Time for another pattern in my big vintage ledger! This one I used my Fan-Tastic Large and Mini Motifs stamps and an acrylic block to speed up the process. Check it out:
Here is how it came out:
Here are some of the supplies I used:
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 the facade – those details on the bay windows – be still my heart.
Which reminds me of this one – I love love love the balcony on top – and the cornice swoon. Every time walk to the post office to drop off your packages- I swoon over this house.
Speaking of Bay Windows- I loved this pop of color on this one. These little town houses are so cute and the brick work and the little terra-cotta (the white painted ones above the bay window between the second floor windows) tiles are amazing.
I also love the details on this art deco apartment building. It is a very simple brick house but the blue details are stunning.
This church with it’s magnificent brick details is amazing by itself- but look at the details of the windows. I hope someday soon I can go back in and take some inside photos -before the pandemic I never hit a time where there wasn’t a mass inside.
My favorite Mural ….
If you have followed me for a while you might recall I love Alliums- this one is gigantic again and I am so happy to say hello to my old friend !
This sign made me really chuckle – I think I am overcomplicating my pricing system – LOL- what do you think ;)
This house which I actually thought would be just torn down now looks as if it is getting restored. I am curious to see what happens. Which reminds me
I showed this photo a while ago – the house on the right has been in this boarded up abandoned State for years and years.
The house built in 1901 used to belong to a very well off Dr. Muller who apparently was very well off and used to travel to Europe every year- apparently he did about 22 Atlantic crossings. He was on one of his big Europe travels right when WWII broke out and was trapped on a German ship not being able to get back home and was met with a lot of press when he finally managed to get home via some other countries and landed in Hoboken.
Anyway- look what happened over the winter – they fixed it up. I dare to say there is probably not much left of the original house and I wish I could have seen what it looked like underneath the horrid aluminum siding but part of me is a little bit happy that it is still standing.
Speaking of pleasant surprises – this house in my neighborhood – a former firehouse is being restored as well
Look at the gorgeous brick and the cool Firehouse sign being revealed again. It is so much fun to see those buildings come to live again. This was it this month – up and until next month – I hoped you enjoyed the stroll.
Hi
Love Your ” Stroll through the Hood”. I like New York and it’s naighborhoods. Thanks for sharing.
I love your strolls through the hood! They are the main reason I read your blog. I love how you find inspiration in the every day. Thank you very much!
I so love your strolls!
I guess you had something to do with the blue accents.
You will tell us which one at some point?
That 99 cent sign is very amusing.
“When you know better you do better.” – Maya Angelou
My background is from papers where I had used my Art Deco Fairview, Art Nouveau Wallpaper , and Art Deco Empire stencils and Moonlight duo ink pads with a blending tool. I attached them with double sided tape and then GASP when I reorganized my studio I cut up a painting – just the part I liked and added it to the art journal – can you believe it?!?
The quote was written with acrylics marker on watercolor paper which I cut out and then adhered.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a super cool project from Jordan Hill using a mini billboard model and my Triangle Love rubber stamps. Our theme is: In the City – Although we aren’t traveling much these days, let’s reminisce about a time we traveled to another town or city. Think about the flavor of the place and let that guide your color and design choices.
Hello, everyone! I’m very excited to be back with my project for May 2021. This month I was working with the Billboard Model Kit, which I found to be a lot of fun and an interesting change of pace from the style of work that I usually do.
I decided to begin my project by decorating the flat billboard part of the model. In order to do this, I used some white gesso to prep the chipboard surface, then used CraftSmart craft paints in Pale Blue and Neon Pink to create a background that reminds me of some of the colors of lights you might see in the city at night.
In order to create this particular background, I tried to work quickly and allowed the paint colors to blend together as I applied them to the chipboard. The two colors I chose created a pretty soft purple when mixed, which added a bit more depth to the background colors. After the acrylic paint had dried, I then added a few pieces of collage (some star paper I found at a thrift store and some hand painted neon pink arcs) that reminded me of graffiti.
Next, I knew I wanted to incorporate the theme of “In the City” in the form of some freeform building doodles. Using a Sharpie, I drew squares, rectangles and arches to represent the shapes of houses, windows and doors. I then used some leftover neon pink paint I had on my palette and the tip of my finger to add some dots to the background. I also added some white to the windows of the houses to help them stand out a bit more.
After I had my buildings in place, I knew I wanted to add some more pattern and texture to the background. In order to do this, I chose Nathalie’s “Empire Triangle” rubber stamp to stamp over the entire background. Since there was already a lot going on, after inking up my stamp, I stamped once on a separate scrap of paper before applying it to my background. This gave me a much more muted effect, which I quite like.
