Creative Squad

Creative Squad: Light & Shadow – Jordan Hill

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today we have Jordan Hill sharing with us a nice little book that she’s made using my Art Deco Empire stencil and this month’s theme: Light & Shadow – In art and maybe also in life, the balance between light and shadow is an important consideration. Play with this equilibrium in your art and show us how the two sides work together.

Hello, everyone! As a person who is quite fond of the concept of duality and contrasts, I really enjoyed creating this month’s project using the theme “Light and Shadow”! I decided to bind a little book this month, and the actual pages also play off of the prompt. Let’s get into it!

To start things off, I chose a 3″x5″ index card as my surface. I love working on index cards because they are extremely low pressure. This particular card was one I had leftover from an instance where I cleaned off one of my brushes that still had paint on it. It also ended up with a few specks of blue paint and a small section of machine stitching from where I was testing my sewing machine, which added some fun details!

Next up, I used a makeup sponge, white paint and Nathalie’s Art Deco Empire stencil to add some interest to the purple area of the card.

Using the same stencil and the purple paint I had used as a base, I then stenciled over the white areas of the card. This played into the idea of “light and shadow”. I then selected a small piece of ephemera to glue to the lower left hand corner of the card.

At this point, I was comfortable calling this background done enough to add a face! As is the case with most of the figures that I draw, I blocked in her face roughly in acrylic paint first, then sketched and drew on top of that base. To further emphasize the idea of “light and shadow”, I decided to make her hair two-toned; black and white!

Once I was happy with my painting, I cut down two pieces of chipboard to the size of the card and glued the completed index card to one of them. I then selected some paper to use as the pages. I decided to use Canson watercolor paper for the white pages and some basic black cardstock for the black pages. 

Before I actually bound the book, I decided to pull out the Art Deco Empire stencil again! Using the same stencil I did for the cover, I used white paint to stencil on a sheet of the black cardstock and white paint to stencil on a sheet of the watercolor paper. 

Using the stenciled pages as cover sheets, I then bound my book using a coptic stitch and black embroidery floss before calling it done! The fun thing about using both black and white pages is that throughout the book there is an interesting contrast effect that I think will be incredibly enjoyable to create on!

I hope you had fun creating this little book with me and I hope you are inspired to create something of your own!

Thank you Jordan – love the bold graphic quality of this little book’s cover!

Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and in addition to a small piece of ephemera, here are some of the other supplies Jordan 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.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Light & Shadow – Robin Seiz

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have Robin Seiz sharing with us a project inspired by a journey far away and resulting in the more familiar journey of making art. Robin is using my Elephant Parade and Ornament Wallpaper stencils and our theme: Light & Shadow – In art and maybe also in life, the balance between light and shadow is an important consideration. Play with this equilibrium in your art and show us how the two sides work together.

Light and Dark – Playing with Color

One of the things I remember most about my visit to India is the beautiful patterns and colors of the Saree; the traditional drape that women wear. I remember a friend taking me into a shop and there were hundreds of fabrics laid out.The contrast of light and dark was present in all of them. I just wanted to touch each and every one and drape them over me. It’s with these patterns and color in mind that I chose Nat’s Elephant Parade stencil and mask. It’s the perfect stencil to use for layering colors and pattern. I wanted to try the elephant both with a dark background and light pattern and a light background and a dark pattern to compare the images.

At the beginning of the pandemic I was making masks and I have quite a bit of “featherweight interfacing” left. I have been thinking it would be fun to try and print on this fabric. It has a great texture! So this seemed like the perfect project to combine the two and make a journal cover.

I cut a piece of interfacing 20 inches by 12 1/2 inches and applied White Gesso. I wasn’t worried about covering the entire piece. I just wanted some extra texture and “tooth” to the surface.

The journal cover was going to cover a used book that I had on my shelf, so I measured and  placed a piece of paper in the middle of the interfacing so I would know where the front stopped and the back began. I did the same for the top and the bottom of the journal. I’m not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination, so when I say, “I measured,” —  I mean I eyeballed it! 

I applied Liquitex Basic Gold acrylic paint with a makeup sponge to the background and then used Golden Quinacridone Magenta to apply the Elephant Parade stencil. 

Since I wanted to see the light on dark, I applied the gold paint with the patterned stencil over the dark elephant. I absolutely loved the result. 

