Creative Squad

Inspiration From Around the Globe!

nspiration from around

This Tuesday we’re taking a short break from our Creative Squad (they will be back next week with a new June theme to play with!) to bring you some amazing projects from around the globe. My stamps and stencil designs are available for purchase online and maybe even in your local craft store, so crafters and mixed media artists and art journalers from around the world are using them. I am always excited to see how YOU use my products in your own projects. I am even more excited to share some of the beautiful and creative examples of these projects with you today. Enjoy this inspiration from around the globe!

Robyn Seaniger

First we have this very fun travel-inspired art journal spread from Robyn Seaniger from NSW, Australia.  Robyn has used both my Elephant and my Urban Scribble foam stamp sets to create this colorful ode to India.

Elephant Parade Metal

Metal Artist Elitia Hart from Calgary, Canada, used my Elephant Parade stencil in this very original metal embossing project.  This is a very creative use of the stencil and I highly recommend checking out her video below explaining her process.  It is long but definitely worth watching as it is a real step by step class!

Cool, right?

envelope

Judi Kauffmann from Maryland, USA sent me this fun mail art envelope using my Bird and Urban Scribble foam stamp sets. What a nice surprise in my mailbox :)

Finally, we have a couple of awesome videos from Lindsay Weirich from Maine, USA for you to check out.  In these videos, Lindsay uses my Urban Scribble foam stamp set to create a cool card project and then she uses my Bird, Elephant, and Urban Scribble foam stamp sets to make a gorgeous art journal.


Join us again next Tuesday for another great project from one of our Creative Squad members!  They will be working with a new theme for June.  And in the meantime, share with me what you’ve been working on with my stamps and stencils.  I would love to feature your project in an upcoming post!

Try some of the above techniques for yourself with these n*Studio supplies:



Nat

Elephants Never Forget – Michelle Rydell

CS May Elephants Never Forget

It’s Tuesday and time for a project from my Creative Squad and this month’s theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team is using my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child. And if you want to hear a little bit about me, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”)

Today we have an art journal spread by Michelle Rydell. Michelle used the theme as a jumping off point for this colorful page.  I love her inspiring message!
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Michelle May Headshot

When I heard the theme “Elephants never Forget,” the first thing I thought of was my daily entries in my art journal. The ones where I record little bits of my life each day, so I don’t forget them! I decided it would be fun to let Nat’s regal elephants guard my memories for the week! Here’s how I did it…

I painted my whole background with black acrylic paint, and then covered up the black with squares of bright colors. Next I stenciled the foam elephant stamp with white paint onto black cardstock – twice, and then cut them out.  You know how sometimes people wrap a thread around their finger to help them remember something? I wrapped a little crochet thread around one elephants trunk, and the other ellies leg to symbolize that! After that I pasted the two elephants onto the journal spread.

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I felt like the page needed something to make the colored blocks work cohesively together; so I glazed the whole page (except for the ellies) with a thin coat of Golden’s fluorescent chartreuse paint.

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I used the stencil that comes with the kit to create a border with black paint. My page was then ready to add memories as the week progressed!

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Here’s how the week looks all finished. I just love my elephants parading across the bottom. I really feel like it makes the page special!

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I love Michelle’s color block background and the very fun way she tied reminder bows on the elephants!  Here are the links (some are affiliate links) for the supplies Michelle used:

SuppliesCJS

 


Maybe you will even play along with us -I would 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 what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for inspiration from around the globe using some of my stamp and stencil products!

Nat

Elephants Never Forget – Marsha Valk

CS May Elephants Never Forget

It’s Tuesday again so here is my Creative Squad with another fun project for you with this month’s theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team will use my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child, inspired awe, or just got their little brain all wrapped up with wonder. And if you want to hear a little bit about my childhood, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”)

Today we have a mixed media piece by Marsha Valk.  After persisting through a brief creative block (it happens to everyone!) she created this gorgeously layered piece using a fantastic combination of purple and orange.
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Marsha May Headshot