Next it was time to add the figure. I played around with the idea of collaging a face onto this piece, but ultimately decided to draw a new one from scratch. I did this in much the same way as I typically do, by first blocking in the shape of a face with acrylic paint, then sketching over the top in colored pencil. This time however, I did opt to use an Aquamarine Prismacolor pencil for my sketching as opposed to my typical navy or deep purple. I then inked the illustration and sketched in some hair.
The next step was to add color to the hair I sketched in previously. I chose to go with CraftSmart Aqua for this step; I recently discovered I have three bottles of this paint in my possession, and I wanted to use some of it up! It also just so happened to coordinate with the colored pencil I had already used to draw the face and it had a nice contrast with the pre-existing colors of the background.
As I reached this point in the project, I knew I wanted to add a quote. This particular model feels very much like a display piece, so I felt that some motivational words would work well. In order to add the words to the piece, I chose a thin ink pen and wrote my quote in a large cursive font. This is the first part of the typical style of lettering that I recreate frequently in my artwork.
The second part of this lettering style is to simply thicken one edge of the cursive writing. You can use the same thin ink pen to do do this, or you can choose to go for a brush pen in order to fill more space more quickly (this is what I chose to do on this particular project). Once I was happy with the lettering, I then used a white gel pen to outline the text in order to make sure it stood out from the background enough to be legible.
Finally, it was time to actually put the model together! I painted all of my chipboard pieces white before I started assembly, since I felt that the color would fit my project better. Then, I simply followed the instructions to create this fun display piece that I’m definitely going to enjoy using as a part of my studio decor!
I hope you all enjoyed following the process of creating this project!
Thank you Jordan! I just love your color palette on this and watching you build your composition – it works great for the billboard!
Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps and those cool Cardboard Models in my Online Shop and in addition to some collage papers, here are some of the supplies Jordan 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.
I really like this Jordan and how you explained what you did…simple enough for me to be inspired by them.
I’m keeping up the pattern play in my big vintage ledger that I started last month with the April ArtFoamies Challenge. Here’s one to get you going for the week using my Triangle Love rubber stamps:
Here is another look:
And some of the supplies I used:
“Of course I struggle. I just don’t quit.”
I used grid paper to play with some patterns that I had stashed away – it fell into my hands while reorganizing the studio so time to use it again. I adhered it with doublesided tape and then stamped with Moonlight Duo ink pads and some of my favorite stamps for pattern making: Triangle Love, Hex Set Small, Mini Motifs, and Floral Tile Small. For the dots? A pencil eraser. And then I sketched my figure using a bamboo sketching pen, acrylic inks and markers on deli paper.
I added my quote with Posca markers to finish things off.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
Thank you to all who joined us for the ArtCollab Episode 3 zoomcast – Sarah and I loved having you there as we talked about our topic “I can’t do it” and how to get past that mindset and move to a much more healthy and productive one. Although we try to cover some big topics of discussion, we also just love getting together, joking around, and sharing a nice time with all of you. Check it out:
Here is what we covered:
In this third episode we kick things off by sharing some of the April ArtFoamies Challenge posts from Instagram. Then we jump right into our topic for the day and talk about how our own similar life experiences have helped us move past the negative mindset of “I can’t do it.” We also offer additional suggestions on how to get beyond it such as just jumping in, starting small, and using accountability with a partner or friend who you share your goals with. We discuss how the TV show The Great Pottery Throwdown actually has some really useful lessons in it with regards to this topic, and we talk about the benefits of taking classes in a new discipline and how you can always get something out of the experience. Finally, we both agree that as soon as someone says, “You can’t do that”, that is the ultimate motivation. To close, we share what we made with the items from the boxes we exchanged last episode and we introduce the topic for Episode 4.
Join us for Episode 4: Art is Serious, Craft is Fun – Tuesday, June 1 at 12noon EDT(NYC time)
We’ll be tackling that big debate: What is Art and what is Craft? Is there even a difference? What do the two terms mean to us? Everyone has different ideas about this topic and we want to discuss this live and see where it goes. We’ll talk about how our definitions may influence what we create and why we create, and how we perceive and react to audience expectations. Finally we’ll look at some art that may make us uncomfortable (or not) and chat about those feelings.
Wow – did you catch the latest episode of Spill your heART? If not, you can enjoy the recording below. In Episode 3 we tackled the topic: Social Media – Taming the Beast with my stellar panel of artists: Jimmy Leslie, Iris Fritschi-Cussens, and Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. It was an informative but also super fun time to chat with these 3 professionals on their take.
