Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we are kicking off a new monthly theme with Jennifer Gallagher in her art journal. She is using my Art Deco Summit stencil, my Jewett foam stamp set and my Floral Tile Large rubber stamps and our theme: Motivated in March – What keeps you motivated to create? Is it a certain material? Your favorite colors that you can’t get enough of? Maybe you get motivated when you see artwork in a museum or out and about? Share with us your creative motivation and then create something inspired by it.

This month we are discussing our creative motivations. It’s Motivation March! I get motivated by experimenting with new products and seeing what I can make them do. A fun product that is pretty new to me is acrylic paint sprays. I have had so much fun learning how to use them that I am motivated to continue to try new color combinations and techniques. This month I am sharing a vintage inspired art journal page using some of my newest n*Studio favorites. Let’s get started.

In my large dylusions journal, I prepped the surface by applying a thick coat of clear gesso. Then I sprayed Aquamarine and Reseda Marabu Art Sprays. 

Moving quickly, I sprayed some Marabu Art Spray in Sienna. Then I spritzed the page with a fine mist of water.

Using a baby wipe, I dabbed up the excess moisture and color.

Using Nat’s Art Deco Summit stencil, I applied vintage photo distress ink through the open sections of the shell designs.

Next, I overlaid the design portions of the stencil back over the previous shell layer. I applied black soot distress ink.

For a vintage design element, I loaded up vintage photo distress ink onto Nat’s Jewett foam stamp and pressed it onto the page. Adding design elements in odd numbers is pleasing to the eye.

To make the right hand page feel more harmonious with the left hand page, also a n*Studio project, I am mirroring the stamped design from that page onto this one. I applied a very thin amount of vintage photo distress ink onto the Versailles positive rubber stamp and pressed it into a few places on my page.

To add to the vintage look, I sprayed Distress Spray Stain in picket fence onto the page. Once dry, I doodled around the shapes with a white gel pen.(Later, I also doodle around them with a black gel pen.)

Using double sided tape, I added a paper doll cut out from Tim Holtz Idea-ology.  Then I finished it off with a sticker from Tim Holtz Small Talk sticker package.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial. I hope you have found it – motivational! 

Thank you Jennifer – I love the beautiful colors and blending for the spread!

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

Hello from the Creative Squad. Today we have a super cool project from Maura Hibbitts – a Love Alphabet – Wow! Read on to see how Maura pulls it together with my Small Circle Jumble rubber stamps, my Batik 1 & 2 foam stamps, my Far Out foam stamp, my Batik stencil and my New Orleans stencil. This month’s theme is: Whole Lotta Love – Who or what sets your heart aflutter this time of year? Let’s pay tribute this month to those warm fuzzy feelings of love and create something that celebrates that universal emotion.

Happy February – the month for love of course, with Valentine’s Day smack dab in the middle! I pulled out lots of red, pink and white paint to play with, in traditional holiday colors. Originally when I started working, I was going to make cards, then that morphed into the idea of a mini album, and finally as I was putting the final touches on it, it became a Love Alphabet. Yes, you can find words from A to Z in it, all about Love and Valentines.

I started my first layer with Pyrrole Red and the Batik stencil on the gelli plate. I love stenciling in different ways – laying the stencil down and pressing the paper over it, pulling the painty stencil up and putting it down on paper, and pressing a piece of paper into the gel plate. This gives a wide variety of backgrounds to work with. I printed on both cardstock and copy paper, which later on turned out to work beautifully.

A little gold was needed as the second layer, so on some papers, I added it with the New Orleans stencil, and on others, I used the brayer.

Time for the pink layer! I added a mix of pinks over the printed papers with paint and a brayer.

I added a final translucent layer on top with the fluid acrylics. For this layer, I just smudged the paint in with my fingers, which are great tools for blending, even if you get a bit dirty, it all comes out eventually. (Or use gloves)

Now that the background is done, it’s time for some stamping. But first, I used matte medium to glue a piece of cardstock and a piece of copy paper together. Then, I used the Batik 2 and Far Out art foamies with white paint and repeated the pattern several times to cover the page. Once dry, I trimmed off the edges, and cut them approximately 3 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches to make my book.

Now, to make things pop, I’m stamping with black ink using X’s and O’s (remember those XXXOOO’s? – hugs and kisses). I only want the X portion of the Batik 1 stamp, so I’ve masked off the rest with sticky notes. I’m stamping these with black archival ink and then the Circle Drive rubber stamps from the Small Circle Jumble set.

I cut out images from a Gudrun Sjoden catalog (now, I love these because they aren’t glossy, plus they are interesting) but you can use any magazine. I also found pages with neutral backgrounds and cut hearts. Then, I looked at my junk paper I use to wipe off extra paint from the brayer, and used it to cut more hearts to glue in.

Final steps are to edge the pages with the black ink, add details with the Posca Paint pens, and write in my words. Then, I punched two holes in the center and tied it together with Sari ribbon. (I found it handy to mark the holes through all pages with an awl, then use the hole punch on each page.)

