Creative Squad

Each Day is a New Adventure – Josefine Fouarge

  

Hello my friends and welcome to a project by my Creative Squad! This month’s theme is all about trying something new, so today we have an art journal spread by Josefine Fouarge who is trying out some spray paints for the first time. She rocks my Batik Pattern 1 foam stamp, Mini Batik Pattern 3 foam stamp, and Santa Fe stencil along with our theme: Each Day is a New Adventure – Be adventurous this month and try something new in your art-making! Use a new tool, medium, or technique that you’ve been meaning to try for too long now. Go on a new adventure TODAY!

Welcome to a new Creative Squad post. This month’s topic is “each day is a new adventure” and we are trying new techniques. For me that means working with spray paints. I got a few sample sizes during a shopping spree at a local art supply store and never had the courage to try it.

Thanks to this topic I finally did and I really like the result. But let’s start at the beginning. I used the Santa Fe stencil to create the first layer of the background and sprayed some yellow and pink paint all over it. Yes, these are definitely messy.

Usually I create one sided pages in my art journal, but there was so much paint left on the stencil that I turned it around and created a negative impression.

Then I started decorating the background even further. I used yellow and red Liquitex acrylic paints to stamp some more patterns around both pages. The Batik Pattern 1 was partially stamped at the edges of the page and the Chain Link stamp at the inside of the border.

Then I went a little nuts with the leftover paints. I added a few marks using the Cross Circle stamp and I blended the red and yellow around the edges of the page.

The pages needed a little more contrast, so I decided to paint something with a contrasting color. The Jade Impasto paint was perfect, so I thinned it down a little and stamped parts of the Mini Batik Pattern 3 into the middle of one page. I have always seen a face in this stamp, so I tried to create one. Well, it turned out as an alien :)

In addition, I outlined a few of the patterns on both pages with the same Jade color. Still not finished, I stamped a few Star Tag stamps, the Mailbox stamp, and added some handmade marks. Now I was happy and finished my page with a feeling of success.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my little experiment :)

Thank you Josefine – love your page! In addition to her art journal, Josefine used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):



Play along with us too: 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

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Each Day is a New Adventure – Marsha Valk

  

Hello from the Creative Squad! Today we have a fun art journal page from Marsha Valk.   Marsha uses my Mini Batik Pattern 4 foam stamp, my cute little Star Tag stamp , and my Torn Layers stamp to create a colorful page with this month’s theme: Each Day is a New Adventure – Be adventurous this month and try something new in your art-making! Use a new tool, medium, or technique that you’ve been meaning to try for too long now. Go on a new adventure TODAY!

Liquid watercolour Ecoline has been around forever. It’s a staple you can find in every Dutch school art room, and it’s very likely that the first time I ever used it was in kindergarten. I was very excited to see that Royal Talens was releasing Ecoline brush pens and I bought three or four colours the moment I could get my hands on them. I always intended to buy more, but once I had them, I couldn’t find a good use for them besides brush lettering, and I forgot about them.

Fast forward to last week. Ecoline brush pens were back on my radar, and I treated myself to a big set. With no intended purpose, just for play. Then I read this month’s n*Studio Squad theme… And it was the perfect excuse to break in my new pens!

Start with drawing some doodles with masking fluid. Leave to dry completely.

Apply Ecoline to the paper. Ecoline works just like watercolour, so you apply it straight out of the pen or from the bottle with a brush. Or you can wet the page with a brush first and then apply the Ecoline to let it spread. Wait for the Ecoline to dry.

Colour the Mini Batik Pattern 4 ArtFoamies stamp with an Ecoline brush pen and stamp the pattern on the page.

You can get multiple images from one layer of Ecoline if you lightly spritz some water (from a distance) onto the foam stamp in between stamping.

Rub away the masking fluid once the paper is completely dry.

Take a separate sheet of paper and use a pencil to draw a girl.

Use a China Marker or a crayon to add a couple of white stripes to the hair. The grease in the marker will create a resist when you apply Ecoline over it.

Add some interest to the girl’s outfit by stamping a couple of stars on her sweater with the Star Tag stamp and a permanent stamping ink.

Use masking fluid or post-it tape to mask off any areas you do not want to be stamped.