The background definitely needed something, so I applied Nat’s Ornament Wallpaper stencil which also reminds me of an Indian print. I did this in the dark Golden Quinaacridone Magenta. The problem with using the same color, was the elephant faded into the background rather than appearing in the foreground as I had planned. 

In order for the elephant to stand out from the background I applied white gesso around the edges of the elephant and then added some gold back. This technique brought the elephant to the foreground.

It was time to move on to the back of the journal cover and to experiment with dark on light. Let’s just say this took a lot of work to get anywhere close to the same effect as the front of the journal. Sometimes, what I have in my head just doesn’t turn out the same way on paper (or fabric in this case!) The dark on light paint just didn’t have the same “pop” as the light on dark.

First I tried the same technique of applying the white gesso with a cosmetic sponge. I was in a hurry and didn’t wait long enough for the paint to dry before I applied the gesso and it turned the magenta to a light pink. ICK! The technique that worked on the front, really didn’t work the same for the back. Next, I outlined the elephant with a black marker thinking it would bring it forward; that didn’t work either! I tried adding the dark magenta color around the elephant and didn’t like that.

When all else fails, I usually go back to covering everything with gesso. (again!) This time I let it dry completely. This time I went over the white gesso with gold paint leaving a little edge of white. I also outlined the elephant in gold gel pen. I added the same background stencil. The elephant did come to the foreground, but I’m definitely not as happy with the back of the journal. I did learn an important lesson — the contrast of light on dark is much more striking and pleasing to my eye than dark on light.

This project is an example of why I love mixed media. When things don’t work out the way I have planned, I let go of what I thought would happen, keep adding layers and trying different techniques until I’m satisfied with the end result.

Thank you Robin – loved hearing how you worked through your process to achieve a rich, beautiful result!

Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other 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.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Light & Shadow – Emilie Murphy

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a magical nighttime winter scene from Emilie Murphy to share with you. Emilie is using my Art Deco Wallpaper and Toledo 4×4 stencils for this one and our theme: Light & Shadow – In art and maybe also in life, the balance between light and shadow is an important consideration. Play with this equilibrium in your art and show us how the two sides work together.

Hi there! Hope you are doing well.

As the theme of the month is “Light and Shadow”, it made me think right away of a winter scene during a snowy night in the forest, where we can see the shadows of trees and some light coming from the moon.

I started with a light wash of “Turquoise green” watercolors from bottom to top.

I laid down my “Art Deco Wallpaper” and applied some “Tumbled Glass” distress ink to keep a tone-on-tone effect.

I added more watercolors slightly darker than the first layer. As a result, I mixed some “Turquoise green” with a little bit of “Phthalocyanine Turquoise”.

Again, I laid down my stencil and applied some “Peacock Feathers” distress Ink.

Working in layers, I repeated the previous two steps at the top again, but this time by darkening my watercolors using only “Phthaocyanine Turquoise” and “Stormy Sky” distress ink.

I started to apply on the top some “Indigo” watercolor to make the sky visible finishing my bluish gradient from bottom to top.

Then, I darkened the sky with some “Prussian Blue” acrylic ink and created some mountains. Next, I wiped off some paint with a rag just before it dried to make it appear as a full moon.

To finish the background I laid down the “Toledo 4×4” stencil and applied some “Prussian Blue” acrylic ink only on the sky part. It gives a subtle glow effect.

I applied again some “Prussian Blue” acrylic ink through the “Art Deco Wallpaper” stencil to make a tree in the foreground.

To finish up my painting, I applied some modeling paste on the summit of the mountains and on the tree with a plastic knife. I also applied some glitter glue on top and some splatters to get more interest.

Hope it gets you inspired. I always try to use my stencils in different ways. I think this is a very simple painting project that gives a WOW look. You can leave it like it is or frame it and hang it out on your wall. Have fun!

Thank you Emilie! Love how you used the stencil to create the mountains and tree!

Give it a try: you can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Emilie 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.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Light & Shadow – Maura Hibbitts

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we are kicking off a new monthly theme with Maura Hibbitts. She is bringing us some lovely holiday cards in some perhaps untraditional colors, shaking things up to finish up 2020 with my Star Struck, Toledo, and Santiago 4×4 stencils, my Small Circle Jumble rubber stamps, and our theme: Light & Shadow – In art and maybe also in life, the balance between light and shadow is an important consideration. Play with this equilibrium in your art and show us how the two sides work together.