It’s hard to choose just one childhood story or memory, so I concentrated on the elephants and tried to come up with as many elephants as I could remember from my childhood. The big one is that my little brother collected elephants when he was young. He had many, many elephant figurines. At least two of those came from my grandmother’s house and I remember that at one point they were in the guest bedroom. The room had a typical 70’s decor. It wasn’t psychedelic in any way, the walls where neutral, the furniture was white, but there was an orange washbasin and purple bed spreads with a fringe.  I loved those bed spreads! When we were very little, my sister and I used to play with them when we woke up early.
MarshaValk_nSCS_ElephantsNeverForget-1
Anyway: the colour scheme for this project was set! It had to contain purple and orange. I struggled with what to do though. I tried some things first with no great success, until I decided to just have fun! I chose the back of a shallow round tray (28 cm) as a substrate. I love working on wood panels, so when I saw this at my local craft store, I knew I wanted to use it as a ‘canvas’!
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The problem with ‘having fun’ is that I can’t exactly tell you what I did. I started to prepare the wood tray with two coats of gesso that I sanded smooth. Then I randomly applied soft body acrylic paint to the surface. Once that was dry I started painting, stenciling and stamping layers using soft body acrylic paint, paint markers and permanent stamping inks.
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I tried to get the whole surface covered. Then I decided on my composition, stamped and embossed the Elephant cling rubber stamp image and painted the top layer. I also scratched into the surface and I added acrylic inks and black and white charcoal pencil.
MarshaValk_nSCS_ElephantsNeverForget-4

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I love Marsha’s circular design and I’m so glad that she decided to have fun with it! I think the results, and those super nice, 70’s inspired colors :) speak for themselves. In addition to the supplies (some links are affliate links)  listed below, Marsha also used a wooden tray, black and white charcoal, and the stencils from the Urban Scribble, Bird, Mish Mesh, and Fashion Dame stamp sets.

SuppliesCJS



And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with the theme Elephants Never Forget.

Nat

Elephants Never Forget – Cheiron Brandon

CS May Elephants Never Forget

It’s Tuesday and time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team will use my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child, inspired awe, or just got their little brain all wrapped up with wonder. And if you want to hear a little bit about my childhood, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”)

Today we have a card design by Cheiron Brandon. She shares a very sweet memory and a wonderful card project with a fun inking method that I know you will all enjoy!
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Cheiron May Headshot

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been obsessed with pens and stationery. I remember going shopping with my dad at the office supply or card store, and getting to pick out special stationery to write letters to my great Grandmother on. We called her GaGa and I used to send letters back and forth with her. I sure wish I still had some of those letters today.

I fondly remember picking out one stationery set that came in a cardboard box with a lid that contained writing paper, matching envelopes and a special pen…all in my favorite color, rainbow! I did not let ANYONE touch that stationery box and the only person who got a special letter on it was my GaGa.

I still am fascinated with anything rainbow colored and love bright colors. This month I am restocking my stationery stash with some notecards featuring rainbow elephants. I am going to keep a bunch of these on hand, and I will definitely share them this time. I left them blank so I always have a card for any occasion and I can add a sentiment as I use them.

cheiron_elephant card 1

To make my card, I used the big elephant solid foam stamp from the Elephant Stamp & Stencil Set. I used a paint brush to paint Distress Paints onto the stamp, then sprayed it with water and stamped it onto a watercolor notecard. I got 2-3 stamped images for each time I painted the stamp.

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I got so wrapped up making rainbow elephants, that I have a dozen of these. I can’t wait to send out happy elephant mail! Each one is a bit different, but so vibrant.

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I hope you are inspired to make some stationery of your own. And please remember to share it :)

cheiron_elephant card 4

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I love Cheiron’s herd of rainbow elephant cards and am so happy she shared the design with us! I think anyone on the receiving end of one of these will definitely be smiling.

SuppliesCJS

And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with the theme Elephants Never Forget.

Also, the winners of the Stampendous blog hop have been announced! Thank you to all who participated and find out who the winners are here!

Nat

Elephants Never Forget – Gwen Lafleur

CS May Elephants Never Forget

Happy Tuesday! It’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s new theme: “Elephants Never Forget”. Throughout the month of May, the team will use my new Elephant Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme. I asked them to draw from a childhood memory, and to use the elephant as a symbol of something that fascinated them as a child, inspired awe, or just got their little brain all wrapped up with wonder. And if you want to hear a little bit about my childhood, you can read about my personal connection to elephants here (just scroll down to “WHY an elephant…”) :)

Today we have a super vibrant art journal page from Gwen Lafleur. As a travel enthusiast, her interpretation of the theme is definitely close to my heart.
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Gwen May Headshot

