nathalie-kalbach

ArtCollab – Register for July 6th Zoomcast

The next ArtCollab zoomcast chat with Sarah Matthews and I is coming up on Tuesday, July 6th at 12noon. This time we are talking about a fundamental need of all people, including artists… It is REST! Yes even artists need to take a break and we’re chatting about how we juggle that along with everything else we have going on in life. Register HERE for ArtCollab Episode 5 – The Art of Self Care.

 

What is on the plate for ArtCollab Episode 5? The Art of Self Care – Let’s not forget to take time to breathe, reset, and make sure that our artistic practice is aligning with our purpose. It is time to talk about the Art of Self Care! As artists we have a go go go mentality and frequently wear many different hats as we juggle various projects, obligations, and revenue streams. When you are this busy, it is easy to forget to take breaks, but we are here to remind you that self care is crucial to success. We’ll discuss how to make sure rest is a part of the schedule and share our personal favorite ways to take a break. Most importantly, we’ll talk about how rest can help refine your focus as an artist – allowing you a moment to reflect on what you are creating, why you are creating, and any adjustments that you might need to make.

Register HERE to Attend

Are you new to ArtCollab? Each month my friend and fellow artist Sarah Matthews and I get together for a live zoomcast to discuss art topics and to share with you some of our current artistic collaborations. We cover a range of topics and each episode opens up a conversation that is often greater than what we planned. Last episode we tackled the Art vs Craft debate and we got into heavy discussion about our role as artists and using art as a platform and tool for social change. You can check out this and other past episodes of ArtCollab here in the Community tab on the website. See you at the next ArtCollab.

Nat

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Nat’s Birthday Bonanza Sale – Time to Celebrate!

Guess who has a birthday coming up… Yours Truly! I’d like you to all come for a celebration – my Birthday Bonanza Sale in my online shop :) It’s kind of a tradition at this point, and a pretty nice one I think. Here is the deal:

You can save 20% off physical goods (stamps, stencils, books, Moonlight Duo ink pads, Boundless Brooklyn cardboard models, and lots more) from now through 11:59pm EDT July 5th, 2021. Just use the coupon code BONANZA20 when you check out and qualifying purchases will be on sale for you. Easy as birthday pie!

Here is a link to the shop.

What’s on sale? How about some of my Stencils like Flower Maze or Art Deco Empire?

 

Popular Foam Stamps like the limited edition Love Story and Triple Play are also included in the sale:

 

Maybe you’re a Rubber Stamp fan? Check out Cardboard and Hex Set Large:

 

Or poke around my favorites like the Billboard Model or Moonlight White ink pad:

 

There are lots of items to choose from, so I hope you visit the online shop HERE and take a look around. The sale ends July 5th and is valid while supplies last!!! Enjoy!

Nat

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Feeling the Love – Love Knots

I love embroidery and stitching as an added element in mixed media. A while back I even designed a whole set of rubber stamps along those lines called Embroidery because I think faux stitches are pretty great too. One of those stamps became a real favorite of mine because it is just so simple and perfect for expressing love: my Love Knots stamp. 

Just a line of embroidered xxxooo says it all, in a nice sweet and sincere way. I of course use it a lot for cards because hey, that’s a place that usually calls for some love, right? In my Deck of Cards Challenge I created this little number using Love Knots and Running. You can check it out here.

 

Another card I made a bit more grungy – definitely my style – using the Love Knots stamp. Even if you’re not so good with lettering, you can just throw a little xxxooo onto a card and ta-dah! Instant message :) Here’s the post.

 

Tags are another go-to surface that works perfectly with the smaller details of rubber stamps. I combined the Love Knots stamp with some real embroidery here in this post. Very fun to follow stamp designs with actual stitching.

 

If I’ve got a dark or intense background going on, I like to use a white ink pad like the Moonlight White with Love Knots. In this art journal page I needed some unifying marks to pull things together and the stamp was the way to go. You can see the entire spread here and why I chose this particular stamp too.

 

And I will wrap this up with some of my favorite cards from Creative Squad alum Marsha Valk who was inspired by her town and it’s connection to the artist Mondrian. Read the story and see pics of her town here in the original post. I love how Marsha uses Love Knots as a border element in these cards, filling them in with my E-train, Hydrant, Running, and Torn Layers stamps too.

