and adding yellow Posca pen along the bottom of the right hand side of the spread.
As a last detail, I added a quote along the edge of the figure’s hair that I felt was fitting. I decided not to outline the entire quote in white, but instead left that for the parts of the quote that were over darker parts of the page, where it was harder to read what was written.
And with that, we have my finished project for August! I’m quite happy with the way this month’s spread turned out and I definitely think I will be using these stamps again in the future to create skylines in my journals! I can already imagine it in neon! I hope you enjoyed following the process of this journal spread and that you are inspired to try something similar in your own journals!
Thank you Jordan – love how the skyline glows with those yellow details!
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and in addition to some collage elements, here are some of the supplies Jordan used:
Like what you see? Follow the Creative Squad on Instagram for weekly posts, artwork, and inspiration.
Did you miss yesterday’s Pattern Monday video in the email? Let’s try it again, here is yesterday’s video:
Love love love this journal spread by Jordan Hill! This spread is A wonderful collaboration of ideas and creativity. Your blog brings a smile and a break form this busy crazy planet. Peace to you.
Happy Monday and welcome to another pattern in my big vintage ledger! Today I’m using a couple rubber stamps that just work great together for making fun patterns. The stamps from my Circle Jumble Large and Fantastic Large sets all fit nicely together and offer a bunch of options for different combinations. Here is one:
Take a look at the finished pattern and the stamps I used:
Your turn! Here are the supplies I used:
Riikka Kovasin from my Creative Squad shared this beautiful and bright art journal page last week and we are in love with the colors and composition. She used my new Row Houses and Brownstone foam stamps front and center.
Here is what Riikka had to say:
“The pink is Brownstone and brick red Row Houses. The background has Church and Powerhouse in there.
As Distress Ink is activated with water, I first cut the try out sheet into smaller piece, fitting inside my journal. I then used a wet brush to color the whole cardstock using the stamped images. On top I then layered some Izink ICE and then some acrylic paint covering parts of the buildings in the background. I cut the two buildings loose and added them to the page. There’s also some white scribbles, splashes and a sun/moon done using another try-out – a piece of synthetic paper with alcohol inks. “
Thank you Riikka for sharing this page!
Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Riikka used:
Riikka, I so love these colors and the page and the moon!!
This was some paper which I had used to clean up my gelli plate – hence the grungy background. Then I just stamped with the back of the Hydrant foam stamp in yellow and the patterned part in black – Tongue in Cheak …cheek… well you know ;) Cannot stop using the Hydrant !
Here are some of the supplies I used:
I’m sharing a nice collaboration that Judi Kauffman from my Creative Squad did with another artist.
Judi turned her friend Nancy McNiff’s cast-off gel prints done with Nathalie’s Batik Pattern 1, Pattern 2, and Pattern 3 foam stamps into some very striking cards. When the two friends have gel printing days Judi always rescues prints that Nancy would otherwise leave in the trash. Nancy’s much more ruthless, while Judi sees beauty in what Nancy thinks of as duds! Judi added her own touches with black, white and hot pink colored pencils and Tim Holtz’s stickers.
What a great idea to do some printmaking and card making with another friend. Besides it being a fun activity, you never know what will come from it – collage material, print exchanges, and even a chance to allow ideas to flow back and forth. I just love how this session created some beautiful “trash to treasure” cards!
***A fun surprise: The rectangles on the two larger cards are removable ATCs, signed on the back and held in place with easily removable low-tack tape!***
Here are some of the supplies they used:
If you didn’t catch our Spill your heART Episode 6, you can watch a recording below. I was joined by Birgit Koopsen, Amanda Trought, and DeeDee Catron to discuss Artistic Inspiration – Finding the Magic.
Here is an overview of the webinar:
In Episode 6 I discuss Artistic Inspiration with my panelists Birgit Koopsen, Amanda Trought, and DeeDee Catron. Inspiration is the magic behind creativity but it is not always readily available and in the opposite extreme it can be overwhelming. We began our discussion with a simple question: How do you find it and then what do you do with it?
My panelists shared their tips for finding inspiration including creative play, gardening, neighborhood walks, travel, art journaling, collaborations, assignments/deadlines, and the people in our lives. While primarily we draw from visual sources, we also discussed how music, food, and even smells could spark an idea. Sometimes we have too many ideas and lean on lists and schedules to stay focused and productive.
It’s ok to take a break from creating and we talked about avoiding the pressure to make every day. With that in mind, extended breaks can make it hard to get the magic flowing again and we shared some of the creative activities that we do that are not about making art but are never-the-less creative like dance, cooking, and reading that also help us get back.
Join us for the next one on August 27th:
Spill your heART Episode 7: Nat’s Creative Squad – Design Team Talk
Join our design team discussion with Nat’s Creative Squad members Robin Seiz, Riikka Kovasin, Nicole Watson, and Emilie Murphy. Our panel will talk about what it takes to join and flourish on a design team, how they approach assignments, the fun and challenge of participating, and what they take away from the experience. Nat’s Creative Squad has been around since 2016 and has been host to a variety of members with a broad range of styles and backgrounds. Get to know some of them a bit better and bring your questions about design teams, mixed media art making, and the idea of creativity on assignment.
Friday, August 27th at 12noon EDT (NYC time) – Register HERE to attend.
Love it! Especially the marble-type background paper and your quote.
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