Light and Shadow, dark and light…as the days get shorter and the shadows longer I’m feeling the need for more light in my life. I watch the strip of sunlight on my deck railing in the morning outside of my work window (It was all lit in the summer), and then the shadows as they expand across the yard during the day. Each day will get shorter until the Winter Solstice on December 21. This year, more than ever, I am looking forward to our shift again to more daylight. These thoughts also prompted me to challenge myself to work with bright colors that I would not normally choose – yellow and pink. So, I’ve ended up making eight holiday cards in very non-traditional colors, check it out.

I started by going through my stash and pulling out paints in varying shades of pink and yellow, so I would have a blend from dark to light.

Nat’s Star Struck stencil seemed to call for the yellows, so I dabbed the colors in with a cosmetic sponge onto white cardstock, starting with the lightest in the top left, and working my way to the darkest in the lower right. Light and shadow, along with a bit of ombre.

Next up are the pinks. where I repeated the previous step, only this time I used Nat’s Toledo stencil.

I decided I wanted to create a focal point, so I mixed varying shades of peach and orange, by blending the yellows and pinks, and used Nat’s Santiago 4×4 stencil. My goal was to have a mix of light and dark (shadow) shades.

Now that everything is painted and stenciled, it’s time to start building the cards. I cut the large sheets of stenciled yellows and pinks into fourths to use as the card background. Next, I cut out the Santiago mini squares, and cut them diagonally in half. I laid the two parts together, decided I wanted more of the background to show, so cut out parts of the smaller stenciled papers.  I glued the papers onto the cards using a PVA glue.

I felt that I needed one more pop of color, so I stamped Nat’s Circle Drive Positive small stamp onto watercolor paper with blue ink. I cut these out and popped them up on the center.

Now for the final touches – a bit of sparkle with a gold pen, where I outlined the star shape, and hand lettered words “Shine Brightly!” I love to use a Platinum Carbon ink pen over dry paint, but any permanent black pen will work.

I aimed to use the colors to give a feel of light and shadow, so I worked both the background and focal piece from lightest on the top left, to darkest on the bottom right. What do you think, did it work?

And there you have it, a set of eight cards in a bright array of yellows and pinks. These might be very non-traditional Christmas cards, or maybe Solstice cards. Another thought is to save them, and randomly send them out in the dark days of winter to bring a ray of light to someone. I hope this inspires you to observe the light and shadow in your life and let it guide your creative endeavors. Wishing you health, joy, and light this holiday season! – Maura

Thank you Maura! We love how your colors make these patterns pop. And nontraditional holiday colors seem perfect for this crazy year :)

Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps and Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Maura 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.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Mail Art – Jordan Hill

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we are at the end of our month with Jordan Hill and a set of really cool envelopes using my #keepyouposted stamp set and our theme: Mail Art – During these times of social distancing, old fashioned mail is a fun way to keep in touch and lift someone’s spirits. Create some mail art, and then actually send it off! Address it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. You will make someone’s day :)

Hello everyone, I’m excited to be back with my second project for the Creative Squad!

As someone who is quite fond of finding different ways of exploring mixed media, this month’s theme of “Mail Art” was particularly intriguing! For my project, I decided to work on some blank white envelopes, using them as a surface in much the same way as I might an art journal page.

Without dragging this out any further, let’s get into it!

The first thing I did to get this project started was lay out some blank envelopes on my work surface. Then I scraped some neon yellow paint across the surface using an old debit card. This is one of my personal favorite methods of adding paint to pages, as it is quick and adds the color thinly and evenly.

Once the paint had dried, I used the blank postage stamp design from Nathalie’s #keepyouposted stamp set in the upper right hand corner of all of the envelopes I had prepped. When I get around to mailing these, it will make the perfect border for the stamps! I then glued some polka dot tissue paper down to the envelopes using Mod Podge.

Next, as I do with most of my projects, I decided to add a face (I used CraftSmart Natural Beige here). For this particular figure, I gave her a long, flowing hairstyle that covered the entire middle part of the envelope. This gives me a place to write the address later. At the same time I was adding the color Light Blue to the hair, I also added the same color to this girl’s shirt, and created an additional rectangular shape in the upper left for the return address.

