Give this world Good Energy! It can always use more :)
The pattern is some papers that I made from stamping off my Triple Play foam stamps with different acrylic paints on a StampBuddy. Watch a little StampBuddy video here on how that works. I used those as collage elements for the background. Then I added a catalog imagine, painted over with Liquitex Markers for a focal point.
I used a Fude pen for my journaling.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post and video from Riikka Kovasin who is sharing a trio of cheeky tags using my Batik stencil, Triple Play foam stamps, and Love Knots rubber stamp along with our theme this month: 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! This month we are also pleased to be partnering with Grafix who supplied the squad with some cool products to try out. Read on:
Maverick
Hi there all! It’s Riikka here today to share my take on the monthly theme of Primaries! This month we also got some lovely products to play with from Grafix. I used all three we were given and threw in one more from my own stash!
I feel like I must be honest with you. After seeing all the cool stuff you can do with Grafix products, especially by Tania Ahmed, I sourced some supplies through internet and ordered them. But then when they arrived, I had some deadlines closing in and I just put them aside with the thought “Need to play soon”. Then that pile moved to another place in my craft room and finally they went up on a shelf. So, while I have had some craft plastic in my craft room for months now, I’m so grateful for this theme and collaboration as it finally pushed me to take the stuff from the shelf and use it and fall in love all over again!
As before, I recorded a little process video while working with the Grafix products and primaries. As you can see from the pictures already, the project has blue and yellow and there’s red, too but not the same way as the other two. It’s because somehow I feel intimidated by red, especially in large surfaces. It’s such a vibrant, energetic color that I feel I can’t cope with it, I can’t harness it. So, instead of doing a red base and patterns, I started with a pink base and added red on top! More manageable!
I was amazed how well the craft plastic handled all the mediums I threw at it. Especially I loved using watercolor on top of the acrylic layer, it felt so soothing and rewarding. Another discovery was that I couldn’t rip the Double Tack Mounting Film. I was planning on ripping the vellum apart for the collage layer on the yellow tag, but it proved to be impossible. The Mounting Film was so sturdy that it wouldn’t rip! But still it’s so thin that it doesn’t add any bulk.
I kept the embellishments in the tags quite minimal. This shows the background better and also gives the whole thing a story book feel as all the texts connect. I guess this idea came to me while cutting the openings to reveal the layers underneath. The holes get smaller between the layers and that reminded me of a children’s book by Tove Jansson. It’s called “The book about Moomin, Mymble and Little My”. It’s the first picture book drawn and written by Tove Jansson, published in the 50s. The original title was “Hur gick det sen?” as Tove was a Swedish speaking Finn. Throughout the book there’s holes where you can have a sneak peek to the following spread. The holes get smaller and smaller in the course of the story and the last hole is so small that Moomins can’t fit through it and are thus captured in the book. The book has vibrant illustrations in Tove’s unique style. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend taking a look! Perfect inspiration for solid color surfaces and primaries! Here’s a link to Moomin site to get you going.
Thank you so much for stopping by today! I really enjoyed my first go with the Grafix products and can’t wait to play some more!
Thank you Riikka – just love the gorgeous layers you were able to build and learning the inspiration behind the project!
Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps , Foam Stamps, and my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Riikka used:
Follow Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram too: Each week we post projects, ideas, and inspiration for mixed media art.
Happy Monday everyone – time for another pattern in my big vintage ledger! For this one I used my Floral Tile Small, Fan-Fare, and Mini Motifs stamps. Check it out:
Here is the finished pattern and the stamps I used:
Give it a try! Here are the supplies I used:
Every time I see what you create in the journal it makes me want to go in search of one! Love the pattern!
Awe thank you Robin! It is really fun to play making pattern.
What a fun pattern with colors that remind me of the 4th of July!
That ledger looks like a great book for an art journal as well.
As always thanks for the inspiration Nat.
Thank you so much Sue!
“Be the woman who fixes another woman’s crown without telling the world it was crooked!”
To create my background here I used Moonlight duo ink pads with my Triangle Love rubber stamp set. The figure is a pulled magazine gel print.