With this month’s theme of working from a childhood memory that fascinated me, the Elephant Stamp & Stencil set couldn’t have been more perfect! In my art journal spread, the elephant represents this memory and the object of my childhood inspiration perfectly. The memory that jumped out at me was one of me laying on the floor of our living room on my stomach poring over a book. Not just any book, but “Lands and Peoples of the World.” I was obsessed with it, and this particular scenario played out many times. Looking back, the book probably wasn’t all that great – the cover was brown with a photo of a tribe of some kind, and most of the pages were black and white. I’m guessing it was printed in the 70s. But it enthralled me completely. I can’t remember precisely what it was that I loved about it, but I think just the idea of all of those places and cultures that were so different from what I knew, really captured my imagination. As an adult, I’ve been blessed to take that fascination and act on it, traveling all over the world and seeing many of those places and cultures first hand. I’ve since looked for it at my parents’ house on many trips home, and have finally accepted the fact that the book is gone, but the memory remains. As for that childhood fascination with exotic locales? Some things never change!

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread - Gwen Lafleur - wm

For my art journal pages, I decided I wanted to go really bright to represent all of the intense colors and patterns of many of the places I dreamed about visiting and have since gone to. I painted some stripes of paints in different shades of blue, yellow / orange, and green acrylic paint – all different brands, I just randomly grabbed what I had.

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread Step 1 - Gwen Lafleur

Then I used all three of the stamps in the set to stamp out elephants on to deli paper. I used paint with the foam stamps and black Archival Ink with the rubber cling stamp. I used the stencil from the kit on top of the plain stamped elephant to add some pattern with gold paint. Then I pulled out Nathalie’s Elephant Parade stencil that matches this set and stenciled the larger open elephant with Golden Gold Iridescent heavy body paint, and I stenciled the patterned version with black acrylic paint onto a red background. I cut out each elephant and adhered them onto the background with Golden Matte Medium.

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread Step 2 - Gwen Lafleur

Next, I started adding details. I used a black PermaPaque marker to outline each elephant. I also added some embellished circles to connect and ground the images. I colored in the different sections with various paint markers and started adding dots. I knew I wanted to use maps on the page to reinforce the theme, and I wanted to put them in the middle of each of the circles. Since I needed to be able to see through and trace the area to cut out, I decided to do a quick packing tape transfer. I just put two strips of clear packing tape over a section of a map. Then I soaked it in warm water until the paper on the back started to pill when I rubbed it. I gently rubbed off all the paper leaving just the image on the tape. This made it pretty transparent, so I traced the shape of the circles onto the tape with a Stabilo All pencil and cut them out, then adhered with more matte medium.

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread Step 3 - Gwen Lafleur

For the third phase, I added white dots around everything to create unity on the page, and went through and added a bit more detail here and there. To add depth to the piece, I used oil pastels to put in a bit of shading. I really like using these on top of acrylic paints; you just have to be careful not to put them where you want to add more layers or acrylic or do any writing – the paint won’t stick to it and the pens won’t write on it, so this needs to be one of the top layers.

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread Step 4 - Gwen Lafleur

Finally, I used some old rubons to add a title to the page, then just went around randomly adding writing around the elephants and journaling about this memory.

Never Forget - Art Journal Spread Close-up 1 - Gwen Lafleur

I hope you enjoyed today’s project! I’m really looking forward to hearing about the rest of the team’s memories, and hopefully some of you will play along as well!

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Oohhh this is so much fun!  I love all the ways Gwen incorporated the Elephant stamp in her page and her use of pattern definitely suggests exotic far-off places. I hope she finds that book again!

Besides the supplies listed below, Gwen also used acrylic paint, markers, maps, clear tape, and old rubons:

SuppliesCJS

And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with the theme Elephants Never Forget.

Nat

Nathalie Kalbach & Friends Blog Hop – Win all three Stamp Sets!

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Woot Woot- so stoked that the Stampendous Design Team and my wonderful Creative Squad is doing a blog hop together this week. It always is my favorite thing to see how others use my stamp and stencil designs – makes me so happy. Loads of yummie projects – check it out!!!

Here are the links for today:

Louise Healy 

Janelle Stollfus

Marsha Valk

Gwen Lafleur

Michelle Rydell

Cheiron Brandon

Lea Fritts

Pam Hornschu

Stampendous Blog

I thought I would play along with my awesome team’s theme this month “My City Speaks To Me” and I used the Urban Scribble Stamp Set as well

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My city – Jersey City – is such a city of juxtapositions. Grungy – Spotless, Old – Modern, Artsy – Financial, Jersey – NYC, Loud – Calm ….and so much more. I love it – it is such an inspiring place to live.