Using a Pentel Hybrid Technica pen in size 06, I then started to add line art to my figure. Her features weren’t standing out nearly as much as I wanted them to, so some thick black lines did the trick perfectly! I also made sure to leave plenty of space inside the hair for addressing the envelope.

For the finishing touches on the front side of the envelope, I added some additional lines (reminiscent of the hair strands) to the outside of the space for the return address, some more neon yellow paint around the edges of the figure, and some little doodled stars. I also added a bit of Martha Stewart Multi-Surface Coarse Glitter to the cheeks and shoulders of this girl for a little extra sparkle.

For the back side of the envelope, I decided to keep it a bit more on the simple side. When I scraped the front side of the envelopes with neon yellow, I had some leftover on my debit card, so I scraped the leftover onto the backs. Then, using the same Light Blue paint from the front and a paintbrush, I made some simple marks along the right side. Lastly, as the final finishing touch, I used the #savetheusps stamp from Nathalie’s #keepyouposted stamp set to add a fun little bonus detail to the flap of the envelope!

And there you have it; a simple way to create beautiful envelopes for any of your mail art needs! I had a lot of fun working with this particular stamp set, although it was a bit out of my comfort zone. I hope you liked this project and try decorating some envelopes of your own!

Thank you Jordan! These are so fresh and fun – would love to receive an envelope like this in the mail :)

Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Jordan 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.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Mail Art – Robin Seiz

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today we are continuing on our Mail Art month with Robin Seiz. She brings us “happy mail” that will brighten anyone’s day. She’s using my #keepyouposted stamps and our theme: Mail Art – During these times of social distancing, old fashioned mail is a fun way to keep in touch and lift someone’s spirits. Create some mail art, and then actually send it off! Address it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. You will make someone’s day :)

I absolutely love this new collection of #keepyouposted stamps by Nathalie; it’s so versatile. Although we are past voting day, this stamp collection has some great messages about LOVE. Honestly what could be more important than LOVE right now. (or anytime for that matter!) When I started playing with this idea of LOVE, I thought about rainbows. I don’t know about you, but whenever I see a rainbow, I stop and admire it. It gives me a warm, peaceful feeling, which feels like LOVE. 

I have been sending lots of Happy Mail out to friends and family since the pandemic began. It’s been a wonderful way to keep in touch and I love making cards. The combination of a great stamp collection and the desire to make Happy Mail was perfect for this project. 

I began with some watercolor paper, (5″ x 3/34″) a brush, Nat’s stamp collection, Golden Qor watercolors, and my acrylic block.

Next, I painted the rainbow. Painted rainbows always look so child-like to me, but I like the simplistic symbol of LOVE. 

Since there was quite a bit of white space at the top — the message, “You are my #1 priority” was perfect to fill the space and support the message of LOVE.

I immediately thought the message of LOVE should be crossing the rainbow and what better way than to have it flying behind a small plane. I drew the plane free-hand, again in that rudimentary style to mirror the rainbow. I splattered it with paint. This is a technique I often use to add a little pazazz to something, whether it’s a card or a project.

I stamped the LOVE stamp and also splattered the LOVE image with paint for consistency. 

I wanted these pieces to be out in front of the rainbow so I used some dimensional tape and adhered two small pieces of black string so it would look like the plane was pulling the LOVE sign.  Lastly, I did some more splatter to the entire card to make it celebratory. I cut the border out of yellow construction paper (5 1/4″ x 4”) and adhered it to the card and then put the watercolor paper on top of the construction paper for a layer card look. While this card has lots of steps; it’s easy to accomplish. 

Thank you Robin! I love the idea of a plane pulling the LOVE sign all over the skies :)

Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Robin used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    Robin, this is so adorable and colorful!

    Reply

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Mail Art – Emilie Murphy

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we are continuing with our Mail Art month and today we have a wonderful project (love her envelope!!!) from Emilie Murphy using my #keepyouposted rubber stamps. This month’s theme is: Mail Art – During these times of social distancing, old fashioned mail is a fun way to keep in touch and lift someone’s spirits. Create some mail art, and then actually send it off! Address it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. You will make someone’s day :)

Hi there! Hope you are doing well.

What can I say except that I’m totally fond of Nathalie’s new stamps set called #keepyouposted. Art mail is my favorite theme. I just love to make cards and send them to family and friends.

I decided to stay “classic” and chose a blue and red color palette for the whole project, card and envelope.

