Today is the second Second Floor Challenge. Julie and I are so amazed by the response and the awesome things you showed us wether officially in the link list or in the private Flickr Group!

This time the challenge was to use a supply from your room you never used before. Whatever that means to you or however it inspires you.  The prompt is simply meant to get you started.  The level of challenge you aim for is entirely internal and up to you.

Click here to see what Julie did.

So I first was looking around in my craft room and one of the supplies that I snapped right away were my Letraset Aquamarkers.

Aquamarkers are water based markers and I have to admit I have them for over a year and not even unpacked them – it was about time!

First of all I unpacked them…and actually tried them on some different surfaced papers …well that is not really even getting into the first floor…that is more like taking something out of your mailbox and sniffing in the envelope before you actually enter the front door.

After playing around a bit I finally took out a Mistable Paper – a paper by Pink Paislee that is coated with a Resist and to which I know the Aquamarkers as a water based color medium would work on. I applied different colors and blended them with a brush.

mhhh – ok…fine…..it worked, but it wasn’t really pushing me out of my slippers…so time to take it up to the second floor.

I used a Crafter’s Workshop Template over the background and sprayed it with Ranger’s Color Wash, then stamped it, applied a paper stencil on top which I had also unused and forever in my stash and put some white gesso over it.

After it dried I applied some of the water markers to a craft sheet and with a wet brush I picked up the paint and painted the gesso areas…BOY….that was UGLY…I totally disliked the result and I was about to give up and cheat…yep. Not lying here…I was thinking, if I would just pick another supply I haven’t used yet, you might never know…LOL. But ok…if you put yourself out there- you’d better be honest…so ….ok…I fell down a couple stairs, but let’s try to get going. TACKLE those stairs….

So I applied the markers directly to the gesso and AHA- better with the outcome of the paints- but boy….STILL UGLY!

I started to get a bit annoyed…and angry…with myself…I felt a bit like Anette Bening in American Beauty where she starts crazily cleaning the window repeating “I will sell this house today” besides I was mumbling through my teeth “I will tackle those markers today” Take a look here to imagine how I felt:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-78hfZOu_s]

I applied a stamp over…mmmhh- that tied it a bit together and actually I started to like SOME parts of it.

Wait a second….some parts….mmmhhh – ok – so I just cut some circles free hand out.

And I remembered that I actually liked the look of the Aquamarkers on the watercolor paper – so decided to do a background which I later on applied to my artjournal.

I actually like my journal page…LOL- especially since I …and now you…know the story behind it ;)

What I learned from this challenge

1. I do not like the fact that I, the person who loves paint media has unused paint media in the studio– what a waste. This will not happen again ;)
2. I realized though that there is paint media that I get only luke warm with.
3. The darker colors spread nicer over porous surfaces then the lighter colors
4. Although water based, sprayed with something else water based, doesn’t reactivate in a huge capacity as other water based reactivated media.
5. When I applied white gesso on top, the gesso picked up some of the Ranger Colorwash but it didn’t pick up the Aquamarkers.
6. I was never able to really put my finger on it, but now I know for sure I do not like muted colors too much.
7. I also learned – or better finally I know for sure- that I do not like harsh marker lines– I like it blended.
8. If something doesn’t work as a whole …try to break it down…cut it in pieces.
9. Keep going…the outcome might be still fun…especially because you remember the  process itself.
10. While just playing, even if it doesn’t go the way you think, you might have some other cool ideas for different projects.
11. I really love watercolor paper ripped and with the watercolor effect – I think I will use this again!

Wow…actually not too bad what I learned…I hope  you enjoyed it. I can’t wait to see what you come up with too.

If you decide to play along with our Second Floor challenge (we’d love to have you) please leave a link to your blog or wherever you decide to share your project!  Of course, I would love it if you’d share a line or two in your blog post or flickr photo comment about something you learned from the project.  (If Julie and I have done this linky list correctly, when you leave a link on Julie’s blog it should show up on this blog and vice versa.)

If you’ve made something for the Second Floor “Use Something New” challenge, leave a link!

If you’re not up for sharing 100% publicly, we have set up a totally private flickr group.  It’s a way of sharing within a safe space. If you want to join the flickr group, you will need to e-mail us at (secondfloorchallenge AT gmail DOT com) and we’ll send you an invitation.

have a wonderful day

hugs

Nat

Nat

Four weeks in a row where I stay at home…and I tell you…I absolutely cherish my four weeks :) It has been hard the first days to not just give in ….aka procrastinate …and take off. I actually make an effort to be at 8am at my studio and have a calendar in which every minute of the day is planned out. BORING….? No, not really – LOL.

I do have some little slots in there like…Play and then remember…that is why I love my job so much…part of it is play time too :) Right now I’m working on a couple pretty big projects – one of it is this – which will be coming VERY soon ;)

and then some other hush hush projects, but those will be revealed soon too . Oh and of course next week Julie and I will show you our next challenge of our Second Floor Challenge – Can’t wait for you to see that one -that one really pushed me over the edge this time…eh…to the second floor. Just for your information – we do have a loose “every three weeks on a tuesday” plan, but we promised ourselves to be gentle if the workload is just too much. I think though it will be regularly- I actually look forward to my time to take it to the second floor :)

If you have time and want to see something cool – check this Stop Movie “Fresh Guacamole” by PES out that I stumbled over this morning- AWESOME !

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQMO6vjmkyI]

And now…let me go back rocking…it is 8:05 am here and my calendar send me a gentle reminder …pffffff ;)

Huge hugs

Nat

Nat

If you missed why I call an Art Journal – ARTmournal: check this post

My ARTmournal has been a great way the last couple of weeks to keep me sane- LOL. And it helped tremendously in decisions for projects for CHA. It is just so freeing to play in the journal and combining it with different other things like new media (yum yum yum…..will talk more about this new treasure soon), techniques, colors, thoughts.

and it is so forgiving because it is what it is – a journal – if I do not like what I did- I can always cover it up again …

and do something else….