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I stamped with the solid side of the Urban Scribble Foam Stamp and yellow acrylic paint into my art journal and then used the Rubber Stamp with black ink to stamp over it. The Solid Foam Stamp and the Rubber Stamp pattern fit perfectly together. I painted the background and for the grungy side on the left I used the rubber stamp on purpose rudimentary and in a non perfect manner to enhance the juxtaposition of the two sides.

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Watch this video if you want to know how to apply acrylic paint to the foam stamps:

Rule of Three – #1 “Three Ways to “Ink” up Foam Stamps from Nathalie Kalbach on Vimeo.

Check out all the wonderful posts, comment on any of those posts and win a price and join us :)

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Stampendous is offering three prize packages that consist of ALL THREE of the foam/cling/stencil sets. THEY’ll ship them to anyone who wins (yes, internationally, too) just comment on this post here or any of the posts the teams or Stampendous or here to be eligible to win. Good luck!!!!
Thank you so much for visiting- I hope you like my new Bird, Elephant and Urban Scribbles Foam, Cling Rubber and Stencil Sets ! Have a beautiful and creative weekend!
Nat

My City Speaks to Me – Michelle Rydell

CS April My City Speaks to Me Blue

It’s Tuesday, so it’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “My City Speaks to Me”.  Throughout the month, the team has been using my new Urban Scribble Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set to interpret the theme and to share with us what their hometown or city is all about.  We want to know what makes it special, vibrant, and important! This month, our Creative Squad has taken us on a trip to their city!

Today we have a really fun art journal page from Michelle Rydell. Her colorful interpretation of the theme is like an insider’s travel guide to Minneapolis :)  Thanks for sharing all the good spots, Michelle!
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Michelle April Headshot

Up until a few years ago, I lived in the city of Minneapolis my whole adult life.  Now, I live in the country, just outside of the city, but Minneapolis will always have a piece of my heart.  I love this month’s theme because it gave me a chance to document that!

First I created a background in my art journal, using black on the bottom to represent city streets, and blue on top to represent sky.  I used white paint with the Urban Scribble stencil to create texture on the streets, and clouds in the sky.

RydellMyCity1

The city is broken up into neighborhoods, so I decided to represent that with a variety of colors and patterns, using painting underpapers as my substrate.  I stamped the cling stamp on two different color schemes, and the foam stamp on a third. Then I cut them out…

RydellMyCity2

I pasted them onto my page in overlapping rows, and drew little banners on sticker paper to label the neighborhoods.  I also typed up the names of some of my favorite places in each neighborhood, printed them onto sticker paper and stuck them on to corresponding buildings.  I colored over the building names with tombow markers to blend them in a bit.

Here’s my finished piece:

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And a few closeups…

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I absolutely love how Michelle used the Urban Scribble stamp to create rows for different neighborhoods, and her colors are so vibrant against the black stamping, the whole design really pops.  The overall idea is a super clever way to share with us the hotspots in Minneapolis!

Besides the supplies listed below, Michelle also used newsprint underpapers with a variety of paints and sprays on them:

SuppliesCJS



And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme – email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the end of the month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project from the Creative Squad, with a brand new theme for the month of May.

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P.S. Stampendous is doing a blog hop this week and you can win one of the stamp sets. Simply comment on this post or their blog post in order to be eligible to win!

Check in with their blog all week long to see some fun projects with my foam stamp sets – my creative squad is posting a lot of new projects this Friday- so stay tuned :)

 

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Nat

My City Speaks to Me – Marsha Valk

CS April My City Speaks to Me Blue

Happy Tuesday!  It’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you with this month’s theme: “My City Speaks to Me”.  Throughout the month, the team will be using my new Urban Scribble Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set. This month’s theme is all about expressing what your hometown or city is all about.  What makes it special, vibrant, and important to you?  This month, our Creative Squad will take us on a trip to their city!

Today we have a super dimensional art journal page from Marsha Valk. Her interpretation of the theme takes us all the way to the Netherlands, and she asks us: how well do we really know our own city?
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Marsha April Headshot

I live in the middle of the Netherlands in a city with a beautiful medieval city centre.  The neighbourhood I live in was mostly built around the 1930-ies. I decided to concentrate on the question: ‘What does my city say to me?’ and explore that through art journaling.