Then use the Torn Layers stamp to add texture to the sweater.

Finish colouring the girl with Ecoline and Ecoline brush pens. Add details with a black waterproof fineliner. Use a black ballpoint pen instead if you need to draw over the China Marker.

Cut out the girl and adhere her to the background page.

Happy November!

Thank you Marsha – now we’re super excited to try the Ecoline brush pens on my foam stamps too! In addition to her art journal, Marsha used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):




Play along with us too: 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“.

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Nat

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Colors Are My Friends – Shilpa Nagaonkar

  

Happy Tuesday my friends from the Creative Squad! Today we have an art journal spread from our new member Shilpa Nagaonkar, using my Mesa Verde stencil and my Park Blvd foam stamp. Shilpa is working with our theme: Colors Are My Friends – Let’s kick off the new Creative Squad with a celebration of color! What are your favorite, go-to signature hues? Let’s go bold and bright this month and use color to ring in a new season of inspiring projects!

Hello Everyone, super excited to share my first post on Nathalie’s N*studio blog :) As you are aware, the Creative squad is using the theme “Colors are my Friends” this month. Ahh… colours are inspiration to me…especially bright ones! Orange, yellow, pink and red are my  favourites … so I chose them for today’s journal. I get a lot of inspiration from our home garden too. Winter has just begun in India and beautifully colored flowers are blooming in our garden. .. here comes my garden theme journal spread with lots of colors.

I started by applying modelling paste through the Mesa Verde Stencil. I let it dry completely.

I used Twinkling H2O watercolors here, in greens.

When the green colors were dried, I outlined the stencil design using a gelli roll pen.

On another paper, I stamped designs with Nat’s Park Blvd foam stamp using acrylic paints in yellow, pink, orange, and red.

I cut them out to use them as flowers. I applied silver glitter paint in the middle of all my flowers.

I arranged them all with diecut leaves on the pages. Lastly I colored the leaves with watercolors and created splatters with black ink.

Thank you Shilpa for this beautiful homage to your garden and your favorite colors! Shilpa used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):




Play along with us too: 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“.

Also, please drop by and join me for a Facebook Live Kaffeeklatsch tomorrow afternoon. I’ll be chatting about Inktober and playing with ink throughout the month of October, I’ll recap my workshop retreat in the UK, and I’ll tell you about some fun adventures I had with graffiti in Birmingham, England. Come say Hi and join in on the chat!

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Nat

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Colors Are My Friends – Jennifer Gallagher

  

Hello my friends and welcome to a post from my Creative Squad! Today we have a beautiful canvas from new member Jennifer Gallagher. The layering and colors she used are gorgeous and make this a really cool piece for her home. She is using my new ArtFoamies Grove Street stamps, the Kassel Stencil and the theme: Colors Are My Friends – Let’s kick off the new Creative Squad with a celebration of color! What are your favorite, go-to signature hues? Let’s go bold and bright this month and  use color to ring in a new season of inspiring projects!

Colors are my friends! No one loves color more than I do. Personally, I have a very difficult time choosing just one to call my favorite. However, I do tend to have a few must have colors that I cannot live without. Pink and Turquoise are two of those colors.

My husband and I have been doing a little work around the house and I now have several bare walls just screaming out for some bold new artwork. So, I started with a twelve inch by twelve inch canvas. I chose two colors of acrylic paint to blend into a lovely, subdued background. I chose Daler Rowney Pistachio Green and Daler Rowney Phthalo Turquoise.

After the background had thoroughly dried I used one of Nat’s stencils, Kassel, and some white acrylic paint from the Dylusions line to overlay a fun geometric print. I did this pretty lightly as I just wanted a hint of the design peeking through. Try using a Tim Holtz mini-blending tool to apply your Dylusions paint. It works great!

I pulled out my six inch square Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate. Using the same stencil, I created a series of papers to use on my canvas. I continued using acrylics in Pistacio, Phthalo Turquoise, and also added Anita’s Craft paint in Island Green and Apple Barrel Acrylic in Wintergreen. After creating several papers using the Kassel stencil, I used my gelli plate as a palette to wet my ArtFoamies Grove Street Postive and Negative foam stamp in paint and applied the foam stamp design to the background papers using even pressure. At this point I introduced a new color of paint, Daler Rowney Acrylic in Permanent Rose. The fun thing about the positive and negative stamp sets is you can use them individually, line them up and stamp one over another, or do what I did and mix it up with multiple techniques.