You too can make your own fun little alphabet book of love to give to that special someone. Or, it could be fun to fill it with snarky words instead!

Sometimes I think Valentines Day is in the perfect place…all that love, giving and pinks and reds certainly brighten up the long winter around here. Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! Maura

Thank you Maura! We just love this project from A-Z!

Want to give Maura’s project a try? You can find all my Stencils, Foam Stamps and Rubber Stamps in my Online Shop. In addition to magazine images, 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

Hello from my Creative Squad! Today we have a post from Linda Edkins Wyatt sharing her super power – recycling! That’s something we could all do more of :) Linda is using my Art Nouveau Wallpaper and Tokyo stencils and this month’s theme: Super Power – this month we are joining Creative JumpStart 2020 and exploring our Artistic Super Powers. It could be your unique technique or style, the way you like to use a medium or tool, or maybe your way of approaching artmaking. What is yours and show us how you use it.

What’s My Superpower? Recycling!

For the New Year and new decade, Nat had us thinking about what our art superpower is. As a mixed media artist, I think of myself as a “jack of all trades, master of none” since I dabble in any and all art forms. So, choosing an art superpower was hard. I paint, draw, make jewelry, stencil, stamp, design fabrics, build stuff, putter in PhotoShop®, take photos and pretty much try all kinds of art. None of my art skills are quite at a superpower level so I was stumped. In both my daily life and my art life, I love to recycle and often repurpose bags, boxes, packaging and other materials into my artwork. With that in mind, I decided to embrace recycling as my superpower and use recycling to showcase Nat’s new stencils from StencilGirl®.

I save wrapping paper, newspapers, magazines, ribbons, teabags, strings, packaging materials, and all kinds of boxes, especially cereal boxes, which I often use to make journals, tags and ATCs. This time, I pulled a family-size empty Raisin Bran box out of my recycling stash and started thinking about making a gift box or Artist Trading Cube.

I decided to make a small sketch of a cube on paper to figure out how the six sides would fit together and where the folds, tabs, and cuts should go. Once that was done, I drew it to scale on the inside of the opened Raisin Bran box, designing a 4” cube. In pencil, I marked the areas that I would keep with “OK” and put an X through the sections I would cut away. I left some tabs to tuck in at the sides and top.

Using a Cricut exacto knife and my green cutting mat, I very carefully sliced the cereal box according to my plan. The 4” square box that emerged, once I cut and folded it, was a little flimsy, so I made a duplicate, then glued the colorful sides together. I also cut the interior pieces just a little smaller (about 1/16” smaller on all sides) so that there would be less bulk when I folded the sides and flaps. Once the piece was dry, I folded the box up carefully to be sure it was designed properly. (I kept thinking of those Iowa IQ tests we took in elementary school where they gave you a flat shape made of dotted and solid lines and ask you what it would be as a 3-dimensional object. My art brain was kind of exploding but I pushed on ahead.)

Structurally, it worked out well: the angles were 90 degree and it all fit together even better than I expected. No wonky edges or crooked sides!

Now for the fun part…decorating my little Raisin Bran box! I decided to double the recycling fun and glued recycled (dry and empty) teabags over the gray box shape. For this project, I used bags from black tea, but I often use turmeric tea or black cherry for color variety.

Next, I tested the new stencils. On an interior flap, I used Titanium White Liquitex Basics white acrylic and sponged it through the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil. I loved the effect, and decided to use that technique and stencil all over the exterior sides of the box.

I also wanted to test the new Tokyo stencil, so I taped off the section that would be the interior bottom and tested the Tokyo design with sepia Archival ink on a fingertip dauber. That looked great too, so I decided to use the Tokyo design throughout the inside.

I had a little “oops” sad moment when I realized that I had stenciled the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil going the wrong direction on some of the exterior panels. I didn’t mind that the left and right sides were upside down (it added a little visual interest) but the very front was also upside down!

Rather than giving up, I decided to cover the upside-down area of the front with sepia Archival ink. It matched the teabag color perfectly and covered the imperfectly stenciled section perfectly! Later, I carefully positioned the stencil (facing the correct direction this time!) and again used white paint with a cosmetic wedge to reapply the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil.

I glued the box and tabs together with Liquitex gloss heavy gel, used small clips and little pieces of waxed paper to keep the clips from sticking to the box, and left it overnight to dry. I also added some extra strips of teabag on the untabbed sides to reinforce the box.

It needed a closure and I thought about what style to use. I could have simply tucked the top front tab inside the box and called it done…but I didn’t.  Since the box is cardboard, I also didn’t want to use something that would wear out, shred or rip over time. The perfect solution was sticky-backed Velcro. I chose some round pieces of tan Velcro from my stash, which matched quite well. I aligned each piece of Velcro carefully, removed the backing, and pressed it in place. It worked perfectly, but I still felt it needed a little more visual interest for the closure.