Recap: In this Spill your heART webinar we talk about why we use social media, how we set boundaries, our own ways of dealing with comparison, the importance of meaningful interaction, and the question of authenticity. Hear 4 different perspectives on Social Media, and how we “Tame the Beast” as professionals, artists, business owners, and human beings.
Whenever you miss an episode or want to revisit, you can find recordings of past episodes and info about upcoming Spill your heART episodes here in the Community section of my website. To always have the latest news on webinars, be sure to sign up for my monthly newsletter here.
Next Episode:
Coming Soon: This time I’m getting together with Gwen Lafleur, Mystele Kirkeeng, and Marsha Valk to talk about why we make art with Episode 4: What’s the Point – Purpose vs Journey. Join us on Friday, May 28th at 12noon EDT. Register here today.
We will discuss What’s the Point – why are we making art? Are you creating for a purpose or is your goal to focus on the journey? Are you somewhere in between? Everybody creates for a different reason and as professional artists (and hobby artists too) that may include a blend of reasons. We’ll explore the why and then also the aftermath – what do you do with it all afterwards. Selling, personal collections, gifts, the closet, and the trash will all be on the table.
Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a charming little project from Robin Seiz using the mini mailbox model, my #keepyouposted stamps, my Flower Maze stencil and our theme: In the City – Although we aren’t traveling much these days, let’s reminisce about a time we traveled to another town or city. Think about the flavor of the place and let that guide your color and design choices.
This month’s theme is In The City, and although we haven’t been traveling much, I have been sending a lot of “happy mail”. This little miniature model mailbox was perfect for me. Before I started this project, I did a little research about the history of the mailbox. Did you know that mailboxes first appeared in the United States in the 1850’s. They were originally attached to buildings and lampposts. In the 1890’s, larger, free-standing “package boxes” were introduced nationwide; known today as Collection Boxes.
At first this project was a little intimidating for me; I only had one model so I had to do more planning than is typically in my process. I’m a “get in there and see what emerges” kind of artist! Even with the planning, I still ran into a challenge with the images, but that’s the wonderful thing about mixed media, you just keep trying, editing, or adding layers until it all works out.
The mailbox model comes as a heavy weight cardboard miniature. Because I knew I wanted the mailbox to have an old metal look, I decided to cover it with white gesso so the paint would adhere well. (I’m honestly not sure this was necessary, but it’s what I chose to do).
I pictured my mailbox like the one at my post office; a dull looking blue mailbox. I wanted it to have a textured look, but rather than apply texture directly to the model, I tested it on another piece of cardboard first. I also wanted to try out a few different colors and see the result before I applied it to the model. I used Golden Crackle Paste to apply the texture. It takes a while to dry so I used the heat gun from a distance. Waiting for things to dry naturally is not in my vocabulary! Next I sprayed Distress Spray Stain in chipped sapphire and blueprint sketch. I liked the darker color, chipped sapphire, the best.
Once those decisions were made, I applied the paste and the spray stain to the model.
I knew Nat’s stamp collection #keepyouposted would be perfect for this project!
This part of the project was the most difficult. It turns out that it’s not so easy to stamp over the stained Crackle Paste. I tried, everything, colored inks, acrylic paint, a clear label, packing tape, you name it and I tried it. Thank goodness all of this trial and error was on my sample stained cardboard. The only medium that I could get to adhere and be legible, was black ink. I used my stamp platform so I could stamp the image several times.
Once I had the images in place, I folded the model, as per the directions. It’s so easy to assemble!!!
The mailbox needed a little pizzaz, and since happy mail is where this project initiated, I attached some ephemera flowers that I had in my stash. (I made mine sometime ago, but I know you can buy them as well.)
I also used Nat’s Flower Maze stencil on the gel plate, in the same bright colors as the flowers, to display the mailbox.
One last note about this project, the Distressed Stains, are true to their name — I highly recommend gloves, which I didn’t use, as shown here by my hand!
I hope you enjoyed this project. While I chose a similar color palette of the collection boxes we see today, the opportunities to embellish are endless. I hope you give it a try!
Thank you Robin! Loved hearing about your tests to get the texture and color right – and the end result is so darling!
Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps and those cool Cardboard Models in my Online Shop and here are some of the supplies Robin used:
Don’t forget to check out Nat’s Creative Squad on Instagram too: Each week we post projects, ideas, and inspiration for mixed media art.
What a marvelous hood it is ! Thanks so much for the stroll, 3 houses in my historic hood are under renovation can’t wait to see them finished ????
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