I cut each of the circles out so they could be applied to my canvas. I had about fifteen different circles to choose from. One of my favorite things to do to my art is black line doodling. With a basic fine tip black sharpie, I went over the shapes of the Grove Street stamp to add interest to each circle.


I laid my circles out on the canvas until I was satisfied with the amount and the placement. I then fixed them to the canvas with Mod Podge (the version specifically for paper) in a matte finish. Glue both sides of the paper circles to ensure they stick well onto your canvas. Be sure to let this dry thoroughly before moving on.

Lastly, I used a Dina Wakley Media scribble stick in black to make outlines around each circle. If you don’t have scribble sticks a black paint marker would also work.

I am really happy with how this turned out. I hope you enjoyed this project as much as I enjoyed sharing it with you.

Thank you Jennifer for sharing this lovely canvas and your layering techniques with us! Jennifer used besides a 12×12 canvas the following supplies (some are affiliate links):


Play along with us too: 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 (5)

  • Josefine Fouarge

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    Wow, your canvas is really pretty. I love all the colors :)

    Reply

  • Jennifer Gallagher

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    I hope all of your readers try this out for themselves. It was a fun project and I cannot wait to try my n*Studio Art Foamies on lots of other upcoming projects. Enjoy!

    Reply

  • n*Studio Creative Squad – Paper Geometry

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    […] this link, http://nathaliesstudio.com/creative-squad/colors-are-my-friends-jennifer-gallagher/ , and read all about my painted canvas project for Colors are My Friend month. Then stick around […]

    Reply

  • Steph

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    Great article, Jennifer. And your canvas turned out beautiful!!

    Reply

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Colors Are My Friends – Josefine Fouarge

  

Hello my friends and welcome to a post from new Creative Squad member Josefine Fouarge! Josefine brings us a gorgeous art journal page that shows off how well complimentary colors play together. She also rocks my new Central Avenue Positive Negative foam stamp set and this month’s theme: Colors Are My Friends – Let’s kick off the new Creative Squad with a celebration of color! What are your favorite, go-to signature hues? Let’s go bold and bright this month and  use color to ring in a new season of inspiring projects!

Colors are my friends, definitely! My favorite one depends on my mood, but usually I tend to pick orange or green tones. Today I wanted to use my favorite color combination though, which is orange and blue. These are complimentary colors, which means they naturally work well together.

Since today I have something with flowers in my head, I wanted to use the new circle foam stamps to create a flower in my art journal. I started by spraying some color onto a few napkins and letting them dry for a few minutes.

While I was waiting for the napkins to dry, I worked on the background of my art journal page. I started with the focal point, so I stamped the outline of the Central Avenue stamp using Versamark ink and heat embossed it using bright orange embossing powder. Then I stamped the inside of the stamp also with Versamark ink and heat embossed it with a gold embossing powder.

This stamp is rather easy to align, even though it’s a round shape. You can see where the main line goes through the middle and you just need to ensure that the little squares of the negative stamp match the squares on the paper. If you look at the stamp from the side while trying to position it on the paper, you’ll know what I mean.

After heat setting the focal point, I chose a turquoise acrylic paint and mixed it with some white to make it even lighter. After adding the paint to the foam stamp using a brayer, I stamped the outline to the left and right of my focal point. Next, I stamped the inside in a row below and above the first row and switched again for the next row – and so on till the paper was full of circles.

Now I outlined the page with a black acrylic pen and scribbled following poem around it, as messy as I could:

To see the world in a grain of sand

and heaven in a wildflower,

hold infinity in the palm of your hand

and eternity in an hour.

-William Blake-

To finish up my flower, I cut several petals from my napkin and adhered them carefully around the focal point circle.

If you look closely, you’ll see that I adhered just one layer of the napkin to the page, so the embossing powder shimmers through the paper.

Here is the entire page. I just love the contrast of orange and blue and can’t get enough of it! Yummy!