Makes some fun 10 minutes a day,  and helps to get some play- and me-time:

Preparing me for the big project.Calming me down. Taking away the fear of the blank page. Getting my thoughts and emotions articulated.

And that about sums it up for me now why doing an ARTjournal/mournal .

Try it :)

Have an amazing and wonderful day…I’m off to tackle my printer…that guy is in TROUBLE ! LOL

nat

Nat

If you find yourself wondering why this crazy German is talking about ARTmournal – then check out my explanation in this post : /2011/12/08/art-journaling-pages/

I am really enjoying my ARTmournaling right now- so much fun to have the book right next to me while doing other stuff and then adding things here and there :)

I like the texture here and the colors…oh wait…it is my colors anyway- hahahah- no wonder ;)

This page was nice until I did the following side on the back- seeped through…well…let’s pretend it was on purpose.

see that photo…I ripped apart a page – GASP  – that was published in Somerset Memories…yes- Revamp the old and move on…I had to do something bold….LOL

Now that page is ….roll eyes…UGLY- LOL – but …at least I finally used this pirate ship that I have in my stock for AGES….

Love the orange contrast – noted for future project!

Used all kinds of leftovers from materials I was  using that day- not my usual colors- but hey…I like it…so good think I played- will use later in a project ;)

TEXTURE…..ahhhhhhh…..LOL- you know I love texture..so this one makes me happy and the golden acrylic paint by Eco Green Craft is sooo cool!

I guess I had a pretty pretty good day….LOL- journaling is hidden under the masking tape- ah the beauty of masking tape- you can take it easily off :)

Simple…eh- well.. yeah.. I had forgot about the page and only those spray traces on the paper were there…so I just added the filmstrip…and now I like it…pretty much what this day was about.

CRAZY….LOL

I was working on an assignment for CHA and some parts for the assignment found their way into the artjournal- great way to try something out first.

Any guesses? Waiting at the post office….thanks to Letraset…it wasn’t that bad ;)

It all comes down to : it is awesome to play with a journal – it gives you permission to let go, try things out, learn and discover new things, put some feelings, emotions and thoughts in there and also some ephemera of the day…what is not to love about an ART mournal or journal :)

……………………..

Don’t miss my free Tattered Angels Class tomorrow on Tattered TV :)

December 21st at 8:00pm CET, GMT +1 / 11:00am PST/ 2:00pm EST

Join Nathalie Kalbach as she creates a a quick and easy Christmas Frame using all four of our Tattered Angels Paint Media and some beautiful Pink Paislee products. Wether you need a last minute home decoration project, a christmas gift or just some time for yourself to get creative before the holiday – join a fun and inspiring workshop with some new techniques with Nat, while she shares some German Christmas Traditions.

Nat

Here are  my first December Week Art Journal Pages  or as I would like to call them

ARTmournals.

I am not a big person on journaling in my artwork – I usually get my feelings and emotions on the page/project out by colors, little word snippets and techniques and texture. If you look at my work you will notice that I do not journal a lot. I guess that was the problem that I had the longest with doing an Art Journal- I had the feeling I would have to write a lot. Don’t get me wrong- I love writing but more in an old fashioned diary form.

Getting my emotions and feelings out there in an artsy way on the other hand I enjoy a lot,  it is relieving and therapeutical.

So I reminded myself on my own number 1 rule: There are no rules in artwork! I can do as much or no journaling as I want- and I can show my emotions just the way I like it :) It can be openly containing the message or just hidden…up to me!

I used some paper and tags from the Cocoa Daisy December kit as well as some tissue paper. And it was written on a day I made a decision – I walked away from something that others’ might think I am crazy to do…but it was good :) and I have my reasons

for dimension and to blend in the papers I used some Neocolors II – love them!

here I also used the Cocoa Daisy Kit and used the fun Doilies in the kit to get some texture to the background. The Germans here might laugh about the journaling ;)

There is a german expression which doesn’t translate very well – it basically says “that life is not a concert played as you wish” meaning things just do not go the way you want them to go. And then there is another expression for people that are mean idiots – literally translated they are “bum fiddles” ….so those to expressions went well together . “Life is not a concert on demand, some people are bum fiddles, just let them go” Not sure if that makes sense in English – some things just do not translate ;)

Here are some more from this week:

Love it and I love that I somehow found a new way to it- it clicked between me and my ARTmournal…my journal said “hey ho let’s go girl “. Before it just said…”don’t ruin the nice book”  so I went and rather ruined a canvas ;) Now I just mourn on ;)

Do you artjournal too and why?

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Are you ready to learn lot’s of fun techniques for using Gesso? Backgrounds, Texture, Embellishments, Manipulating Photos? You name it- you get it in my Über*Media Gesso Workshop – More Details here

nat

Nat

So finally I finshed another album of your circle journal group. Maja had the theme “Work of Art” – meaning that for everyone this might mean something else- I loved this!!!

Endlich habe ich ein weiteres Album in unserer Circle Journal Gruppe fertig gemacht. Maja hatte das Thema “Kunstwerke” gewählt – was ja für jeden etwas anderes bedeutet – ein wunderbares Thema!!!

*Street Art*

Journaling: For me is art what other call often times smearing. The streets are fool of work of art!

Supplies: Acrylic Paints, Oil Pastels, Glimmer Mist, Ranger Spray Paint, 7Gypsies Paper, Rose Moka Paper, Rose Moka Stickers, Grungeboard Letters.

Have a wonderful day….weekend is close :)

Euch einen wundervollen Tag …das Wochenende ist nah :)

Nat