One of my textile design teachers often shouted, “More is More!” to the class, and thinking of her, I decided to embellish the box further. I wanted the closure to be pretty, easy to open, but still hold securely. There was something old-fashioned about the combination of teabags with the Art Nouveau Wallpaper stencil, so I went through my electronic file of vintage images from The Graphics Fairy, printed a sheet of images sized to a 2” scale, then “auditioned” them to see which would go best with the little box.

I settled on an image of a French postage stamp and postmark—it was the right color, shape and, I think, actually from the Art Nouveau era. I wanted the closure to have some depth and durability, so I used a small piece of corrugated cardboard cut about ½” larger than the postmark design, covered it with a teabag, edged it with sepia ink, then glued the stamped postmark to the center. I attached the rectangular vintage stamp with the heavy gel at the edge of the front tab, but also added two brads for extra strength and visual interest. Finally, I darkened all of the edges of the box with sepia ink applied using a fingertip dauber.

Would you ever guess that this adorable little Art Nouveau-inspired treasure box was once a family-sized box of Raisin Bran?

Thanks Linda! Love the idea of giving a cereal box a second life! 

Want to give Linda’s project a try? You can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and in addition to a discarded box, some cardboard, and a used and dry teabag, here are some of the other supplies she used:

Nat

Hello again from my Creative Squad! Today we have Nicole Watson sharing her artist super power with us: making messes! Well we are truly gaga over this scrumptious mess that she’s created in her art journal, using my Art Deco Fairview stencil and this month’s theme: Super Power – this month we are joining Creative JumpStart 2020 and exploring our Artistic Super Powers. It could be your unique technique or style, the way you like to use a medium or tool, or maybe your way of approaching artmaking. What is yours and show us how you use it.

I love the idea that artists have super powers! When walking through a museum, one can usually spot a Monet, van Gogh, Mondrian, Cassatt, O’Keeffe, Rothko, etc. without even looking at the information card. The same is true today. When scrolling through Instagram, I can often tell who the artist is before looking at the user name. How cool is it that we all have unique talents!

When thinking about my super power, honestly, I struggled. Circles, dripping paint, color mingling, layers, my favorite weapon the stabilo all, gesso, and book text often fill my pages. All of these supplies and techniques come together to create a mess… a mess that often I over-think, want to gesso over, and struggle with where to take it next. This part you don’t see in my pretty pictures and edited videos. This week as I played in my journal using my “super powers,” the struggle was there. The mess appeared. Thoughts of defeat and wanting to start over filled my head. I’m sure you can identify! However, the thing about an art journal that we often forget is that it’s for exploring, journaling, playing with ideas… and creating messes! Not everything has to be a masterpiece. Often, it’s in taming the mess, that new ideas are formed and discoveries are made. Don’t let that mess stop you from creating. Use it as a way to learn and grow as an artist. I like the idea of turning something negative, into something positive. (Remind me that when I make my next mess!)

This week I decided that though there are several techniques and tools that I might be known for, making messes is my super power! And, here’s how I made this one. Check out my video and then read my how to below:

I used a journal spread where a white (watercolor) paper and a burlap page came together in my Dina Wakley Media journal. Before collaging the book pages, I gessoed the white page and spread a bit of the gesso on the burlap for fun. Then, I began to add some book text with matte medium and used a heavier gel medium to add a piece onto the burlap side.

Next, I chose a cool color palette to play with. I really enjoy the process of playing with color and letting it mingle on my pages. I also added gesso at times. When I was finished layering color on the pages, I pulled out Nathalie’s new Art Deco Fairview stencil.

I wanted to add some texture and dimension with the pattern, so I used light molding paste through the stencil. I decided to color the paste with paint so it would pop even more. I spread a thin layer with my palette knife randomly on both pages. Since the molding paste is white and not clear, my dark blue paint ended up looking more purple (first mess accomplished).

To make the random stencil look a little more intentional and perhaps like it was crackling or breaking off the page, I scraped it here and there with my palette knife and smoothed some out with a baby wipe. I also added extra paste in places outside the stencil.

Then, I needed to think. So, I made some marks with paint and my stabilo all (mess number two). In the process of activating the stabilo, I decided to use one of my favorite techniques that I call the “stabilo puddle.” I scribbled some stabilo on my palette paper and activated it to make a puddle. I used this to shade around the stenciled areas to make it look a bit grungier. Ah-ha! This grunge helped darken the purple molding paste.

Since I liked the direction this stabilo was heading, I grabbed the stencil again and used the stabilo to trace the design. It was easy to put the stencil back on the pages since the paste fit right back into the empty spaces. I randomly chose areas to trace in to add to that worn, peeling look. Then, I activated the stabilo with water.

Several messes later, after adding some more paint, flicking color, gesso and stabilo, I decided to label the pages with my official super power. After sticking the letters down, I used the stabilo to draw circles, shaded them with gesso and then again with a contrasting warm color to make them pop.

Mess accomplished!

Thank you Nicole – we LOVE what you do with messes :) 

Want to give Nicole’s project a try? You can find all my Stencils in my Online Shop and in addition to book page/ephemera, here are some of the other supplies Nicole used:

Feel inspired? Playing along with Creative JumpStart and the Creative Squad? 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