Thank you Josefine for such a lovely page and for sharing the poem too! In addition to her art journal and some paper napkins and glue, Josefine used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):



Play along with us too: 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

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Colors Are My Friends – Marsha Valk

  

Hello from the latest edition of the Creative Squad! Today we have a post from veteran member Marsha Valk, who makes excellent use of my new Broadway Positive Negative foam stamp to dress up an apron. We hope you’ll join us in creating with this month’s theme: Colors Are My Friends – Let’s kick off the new Creative Squad with a celebration of color! What are your favorite, go-to signature hues? Let’s go bold and bright this month and  use color to ring in a new season of inspiring projects!

Colours really are my friends. I love them all dearly, and I could never, ever pick just one favourite! But as much as I love the entire rainbow, it doesn’t mean all my friends have to come out to play every single time. It’s OK to pick just one for a heart to heart now and then.

I invited a couple of my fabric paint colours for a playdate. I couldn’t find a light, neutral coloured apron to print on, so I got a black one instead. During a short test run on paper, Yellow saw that the black background would shine through and cancelled on me.

I mixed Teal with a bit of White fabric paint and applied it to a StampBuddy. It acts as a stamp pad: gently dab the foam stamp into the foam of the StampBuddy to get an even distribution of paint on the stamp.

Then I started stamping a pattern with Nat’s Broadway foam stamp onto my pre-washed black 100% cotton apron. I liked what I saw!

Pink was waiting to have a go too, but once we saw the denim-like look of the Teal/White prints, we agreed not to interfere.

I covered the pocket with deli paper to prevent the paint from seeping through while I stamped around it. The plan was to make it look like the pattern continued behind the pocket. It didn’t prevent me from making the stamped design go a bit askew here.

I decided to leave it as it was and once the whole apron was stamped, I filled some of the open spaces with another pattern with the Running stamp from Nat’s Embroidery Cling Rubber Stamp Set.

Most fabric paints have to be fixated to make it (machine) washable. The paint I used had to dry for 30 minutes before I could fixate it by ironing the fabric with an iron on medium heat.

OMG Marsha this is the coolest apron EVER! I want one :) In addition to a StampBuddy, Marsha used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):



Play along with us too: 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

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Meet the NEW Creative Squad!

I am thrilled today to introduce you to the latest Creative Squad! After receiving a huge response to my call for members back in the summer, we were able to put together a Squad that I am proud to reveal today. Welcome to Jennifer Gallagher, Josefine Fouarge, Shilpa Nagaonkar, and welcome back to Marsha Valk!  We cannot wait to see the projects that you will bring to us and we are super happy to have assembled a Squad from all over the US and the world.  Please stop back every Tuesday for posts from the Creative Squad, sharing with us a diverse global perspective on Mixed Media, Paper Crafting, Art Journaling, Card Making, and more.  To learn more about each of these artists, check out our Creative Squad page for bios and links :)

And of course we are very sad to say goodbye to our Squad members Cheiron Brandon, Michelle Rydell, and Tina Walker.  Here is a big THANK YOU to all your hard work and to your dedication. It was always amazing to see your creative responses to our monthly themes.  We have been very lucky to have found such inventive and inspiring artists :)

Nat

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with Michelle Rydell

  

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome to a project from Creative Squad member Michelle Rydell! Michelle brought together a bunch of different items from her stash to create a beautiful little book with a message that is just perfect. She used my Mini Batik Pattern 2 stamp and my Batik, Lily Wallpaper, and What’s the Point stencils to help her with this month’s theme: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Let’s do Mother Earth a favor this month and use what we already have.  Maybe we’ll dip into our stash of leftovers from other creative projects or maybe we’ll repurpose something unexpected.  This month we’re thinking about how artmaking can impact the environment and we’re trying to make our footprint just a little bit smaller.

About five years ago, I found a bunch of old S&H Green Stamp books at an antique store, and I thought they were so cute I just had to buy them.  Remember green stamps?  Well, they have been just waiting for the right project, and this month’s Reduce, Reuse, Recycle fit the bill perfectly!