 

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Love Knots stamp in action :) xxxooo

Nat

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Interrogating Fear – Art Journal

“We climbed slowly towards the greatest of our terror of that time, we want to expose ourselves to fear and interrogate it. ” – My Brilliant Friend

Are you interrogating your fears? Pretty hard to do but they say it’s one of the best ways to overcome things. I was mulling it over when I created this page.

I still have paper from my Suminagashi Session so I used one of those prints as a background. Suminagashi is a Japanese paper marbling technique that is very doable at home and yields some beautiful results for collage, bookbinding, art journaling etc.

For the facing page, I used a sheet I made with my Kyoto and Tokyo stencils along with Distress Oxide inks and a blending tool. The sketch I made on normal printing paper, and then adhered on top with a glue stick. 

Here are some of the supplies I used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

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    What a wonderful design and quote!

    Reply

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Creative Squad: Primary Colors – Judi Kauffman

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a clever post from Judi Kauffman using my Triple Play foam stamps, Broadway stencil, and a mini water tower model (including its envelope AND scrap pieces) and our theme: Primary Colors: Red, Blue, and Yellow it’s your time to shine. Let’s get back to the basics of color and light and play with primary colors. It’s elementary my friend! 

When I heard that this month’s theme is all about primary colors I knew I was going to want to head in a different direction. Instead of using all three, I’d focus on just one – RED, my favorite color, plus basic black and pure white.

Or perhaps it was because I was thinking of the old children’s riddle: What is black and white and red all over? A newspaper! (Red…Read…) Sorry! I couldn’t help myself.

I thought it would be fun to use not only the pieces from the Water Tower Model kit I received but the negative shapes AND the sturdy envelope in which they were packed. Double the fun.

***TIP: If you are going to decorate the envelope be sure to take a photo of the assembly instructions BEFORE starting to paint and stencil!

Randomly paint the model pieces, envelope, and negative shapes with white paint. It’s okay that some of the original board remains visible.

Randomly add red paint to the model pieces, envelope, and negative shapes.

Center the Broadway stencil on the roof piece and use black paint to stencil the pattern. Use black paint and your choice of triangle stamps from ArtFoamies Triple Play to randomly stamp all remaining pieces of the tower, the negative shapes, plus the envelope.

Assemble the tower per instructions. Add the negative shapes to the roof of the tower.

Option: Instead of securing the roof, don’t use the criss-cross piece of board that acts as a structure to hold it in place; just perch it on top so you can hide candies or jewelry inside the tower!

Thank you Judi – love the idea of using the packaging and leftovers too!!! And look at that great use of pattern and layering!

Give it a try: you can find all my favorite cardboard models, Foam Stamps, and Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Judi used:

For more from the Creative Squad check out Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram too: Each week we post projects, ideas, and inspiration for mixed media art.

Nat

Comments (3)

  • Marilyn C. Lojek

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    Judi:
    Hard to believe you only used one of the primary colors! It’s really cool and a great way to give a gift to that someone special. Thanks for sharing your creativity and how to use every piece provided.
    Marilyn

    Reply

  • jean marmo

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    Wow – this is so cool! Love the details and using the extra pieces!!

    Reply

    • jean marmo

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      Judi – I was going to email you but couldn’t find your email address. Do you still have mine? Was hoping to catch up!

      Reply

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Pattern Monday 06 – Video from my Ledger

Happy Monday everyone – time for another pattern in my big vintage ledger! For this one I used my Lady Liberty and Hope Tag stamps. I’m getting ready for July 4 in the US with this one :) Check it out in the following video:

 

Here is a look at the finished pattern and the stamps I used:

Now it’s your turn. Here are the supplies I used:

Nat

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Stroll Through the Hood – June 2021

Strolls through my hood get me out of my studio, they help me get unstuck and often I get inspired by what I see and get new ideas to create something. It is part of my philosophy about Artful Adventures in Mixed Media – which is the subject of my book. Here are some photos that I gathered in the last couple weeks.

Love this cute coffee place – once in a while I stop here with a friend and sit out side and admire the color combo.

You wouldn’t wanna miss this picture of Bobby Pretzel showing his insanely big tongue, no?

Fun – I would love something like this at the side of our house !

Check out the windows on this super cute house – swoon!!!!

And the top – the scallops , the lines – all of it.

This building just struck me a bit over the top …like let’s put some gigantic columns up just for “good measure” LOL. It looks even more ridiculous in person but I bet the inside of the house is pretty cool.

I love this street- the houses are like from a Victorian novel and the trees are gorgeous- take away the cars and you are almost back in time.