Starting with the card, I made a super easy 5×5 inches squared one.

I embossed with white embossing powder a 3 ¼ x 3 ¼ inches piece of vellum using the “you’re got mail”, “sent with love” and “#savetheusps” stamps.

I stamped “You are my NO. 1 priority” with Crimson Red ink pad inside the “blank postage” stamp and colored it with an alcohol marker as well as the “LOVE” stamp.

I cut a 4 ½ x 4 ½ inches piece of gelli print that I had made for a previous project with Nathalie’s Versailles 9×12 stencil.

To assemble the card, I first glued down the embossed vellum piece on the gelli print piece. I applied some double-sided tape only in the center of the vellum. This way, the glue is hidden by the “postage” and “love” images glued on top. I attached a brad at the four corners of the vellum. That’s a cute and practical way for not having the glue or tape showed off through the vellum. To finish, I glued the whole piece on my 5×5 inches base.

About the envelope, I made my own 5×7 one with a piece of 12×12 white cardstock. I used an envelope tool (because I have one) but it is easy to use a template from a purchased envelope. I started to trace with a graphite pencil some straight and diagonal lines spaced by ¼ of inch to get a classic “mail postal” border. Then, I stamped several time the “blank postage” stamp using the technique of masking.

I made a frame template to be able to stamp inside the postage stamp space.

I colored the border with a blue and red stabilo pencils and the postage stamps made with some alcohol markers.

For the back of the envelope, I simply stamped the “sent with love” and “you’re got mail” along the edges.

At the end, I outlined the border lines with a black micron pen. I like the look of it. And Voila!

This is a simple card/envelope project to make just for the pleasure of stamping and coloring. I really enjoyed playing with this new stamps set. Once again, the possibilities are endless, only imagination is the limit.

Have a good rest of the week and see you in December!

Thank you Emilie! What a fantastic way to layer up the stamps to create something really special!

Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps and Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Emilie used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: Mail Art – Maura Hibbitts

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today is Election Day and we have a wonderful Mail Art project from Maura Hibbitts using my #keepyouposted rubber stamp set and some of my stencils. Our new theme this month is: Mail Art – During these times of social distancing, old fashioned mail is a fun way to keep in touch and lift someone’s spirits. Create some mail art, and then actually send it off! Address it, put a stamp on it, and put it in the mailbox. You will make someone’s day :)

Today is a momentous day in the United States, it’s Election Day, so be sure to get out there and vote and make your voice heard! This year I voted by mail for the first time, and I have every confidence my ballot was carried by the USPS to the Election Board in a timely manner. After all, I feel like I have the best postmen and women! We share stories, tips, garden produce, treats and friendship. My best tips for you today is to get to know your postal carrier and use your local post office!

WIth our focus being mail art this month and working with Nat’s awesome new stamp set #keepyouposted, of course I had to make a card and envelope! I started by stamping the images on the envelope and the watercolor sheet with black archival ink. I like to use a stamp platform to help me get the perfect image.

Next, I wanted images to represent the weather, since the mail comes no matter what it’s like outside. For the sun, I am using the Batik stencil and Diarylide yellow paint. I like to use a cosmetic sponge with just a bit of paint to stencil with. I added the design to both the card and envelope.

To create rain, I used a bit of the Signals stencil and a blend of Cobalt Teal Hue with Titanium White paint.

Next comes snow, where I used the Park Blvd 4×4 stencil with a mix of Dioxazine Purple, Cobalt Teal Hue and TItanium White paints. Again, use a cosmetic sponge to dab the paint into the stencil.

Where I live, we often get “black ice” in the winter, so I had to add that weather element in also with the Tokyo stencil. I added just a bit of Carbon Black paint into my previous mixture.

Add in some color details with Tombow markers and a water brush onto the card portion next.

Blend in some watercolor around the images on the card with Shadow Violet and Hansa Yellow Medium. These will represent stormy and sunny weather.  Let dry and edge with the black ink. (I made some little dot cards for a class I taught, and it came in handy for this project. If you don’t want to carry all of your watercolors with you, why not try this?)

Since the envelope could get wet in mailing, I chose to color my images with colored pencils instead of the watercolors.

Once the card background was dry, I wrote on some weather terms like sunny, snow, rain, fog, and ice. I also hand lettered Thank You! and mounted it on Teal cardstock, then onto the card base.  I am planning to mail this to my local post office and carriers in thanks for all they do.