I decided to make one into a mini-journal.  Here’s how I did it…

I combed thru my stash of vintage ephemera and picked out a pile of things that I thought had possibilities – mostly because they matched the color scheme of the green stamps…

I decided on a theme for the book, and then combed thru my stamps and stencils designed by Nat, and picked out some that I thought would work great for the project.  The ones I ended up using were: Mini Batik Pattern 2 Foam Stamp, and three stencils: Batik, Lily Wallpaper and What’s the Point?

The toad I wanted to put on the first page needed a background to rest on, so I pulled out the foam stamp and added a couple of swirls to start things off.

Then a little paint and a bit of patterned paper…

To create some consistency, I flipped to the back page and did something similar with the background.

From there I was off and running, adding stamps and stencils, paint and bits of paper to each page.  I also took out the rusty old staples and changed the binding to bakers twine. The dots here are made with the What’s The Point stencil. At the end I added a favorite quote to pull it all together.  Here’s how it turned out…

Thank you Michelle for this inspiring little book! In addition to various vintage papers, Michelle used the following:



Play along with us too: 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 (6)

  • datatar

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    Amazing album! I just love everything about it. Thanks for the inspiration!

    Reply

  • Deb

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    What a FUN idea!!!
    I too remember the green stamps and going with my Mom to the redemption store!

    Reply

    • Michelle Rydell

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      Thanks so much Deb! I’m glad it brought back memories for you!

      Reply

  • Julie Tucker

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    I do remember those green stamp books!!! I loveeeeeeeeeeeee this!! FABULOUS!!!!!!!!!

    Reply

    • Michelle Rydell

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      Thank you so much Julie! I appreciate your kind words!!!

      Reply

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Reduce, Reuse, Recycle with Marsha Valk

  

Hello again from the Creative Squad! Today we have a gorgeous gift wrapping project from Marsha Valk that is sure to send you running to your kitchen for some coffee filters :) Marsha used a whole slew of my stencils on this one (so be sure to check the materials list at the bottom) to rock the theme: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Let’s do Mother Earth a favor this month and use what we already have.  Maybe we’ll dip into our stash of leftovers from other creative projects or maybe we’ll repurpose something unexpected.  This month we’re thinking about how artmaking can impact the environment and we’re trying to make our footprint just a little bit smaller.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – that’s a topic that has been on my mind a lot lately. I have a lot of different craft supplies. I like to donate any excess supplies I have, but I still have plenty left that I’m reluctant to get rid of because I don’t want to waste it and it may come in handy someday…

The upside to this is that I’m never short on stuff when it comes to gift wrapping!

Paper flowers make fun and easy gift toppers, so I for this month’s prompt I decided to make coffee filter flowers.

I’ve shared how to create similar flowers on the Gelli Arts® blog before:

Using brand new (bleached) coffee filters for a craft project probably isn’t the greenest choice you can make. If you are looking for an environmentally friendlier option, you can recycle used coffee filters.

Unfortunately I don’t have access to a coffee maker that uses filters like these, so I haven’t tested it for you, but I believe you can rinse and dry them. They will be stained, but that will actually add interest to the paper (and the flowers).

Step 1: Monoprint a couple of coffee filters with your Gelli Arts® printing plate using stencils and (white) acrylic paint. Here I’m using Nat’s Buenos Aires stencil.

Step 2: Stain the monoprinted coffee filters with spray inks.

Wet the coffee filter with a spray bottle of water before you spray on the spray ink. The water will help the spray ink spread across the coffee filter, this one has Nat’s Toledo stencil pattern on it.

You can stack the coffee filters you want to have the same colour while spraying. Each new filter will absorb the excess ink from the already sprayed ones!

Leave the coffee filters to dry completely.

Step 3: Cut two smaller circles out of each coffee filter. I folded each coffee filter in half and used a jar to trace a circle shape onto them to get a uniform size.

Step 4: Fold the circles into eighths (or more) and cut leaf shapes. Make sure to cut some larger and some smaller.

Step 5: Unfold the coffee filter flowers and stack two or three on top of each other. Secure them by sewing one or two buttons in the middle of each stacked flower.

Fluff the petals until you are happy with the result.

Step 6: Use a glue dot or double-sided tape to adhere the flowers to your gifts!

I love this Marsha – such a great way to dress up a gift! In addition to buttons and ribbon, Marsha used the following supplies (some are affiliate links):



Play along with us too: 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

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