On this side I used my Art Deco Empire stencil with Moonlight duo ink pads and then added in my quote.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
I love getting to turn some of my design ideas into stamps and stencils and sometimes, I crush hard on one or the other. Lately I’ve been feelin’ some serious love for Art Deco Empire – a stencil who’s story began with some photos of manholes and grates around NYC and Jersey City, evolved into a circular foam stamp set, then a fan shaped foam stamp set, and finally morphed into the Art Deco Empire stencil. I love how a design or pattern can flow through so many forms and in the end it becomes a suite of tools for me to use in my artwork. But today I am giving you an ode to Art Deco Empire :)
I think what I love most about the design is the classic art deco feel and how it reminds me of some of those building and architectural motifs from that era. I am a big fan of that time period when it comes to art and design.
But enough of my love letter lol – let’s just look at this guy in action:
Here are a couple pieces I made for Creative JumpStart 2020 using Art Deco Empire as my background with acrylic paint on cardboard. I oriented it two different ways and I think it gives a different feel for each.
Acrylic ink and gouache also work great for creating a background with Art Deco Empire as you can see in my art journal page from this post. The pattern can stand on its own for sure.
My Creative Squad has also showed just what it can do:
Maura Hibbitts created a series of super happy cards in this post using a rainbow of acrylic paint.
And here is a mini book and the start of an art journal page too:
Creative Squad member Jordan Hill also reaches for Art Deco Empire for backgrounds and pattern elements too:
In this mini book she chose it for the inside covers as well as a more subtle element on the front.
In this post by Jordan, she uses the Art Deco Empire stencil both for her background and a really cool top for her character – love it!!! Can I have a sweater like that? LOL
Thank you for hearing about my current stencil crush with Art Deco Empire – I hope it gets you in the creative mood! Here is one last look ;)
“If I would have known what I know now, would it have been easier to endure?”
Again for the backgrounds on this one I was using papers that I had previously stenciled using my Signals and Space Age Modern stencils, RubberMoon ink pads, and a blender tool. I just pasted them into my art journal and then used deli paper to sketch out the figure. I was working on the back of the deli paper, layering my Wabi Sabi stamps with black archival ink and then painting over it. I cut it out and adhered with a glue stick.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
A Look Back – This time I’m looking at projects from past Creative Squad members – each Tuesday we post something from our Creative Squad and wow there have been so many inspiring and unbelievably cool ones. I decided to look back at 5 Creative Squad Alums and share a project from each of them. And remember, you can find an archive of every posted project HERE on the website. Read on and enjoy!
A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
First up is from Creative Squad Alum Tina Walker from back in 2017 with our theme Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. She repurposed two old projects and brought them together in this stunning mini book. She incorporated my Lily Wallpaper stencil and Batik Pattern 3 foam stamp too. Here you can read the original post and see the two things that she transformed.
Back in 2016 our Creative Squad Alum Gwen Lafleur used our theme Say Yes to New Adventures to art journal about her love of travel. Her gorgeously layered spread uses my What’s the Point stencil and again, my Lily Wallpaper stencil and Gwen’s journaling. To see her process for this page, visit the original post here.
Next we head to Cheiron Brandon’s 2017 post for our Free for All theme and these beautifully colored tags using my Love Tag and Embroidery rubber stamps. Read the original post here for her method of using Distress Oxide inks for a washy watercolor effect.
Looking for a fun tablescape project? I love this one from Marsha Valk back in 2016 for our Return to the Light theme. She used battery powered tea lights, vellum, and my Santiago, Buenos Aires, and Toledo stencils to create colorful and fresh votives. See the process in her original post here.
Finally we have a lovely card from alum Tania Ahmed in 2019 for our theme Today We Smile. She used my Maiko stamp and my Running stamp to layer up for this card reminding us to… smile :) Watch her video in the original post here.
I hope you enjoyed this look back on some projects by our forever talented Creative Squad. Here are some of the supplies they used:
A Look Back – This time I’m looking at art journal pages that Embrace the Empty Space! Did you ever consider the empty page as part of your composition? Sometimes I like to, and it can be a pretty cool tool when you get it right (and when you can manage to actually keep it clean LOL). It’s something to think about – Read on and enjoy!
A Look Back is a blog series to show you some projects and posts that you may have missed – sometimes going WAY back in the archive. I think it will be fun to revisit a few ideas that we haven’t seen for a while. I’m excited to see how a little look back might inspire something new in the future :)
First stop is this post from 2018 where I kept the top and bottom of the page clear to highlight my cityscape scene stretching from side to side. I used a bunch of my rubber stamps from my Stroll Through the Hood and Stroll Around the Block sets and the sketch of the figure became my Actually I Can stamp! All were on top of washi tape and paper.