I am so thankful for my postal carriers and local Post Office! When I think about how many letters and packages they have delivered to my family alone over the years, it truly is amazing. Good news…and bad, have come through the mail, memories, gifts, and so much more. I appreciate their dedication to get it to me, no matter the weather. Today, November 3 is such an important day here in the U.S., and this year especially, the Post Office is playing a critical role in voting in the midst of a pandemic. I wish you all the best, and get out there and vote! – Maura

Thank YOU Maura! Love how you got creative in representing the weather and absolutely adore your message here too :)

Give it a try: you can find all my Rubber Stamps and Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Maura used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat

Leave a comment

Creative Squad: A New Day – Jordan Hill

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal spread from our new member Jordan Hill. Jordan is creating collage papers with my Mini Santa Fe and Mini Hex Set foam stamps, and pulling elements together in her art journal page inspired by this month’s theme: A New Day – Let’s try something new today :) Although these are tumultuous times and we never know what each new day will bring, it also seems like the perfect time to throw caution to the wind and just jump into something new with both feet. Try a new material or technique or approach. Why not? Today is a new day… and tomorrow is too!

I am so incredibly happy to be here as one of the newest Creative Squad members; I hope I am able to inspire you in the time I spend here!

When I was first presented with the theme for this month, “A New Day”, the first thing that came to mind was the concept of creating a variety of new collage materials to use in my work. I really enjoy the process of painting my own papers, since I feel it adds an element of originality to my art journals that I might not get from store bought patterned papers.

The first step in this project was to pull out my gelli plate to use in combination with Nathalie’s Mini Santa Fe Foam Stamp as well as the Mini Hex Foam Stamp Set. Though I can see potentially infinite uses for these foam stamps, using them to actually remove paint from my gelli plate was the method I decided to use here.

In order to achieve this result, I simply added some Blick Studio Acrylic in Bright Aqua Green and CraftSmart Ivory paint to my plate, then used the foam stamps to stamp into the wet paint. I then used the paint on the stamp to create an entirely new design by stamping onto a blank sheet of paper (shown in the photo above).

Once the paint has dried on the plate, you can then add another color (in this case I used Fluorescent Green) to pull another print! This gives you multiple different designs from the same stamp, and is a lot of fun to play around with.

I spent a while working with my foam stamps and my gelli plate to create a good assortment of papers I would be able to use in the future. Above you can see a few pieces from the final selection I had to choose from! As you can see, you can get quite a variety from just a few stamps and a couple different colors of paint.

Once I had a handful of painted papers, it was time to actually incorporate them into an art journal spread! The first step in doing this was to select a page in my journal, then tear chunks from the painted papers. I did this randomly, without thinking much about what the torn pieces looked like. Then I glued a couple of these randomly torn bits onto my page with an Uhu glue stick.

Next up, I added a couple of different collage elements and some Pale Blue CraftSmart acrylic paint to the background, just to give myself a base to work off of. After the background color was down, I began the process of adding a figure to add to this spread. Personally, I love adding faces and figures to my art journal spreads, and they tend to make their way into most of the things I create.

In the photo above you can see that I added quite a few more layers to this girl’s face. I did this with a combination of Natural Beige and Espresso CraftSmart acrylic paints. Natural Beige is quite a light color and Espresso is quite a dark one, so combining them in different ways gave me a good variety of colors to use as shadows and highlights.

This was also where I started to use some ink to define the details of the face. I used the Zebra Fude Sign Brush Pen in Extra Fine to add these details, which is my favorite pen to use in my art journals as of late.

To finish off this art journal spread, I added a quote to fit with this month’s theme inside of the figure’s dress and accented the right hand page with some more stamping with the Mini Hex Foam Stamp Set. This tied everything together nicely and gave both pages a more cohesive feel.

After adding a few finishing touches to the face using a handful of Prismacolor Premiere colored pencils (Aquamarine, Henna, Black Cherry and Nectar), I was ready to call the spread done!

I hope you enjoyed this little look into my process and use some of the ideas I discussed here to create some projects of your own!

Thank you Jordan for sharing with us your process! Love your unique style with creating figures.

Here are some of the supplies that Jordan used:

Nat

Comments (1)

  • Sue Clarke

    |

    I love the message and the background paper you made Jordan!

    Reply

Leave a comment