Love the bold color choices here. Lately it is been such a fad to paint entire houses in dark black or dark blue without any distinction for the trims, cornices, porches and roofs – especially some of the Victorians and old brick houses and I find it eye-rollingly annoying. I love black – don’t get me wrong and I and I am cool with non historic color choices for those houses but urgggghh. The only thing worse for me is vinyl siding …so if you paint your hole vinyl sided house black, you improved it slightly LOL. I am not an expert but I predict in about 2 years everyone is tired of that look and repaints. It just makes a house loose all it’s character and is as if you put a formless tent over yourself …Baby show those curves and wonderful assets of a house :) …and if you do not know what I mean – I will make sure to incorporate a picture next time. And if you have done this to your house lately – your house is of course the exception – and I know it is looking awesome :)

Nat

Comments (4)

  • TIFFANY ARP-DALEO

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    Thanks for sharing your cute hood! It reminds me of our little nook in San Diego!

    Reply

  • Sue Clarke

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    OMG, the texture that you captured on Bobby Pretzel’s tongue. LOL
    I so enjoy your strolls Nat.
    I love to see older homes that look like those.
    There really aren’t many at all in my small town.
    When I worked in Salem, MA I used to like to walk down Chestnut Street and look at the details on the huge houses that used to be owned by captains of ships. The different colors are interesting for sure.
    Just for the record, my house has siding, but is just a regular house built in the 1990’s.

    Reply

    • nathalie-kalbach

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      haha- the texture is hilarious :) Yeah, I am not a meanie about the siding – I mean more that it was such a fad in the 40s and 50s to wrap those super old houses in siding and it always makes me wonder what is underneath.

      Reply

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Spill your heART – Next Webinar Tomorrow, Friday June 25

Join us tomorrow, Friday June 25th at 12noon EST for the next LIVE Webinar episode of Spill your heART! Register here to attend. This time we will be discussing Studio Organization with 3 guest panelists: Tania Ahmed, Rachel Juanita Bellamy, and Rae Missigman.

Spill your heART – Once a month, you can join me and a panel of professionals to hear them sharing their personal stories and experiences in the arts. From past-life professions to finding time for art to discovering your creative style, each month we’ll be covering topics to motivate and inspire you to create and do what moves you.

Episode 5: Studio Organization – Let’s talk about Studio Organization! This is a topic that came up again and again in a recent survey I posted to my readers, so in this Spill your heART episode we’ll be tackling the issues you mentioned most. Join my panelists Tania Ahmed, Rae Missigman, and Rachel Juanita Bellamy as we address the problems of studio organization, supply overload, and what to do when you’ve got stuff all over the place. We’ll discuss general organization including the pros and cons of keeping supplies visible and creating sections, and we’ll debate whether a tidy studio is a good studio or a messy one is the real deal. Big space / small space, shared space / dedicated space, in your home / offsite – it all informs how you organize and create.

See you tomorrow! Register HERE to attend.

 

Stay in the loop: Sign up to our newsletter HERE so you do not miss the next episode!

Nat

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Getting Ready for 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to all my friends in the US – a little early! I know I am certainly ready for some outdoor activities and bbqing and such this year with friends and family – enjoying the summer holiday and getting out and about now that things are beginning to look better.

I thought it would be fun to do a whole montage of posts and projects to get you in the spirit :)

“We rise by lifting others.” How perfect in this time of coming together? In cities and across the world we are doing it. Original post is here.

 

“Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.” Love this card from Creative Squad alum Cheiron Brandon – she made a trio of different designs in the post here.

 

I think bravery has been really important for everyone this past year and this ATC from Creative Squad alum Tina Walker really gets me – she made a suite of them that you can see here. 

 

Stand tall! Another incredible project from Tina. This one really moved me – you have to see the full book here and all the pages with very powerful messages.

 

On the lighter side, how about some wine charms to help celebrate? I made these with shrink film and my rubber stamps. If you haven’t used shrink film since you were a kid, I assure you it is still a blast. Here’s the tutorial for these charms.

 

Are you watching fireworks this year? Love this card from Creative Squad alum Josefine Fouarge with the cityscape, flag, and celebratory burst in the sky. Here is her post for the project.

 

Leaving you with this card I made back in 2017 and truly hoping everyone can enjoy their days with friends, family, and hope for the future!

Happy 4th of July!

And if you’re thinking you might want to make some cards, wine charms or other festive projects, here were my go-to stamps for the occasion:

Nat

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