In this post from 2018 I used another stamp from my Actually I Can set along with some Hex foam stamps to create a very atmospheric environment. I like the shape of the white space that is created in between the hexes.
A stencil (my Flower Maze here) and spray paint allows for a subtle transition between blank space and pattern like here in this post from that same year. If you’re feeling a little hesitant about all that open real estate, try adding some splatters.
An all over, continuous pattern is another way to embrace the blank page without having to deal with large open areas that may be calling to you. In this page from 2019 I added a rubber stamp from my Floral Tile Small set and my Gnarly foam stamp. Simple but still a cool way to Embrace the Empty Space :)
Not every page needs to be about an all over composition. I love playing with stamps to see how they fit together and this page from earlier this year shows a really impactful design that I didn’t think needed anything else. I combined my Love Story and Mini Motifs foam stamps into something that reminds me of a crest or seal.
I hope this makes you think differently about how you can use the blank page to your advantage. Have fun with it! Here are some of the supplies I used:
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a really thoughtful card project from Maura Hibbitts that explores some pretty important ideas along with our theme this month: 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! This month we are also pleased to be partnering with Grafix who supplied the squad with some cool products to try out. Read on:
Oddly enough, I don’t reach for just primary colors that often, I think I must like them better blended together to make green, purple, orange, and the myriad of colors they create. So, I find it a bit of a challenge to just focus on primary colors, but I did…with just a touch of blending (I couldn’t help myself, lol). I’m also using Grafix products for the first time, and they are wonderful! I tried out a number of mediums and they worked beautifully.
I started creating, thinking of the ocean and my longing to go there again. I was also thinking about my friends in education and the upcoming end to a very challenging year. Somehow this translated into the schools of fish I stamped on the cards. But then, I thought about how everything is interconnected on our planet, from the fish in different oceans, to the people of different lands, and I added some stitches. It’s inter-esting how our creative process can begin with a simple thought, yet end up very complex by the time we finish.
I started my project by cutting the 12 x 12 sheet of Grafix Craft Plastic into four sec-tions. (6 x 6), then stamped three of them with a single paint color of yellow, red, or blue with Nat’s ArtFoamie Batik 2 stamp. I find it easy to roll out some paint on a gel plate, and press the ArtFoamie into that, to get a clean image.
For the fourth section, I decided to use the Batik stencil (a favorite!), fluid acrylics in red, yellow, and blue, and dab in the color with a cosmetic sponge. I couldn’t resist a bit of blending here.
Next, I decided to go around each stamped piece with a contrasting color, using the Art Deco Fairview stencil. I just added the design around the edges, and left a circular open area on the plastic.
I found that acrylic paint works beautifully with the Grafix plastic, so I thought, why not try watercolor next? I painted watercolor onto each section with blue, red or yellow.
To create my “schools of fish”, I used the Neato rubber stamp with black archival ink, and repeatedly stamped the image across the pages.
Then, I cut each section into fourths, just slightly smaller than 3” squares. I adhered four different squares to a backing. I cut a 12 x 12 black card stock into fourths for this base. Next, I punched holes to do some stitching, using a Japanese screw punch (or you could use an awl). I stitched X’s with heavy black thread onto the cards, tucking the ends onto the back and holding them in place with scotch tape.
To finish the card design, I framed it using the edge of the Far Out rubber stamp and black ink. I stamped the partial image around all edges.
As I was working, I started thinking of how we are all connected, and came up with the quote to put on my cards “We are all stitched together…” I typed up my words, and printed them onto the Grafix Computer Matte film using an inkjet printer. I adhered these to the card fronts using a clear adhesive, so the design underneath would be visible.
Then, the final step was to adhere my card tops. I cut 12 x 12 card stock in half, scored it and folded it into a 6 x 6 card. One reason I decided to not work directly on the card itself was the stitching. It shows through the back, and by doing it separately, I end up with a nice, neat card. Hint: remember, if you mail square cards, the postage is a bit higher…or you can put it into a kraft mailer.
It’s the common threads that pull us all together, like color – yes, primary colors too, which are connected to all colors. Other threads that bind us are music, art, words, friendships, family, and so many more. Remember, we are all stitched together…
I wish you joy in searching for the stitches and threads in your life, Maura
Thank you Maura – loved how you shared your thought process along with such clear step by step instructions. These cards are so meaningful AND beautiful!!!
Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps , Foam Stamps, and my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Maura used:
Riikka, awesome texture, colors and the expression about the woman shown are so delightful!
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