I’ve never lived anywhere longer than I’ve lived here. I know the best places to eat, to shop, I know the most important sights, I have my own favourite ‘sights’, I know some of the history, but… what else do I know? Well… turns out that I’ve still got a lot to discover. My city is telling me to finally open my eyes. To view it in a different light. There are many places that I have always intended to visit, but that are still on the list. I really, really need to stop and look.

MarshaValk_NStudioCreativeSquad_MyCitySpeakstoMe

I started my page by stamping the Urban Scribble cling stamp at the bottom of the page with black ink. Then I created a mask by stamping the Urban Scribble foam stamp (twice) on a sheet of paper and then cutting the stamped image out. I used the mask to mask off each previous row of buildings before stamping another row behind it.

When I had about three rows, I switched gears and inked the Urban Scribble foam stamp with two different tones of Distress Ink and spray mist. To create the watercolour look, I sprayed the stamp with water after inking it up. I used this method to stamp until my whole page was covered, masking off each previous layer.

MarshaValk_NStudioCreativeSquad_MyCitySpeakstoMe_BeforeJournaling

I coloured the buildings with Distress Ink. I tapped some ink onto my craft mat, diluted it with a spritz of water and then picked up the colour with a watercolour brush.

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Once everything was dry, I added details and depth with markers, charcoal and coloured pencil. I also picked up some of the leftover ink from my craft mat with a make-up sponge and used that to stencil subtle little squares onto the buildings with the stencil that comes with the Urban Scribble Foam Stamp Set.

MarshaValk_NStudioCreativeSquad_MyCitySpeakstoMe_Journaling

Lastly I wrote down my journaling. I decided to put it in a circle, to emphasise the city being (my base) in the middle of the country.

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I think we can all relate to Marsha’s desire to take the time to slow down and explore more!  In her art journal page, I love how she used the Urban Scribble stamp with a mask to create a cityscape with many layers of buildings.  It’s also a gorgeous example of how certain colors and details can transform the stamp into a completely different place; last week it was NYC and this week Marsha brought us to the Netherlands.

Besides the supplies listed below, Marsha also used 13arts Ayeeda Mist in Pastel Yellow:
SuppliesCJS




And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme – email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the beginning of next month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project with the theme ‘My City Speaks to Me’.

Nat

My City Speaks to Me – Cheiron Brandon

CS April My City Speaks to Me Blue

It’s Tuesday so it’s time for my Creative Squad to share a project with you! The theme for this month is “My City Speaks to Me” and throughout the month, the team will be using my new Urban Scribble Foam Stamp, Rubber Stamp and Stencil Set. This month’s theme is all about expressing what your hometown or city is all about.  What makes it special, vibrant, and important to you?  This month, our Creative Squad will take us on a trip to their city!

Here is Cheiron Brandon and her super colorful interpretation of the theme, which happens to feature a city that’s my neighbor too!

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Cheiron April Headshot

Even though I am a Jersey girl, New York City has always been my city. I live about 8 miles from NYC and get a beautiful view of the skyline on my drive to work each morning and most times, I see the sun coming up. It is like the city is saying hello to me each morning.

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For my project this month, I created a journal page with all the colors of the morning sunrise using the Urban Scribble stamp as the main focal point.

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To start I used a page where I had wiped up some Distress stains from another creative adventure. I stamped the page using stamps from the Marks, Wired, and Mish Mesh stamp sets along with various Archival Inks to create a background. Then I stamped the skyline twice and colored it in with Faber Castell PITT artist pens. This stamp was so fun to color! I fussy cut around the stamp and adhered it to some crinkled black tissue paper to use as my focal piece. Once my piece was done, I adhered it to the background with matte medium.

cheiron_urbscribble2

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I hope you enjoyed Cheiron’s gorgeous art journal page! We are both Jersey Girls so I totally understand her love of the NYC skyline – it inspires me all the time. I love her choices of color too and the way she layered several stamps in the background to capture the energy of the city.
Besides the supplies listed below, Cheiron also used black tissue paper and Tim Holtz Distress Stains in Picked Raspberry and Wild Honey:
SuppliesCJS


And maybe you will even play along -we would love to see how you interpret the theme – email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share what you did at the beginning of next month!

See you next Tuesday for the another project with the theme ‘My City Speaks to Me’.

Nat